He was weak, and he was terrified of pain.

He had spent his entire life being protected by his mother’s shadow.

But now that the shadow was gone, he would do whatever it took to keep himself from drowning.

The seed of panic had been planted.

I knew it would only take a few hours of darkness for it to grow.

The elevator doors opened into the quiet, concrete expanse of the underground garage.

My black SUV was parked near the exit, its headlights cutting through the gloom.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed again in my hand.

I looked down at the glowing screen.

It was a text message, but not from the unknown number this time.

It was from Harrison.

I stopped walking, staring at the short sentence on the screen.

Elena stopped beside me, her eyes dropping to the phone.

“What is it?” she asked.

I held the phone up so she could see the screen.

The message read: *I need to talk to you. Alone. I have things she doesn’t know I kept.*

Elena looked up at me, a sharp glint in her eyes.