(Casey's POV)
________
"Have a nice night."
For a long time, after Ethan had driven off, I stood motionless, my pulse hammering against my skull. The words kept resounding in my head, looping over and over like a broken recording, each repetition scraping against my nerves. They weren't just words anymore. They were a warning. A presence.
I could hear them with terrifying clarity—not just the syllables, but the voice that had delivered them. It was different from Ethan's and any other voice I had heard so far. Deep, with a guttural rasp, a voice that lingered at the edges of my memory like a shadow just out of reach. But the longer I let the sound coil through my thoughts, the more certain I became.
Maven.
That was the voice. The same man whose face Ethan had shown me.
My stomach twisted. What exactly was happening?
