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SHADOWS
publish date:
2026-03-16 02:00:36The footage looped again.
Rowan leaned forward in his chair, elbows resting on the desk as the dim light of the monitor flickered across his face. Across from him, Taryn sat with her arms folded, eyes fixed on the screen.
The small office around them was quiet except for the faint hum of the computer.
On the screen, the grainy CCTV footage from Derek’s garage replayed for what must have been the twentieth time.
A shadow moved into frame.
The man.
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The Bodyguards boy TAKEN
Darkness didn’t lift all at once.It broke apart slowly, like something cracking under pressure.Cassian drifted somewhere between nothing and pain, awareness coming in fragments thin, unstable, refusing to settle.Cold.Not the violent, suffocating cold of the ocean.This was different.Dry.Controlled.Artificial.Air that didn’t move unless something forced it to.His lungs dragged in a shallow breath, then another, each one uneven, like his body had forgotten the rhythm of staying alive.Sound came next.A low, steady hum.Mechanical.Constant.It filled the silence too perfectly, like it had been designed to erase everything else.Cassian tried to move.Pain answered immediately.Sharp. Deep. Everywhere.It spread through his ribs, his shoulders, his side tightening his chest until the next breath came out broken.A faint sound
The Bodyguards boy DEAD SIGNALS
The city lights thinned behind them, dissolving into long stretches of empty road.Rowan kept his distance.Not too close to raise suspicion. Not too far to lose him.Julian Ward’s sedan cut through the night with steady precision, every turn deliberate, every movement controlled. There was no hesitation in his driving.“He’s not wandering,” Taryn said quietly.Rowan’s eyes stayed on the road ahead.“No. He already knows where he’s going.”The sedan veered off the main road.Rowan slowed slightly, letting another car pass before following the turn.The road narrowed into darkness.Trees pressed in on both sides, their branches swaying faintly in the wind. Somewhere beyond them, water moved low and distant.Taryn leaned forward slightly.“River.”Rowan nodded.Then the structure came into view.An abandoned bridge.Rust crawled along the railings. Barricades blocked the center. It stood like something forgotten cut off from the world, untouched for years.Julian’s car rolled to a stop
The Bodyguards boy SHADOWS
The footage looped again.Rowan leaned forward in his chair, elbows resting on the desk as the dim light of the monitor flickered across his face. Across from him, Taryn sat with her arms folded, eyes fixed on the screen.The small office around them was quiet except for the faint hum of the computer.On the screen, the grainy CCTV footage from Derek’s garage replayed for what must have been the twentieth time.A shadow moved into frame.The man.He wore a dark jacket and a cap pulled low over his face. For a moment he simply stood beside Cassian’s red Lamborghini, glancing around the empty garage.Then he crouched.Rowan tapped the keyboard.“Pause.”The image froze.The man’s hand was visible near the open wiring panel beneath the car.“Zoom there,” Rowan said.Taryn dragged the cursor across the screen, enlarging the image.The resolution bec
The Bodyguards boy THE WARNING
The rain had thinned into a cold mist by the time Rowan turned onto the narrow industrial street.The buildings here were older brick walls stained dark by decades of weather and exhaust. A single flickering streetlamp illuminated the crooked metal sign above the garage.Derek’s Auto Service.Taryn looked out the window.“This is where Cassian came?”Rowan nodded, tapping the tablet resting on the steering wheel.“According to his vehicle records, yes.”The screen displayed a detailed log of Cassian’s red Lamborghini every service appointment, diagnostic check, and GPS stop recorded by the car’s internal system.Luxury dealerships dominated the list.High-end performance shops.Private service centers.Exactly what you’d expect from someone like Cassian Wesley.Except for one entry.A small, independent garage.
The Bodyguards boy The File
Lennox Vale stared at the phone on his desk.Three calls.The number sat there like an accusation.The office had gone completely silent.Sunlight filtered through the tall windows behind him, cutting thin lines across the dark wood floor, but the warmth of the afternoon did nothing to ease the tension in the room.Rowan stood across from the desk, arms folded.Taryn remained beside him, her gaze fixed on Lennox.No one spoke.Finally Lennox exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair.“Where did you get that?” he asked.His tone sounded calm, but the tightness in his jaw betrayed him.“That doesn’t matter,” Rowan said.“What matters,” Taryn added quietly, “is why you were calling him.”Lennox looked from one of them to the other.Then his eyes dropped back to the phone.“You’re jumping to conclusions.”“Are we?” Rowan asked.He tapped the screen.“The man you called checked into Blue Harbor Inn under the name Evan Cross.”Lennox said nothing.“He’s the same man Cassian left the club
The Bodyguards boy THREE CALLS
The number kept returning to Rowan’s mind.Three calls.Same number.Same night Cassian disappeared.It sat in the call log like a splinter under the skin small, almost invisible among the dozens of other contacts, but impossible to ignore once you noticed it.Rowan stared at the laptop screen again.Across the small kitchen table, Taryn watched him scroll through the log for the fourth time.“You’re going to burn a hole through that screen,” she said.Rowan didn’t look up.“Maybe.”“You’ve been staring at that number for twenty minutes.”“I know.”Morning light slipped through the tall windows of Rowan’s apartment, pale and quiet. The city outside was waking slowly distant traffic, the hum of buses, someone shouting across the street below.Inside, the only sound was the faint tapping of Rowan’s keyboard.
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