The next few days in Mason Creek bled together under the steady hum of summer. The fields shimmered in the heat, the air heavy with dust and cicadas. But under that sleepy calm, something else was stirring...quiet, deliberate, and unseen.
Ash was one of the few who felt it.
He hadn’t intended to stay long in Mason Creek. His original orders were to monitor any S.O.W. movements and report to Devil once he confirmed their activities. But the closer he got to the truth, the harder it became to leave.
Especially when the truth began circling around a certain quiet woman with a farmstand by the road.
He parked his bike deep in the woods at dawn, waiting for the gray-jacketed stranger to return. The man had come twice already...never buying anything, never staying long, but always scanning t
