The storm inside me had settled into something colder, sharper. Desperation had burned itself out, leaving behind a steel edge that could cut through anything. I wasn’t frantic anymore. I wasn’t pacing floors, cursing into bottles, or tearing apart every lead with my bare hands. No—now I was quiet. Calculated. And that silence was what terrified the men who followed me.

Nia was still out there. Every hour stretched like a knife in my ribs, but the taunting message Eliana had sent last ...