Ava’s POV:
The reflection is faint enough that I almost convince myself I imagined it.
Almost.
The glass catches the shape wrong, bending it just enough to blur details. A man, I think. Tall. Still. Watching without the impatience of someone waiting to be noticed. The kind of stillness that comes from certainty.
My pulse stutters.
Julian’s eyes flick from my face to the window behind him. He sees the change in me instantly. He always does. His jaw tightens, the casual lean against the SUV vanishing as his body shifts into something alert and ready.
“Don’t react,” he says into the phone, though he is close enough now that he could lower his voice and I would hear him anyway. “If you turn your head too fast, you confirm it.”
“I already confirmed it,” I whisper. “I stopped walking.”
H
