The shot echoed through the rink and into my chest long after the sound faded.
Sharp. Sudden. Like a cold blade cutting through the thick, stale air.
My breath hitched, uneven. I forced my eyes away from the spot where the stranger collapsed into the snow. It was too close. Too much like something I never wanted to face again.
“Cass.” George’s voice was low, tense, a thread pulling me back from the edge of panic. But my legs felt heavy, rooted to the icy ground beneath me.
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “We can’t stay here.”
He nodded but didn’t move. Instead, his eyes flicked toward the shadowed treeline where the SUV had waited. Empty now.
The cold bit through my jacket, but the chill inside me burned deeper. Someone was watching. Waiting. And I was caught right in the
