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.

Knox's P.O.V.

The message came in while I was in church. Not actual church. Inferno's Demon Riders church.

A long scarred table, ten pissed-off men, two territory problems, one shipment delay, and a prospect standing by the door trying very hard not to look nervous. My phone buzzed once against the wood. I ignored it. Then it buzzed again. Kai knew better than to interrupt church unless something mattered, so I looked down. **Found her.** For a second, the room disappeared. I stared at the words. Then another message came through. A link. I opened it. Sienna filled my screen. Older. Thinner. Harder. Standing in some diner aisle with a man twice her size trying to intimidate her. **You think you're tough?** The guy's voice came through the phone. Sienna didn't step back. **I think you're leaving.** The clip ended. I watched it again. And again.

"Judge?"

I looked up. Every brother at the table was staring at me.

"Meeting's over."

Silence.

My VP, Bishop, frowned. "We still have—"

"I said it's over."

Nobody argued after that. Chairs scraped back. Men filed out. Bishop waited until the door closed, then crossed his arms.

"Who died?"

"No one."

"Then who'd you find?"

I looked at the frozen image on my phone. Sienna's face. Almost ten fucking years.

"We found Sienna."

Bishop's expression changed. Everybody in the club knew the name. Not the whole story. Nobody knew the whole story because apparently neither did I.

He looked at the screen. "You sure?"

"Yeah."

I had known that face when it was rounder, softer, usually covered in some kind of dirt because the six of us had spent half our childhood doing stupid shit outside. I knew the tiny line between her eyebrows when she was pissed. The way one corner of her mouth lifted before she said something smart-assed. The eyes were different. That was what bothered me. Sienna had always looked at the world like she expected it to make room for her. The woman in the video looked like she expected the world to swing first.

"Where?" Bishop asked.

"Nebraska."

Less than an hour from our home territory across the state line. Close enough that the fact we'd missed her for almost two years suddenly felt even worse.

"Want me to call the chapter there?"

"No."

He studied me.

"I'll handle it."

"That usually means you're about to do something stupid."

"It means I'll handle it."

"Same thing, usually."

I ignored him and called Kai. He answered on the second ring.

"Tell me everything."

"Hello to you too."

"Kai."

His tone changed. "We found her outside the diner from the video. Riot and I were already in-state on that parts run. We went straight there."

"And?"

A pause. I hated pauses.

"And she hates us."

Something hot moved through my chest.

"She doesn't get to hate us."

Kai went quiet. I knew how that sounded. I didn't care. Not yet.

"She disappeared," I said. "She shut us out. She—"

"She said she was taken."

The sentence cut through me.

"What?"

"Her exact words. Riot told her she left. She said, 'I was taken.'"

I stood so fast my chair hit the wall. Bishop didn't move, but his eyebrows went up.

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"I asked myself the same thing."

"You ask her?"

"Riot was doing most of the talking."

"Of course he fucking was."

"Judge."

"What?"

"She also asked who told us she wanted out."

I went still. Kai kept talking.

"We told her what we believed. That she wanted her father. That she was done with the club. Done with us."

"That's what happened."

"Is it?"

I almost snapped at him. Almost. Then I remembered the video. The way she stood. The way Kai had said **taken**.

"We got messages," I said.

"I know."

"We were told the custody thing was what she wanted."

"I know."

"She stopped answering."

"I know."

"Kai, what the fuck are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying she looked at us like we were insane."

I paced to the window. Outside, bikes lined the compound fence. Men crossed the yard carrying boxes. Normal life. Nothing felt normal.

"Riot asked if she really thought we abandoned her," Kai said. "She said, 'I don't think it. I lived it.'"

The words hit harder than they should have. Because I remembered another set of words. Thirteen years old. Clubhouse roof.

My pinky hooked around hers because apparently I had once believed that was enough to make a promise permanent. Nobody gets left behind. If somebody disappears, we look. If somebody wants out, they tell us themselves. Fuck. I pressed my thumb into the bridge of my nose.

"We didn't hear it from her."

Kai said nothing.

"We had messages."

"From her account."

"Same fucking thing."

"Is it?"

I looked at the phone. I hated him a little for asking. Mostly because I didn't have an answer I liked.

"Where is she now?"

"Left."

"You let her leave?"

"She asked us to move."

"And?"

"I moved."

I shut my eyes.

"You're kidding."

"No."

"You found her after ten years and let her drive away?"

"She wasn't asking. She was telling us. And when Riot tried to push it, she looked—"

He stopped.

"Looked what?"

Another pause.

"Like she was back somewhere else."

That cooled my anger fast.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know."

"Follow her."

"No."

My eyes opened.

"What?"

"We got the address off the registration after she left. I'm not putting a bike on her ass when she reacted like that."

I should have been pissed. Part of me was. Another part remembered Sienna at thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. She had never been scared of us. Annoyed? Constantly. Pissed? Daily. Scared? No.

"Send me the address."

"Judge—"

"Send it."

He sighed. "Already did."

I looked at the new message. An apartment complex outside a small Nebraska town. I didn't know what I had expected. A house, maybe. A husband. A family. Something that explained why she had disappeared and stayed gone. Not that.

"How long has she been there?"

"Registration's almost two years old."

"Job?"

"Same diner. Looks like close to two years."

"Family?"

"I didn't dig."

That surprised me enough to stop pacing.

"You didn't?"

"She told me to stop acting like I get to know things about her just because I can find them."

I nearly laughed. That sounded like Sienna. The old Sienna. Except the old Sienna would've said it while stealing his keyboard or unplugging his monitor.

"Get Riot away from her building," I said.

"He already backed off."

"Stay close enough to watch the roads."

"There's something else."

Of course there was.

"What?"

"Unknown number called her when she was leaving the diner. She rejected it."

My jaw tightened.

"Could be nothing."

"Could be."

Neither of us believed that. I ended the call and looked at Bishop. He had been pretending not to listen. Badly.

"I need you running things for a few days."

"Figured."

"I'm going to Nebraska."

"Also figured."

He walked toward the door, then stopped. "Judge."

"What?"

"If she's really been gone because she wanted to be gone..."

"She wasn't."

"You don't know that yet."

I stared at him. He didn't back down. Bishop had been my VP long enough to get away with things other people couldn't.

"Then I'll hear it from her," I said.

That was the point, wasn't it? Hear it from her. Not a message. Not another person. Her. I left within twenty minutes. The ride should have cleared my head. It didn't. Every mile dragged up another memory. Sienna asleep on the clubhouse couch with her feet in my lap. Sienna screaming at Maddox because he put ice down the back of her shirt. Sienna crying when Zane moved. Sienna getting quieter after her mom married Rook. That one stuck. I had noticed. We all had. We just thought we knew why. Ivy said Sienna was jealous. Roman said living together had made things weird. Messages came from Sienna's accounts telling us to leave her alone. Then custody changed. Then she was gone. Simple.

Except nothing about the woman in that video looked like someone who had spent the last ten years living the life she chose. By the time I reached her town, it was after midnight. Kai texted that he and Riot were at a motel five minutes away. I ignored the motel and drove straight to the apartment complex. It was worse than the registration photo made it look. Old brick. Exterior stairs. One security light flickering like it was trying to die. Cars packed close together. No gate. No cameras that I could see from the street. Sienna had lived here for almost two years. Alone. I parked half a block away. Her Corolla was in the lot. So she hadn't left yet. Good. Then I saw the black SUV. It rolled past the complex without slowing. Maybe normal. I watched it turn at the corner. Three minutes later, it came back from the other direction. Not normal. My phone was already in my hand. **You see black SUV around her place?** I sent Kai. His answer came fast. **No. Plate?** I gave him what I could read. Then I got off the bike. The building smelled like wet concrete and old cigarettes. Sienna's unit was on the second floor. As I climbed the stairs, I heard something scrape inside. A cabinet. A zipper. Then her voice.

"Butter, I swear to God, if you hide under the bed right now, I'm leaving without you."

A cat yelled. Despite everything, my mouth twitched. Same Sienna. No. Not same. I reached the landing and saw two bags through the narrow gap in the curtain beside her door. Packed. Ready. She was leaving. Again. Anger hit first. Ten years of it. Ten years of wondering why she'd chosen everyone else over us.

Ten years of pretending I didn't give a shit because caring about somebody who didn't want you made you stupid. Then Kai's words came back. **She said she was taken.** I looked down at my phone. Another message.

**Plate comes back bad. Stolen two states over. Do not let her leave alone. Riot is on the way.** The anger changed shape. I stepped closer to the door. Inside, Sienna cursed at the cat carrier. I raised my hand to knock. Stopped. Nobody gets left behind. Funny how a promise could sound completely different after ten years. I knocked anyway.