Page 39 of The Dark Stranger
“Clear,” came the call.
Silas exhaled for the first time in minutes.
As they moved the kids out into the cold night air, police sirens wailed in the distance—timed perfectly, just as Jace had arranged. By the time authorities arrived, the traffickers would be gone. The trail cold.
Untraceable.
Silas watched as the kids were wrapped in blankets, escorted gently away.
Another job done.
Another nightmare ended.
And still—
His chest felt tight.
Because saving them never erased the ones he didn’t reach in time.
Silas turned away, already pulling the mask back on.
Two days later, he’d be back in a suit.
But tonight?
Tonight, he was exactly who the underworld feared.
At seventeen, Silas Winter already understood something most men didn’t learn until it was too late—
love didn’t always mean safety.
His mother worked herself to exhaustion as an aide for the elderly. Long hours. Low pay. Always coming home with sore feet and tired eyes, but she never complained. She loved her son fiercely. He was her pride, her purpose, the one thing she never failed to protect.
But she was lonely.
She had a habit of needing to be loved, and worse—of choosing the wrong men to love her.
Silas learned early to watch instead of speaking. To notice what she brushed off. The bruises she called clumsy accidents. The way her smile tightened whenever her boyfriend drank too much. The way her voice changed when she said she was fine.
She wasn’t.
The man she was dating worked, paid bills, showed up just enough to look decent to the outside world. Behind closed doors, his temper spoke louder than his words. Silas saw it. Felt it. Tried to stop it the only way a teenage boy knew how—by begging her to leave.
She’d cup his face gently and say the same thing every time.
“You’re just a child. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
But Silas already understood.
He understood that something was wrong.
He understood that fear lived in their house.
And he understood that sometimes loving someone wasn’t enough to save them.
They lived in a small town in Texas. The kind where people smiled to your face and talked behind your back. Where everyone knew your business but did nothing about it.
One afternoon, walking home from school, Silas saw the police cars parked in his driveway.
