Chapter 116

Ramon POV

Rafael pulled the SUV off the road, parking behind a thick stand of trees where we wouldn’t be immediately visible from the cabin. Marcus and Rodriguez did the same, and within seconds we were all out of the vehicles, weapons drawn, breath fogging in the cold air.

“The van,” Marcus said quietly, pointing to a white van parked near the cabin. “That matches Julian’s description.”

So this was it. This was where Samuel had brought them. This was where Lake and Ollie were.

Or had been. The fear that we were too late, that they’d already been moved or hurt or killed, threatened to overwhelm me. But I pushed it down, forced myself to focus.

“We need to see inside,” Rodriguez said, already moving toward the cabin in a low crouch. “Figure out how many people, where Lake and Ollie are, what we’re dealing with.”

We approached carefully, using the trees and darkness as cover. As we got closer, I could hear voices from inside the cabin. Muffle