"Nobody does at first," he said.
Seth watched him. Those green eyes, measuring.
"What are you people? Really."
"We're the people who pulled you out."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you need tonight."
Silence stretched between them. Outside, the wind rattled the windows. Somewhere in the house, a door opened and closed,someone moving through the dark, unable to sleep. The building held them all like a fist.
Seth exhaled. Long, slow, the breath of a man letting go of something he'd been carrying too long.
"Okay," he said.
"Okay?"
"I'll stay. For now." He lay back on the couch, pulling the warm blanket Nate had left up to his chin. His eyes didn't close. "But I'm not promising anything."
Zain almost smiled. "I wouldn't expect you to."
He settled into the chair and watched the gray light of pre-dawn fill the room. Listened to Seth's breathing even out, slow but never quite reaching the deep rhythm of real sleep. The kind of rest that kept one hand on a weapon and one ear on the door.
Zain knew that rest. Lived in it.
Seth was going to be a problem.
He was starting to think he didn't mind
CHAPTER 2
Seth didn't sleep.
He lay on the couch with his eyes closed and counted every sound. Footsteps overhead, heavy, deliberate, the big one calledJack. Water running through pipes. The low murmur of a voice on the phone, too far away to catch words. And the man in the chair, the one called Zain, breathing with the slow steadiness of someone trained to be still.
Seth didn't trust still people. Still people were the ones watching. Waiting for you to relax so they could take what they wanted.
One eye cracked open. Zain hadn't moved. Sitting with his arms folded across his chest, head tipped back slightly, jaw tight even in rest. He wasn't sleeping either. His eyes were closed but his breathing was wrong for sleep, too controlled, too deliberate.
Pretending. Same as Seth.
Fine. Two could play that game.
Dawn came in gray and reluctant, the way it always did in Detroit in December. Light bled through the industrial windows without warmth, turning the common room from black to charcoal to the washed-out pewter of a city that had forgotten what color was.
Seth lay still and planned.
Exits first. He'd counted two on the way in, front door, back door, but a building this size would have more. Fire escapes. Basement access. Windows that opened. Then weapons. Who slept where. What the routines looked like, who slept where, what the routines looked like. How many men were in this building and which ones would come after him if he ran.
Because he was going to run. Obviously. Whatever these people wanted, whatever they'd pulled him out of that warehouse for, there was always a catch. Nobody rescued you for free. The last time someone had offered Seth help without a price tag, he'd ended up in a cage for four months.
He'd learned
Zain stirred at six. Stood, stretched, efficient, no lingering, and walked to the kitchen area. Coffee. Seth tracked the sounds,cabinet opening, beans grinding, water pouring. Domestic sounds that felt alien after months of concrete and chain-link.
"You want coffee?" Zain's voice. Neutral. Not friendly. not hostile. Just... present.
