Chapter 31: Ghost from the Deep

Elena Santos POV

The phone call came at three in the morning.

"Elena, it's Amy. Someone just tried to kill me."

I was out of bed before Amy finished her sentence, my gun already in my hand. Six months of peace had made me soft. I'd actually started believing Marcus Daniels was really dead.

"Where are you?" I demanded, pulling on jeans with one hand while keeping the phone pressed to my ear.

"Outside my apartment building. My car just exploded." Amy's voice shook. "I was walking toward it when I remembered I forgot my phone upstairs. If I'd gotten in the car thirty seconds earlier—"

"Stay where you are. I'm calling Ryan and Agent Kim." My hands were steady, but my heart pounded like a drum. "Don't talk to anyone until we get there."

I hung up and dialed Ryan's number. He answered on the first ring, already awake. Smart man had learned to sleep light after everything we'd been through.

"It's happening again," I said simply.

"I'll meet you there in ten minutes."

The drive to Amy's apartment felt like it took forever, even though it was only across town. My mind raced through possibilities. Marcus had fallen into the bay six months ago. We never found his body, but the water was freezing and full of sharks. Nobody could survive that.

Except Marcus Daniels wasn't nobody. He was smart, cruel, and had friends in dark places.

When I arrived, Amy sat on the curb wrapped in a blanket while firefighters sprayed foam on what used to be her Honda Civic. The explosion had been powerful enough to shatter windows in three nearby buildings.

"Tell me everything," I said, kneeling beside her.

Amy's brown eyes were huge in her pale face. "I came home from my shift at the diner around midnight. Everything seemed normal. I parked in my usual spot, went upstairs, watched some TV. Then around two-thirty, I decided to grab some food from the all-night drive-through. I was almost to my car when I realized I'd left my phone charging. I ran back upstairs, and that's when I heard the explosion."

"Did you notice anyone following you? Anything unusual?"

"No, but..." Amy bit her lip. "Okay, this might sound crazy, but yesterday at work, this guy came in. He wore sunglasses inside and kept staring at me. When I asked if he needed anything, he just smiled and said, 'You're Amy Rodriguez, right? The girl who survived Moonfall Bay.' Then he left without ordering anything."

Ice ran down my spine. "What did he look like?"

"Tall, maybe six feet. Dark coat. But Elena, the weird part? His voice sounded exactly like Sheriff Daniels."

Ryan arrived then, his medical bag in hand even though Amy wasn't hurt. Old habits. He checked her for shock while I called Agent Sarah Kim.

"We've got a problem," I told her when she answered. "Someone just tried to blow up Amy Rodriguez. And I think Marcus is alive."

Sarah was quiet for a long moment. "Elena, we searched that bay for weeks. No body means nothing. Fish and currents could have—"

"Could have what? Eaten every trace of him? Sarah, you know as well as I do that was too convenient. We never found anything. No clothes, no bones, nothing."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying we need to assume Marcus planned his death. That he had help. That he's been out there for six months, planning his revenge."

Sarah sighed. "I'll run it up the chain. Meanwhile, get Amy somewhere safe. If you're right, she won't be the only target."

After the firefighters finished, Ryan drove Amy to a safe house we'd set up for emergencies. I followed in my car, watching for tails the whole way. My cop instincts were screaming that we were being watched.

At the safe house, I made coffee while Ryan got Amy settled in the guest room. When he came back downstairs, his face was tight with worry.

"She's scared," he said quietly. "And I don't blame her."

"We're all targets now." I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug, needing the warmth. "Everyone who helped take down Marcus's operation. Me, you, Amy, Sarah, Dr. Archer from the medical examiner's office—"

My phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number. My blood turned to ice when I read it.

Hello, Detective Santos. Did you enjoy the fireworks? Consider it a warning. You took everything from me. Now I'm going to return the favor. One by one, everyone you care about will die. And you'll be last, so you can watch them all burn.

"Ryan, look at this."

He read the message, his jaw clenching. "We need to call Sarah back. This proves he's alive."

But before I could dial, my phone rang again. This time it was Dr. Archer—the medical examiner who'd helped us find evidence against Marcus.

"Elena, thank God. Someone just broke into my house. They left a message on my mirror written in red paint: 'You're next.'"

My stomach dropped. "Get out of there. Go to the police station and don't leave until we—"

A gunshot echoed through my phone, followed by Dr. Archer's scream.

"David! David, talk to me!" I was already running for my car, Ryan right behind me.

The line went dead.

"He's killing them all," Ryan said, his voice hollow. "Everyone who helped us."

We were halfway to Dr. Archer's house when Sarah called back.

"Elena, I just got off the phone with Seattle PD. There's been an incident." She paused, and I knew the news was bad. "Someone tried to run my partner off the road tonight. He's in the hospital with a broken leg. And Elena? The driver left a note on his windshield. It said, 'Tell Agent Kim she's next.'"

My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. "Sarah, we need federal protection for everyone involved in the Moonfall Bay case. Marcus is alive, and he's hunting us."

"I'm already putting the request through. Meanwhile, watch your back. If he's coming for all of us—"

She didn't need to finish. I knew what she meant.

We reached Dr. Archer's house to find the front door hanging open and blood on the porch. My gun was drawn before my feet hit the pavement.

"David?" I called out, moving carefully through the doorway.

The house was empty. But on the living room mirror, written in what I desperately hoped was paint, were five words that made my blood run cold:

The doctor is with Chen now.

Chen. Marcus's mysterious partner we'd never been able to identify.

Ryan stared at the message, his face pale. "Elena, if Chen has David, that means—"

"That means Marcus didn't just survive," I finished grimly. "He's been planning this the whole time. The explosion on the boat was fake. His death was staged. And now he's working with Chen to eliminate everyone who destroyed his operation."

My phone buzzed again. Another text from the unknown number.

This time it was a photo.

Dr. David Archer, tied to a chair in what looked like a dark basement, his face bruised and his eyes wide with terror. And standing behind him, very much alive and smiling coldly at the camera, was Sheriff Marcus Daniels.

The text below the photo read: Come find him, Detective. I'll be waiting. But hurry—I can only keep him alive for so long.

Then a second text arrived with an address I didn't recognize.

Ryan read over my shoulder, his breath catching. "It's a trap."

"Of course it's a trap." I was already loading fresh ammunition into my gun. "But we can't leave David there."

"Elena, if we go alone—"

"We're not going alone." I dialed Sarah's number again. "We're ending this tonight. Marcus wants a war? Let's give him one."

But even as I said the words, a terrible thought crossed my mind: What if that's exactly what Marcus wanted? What if he was counting on us coming after David?

What if the real trap wasn't where David was being held, but something much bigger?

My phone buzzed one final time with a message that made my heart stop:

P.S. - I hope you said goodbye to your mother this morning. It would be a shame if that was the last time you spoke.