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“I’m not losing Ezra.”

“If you lose him.”

I swallow. “I stop at the last confirmed marker and use the whistle. I don’t wander off the route looking for him.”

His thumb moves once beneath my curls. “If you hear gunfire?”

I know the answer he needs me to give. I hate it. “I keep moving toward the circle.”

“Not toward me.”

“Not toward you.”

He breathes once through his nose. Then he kisses my forehead

Wes steps away from the window. “Movement at the east wall.”

The house knocks three times and the bell tolls in answer. Fog presses against the glass until the world outside disappears.

Theo and Wes lift the decoy case. I tie the dried lilies to the outside strap where anyone watching them will see.

Wes glances at the decoration. “Subtle.”

“Hammer thinks he’s slicker than everyone. People like that enjoy clues they believe they’ve solved.”

Ezra takes one last look at the monitors. “East movement just shifted toward the charity ground.”

Theo opens the front door. Fog spills across the threshold. For one second, none of us moves. This may be the last moment we’re all inside the same room.

Theo looks back at me. “Circle.”

I nod.

He and Wes disappear into the white with the case between them. The fog swallows their shapes before they reach the gravel path.

Ezra closes the door.

We wait. Ten seconds. Twenty. An engine revs beyond the cemetery wall. Another answers from somewhere inside the grounds.

“They’re moving east,” Ezra says.

“Or they want us to think they are.”

The house knocks once behind us.

I shoulder my field bag.

Ezra checks the first-aid kit, water, flashlight, portable charger, and whistle inside. “Expedition daddy has trained us well.”

My laugh comes out thin. “Ready?”

“No.”

“Me neither.”

I take his hand. His fingers flicker once inside mine, then returns solid.

The bell rings twice.