Page 83 of Silent Shadows

“You treat this whole thing like it means something.” He gestures at the woods around us. “Meanwhile, the rest of us are smart enough to know it’s all just content.”

The word hits me too.

Content.

Something ugly twists low in my stomach.

Because that was how I arrived here.

Not anymore. Not fully. And I hate hearing him say it out loud.

Miles’s gaze goes hard as flint.

Then, static crackles loudly at his hip.

All of us freeze. Miles grabs the walkie.

“Maya?”

Nothing but fuzz at first.

Then a voice cuts through. “…Miles?”

Taylor. But her voice sounds off. Thin and breathless.

Miles straightens fast enough that my pulse spikes.

“Taylor? What’s wrong?”

Static crackles through the trees—someone on the other end keying the mic.

Before Taylor can answer, Jax’s voice bleeds through from the background, distant and frantic: “Tell him exactly what happened!”

My stomach drops instantly.

Then Taylor’s voice, closer to the mic, unsteady: “We’ve got a problem.”

Every instinct in my body goes cold.

“What kind of problem?” Miles asks sharply.

Silence.

Then: “We were out checking a wash and came back to find our tires slashed.”

Everything inside me stops.

“What?” Miles shouts.

“All four.” Maya’s keyed up on the walkie now, voice clipped but calm. “We came back from the ridge line and every tire on the 4Runner’s shredded.”

The blood drains from my face, and the Ridgefield guys chuckle behind us.

Miles turns slowly toward them.

“We’re over twenty miles out from your coordinates,” Maya continues through static. “AAA can’t get here. No spare situation fixes this.”

Taylor’s voice is back on the line, higher now with panic she’s trying badly to suppress. “And before you ask, yeah, we found ATV tracks near the clearing. We’re assuming this is Ridgefield and his guys making a statement.”