I didn’t sleep. Not even for a heartbeat.
Not after the men outside vanished into the trees like ghosts.
Not after Cole shouted something I wasn’t allowed to hear—something sharp enough to send them running.
Not after he locked every window and stood guard the entire night without blinking once.
By the time sunlight finally seeped through the cabin’s battered shutters, he said only two words:
“Pack up.”
He didn’t look at me. Didn’t ask if I was okay.
He just looked… hollow. Like something inside him cracked during those hours he refused to explain.
We hiked in silence for almost twenty minutes before finding the truck he hid. It was draped under camo netting, like a relic from a war I wasn’t supposed to know he’d fought.
I didn’t ask questions.
Because every time I tried, his wal
