CHAPTER 2 — The Sheriff's Secret
No one moved.
Even the coffee seemed to stop steaming.
Mason stared at the sheriff he had trusted for nearly fifteen years.
Sheriff Daniel Brooks had attended Rose's memorial.
He had promised Mason he would never stop searching for answers.
Now he was standing beside the man who was supposed to be dead.
With respect.
With fear.
Ethan buttoned his jacket.
"We're leaving."
The sheriff nodded immediately.
"Everything has been prepared."
Prepared?
Prepared for what?
The little girl clutched Mason tighter.
"Don't let them take me."
One deputy stepped forward.
"We're only taking the child home."
The girl screamed.
"No!"
Her voice echoed through the diner.
Several customers stood instinctively.
The waitress grabbed a phone beneath the register.
One deputy noticed.
He quietly unplugged it from the wall.
"The phones don't work anymore," he said.
Every exit had been covered.
This wasn't a rescue.
It was a collection.
Mason finally understood.
The diner hadn't been chosen by accident.
It had been surrounded before the girl ever walked inside.
Ethan looked almost amused.
"I knew she'd find you."
"You let her escape?"
"I needed to know whether Rose still trusted you."
Mason's fists tightened.
"You used a seven-year-old child as bait?"
Ethan's smile disappeared.
"No."
"I used you."
The words hit harder than a punch.
Before Mason could answer, the little girl reached into the pocket of her oversized shirt.
"I almost forgot."
She pulled out something wrapped in cloth.
An old silver lighter.
Its surface was scratched beyond recognition.
But engraved on one side...
...was the same wolf symbol stitched onto Mason's vest.
He hadn't seen that lighter since the night Rose vanished.
He opened it with trembling fingers.
Inside...
Instead of fuel...
Someone had hidden a tightly folded strip of paper.
Mason carefully unfolded it.
Only five words were written.
DON'T TRUST MY BROTHER.
His heart stopped.
He only had one brother.
Lucas.
The president of Mason's own motorcycle club.
The man who had searched beside him for eight years.
The man who had cried at Rose's funeral.
The man waiting back at club headquarters right now.
Mason looked up slowly.
Ethan wasn't smiling anymore.
He simply asked one question.
"Now do you understand why Rose never came home?"
Before Mason could speak...
A deafening explosion ripped through the diner parking lot.
Windows shattered.
Flames shot into the night sky.
Every motorcycle belonging to Mason's club erupted into fire at the exact same moment.
Smoke swallowed the building.
People screamed.
In the chaos...
The little girl vanished.
When the smoke finally cleared...
She was gone.
So was Ethan.
But one thing remained.
A tiny yellow ribbon tied to Mason's burned motorcycle...
...with fresh blood on it.
And beneath the knot was another message.
May you like
SHE HAS EXACTLY 24 HOURS LEFT.
END OF CHAPTER 2...
