Page 77 of Fractured Loyalties

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But I feel Elias before I see him.

A pressure in the air. A static charge just behind my skin.

And when I glance at the window, I see him.

Not inside.

Across the street.

Parked.

Still.

Watching.

He knows.

The stranger doesn’t approach our table. Doesn’t linger near the bar. He takes a seat two rows down, alone. He doesn’t order, doesn’t take off his coat.

He just waits.

I pretend to laugh at something Celeste says. I nod at a joke I don’t hear.

But my body is wound tight around a center I can’t show.

The stranger checks his watch.

Once.

Then again.

It’s a signal.

And I know it.

My phone buzzes in my lap.

Elias: He’s not here to eat.

I type with one hand, beneath the tablecloth.

Mara: What’s the play?

Elias: Wait. Let him show his hand.

My blood feels too loud in my veins.

I set my phone down beside my plate. My hand itches to hold it.

Across the table, Alec watches me. “You’re tense.”

“No more than usual,” I say.

He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I mean it. You’re somewhere else.”

“Wouldn’t you be?” I ask. “If people kept showing up like ghosts?”

That lands.

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