Page 12

She glances back at me over her shoulder then, and something in her expression shifts slightly at the scars on my hands.

At the limp.

At whatever she sees there.

“You were military,” she says quietly.

“Was.”

“What happened?”

IED.

Fire.

Screaming.

Blood.

I shrug instead. “Wrong place. Wrong time.”

Her gaze lingers a second too long.

Not pity.

Curiosity.

That’s better.

We reach her rental cabin just before dusk settles fully across the mountain.

And that’s when I see it.

A photograph tucked beneath her windshield wiper.

My entire body goes cold.

I yank it free immediately before she can stop me.

Then I look down.

It’s her.

Sleeping inside the cabin.

Taken through the damn window.

Nora goes silent beside me.

For the first time since I met her, she looks genuinely shaken.

Slowly, I lift my gaze toward the dark tree line surrounding the property.

Somebody’s watching us right now.

I can feel it.

Chapter Three