Sienna's P.O.V.

I did not leave town. I wanted to. By the time I got home, fed Butter, checked every window, and searched the parking lot from behind my blinds like a complete lunatic, I had already planned three routes out of Nebraska. One west. One south. One that changed buses twice before I rented a car under a different card. Then I sat on the edge of my bed and got pissed off.

I had spent too much of my life running because somebody else decided I wasn't allowed to feel safe.

One phone call and one biker I couldn't even identify weren't enough to make me hand over another home. Not yet. So the next morning, I went back to work.

Butter disagreed with my decision. He planted himself on top of my shoes while I was getting dressed and bit my shoelace when I tried to pull it free.

"You are an excellent security consultant," I told him. "Very practical."

He stared at me.

"Fine. If I'm murdered, you can say you warned me."

Butter yawned. Rude. Harlow's was already busy when I walked in. A bus full of retirees had apparently discovered pancakes, and Macy was running between tables with the expression of a woman reconsidering every life choice that had brought her here.

She spotted me and immediately pointed a coffee pot in my direction. "You came back."

I stopped. "Was I not supposed to?"

"After yesterday? I didn't know."

"Neither did I."

That shut her up for about three seconds.

"Did you figure out who called?"

"No."

"The biker?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell me anything useful?"

"No."

Macy sighed. "I walked into that."

"Proud of you."

Mr. Halpern came through the swinging kitchen door carrying two plates. "If the reunion is over, table nine has been waiting twelve minutes."

Macy took one plate from him. I took the other.

"See?" I told her. "Employment. Very grounding."

The first two hours went fast. Too fast to think, which was exactly how I liked it.

Brooke stayed mostly out of my way after yesterday, although she managed to glare at me every time we crossed paths. I considered it personal growth for both of us. Around noon, the diner filled again. That's when table six became a problem.

There were three of them: a woman with perfect hair and sunglasses pushed onto her head, a guy in a polo shirt who had complained about his fries twice, and another man who had spent most of the meal filming everything on his phone. I had noticed the phone earlier. People filmed everything now. Food. Coffee. Themselves pretending to laugh. Normally, I didn't care. Normally, their cameras weren't pointed at me. Macy had table six, so I kept my distance. Then I heard the crash. A glass hit the floor near the booth and shattered. Everyone in that part of the diner looked over.

The man in the polo shirt was standing. Macy was beside the table with one hand wrapped around her own wrist. My stomach dropped. I was moving before I thought about it.

"What happened?"

Macy shook her head. "It's fine."

The guy laughed. "Your waitress needs to learn how to do her fucking job."

I looked at her wrist. Red fingerprints were already forming. My vision narrowed.

"Did he grab you?"

"Sienna—"

"Did he?"

Macy hesitated. That was enough.

I turned to him. "You need to pay and leave."

His mouth fell open. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

The woman at the table snorted. "Oh my God. Are you serious?"

Very. The man filming lifted his phone higher. Great.

Polo Shirt took a step closer. "She spilled water on me."

I looked at his shirt. There was a wet spot smaller than my hand near his hip. Tragic.

"Then we can get you a towel."

"I want the meal comped."

"No."

His face changed. "No?"

"Food's gone. Plates are clean. You've been here almost an hour. You don't get a free meal because some water touched your shirt."

A few people nearby laughed. Wrong move. His face went red. Macy whispered my name. I knew what she was telling me. Drop it. Keep the job. Don't make it worse. I had been very good at not making things worse once. I didn't miss that girl.

Mr. Halpern came out from behind the register. "What's going on?"

The woman spoke before anyone else could. "Your waitress attacked my friend after spilling a drink on him."

I stared at her. Macy stared at her too.

Polo Shirt pointed at me. "And this one threatened us."

Mr. Halpern rubbed the bridge of his nose. For one awful second, I knew exactly what was coming. Customer service. Apologize. Comp the check. Smile.

"Just fix it, Sienna," he said quietly.

There it was. Something inside me went very still.

"No."

Mr. Halpern looked at me. The whole damn diner seemed to look at me.

I pointed at Macy's wrist. "He grabbed her hard enough to leave marks. I'm not apologizing to him for that."

The guy scoffed. "I barely touched her."

"Then it should be easy to keep your hands to yourself now."

His chair scraped back. He stepped toward me. I held my ground. He was bigger than me. Most men who had hurt me had been bigger than me. That fact didn't have the power it used to.

"You're real brave behind a counter," he said.

"I'm not behind one."

His eyes flicked down, like he had only just realized I was standing in the aisle with nothing between us. The man with the phone made a quiet, excited sound. I wanted to shove the phone down his throat.

Instead, I looked at Mr. Halpern. "Do you have cameras in this section?"

He blinked. "Yes."

"Good. Then check them."

Polo Shirt's expression changed. Just a little. Enough. I saw it. So did Mr. Halpern.

He looked at Macy's wrist again, then toward the little black camera over the pie case.

"Nobody leaves," he said.

The woman shot to her feet. "You can't keep us here."

"No," Mr. Halpern said. "But I can call the police if you skip the check."

Polo Shirt swore. I almost smiled. Mr. Halpern went into the office and came back less than two minutes later with a face like stone.

He looked at the table. "Pay your bill. Leave. Don't come back."

The man started talking. Mr. Halpern didn't let him finish.

"I watched you grab her. Pay and leave before I make that phone call."

That did it. The woman slapped cash onto the table. Polo Shirt muttered something about lawyers and bad reviews, and Phone Guy kept recording the entire time. As they passed me, Polo Shirt leaned close.

"You think you're tough?"

My body remembered too many things at once. A hand. A locked door. A voice telling me I would never make it on my own. I didn't step back.

"I think you're leaving."

For a second, he looked like he wanted to test me. Then he noticed half the diner watching. He left. The bell over the door jingled behind them. Silence held for maybe two seconds. Then Ed from booth three raised his coffee cup.

"Well, that was better than cable."

The diner burst into laughter. I covered my face.

"Jesus Christ."

Macy hugged me from the side. I went stiff automatically. She felt it and let go just as fast.

"Sorry," she said.

"It's fine."

"Thank you."

I looked at the red marks on her wrist. "You don't have to thank me for telling somebody not to grab you."

Her eyes got shiny. Nope. Absolutely not.

I pointed toward the kitchen. "Go put ice on that before you make this emotional."

She laughed and wiped under one eye. Mr. Halpern came over after she left.

"I shouldn't have told you to fix it before I knew what happened."

"No, you shouldn't have."

He stared at me. I stared back. Then one corner of his mouth twitched.

"Still employed?"

"I was about to ask you that."

"You threaten all my customers like that?"

"Only the handsy ones."

"Good enough."

That should have been the end of it. It wasn't. Of course it wasn't. Around two, Brooke walked into the server station holding her phone.

"You have got to be kidding me."

I was stacking clean mugs. "What now?"

She turned the screen toward me. A video was playing. Me. Table six. Polo Shirt stepping toward me. My voice, clear as day. I'm not behind one. The clip cut right after I told him he was leaving. Someone had added text across the top. WAITRESS HUMILIATES GUY WHO GRABBED COWORKER. My stomach dropped.

"Where did you get that?"

"It's everywhere locally."

"Everywhere means what?"

Brooke scrolled. "Facebook. TikTok. Reels. Somebody put it in the town group."

I grabbed the phone from her. The original upload had more than twelve thousand views. That wasn't viral by normal internet standards. For me, it might as well have been the fucking Super Bowl. My face was visible. Very visible. I scrolled through the comments. Most were cheering. A few were calling me rude. One said the guy deserved worse. Then I saw it. **That's Sienna from Harlow's. She's always been cool when I go in.** My thumb stopped. My name. My workplace. My face. All in one place.

"No," I whispered.

Brooke's attitude disappeared. "What?"

I handed her phone back and reached for mine.

Macy walked in from the kitchen with an ice pack wrapped around her wrist. "What's wrong?"

"The video."

She looked confused. "What video?"

Brooke showed her. Macy's face went pale.

"Oh shit."

Exactly. I opened the local app I barely used and found the clip within seconds. Shares. Reposts. Comments. The whole stupid thing growing while I watched. Yesterday, somebody had called the diner looking for me. Yesterday, a biker had watched me from across the street.

Today, the internet had handed anybody who cared to look a clear photograph, my first name, and the exact place I worked. My phone felt heavy in my hand.

Macy touched my arm, gently this time. "Sienna?"

I locked the screen.

"I need to go."

Mr. Halpern looked up from the register when I came around the counter. "What happened?"

"The video from lunch is online."

He grimaced. "I heard."

"My name is in the comments."

His expression changed immediately. Good. At least somebody understood.

"I need the rest of the day."

"Take it."

Brooke called after me. "Your bag."

I turned. She held it out. For once, there wasn't a trace of attitude on her face.

I took it. "Thanks."

Outside, I scanned the parking lot before moving toward my car. No motorcycle. No strange car. No one obviously watching. It didn't matter anymore. I unlocked the Corolla and got inside. Before I started the engine, I checked the video one more time. Twenty-one thousand views. I refreshed. Twenty-three.

"Fuck."

For five years, staying invisible had kept me free. In less than a day, a stranger with a phone had made invisible impossible.

Sienna's P.O.V.

I should have driven away the second I locked my phone. That was the smart move. Instead, I sat in the Corolla staring at the number under the video. Twenty-three thousand views. Twenty-four. I refreshed again and swore.

"Stop doing that."

My own voice sounded loud inside the car. I threw the phone onto the passenger seat, started the engine, and backed out of the parking space. The plan was simple: go home, grab Butter, get the rest of my cash, and leave before dark. I didn't need a destination yet. I just needed distance. I made it halfway to the exit before two motorcycles turned into the lot. My foot hit the brake. For one stupid second, I thought about yesterday's rider. Then the bikes came closer, and I saw the patches. Inferno's Demon Riders MC. My hands went cold on the steering wheel. No. Absolutely fucking not.

The first rider was broad enough that his leather cut looked painted onto him. Dark hair, beard, shoulders I definitely did not remember from high school. The second was leaner, dressed almost entirely in black, with a calmness that bothered me more than the first man's size. They parked near the edge of the lot. I told myself I didn't know them. Ten years changed people. It could be anybody. Then the bigger one took off his helmet. My stomach dropped. Maddox.

Older. Harder. A scar cut through one eyebrow now, and his hair was shorter, but there was no mistaking that face. The same boy who used to sling an arm around my shoulders and call me Peaches. The same boy who later learned exactly which words hurt me most. The other rider removed his helmet. Kai. My lungs forgot how to work.

He looked different too. Sharper. Less boy, more knife. But his eyes were the same. Dark, observant, always watching too much. For a second, none of us moved. Then Maddox looked straight through my windshield. Recognition hit his face. Not relief. Not happiness. Anger. Well. Good. That made two of us. I shoved the Corolla into drive. Kai stepped in front of the exit lane.

"Move," I whispered.

He couldn't hear me. I hit the horn. Half the diner probably looked out the window. Kai didn't move. Maddox came around the side of the car, stopping a few feet from my driver's door. I lowered the window two inches.

"Get out of the way."

Maddox stared at me. His gaze moved over my face like he was comparing me to some version he kept in his head.

"Sienna."

Hearing my new name in his voice did something ugly inside my chest.

"Congratulations," I said. "Your memory works."

His jaw tightened. "Get out of the car."

I laughed. Actually laughed.

"No."

"Sienna."

"Still no."

Kai appeared near the front corner of the hood but stayed far enough back that I could see both of them. Good. At least one of them had learned something about approaching trapped animals. Maddox hadn't. He put a hand on the roof of my car.

"You disappear for almost ten fucking years, we find you because some asshole posts your face all over the internet, and this is what you have to say?"

There it was. That old Maddox magic. Skip hello. Go straight for the blade.

I looked at his hand on my car. "Take your hand off."

His eyes narrowed.

"Maddox."

He froze. I hadn't called him that since I was a kid. His hand dropped. A tiny victory. I'll take it.

Kai spoke for the first time. "We're not here to fight."

I looked at Maddox.

"Could've fooled me."

Maddox swore under his breath.

Kai ignored him. "We saw the video. We were already in-state on club business."

"Clearly."

"We came to make sure you were okay."

I stared at him. Then I laughed again. This one didn't sound nice.

"That is hilarious."

Maddox's face darkened. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounded like."

Kai glanced toward the diner windows. People were definitely watching now. Fantastic. My face wasn't exposed enough today.

He lowered his voice. "Can we do this somewhere else?"

"No."

"Sienna—"

"No."

Maddox stepped closer to the window. "Why are you acting like we're strangers?"

That did it. I turned my head slowly and looked at him.

"You're right. Strangers usually haven't done anything to me."

He went still. Kai's expression changed too, but I couldn't read it.

Maddox recovered first. "Oh, fuck that."

There he was. The boy I remembered.

"You don't get to show up after ten years and act like we did this to you."

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

"I didn't show up anywhere. You blocked my car."

"You left."

"I was taken."

His mouth snapped shut. Kai's gaze sharpened. I could hear my heartbeat. Too much. I had already said too much.

Maddox shook his head. "You wanted to go with him."

I stared at him.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"No. I heard the words. I'm trying to understand how somebody with a functioning brain managed to put them in that order."

His face flushed.

Kai said, "Riot."

I looked at the patch on Maddox's cut. RIOT. Of course. Subtlety had never been his thing. My eyes moved to Kai's. GHOST. That one fit too well.

Maddox—Riot, apparently—ignored him. "We were there, Sienna. We know what you said."

My stomach twisted.

"What I said to who?"

He hesitated. That was interesting.

"Exactly."

Kai stepped in before Maddox could make it worse. "We were told you wanted out. That you were done with the club. Done with us."

"By who?"

Neither answered quickly enough. I smiled without humor.

"Wow. Great investigation, Ghost."

His eyes narrowed slightly at the road name.

"Don't."

"Don't what? Read?"

Maddox dragged a hand down his face. "Jesus Christ, you're still impossible."

The old words would have hurt. These didn't. Not the way he wanted them to.

"I had to get good at it."

Silence. That one landed. Kai looked at me more carefully. I hated that. I hated all the studying and the measuring and the quiet little calculations behind his eyes.

"You look different," he said.

"So do you."

"No. I mean—"

"I know what you meant."

He stopped. Good. I checked the rearview mirror. The other end of the lot was clear. If Kai moved two feet, I could leave.

I looked at him. "Move."

He didn't.

Maddox folded his arms. "You're not leaving until we talk."

A cold feeling slid down my spine. Not fear exactly. Memory. Locked rooms. Men deciding what happened next. My voice dropped.

"Move. The bike."

Kai saw it. Whatever crossed my face, he saw it. His whole posture changed.

"Maddox."

"What?"

"Move the bike."

Maddox turned toward him. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"We've been looking at her for thirty fucking seconds."

"And she's asking us to move."

Maddox stared at him. Kai stared back. Then Maddox swore and stepped away from my car. Kai moved his bike out of the exit lane. Just like that. No grabbing the door handle. No dragging me out. No surrounding the car. The knot between my shoulders loosened a fraction. Not enough to matter. I put the window up. Maddox slapped the glass once with his palm. Not hard. Still enough to piss me off. I lowered it again.

"What?"

His anger had shifted. There was something else underneath it now. Confusion, maybe.

"You really think we abandoned you?"

I looked at him. For a second, I saw thirteen-year-old Maddox again. Loud. Mean for fun. Protective when it mattered. The kind of boy who would threaten somebody for making me cry, then make me cry himself because apparently irony had always loved me. Then I remembered later. Cold shoulders. Cruel jokes. Doors closed in my face. People I trusted deciding I was the problem.

"I don't think it," I said. "I lived it."

His face went blank. Kai took one step closer, careful this time.

"We thought you abandoned us."

I swallowed. There it was. The part that made no sense. The part I refused to care about.

"Then I guess everybody got what they wanted."

"No," Kai said.

His answer came too fast. Maddox looked away. I hated that my chest hurt. I hated that some tiny, stupid piece of thirteen-year-old me was listening. So I killed it.

"Move away from the car."

They did. I pulled forward. At the edge of the lot, my phone rang through the car speakers. Unknown number. I rejected it. Kai saw. His expression sharpened. Not my problem. I turned onto the road. In the mirror, the two of them stood beside their bikes watching me leave. I should have felt good. I had faced them. I hadn't cried. I hadn't begged for answers. I hadn't let them make one decision for me. That should have felt like winning. Instead, my hands shook all the way to the first stoplight. I gripped the wheel harder.

"You're fine."

The light changed. I drove. My phone buzzed in the passenger seat. Not a call this time. A notification. The stupid video again. I almost threw the phone out the window. At the next red light, I glanced in the mirror. No bikes. Good. I looked back toward the road. Then something in my memory clicked. Kai had taken out his phone while Maddox was arguing with me. I had seen the screen for maybe half a second through the windshield. One name at the top. Knox. And beneath it, just before Kai turned the phone away, two words. **Found her.** The light turned green. For the second time that day, I didn't move until somebody behind me honked.

Sienna's P.O.V.

By the time I got home, I had decided three things. One, the video had screwed me. Two, Kai had made sure Knox knew exactly where I was.

Three, I was not sticking around long enough to find out who reached my front door first.

Butter met me in the hallway with the kind of offended yell only a cat could manage. I locked the deadbolt behind me, checked the chain, then crouched to scratch under his chin.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Terrible mother. Abandoned you for an entire workday."

He head-butted my hand.

"You're very brave now that I'm home."

Butter followed me into the bedroom while I pulled the black duffel from under my bed. The bag stayed packed most of the time, but I still went through it item by item: two changes of clothes, cash, copies of my documents, a charger, basic toiletries, a cheap hoodie, and the small first-aid kit I had replaced three months ago. I set my passport and wallet beside it, then opened the bottom dresser drawer. The old prepaid phone was still there. So was the envelope I should have thrown away years ago. I stared at it for too long.

"Nope."

I closed the drawer. Butter jumped onto the bed and sat directly on the duffel.

"Move."

He blinked.

"Butter."

Nothing.

"I am trying to save both of our lives here."

He started washing one paw. Traitor. I picked him up, ignored his deeply offended growl, and put him on the floor. Then I zipped the bag and carried it into the living room. I should have felt calmer. Packing usually helped. A bag by the door meant options. Options meant control. Tonight, it just made the apartment look temporary. Maybe it always had been.

I checked the window over the sink. Empty parking lot. Mrs. Greer's blue sedan. A delivery van three buildings down. No motorcycles. Good. I checked the bedroom window too. Nothing. Still good. Then my phone buzzed. My whole body tightened before I even looked. Macy. **You alive?** I let out a breath. **Unfortunately.** Three dots appeared immediately. **Video is at 41k. Sorry.** I closed my eyes. Of course it was. **Not your fault. Keep your wrist iced.** Her reply took longer. **Do I need to worry about you? Like actually worry?** I stared at the message. There were a hundred answers I could have given. Yes. No. Maybe. Mind your business. Instead, I typed the one that cost me the least. **I'm handling it.** Macy sent back a thumbs-down. I almost smiled. Then another notification appeared. The video again. Someone had tagged Harlow's official page. I turned off notifications completely. Silence settled over the apartment. Too much silence. That's when my brain decided it was a perfect time to remember Knox. Not adult Knox. Not the name I'd seen on Kai's phone.

Thirteen-year-old Knox, lying on the clubhouse roof with his hands behind his head like the whole world belonged to him. Of course. Because apparently sleep wasn't the only time my memories wanted to ruin my day.

*******************************************************

~ Flashback, age 13 ~

*******************************************************

Zane's going-away party had been loud everywhere except Knox's room.

His dad had friends downstairs. The clubhouse was packed. Music rattled the walls. People kept coming in to say goodbye to Zane's family, and every time someone did, Zane looked a little more pissed. None of us knew what to do with it. We were kids. Moving felt permanent. Maybe because back then, a different town might as well have been another planet.

Kai and Roman were arguing over a game on the floor. Maddox had stolen half the snacks and was refusing to share them. Zane sat on the edge of the bed pretending he wasn't upset. I hated all of it. So I climbed out Knox's window.

The roof outside his room wasn't steep, and we'd been yelled at enough times for sitting out there that I knew exactly where to put my feet. I had barely settled against the shingles when the window opened behind me.

"Knew you'd be out here."

Knox climbed through and sat beside me.

"Go away."

"No."

"I mean it."

"No, you don't."

I looked at him. "You're annoying."

"You love me."

"Unfortunately."

He grinned. For a while, we listened to the music downstairs.

Then I said, "What if he forgets us?"

Knox's grin disappeared.

"He won't."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do."

"People change."

"He's moving, Sia. He's not dying."

"I know."

Knox bumped his shoulder against mine. "We'll call him. Kai'll probably hack his computer if he ignores us."

I laughed a little.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then we go get him."

I turned my head. He said it like it was obvious.

"Get him from another state?"

"Yeah."

"We can't drive."

"My dad can."

"What if he says no?"

"Then we annoy him until he says yes."

That sounded exactly like something we would do.

I looked down toward the clubhouse parking lot. "What if it's not Zane?"

"What?"

"What if one of us leaves later? Or somebody gets mad? Or something happens?"

Knox went quiet. I didn't know why I was asking. Maybe I already understood, even then, that promises were easy when nothing had tested them yet. Finally, he sat up.

"Okay."

"Okay what?"

"We make a rule."

I frowned. "What rule?"

"Nobody gets left behind."

I stared at him.

Knox pointed toward the window. "Any of us. Me, you, Zane, Maddox, Roman, Kai. If somebody disappears, the rest of us go looking."

"What if they want to disappear?"

"Then we ask them ourselves."

"What if they say they hate us?"

"Then we make sure they mean it."

I laughed. "That's creepy."

"It's loyal."

"It's definitely creepy."

He shoved my shoulder. I shoved him back. Then he held out his pinky.

I stared at it. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"We're thirteen."

"And?"

"Pinky promises are for babies."

"Scared?"

That bastard knew exactly how to get me. I hooked my pinky around his. Knox looked me straight in the eye.

"Nobody gets left behind."

I swallowed.

"Nobody gets left behind."

The window opened behind us.

Zane stuck his head out. "What are you losers doing?"

"Making sure we know where to find your dumb ass when you forget us," Knox said.

Zane climbed onto the roof without asking and held out his hand.

"Then I'm in."

Maddox appeared behind him. Then Kai. Then Roman. Six stupid kids on a clubhouse roof, stacking hands like we were making some sacred oath instead of promising something none of us understood. Zane squeezed my fingers.

"If one goes missing, five go looking."

Maddox grinned. "Unless it's Kai."

"Fuck you," Kai said.

Roman laughed. Knox looked at all of us.

"No bullshit. We don't take somebody else's word for it. If one of us wants out, they tell us themselves."

Something in my chest tightened. I nodded. We all did. And for that one night, I believed it.

*******************************************************

~ Present, age 25 ~

*******************************************************

I came back to myself standing in the middle of my living room. Butter was sitting beside the duffel, watching me.

"Yeah," I whispered. "That's what I thought."

No bullshit. We don't take somebody else's word for it. Kai's voice from the parking lot replayed in my head. **We were told you wanted out.** Told. Not asked. Not heard from me. Told. I laughed once, but there was nothing funny in it.

"Nobody gets left behind."

Except me. Apparently there had been an asterisk. I grabbed my keys. Sitting in the apartment thinking wasn't going to help. If I was leaving before sunrise, I needed gas, cash from the all-night ATM, and a look at the roads before I loaded Butter into the car. That last part was habit now. Never leave blind. I drove without music.

The first route out of town was the state highway east. I passed the gas station, filled the Corolla, then continued another mile before looping back. Nothing unusual. The second route cut south through farm roads before connecting with the interstate. Halfway there, I saw a black SUV parked in the lot of a closed feed store. Engine running. Lights off. I kept driving. Could be nothing. At the next intersection, I turned west instead of south. Ten minutes later, the SUV passed behind me. My grip tightened. Coincidence. Maybe. I took another turn. Then another. The SUV disappeared. I let myself breathe.

"Paranoid," I muttered.

I headed toward the third route, a two-lane road that eventually connected to the interstate farther north. A motorcycle was parked near the entrance to a twenty-four-hour truck stop. The rider wore no helmet. I didn't recognize him. I didn't recognize the cut either. Not Inferno's Demon Riders. He looked up as I passed. Too quickly. My stomach dropped. I kept going. In the rearview mirror, he picked up his phone. I turned at the next road and circled back toward town. By the time I reached the main intersection again, the black SUV was there. Different position. Same vehicle. This time, the driver's window lowered as I passed. I didn't wait to see who was inside. I drove straight home. No speeding. No sudden turns. Nothing that said I had noticed. But by the time I pulled into my apartment lot, my decision had changed. I wasn't leaving at sunrise. Sunrise was too late.

I was leaving as soon as I could get Butter into his carrier and the duffel into the car. I parked, killed the lights, and sat in the dark for five seconds. Then I looked toward the street. A pair of headlights passed the entrance. Slowly. Too slowly. I grabbed my bag and got out.

"Nobody gets left behind," I whispered as I hurried toward the building.

The words tasted like a joke now. The worst part was that some stupid piece of me still remembered exactly how Knox had sounded when he promised.