Chapter 17: Chapter Sixteen: Patterns
Rowan must have slept. She didn’t remember falling asleep, only that at some point the tension faded just enough for her body to give in. When she opened her eyes again, the room was lighter. Morning. Jess was already moving.
“Finally,” Jess said, glancing over as she pulled her hair into a loose tie. “I was about to start throwing things at you.”
Rowan blinked, pushing herself up slowly. Her body felt heavy, but her mind snapped back instantly. The laptop. The files. The flash drive. Her hand moved without thinking, closing around it where it rested on the table. Still there. Good.
“You okay?” Jess asked.
Rowan nodded once. “Yeah. Just didn’t sleep great.”
Jess snorted. “Same. Let’s get coffee and go down before it gets packed.”
Rowan hesitated for half a second.
Then nodded again.
“Yeah. Let’s go early.”
Jess raised an eyebrow. “You? Early?”
Rowan grabbed her jacket, already moving.
“Something feels off,” she said. “I want to look around before it gets loud.”
Jess studied her for a moment, then shrugged.
“Alright. But I’m getting coffee first or I’m useless.”
“Deal.”
The expo floor was different in the morning. Quieter. More open. Vendors still setting up, adjusting displays, organizing materials. Conversations were low, unfinished. Nothing polished yet. It should have felt easier. It didn’t. Rowan slowed the moment they stepped inside. Not obviously. Just enough. Jess veered toward the coffee stand, but Rowan’s attention had already shifted. She wasn’t looking at booths anymore. She was looking for patterns. At first, nothing stood out.
Logos. Banners. Company names. All different. All normal. Then something clicked. A logo she had seen last night. Not the same name. But the structure was identical. Same spacing. Same design logic. Rowan’s steps slowed further. She glanced to the next booth. Different company. Different product. Same formatting in the contact line.
Her pulse picked up.
“…Jess,” she said quietly.
Jess handed her a coffee without looking.
“You’re doing the thing again.”
“What thing?”
“The ‘I just noticed something weird and now I’m not blinking’ thing.”
Rowan barely registered it.
“Just stay close,” she said.
Jess frowned. “That doesn’t sound comforting.”
Rowan didn’t respond. Because now she was seeing more. A badge clipped to a man’s jacket. The company name printed across it meant nothing at a glance. But Rowan had seen it buried three layers deep in one of the files she copied. Different industry. Different state. Same chain.
Her grip tightened slightly around the coffee cup.
“This isn’t random,” she whispered.
Jess leaned closer. “What isn’t?”
Rowan pointed subtly.
“That one. And that one.”
Jess followed her gaze.
“They’re… vendors?”
“No,” Rowan said quietly. “They’re connected.”
Jess gave her a look.
“…To what?”
Rowan didn’t answer. Because she didn’t have a simple explanation. Only a growing certainty. This wasn’t just emails. It wasn’t just her. It was here. All of it. Layered into something that looked completely normal until you knew where to look. Rowan took a slow step forward. Then another. Each booth added something. A name. A formatting pattern. A repeated phrase in marketing material. Not obvious. Never obvious. But consistent. Too consistent.
Her pulse started to climb again.
“They’re hiding in plain sight,” she said under her breath.
Jess’s expression shifted slightly.
“Rowan… you’re starting to freak me out a little.”
Rowan exhaled slowly, forcing herself to steady.
“I know,” she said. “Just… trust me for a second.”
Across the room, someone turned. Not casually. Directly. Rowan felt it before she fully saw it. That same subtle pressure. Not heavy. Not like last night. But enough. Her gaze lifted.
A man stood near the far end of the aisle, partially turned away, speaking to someone at a booth. Normal. Completely normal. Except he wasn’t looking at the person he was speaking to. He was looking at her.
Rowan went still.
“…Jess.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t look yet.”
Jess froze mid-step.
“…That’s never a good sentence.”
“There’s someone watching.”
Jess’s voice dropped.
“Security watching or creepy watching?”
Rowan didn’t break eye contact.
“Knows I’m here watching.”
Jess’s grip on her coffee tightened.
“Okay… that’s worse.”
Rowan forced herself to move again. Not toward him. Past. Like she hadn’t noticed. Like she didn’t care. But every step felt measured now. Calculated. Because if she could see them They could see her.
Behind her, Jess stayed close.
“So what’s the plan?” Jess whispered.
Rowan’s voice stayed low.
“We keep moving.”
“And then?”
Rowan’s jaw tightened slightly.
“We find out how deep this goes.”
Across the floor, the man smiled faintly. Not at the person in front of him. At the movement. At the awareness. And somewhere else, not far enough away Corvin stepped into the building. Not rushed. Not uncertain. But with a focus that had narrowed to a single point. Rowan Vance. He didn’t need to see her yet to know he was close.