My pulse spikes.“Metwith someone?Who?”
Another pause.Longer.I can almost hear her deciding whether to say it.
“You’re not going to believe this,” she says finally.
“Try me.”
“The footage is grainy, but he looks like Diego Vega.”
For a second, everything inside me stops—my heart, my breath, my thoughts.The name lingers like gun smoke.
“Daniela,” I say slowly, “That’s impossible.”
“I know.But it’s on the security footage.He stepped out of the shadows for a second, and when the wind blew his hood back?—”
“No.”I cut her off.“Vega’s dead.Twice over.”
“That’s what we thought,” she says softly.
I can hear the tremor in her voice, disbelief braided with fear.
“I saw him die,” I insist.“I saw the body.”
Though the body’s gone now.What the fuck?
“Vinnie said the same, but I swear it looked just like him.”She gulps.“It’s not a face I’ll ever forget.”
Nausea creeps up my throat.Vega.Daniela’s betrothed.Vega, who…
God, I can’t think about what he did to her.
I grip the wheel so hard it creaks.“Jesus.”
She exhales shakily.“Hawk…what if he’s really alive?”
“Then we’ve got a problem,” I say.“A big one.”
I stare through the windshield at the driveway ahead, jaw clenched, mind spinning.
Vega.
The name alone makes my blood run cold.
A fucking ghost that never stays buried.
“Stay put,” I tell her.“Lock the doors.I’m coming there.”
“Hawk, I have to get back home.But I’ll stay there.I promise.”
I sigh.“Fine.But text me as soon as you’re safely at Vinnie’s.I’ll meet you there.”
I lean back in the driver’s seat.
If Vega’s alive, everything changes.Every move we’ve made, every secret we’ve buried—it all comes undone.
I think of Vinnie’s proof.The photo of a body.We all wanted to believe it was over.That the monster was gone.
But monsters don’t die easy.
