Chapter 2: Three Black SUVs on a Quiet Street
**— Part 2 —**
Maya stared at him.
"That's not the same as no."
Mason didn't flinch.
"No.
It isn't."
She should have said goodbye right there.
Thanked him politely, walked back behind the counter, and called her mother to explain she'd be arriving alone.
Instead she heard herself say, "The wedding starts at two."
He nodded once.
"I'll pick you up at noon."
That night Maya barely slept.
She told herself it was just one afternoon.
A favor from a stranger.
Nothing more.
Then his car arrived.
Not a car.
Three black SUVs, moving in a quiet convoy down her street.
Her neighbor's dog stopped barking the moment they appeared.
Mason stepped out of the middle vehicle in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than her rent.
Behind him, two men in dark jackets stood without speaking, eyes scanning the street like they were expecting something.
Maya walked down her front steps slowly.
"You brought security," she said.
"To a family wedding."
"I go nowhere without them."
"That's completely normal behavior."
"For me," he said, "it is."
She almost turned back.
Then her phone buzzed.
A text from Aunt Judith: *Can't wait to finally meet this Daniel of yours.
We've heard SO much.*
Maya closed her eyes.
When she opened them, Mason was watching her with that same unreadable expression.
"Ready?" he asked.
She wasn't.
Not even slightly.
But she got in the car.
What none of them knew — not Maya, not Aunt Judith, not a single guest at that wedding — was that one of those dark-jacketed men had already recognized a face in the crowd.
And he had already sent a message to someone who should never have known Maya existed.
---
What happens when Mason walks into that wedding — and who just sent that message?
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