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JD

T he woman across the table from me was laughter wrapped in satin. Evie had sun-baked skin, pitch-black curls, and a voice that had wrapped around me like it knew every inch of your skin already. She was nothing like Skye.

And that was the point.

We were sitting at this dimly lit tapas place downtown, wine glasses sweating between us, plates half-eaten as her laughter filled the booth. She teased me for how formal I looked in a button-down. Said I had “Vegas groom energy.”

I liked her. I liked the warmth of her eyes, the way she leaned in when she spoke. I liked how easy it was to pretend—just for tonight—that I wasn’t broken.

I was halfway through telling her about some nonsense rugby injury story when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Edge.

“Sorry,” I said, pulling it out. “Just gotta?—”

I didn’t get to finish.

“Sit down, JD,” Edge said, no hello, no preamble. “I’ve got something you’re gonna want to hear. ”

“I’m on a date,” I muttered, sliding out of the booth with an apologetic glance at Evie. “Can this wait?”

“It’s her,” he said.

The world tilted.

“What?”

“Skye. Crow spotted her. She’s in Santa Fe. Burn unit waiting lounge. With a guy.”

All the wine in my stomach turned to acid.

“Send the pic.”

It came through before I finished the sentence. I opened it with shaking hands. My chest caved in at the sight of her—older, tired, still Skye. And next to her was some buttoned-up bastard sitting close enough to make my fists curl.

“Who is he?” I croaked.

“Don’t know yet. But he’s been around a while. Crow says they’re close. Maybe more. I got a pledge tailing the group.”

The patio was too quiet. The air too thick.

“JD?” Evie had come outside, concerned. “Everything okay?”

I stared at her. At the life I was trying to build, then at the phone, at the ghost who never really left.

“I have to go,” I said, voice flat.

“I thought we were having a good time,” she whispered.

“We were.”

And I meant it.

But Skye was back.

And now, everything hurt again.

“I want full surveillance,” I told Edge. “I want names. I want details. I want to know who helped her disappear. I want revenge for the years she stole.”

Edge was quiet on the line .

“And what if she’s in love with him?” he asked.

My jaw locked.

“I don’t want to know,” I said. “Not until I see her with my own damn eyes.”

Because I wasn’t sure if I’d shatter… or burn the world down.