TAKEN WITHOUT A TRACE.

CHAPTER THREE: RELUCTANT ALLIANCE.

She blinked. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t carry that weight alone.” His voice was low, rough. “I know what it feels like to replay every mistake, every second, thinking you could have done something differently. But it’ll eat you alive. And it won’t help her now.”

Maya stared at him, caught off guard. For a moment, she saw beyond his stoic exterior—the grief carved into his features, the shadows in his eyes. Whatever he had lost, it was as heavy as her own pain.

The silence that followed was thick, but softer somehow.

When they reached the precinct, Clara Hughes was waiting. Arms crossed, expression sharp, she looked like she’d aged ten years overnight.

“You two went digging without me,” she said coldly. “Care to explain why?”

Ethan handed her the phone with the message and photo. “Because he’s targeting her. And if we wait for procedure, that girl dies.”

Clara’s eyes widened as she scanned the screen, but her jaw hardened. “You realize withholding this is obstruction, right? I should have you both thrown out.”

“Go ahead,” Maya snapped. “While you waste time, a child suffers.”

The tension between the three of them sparked like electricity. Clara finally pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “God help me, but fine. We work together. On my terms.”

“What terms?” Ethan asked.

“No vigilante stunts. No tipping off the press, Maya. And no charging into shadows without backup.” Clara’s eyes bored into them. “We do this by the book, or not at all.”

Maya gritted her teeth. “If ‘the book’ worked, my sister wouldn’t still be missing.”

For a second, Clara’s expression faltered, guilt flickering in her eyes. But she quickly masked it with steel. “I’m not your enemy, Torres. You want results? Then fall in line.”

Ethan stepped between them, his calm voice cutting through the tension. “Enough. We all want the same thing: the girl back alive. So we combine resources. Clara, you have the badge. Maya, you have insight. I have experience. We use all three.”

The detective and the journalist exchanged a reluctant glance. Finally, Clara muttered, “Fine. Reluctant alliance it is.”

For the next hour, they pored over case files in Clara’s office. Ethan mapped the seven abductions he had tracked. Each one formed a pattern—small towns, close-knit communities, all within driving distance of each other.

Maya leaned over the map. “It’s like he’s circling something. Closing in.”

Clara frowned. “But on what?”

Before anyone could answer, Ethan’s phone buzzed. A blocked number. He put it on speaker.

The distorted voice filled the room. “Three voices. One goal. But only two will live long enough to see the end.”

The line went dead.

Maya’s pulse spiked. “He’s watching us.”

Ethan scanned the office. “No—he’s in the precinct.”

Clara shot to her feet, shouting orders. Officers scrambled, locking down the building. But in the chaos, Maya caught sight of something outside the window—a hooded figure standing across the street, perfectly still.

Their eyes met for a split second before he melted into the crowd.

“Clara!” Maya shouted, pointing.

They bolted out of the precinct, but by the time they reached the street, the figure was gone. No footprints, no trace.

Maya’s chest heaved. “He’s taunting us. Playing a game.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed, scanning the empty street. “Then we play harder.”

What none of them noticed was the envelope slipped under Maya’s windshield wiper. Inside, a photograph of Elena—taken the very day she disappeared.

And scrawled across the back, in jagged black ink:

“Round two begins at midnight.”

The Shadow escalates the game by directly tying Maya’s missing sister into the current abduction, raising the personal stakes even higher.