Page 26 of Branded By Shadow
One message.
Brianna.
My heart stops, then starts wrong.
Stop looking for me.
Four words. No heart. No explanation.
No “T.”
My knees go soft.
“She’s alive,” I whisper. “I think… I mean, of course she is.”
Shadow’s hand closes over the phone before I can hit call.
I jerk back. “Don’t.”
“You call, they trace, record, listen, or bait you into saying exactly where you are.”
“It’s Brianna.”
“Maybe.”
The word slaps harder than I expect.
Maybe.
I grip the phone tighter. “Give it back.”
His eyes hold mine, steady and grim.
“No.”
Anger cuts through the panic so fast I almost welcome it.
“She told me to stop looking for her.”
“I can read.”
“She’s scared.”
“Maybe.”
“Stop saying that.”
His jaw flexes. “Then stop treating a text like proof.”
The screen glows between us.
Stop looking for me.
Four words.
And somehow, they scare me more than the gunfire.
My vision blurs.
