CHAPTER FIVE: THE PRICE OF SILENCE

The photograph of my mother remained frozen on my phone, but I could barely see it anymore because my vision had become blurred with tears. My fingers trembled as I zoomed in, searching for anything that could tell me where the picture had been taken. My mother was standing outside the small grocery store she had owned for years, holding a bag of vegetables in one hand and her phone in the other. She looked completely unaware that someone was watching her. My stomach twisted painfully. “They know where she lives,” I whispered. Jace took the phone from my hand, his expression turning cold as he studied the image. “We need to get you out of here.” I shook my head immediately. “No.” He frowned. “Carter, this isn’t a game anymore.” “I know,” I replied, my voice cracking as I looked at him. “That’s exactly why I can’t leave. If I leave the team now, whoever is doing this wins, and they’ll know they can control me by threatening my family.” Jace stared at me for several seconds before slowly nodding. “Then we find them.”

We immediately returned to Coach Daniels and showed him the photograph. The moment he saw it, his expression changed. He grabbed his phone and made several calls while Jace and I stood silently in front of his desk. “Security is sending someone to your mother’s address,” Coach finally said. Relief washed over me, but it didn’t last long. “I want you to understand something,” he continued, looking directly at me. “Your safety comes before basketball.” I nodded, but Jace spoke before I could answer. “Coach, if someone has access to team information, we need to know who.” Coach leaned back in his chair. “I’m already looking into that.” Jace leaned forward slightly. “How many people have access to player schedules?” “Coaches, administrators, athletic staff, medical personnel, and a few team managers.” His eyes narrowed. “Anyone else?” Coach hesitated before answering, “Security.” Jace and I exchanged a worried glance. That meant the list of suspects was much larger than we had thought. “And the cameras?” I asked. Coach’s expression hardened. “Only authorized security personnel can access the footage.” Jace leaned forward. “Then someone with authority is helping them.” Coach became silent, and the realization seemed to hit all three of us at once. “Don’t accuse anyone without evidence,” he warned. “I’ll investigate quietly.”

As we left his office, Jace caught my arm. “We’re not going back to the dorm yet.” I frowned. “Why?” “Because I want to check something.” He led me toward the administrative wing of the athletic building, and I followed without asking further questions. We stopped outside a small office belonging to the team’s equipment manager. The door was unlocked. Jace pushed it open and looked around. “What are we doing here?” I whispered. “Looking for the missing piece.” He walked toward a filing cabinet and opened the top drawer. I watched as he searched through several folders until he suddenly stopped. “Found it.” He pulled out a printed schedule containing every player’s training times, medical appointments, and travel plans. My eyes widened. “That information shouldn’t be here.” “Exactly.” Jace flipped through the pages. “Someone printed these yesterday.”

A noise suddenly came from the hallway. Jace immediately closed the drawer and pulled me behind the door. We stood pressed against the wall, barely breathing as footsteps approached. The door opened slowly, and someone entered. I couldn’t see their face from where I stood, but I recognized the voice. “I know you’re here.” My heart nearly stopped. It was Blake. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Jace looked at me and silently gestured for me to remain quiet. Blake walked toward the filing cabinet and opened the same drawer Jace had just searched. His hand moved through the folders before he pulled out another document. “Damn it,” he muttered. Jace stepped out from behind the door. “Looking for something?” Blake froze, and his face turned pale when he saw us. “What the hell are you two doing here?” Jace crossed his arms. “We could ask you the same thing.” Blake’s eyes moved between us. “I came to get my medical clearance.” Jace raised an eyebrow. “At midnight?” Blake’s jaw tightened. “It was the only time I could come.” I stepped forward. “Then why were you searching through team schedules?”

Blake stared at me, and for a second I thought he was going to attack me. Instead, he pulled out his phone and showed us a message. “Because someone sent me this.” I took the phone and read it. The message threatened his seventeen-year-old brother and warned Blake to keep quiet. My anger disappeared, replaced by shock. “Your brother?” Blake nodded, his expression tightening. “He’s seventeen.” His voice cracked slightly. “They sent me a picture of him outside his school yesterday.” Jace’s expression softened. “Why didn’t you tell Coach?” Blake laughed bitterly. “Because the last person I trusted with a problem ended up knowing everything about my family.” He looked directly at us. “I thought you were behind it.” Jace’s eyebrows pulled together. “Me?” Blake nodded. “You’re the captain. You control everything.” Jace shook his head. “I don’t control security.” Blake stared at him for a moment before looking away. “Exactly. That’s why I’m scared.”

Before we could say anything else, the lights suddenly went out. I heard the door slam, followed by hurried footsteps running down the hallway. Jace grabbed my wrist. “Stay here.” I pulled my arm free. “No way.” We ran after the sound, but whoever had escaped was fast. We reached the stairwell just in time to hear another door slam below us. Jace sprinted down the stairs, and I followed closely behind. We burst through the exit and found ourselves in the parking lot, but there was no one there. Only a black car was speeding away from the building. Jace immediately pulled out his phone and took a picture of the license plate before the car disappeared around the corner. “We need to report that,” I said, breathing heavily. “We will.” He turned toward me, his expression troubled. “But there’s something else.” I frowned. “What?” “Blake wasn’t lying.” I stared at him. “How do you know?” Jace’s expression became grim. “Because I’ve seen that number before.” My heart dropped. “What number?” He showed me his phone. The same anonymous number had contacted him months earlier.

We returned to the dorm after Coach ordered us to stay inside until security could investigate the situation. I sat on my bed, staring at my phone while Jace stood near the window. Neither of us spoke for several minutes. Finally, I whispered, “What if they hurt my mother?” Jace turned around immediately. “They won’t.” I shook my head. “You don’t know that.” He walked toward me. “I won’t let them.” I looked up at him. “You can’t protect everyone.” He stopped in front of me and crouched slightly so that our eyes were level. “Maybe not everyone, but I’ll protect you.” My breath caught. His eyes remained fixed on mine, and suddenly the room felt much smaller. There was something in his expression that made my chest tighten. I looked away before he could see how affected I was. For a moment, neither of us moved. The tension between us was no longer the kind created by our rivalry. It was something deeper, something neither of us seemed ready to name.

My phone suddenly buzzed, breaking the silence. We both froze. I slowly looked down at the screen. A new message appeared. “You were supposed to leave, Carter.” Another message arrived almost immediately. “Since you refused, we’ll take something else from you.” Then a photograph loaded. My blood ran cold when I saw it. It wasn’t my mother. It wasn’t Blake’s brother. It was Jace. The picture showed him sleeping in our dorm room, his face turned slightly toward the window. My hands began shaking violently. “Someone took this inside our room,” I whispered. Jace took the phone from me, and his expression hardened as he studied the photograph. “When was this taken?” “I don’t know.” He looked around the room slowly. “Someone has been watching us.”

Jace’s eyes moved across the walls, the furniture, and finally toward the ceiling. I followed his gaze and immediately felt a chill run through me. He pointed toward the smoke detector above my bed. “Carter, don’t move.” My heart began pounding. “Why?” He stepped closer to the wall without taking his eyes off the device. “Look at the light.” I squinted. A tiny red light was blinking from inside the smoke detector. Once. Twice. Then again. My mouth went dry. “That’s not supposed to be there, is it?” Jace shook his head slowly. “No.” He reached for his phone and zoomed in on the device. My stomach twisted when I realized what I was looking at. It wasn’t a normal smoke detector. A tiny camera lens had been hidden behind the sensor.

Someone had installed a camera inside our dorm.

Someone had been watching us sleep.

Someone had heard every conversation we had about the threats.

Jace slowly looked at me, his face pale with realization. “They know everything.” Before I could answer, the camera’s tiny red light suddenly turned off.

Then my phone buzzed again.

This time, there was no photograph.

There were only five words.

I can see you right now.