55. Felicity
FELICITY
The storm outside sounded like the world ending.
Gunfire.
Thunder.
Explosions.
Men screaming in the dark.
And somehow inside that barn?—
Hersh’s hand against my back was the only thing keeping me steady.
Rook flipped through the ledger rapidly while Wolf and Trigger secured the entrances again.
Every few seconds bullets punched through the barn walls.
The Hollow Men were tightening the circle.
Hunting us slowly.
Deliberately.
“They’re waiting for reinforcements,” Rook said grimly.
Trigger checked outside through a bullet hole in the loft wall.
“Three more vehicles just arrived.”
Of course they did.
Because apparently tonight wasn’t horrifying enough yet.
Hersh crouched beside Rook.
“What’s in the ledger?”
Rook’s expression darkened further with every page.
“Dates. Transfers. Payment routes.” He flipped another page. “Blackmail records.”
Wolf swore violently.
Mercer hadn’t just been trafficking people.
He’d been controlling powerful men with secrets too.
That explained everything.
Why nobody stopped him.
Why investigations disappeared.
Why my father died.
Rook suddenly froze on one specific page.
Completely still.
Hersh noticed immediately.
“What?”
Rook didn’t answer.
He slowly turned the ledger toward us.
My stomach dropped instantly.
Because pasted onto the page?—
was a photograph of me.
Recent.
Taken outside a grocery store in town.
Another showed me getting gas.
Another leaving the bookstore.
Another standing outside my cabin.
My pulse turned to ice.
“Oh my God…”
“They’ve been watching you for months,” Hersh said quietly.
But his voice had changed.
Gone colder.
Deadlier.
The realization hit me like a punch.
Every moment I thought I’d been alone…
I wasn’t.
Mercer had been watching me long before the attacks started.
Tracking me.
Waiting.
Rook flipped another page.
More surveillance photos.
Then another.
My throat tightened harder.
One of them showed Hersh.
Standing outside a restaurant.
Watching me.
But this photo was old.
Ten years old.
I stared at it in confusion.
“What…”
Hersh went completely rigid beside me.
Trigger looked over Rook’s shoulder and let out a low whistle.
“Well damn.”
I looked closer.
The photograph had a handwritten note beneath it.
SUBJECT: HERSHEL MCDOUGAL
Recommendation: Remove if contact resumes.
My heart stopped.
Slowly—
I looked up at Hersh.
“You knew they were watching me?”
Pain flashed across his face instantly.
Not guilt.
Something worse.
Regret.
“Flick…”
“You knew?”
Thunder exploded overhead hard enough to shake the rafters.
Outside, another vehicle door slammed.
More Hollow Men moving into position.
But suddenly I barely heard any of it.
Because Hersh looked wrecked.
Like he’d been carrying something heavy for a very long time.
“I called your house once,” he admitted quietly.
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“About six months after I left town.”
Oh Lord.
“The man who answered said you were married.” His jaw flexed hard. “Told me to stay away from you forever.”
Dad.
Tears burned instantly behind my eyes.
“He lied to you too.”
Hersh laughed once softly.
No humor in it.
“I figured that out eventually.”
“Then why didn’t you come back?”
The question slipped out before I could stop it.
Years of hurt buried inside it.
Years of wondering why he disappeared from my life so easily.
Hersh looked at me like the answer hurt him too.
“Because two weeks later,” he said quietly, “someone broke into my apartment in San Diego.”
The entire barn went silent again.
Even Rook looked up sharply.
Hersh’s eyes never left mine.
“They searched everything.” His voice lowered. “And they left one thing behind.”
Fear curled through me.
“What?”
He reached into his jacket slowly.
Then pulled out an old folded photograph.
Rain-stained.
Worn soft with age.
He handed it to me carefully.
My breath caught instantly.
It was me.
Sixteen years old.
Standing outside the ranch house.
Laughing about something.
And written across the bottom in red ink?—
STAY AWAY FROM HER. OR WE WILL KILL HER.
My knees nearly gave out.
“Oh my God…”
“They took this photo of you when we were dating,” Hersh whispered.
Outside—
a distorted voice suddenly echoed through a loudspeaker in the storm.
“Commander Callahan.”
Every Shadow Division operator snapped toward the barn walls instantly.
The voice continued calmly.
“You have something that doesn’t belong to you.”
Rook’s expression turned murderous.
The Hollow Men had finally stopped hiding.
And whoever led them?
Knew exactly who was inside the barn.