The hotel hallway was too quiet.

Her heels clicked softly against the carpeted floor, each step echoing just a little more than it should have.

She could feel it again—the tugging sense that someone was behind her.

At the far end of the hallway, a man lingered just beyond the reach of the warm golden light. His silhouette froze when she glanced back, as if he hoped the shadows might swallow him whole. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. He only watched… as though he’d followed her every step from the venue to the car, from the car to the lobby, from the lobby all the way up here.

Her keycard slipped slightly in her shaking fingers.

The man shifted—a slow, deliberate step forward.