46. Jude
Jude
T he envelope came just after noon.
No footsteps.
No knock.
Just a soft thud against the porch and the faint creak of the mailbox.
I felt it before I saw it.
River reached the door first, gun drawn, eyes sweeping the perimeter.
“Clear,” he called.
I followed, slow and steady, heart steadying with every step.
He held the envelope in two fingers like it might detonate.
White. Unmarked. Crisp.
My name typed across the center in clean black ink.
River didn’t open it.
He didn’t have to.
He looked at me. “Your call.”
I took the envelope and brought it inside, laying it flat on the kitchen table. My hands were steady now. My fear replaced with something sharper.
Resolve.
I slid my thumb beneath the flap and peeled it open.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Typed. Again.
Six words this time.
“You looked at me first.”
My breath caught in my throat.
I stared at the words, willing them to mean something else. Something simpler. Safer.
But they didn’t.
Because he was right.
I had looked at him . The guy gave me the creeps. All I wanted to find out was why he kept staring at me. Later, I found out the CIA was trying to see if I would break. Bastards.
Back in that bunker, through that glass. I would see him watching me.
I’d broken the silence. Broken the rules. Broken pattern . Because I stared back at him.
And he’d never let it go.
Behind me, River cursed softly.
“He’s not testing you anymore,” he said. “He’s taunting you.”
“No,” I said quietly. “He’s warning me.”
I folded the paper, slower this time.
“He’s saying this isn’t about revenge.”
River’s eyes darkened. “Then what is it?”
I looked out the window.
At the trees.
At the open sky I hadn’t stepped into since that morning.
“It’s a claim. ”
Before River could respond, headlights swept across the living room wall. A truck door slammed, and I was already moving.
The front door opened.
And there he was.
Cyclone.
Rain still clinging to his shoulders, jaw tight, fire in his eyes.
“I know who he is,” he said, voice rough. “And I’m not letting him near you again.”
I stepped into his arms and pressed the paper into his hand.
He looked down at the message.
And his entire body went still.