The door clicked shut behind them with a heavy metallic finality. Then the lights snapped on all at once, flooding the corridor with brightness so sudden that all five Pattersons flinched and threw their hands up to shield their eyes.When the spots cleared from their vision, Marco was standing ten feet away in a t shirt and sweatpants, arms crossed, mid yawn, looking exactly like a man who had been mildly inconvenienced during his bedtime routine. Tank stood beside him, low growl rumbling in his chest, hackles raised along his spine."You're finally here." Marco stretched his neck to one side, joints popping audibly. "I've been watching you shuffle around my garage for the last twenty minutes. Figured I'd let you in so we didn't have to do this through a locked door."Ryan's face went slack with confusion for exactly one second. Then his eyes swept the room, counting. Five of them. One of him. No visible weapon in Marco's hands."You knew we were coming." Ryan's grip tightened on his

The reinforced door swung open on its own. Gerald half carried, half dragged Sarah and Tyler through the threshold and out into the freezing corridor beyond, leaving Ryan alone on the ground and Mrs. Patterson still unconscious against the far wall.Marco walked over, grabbed Ryan by the back of his shirt collar, and hauled him toward the exit like a sack of garbage. Ryan groaned with every movement, his broken ribs grinding, but he did not fight back. He had nothing left to fight with.Marco shoved him through the doorway and let him crumple onto the concrete beside the rest of his family, who were already huddled together in the corridor, shivering from cold and terror in equal measure."Listen to me very carefully." Marco stood in the doorway, his voice dropping into something flat and final. "If any one of you ever comes near my safe house again, for any reason, I will not use a pulse next time. I will use a bullet. And I promise you, at this range, I will not miss."Nobody respon

Marco stepped forward and pushed Derek aside with one flat hand against his chest, not hard, just enough to move him a full step to the left. Derek stumbled slightly, more startled than hurt, his mouth already opening to protest.Marco leaned in close to Natalie's ear, his voice dropping low enough that only she could hear it."You need to come see me. Or I tell your husband everything, in detail, right here in front of the whole garage." His breath was warm against her ear, his tone perfectly calm, like he was discussing the weather.Natalie's face went white as bleached bone. Her hands began to tremble at her sides.Derek spun around, jealousy flaring instantly. "What did you just say to my wife? What did he say to you, Natalie?""Nothing, Derek, he was just asking about the dog." Natalie's voice cracked halfway through the sentence, her smile stretched thin and shaking.Derek's eyes narrowed, jumping between his wife's face and Marco's calm expression, suspicion crawling all over h

Both women stared at him like he had suggested they fly to the moon."The pipes are frozen." Natalie set down the apple core carefully. "Every pipe in this entire neighborhood has been frozen for two days. And even if water did come out, it wouldn't be safe to touch, let alone drink or bathe in."Marco walked to the bathroom without answering, twisted the shower handle, and stepped back. Hot water burst from the showerhead in a steady, clean stream, steam already rising and fogging the mirror within seconds.Natalie's mouth fell open. She had not bathed properly in four days. For a woman who used to shower twice daily without a second thought, the accumulated grime on her skin had become its own private torment, an itch under her clothes she could never fully scratch away."Go." Marco stepped aside from the doorway. "Both of you."Natalie and Sophie exchanged one last look, and neither of them argued. They stepped inside together without another word.Marco joined them a few minutes l

She and Sophie chased after him into the stairwell, but rage had put wings on his legs that grief and exhaustion could not match. By the time they reached the bottom, he had already burst into the underground garage, wild eyed, knife raised, screaming Joshua's name loud enough to bounce off every concrete wall.People scattered out of his path like startled pigeons. Whispers rippled through the crowd as neighbors began piecing together exactly what was happening, drawn by instinct toward the spectacle the way people always gather around a car accident they cannot look away from.Derek reached the reinforced door and began slamming the kitchen knife against it over and over, sparks flying off the steel in the dim emergency lighting, his screams echoing down every hallway that connected to the garage."Come out here, you coward! Come face me like a man instead of hiding behind steel doors like the dog you are!"Natalie arrived just in time to hear him spin around and announce to the gat