Felt off.
While she worked with former special forces operatives all day every day, both Tobias and Josiah, who were part of Cyber Team, and all the men and women serving on Prey’s other teams, she’d heard of a gut feeling but never experienced it for herself before.
If she was being honest, she’d never quite believed it was a thing. Thought it was more just the operative’s training and experience rather than some sort of undefinable feeling deep inside you.
It turned out she’d been wrong.
It existed.
At least it did if this weird anxiety inside her was anything to go by.
Doing her best to brush it off, Teresa let her gaze roam over the front door. It was closed, just like it had been when she and Chelsea left this morning. Normally, she would have headed home with her friend, but Chelsea had decided to bunk at the office tonight because she was coming down with a cold and hadn't felt like making the trek home only to make the trip back to the office a few hours later.
Maybe the knot in her stomach had less to do with her front door and more to do with the fact that she had allowed her ex to creep his way into her mind. It might have been more than a decade since he ghosted her, but that didn’t mean the pain was completely gone. How could it? He hadn't just left, he’d left when she was broken and hurting. Without a word, without an explanation. Without a goodbye. Just gone.
“Get over it, Teresa,” she coached herself. “It’s time to stop letting that man rule your life. Maybe it’s time to actually move on. Properly move on. As in, put yourself back out there in the dating scene.”
It was a terrifying thought, and one that had her hand actually trembling as she slid the key in the lock and swung the door open.
Right as it was opening, she finally got why she’d felt weird.
Seemed a gut feelingwasa real thing after all.
Because it wasn't thoughts of her ex that had her feeling like a rock was sitting heavily in her stomach, it was the fact that the Easter wreath still hanging on the door was upside down. Even though Easter had come and gone, they'd been so busy working on taking down the organ trafficking ring that she and Chelsea hadn't had the time to spare to take down the decorations she had insisted they put up.
Decorating for holidays was one of her favorite things to do, but now the cute little wreath, with colorful eggs and a white bunny sitting on them, was nothing more than a foreshadowing of what was to come.
What was to come turned out to be stepping inside her home and finding it had been trashed.
The expensive pieces of art that made up Ava’s collection had been ripped off the walls and shredded with a sharp object. The TV lay on the floor, the screen shattered. Red paint—at least she prayed it was paint—had been poured all over their beige lounges, and the Easter decorations that she had lovingly put up were lying scattered about the room.
Worse than that was what had been painted along one of the walls.
Just two words, but they spoke volumes.
Back off.
There wasn't any need to say more than that. The warning was clear. The threat was clear.
It was the organ trafficking ring, it had to be. Who else would go to the trouble of breaking into their apartment and trashing the place? They already knew the ring was aware of where they lived because they’d abducted Ava from this very room just last month.
Now they’d come back.
Were they still here?
Panic hit then as Teresa realized she might not actually be alone in the apartment. Part of her wanted to go running through the place. Check to see what damage had been left in the kitchen and their bedrooms.
But the other part—the sensible part—knew she had to leave now.
Otherwise, she’d wind up like Ava had, tied to a bed, helpless to do anything to stop those people from removing her organs one by one until there was nothing left.
Already pulling her cell phone from her purse, Teresa gave one last glance around her apartment, then she turned and ran back down the hall, calling her boss’ number as she went.
April 28th
10:30 P.M.
Stepping out of the elevator,Micah Hart walked across the lobby, wondering what he was going to do for the rest of the night.
