Chapter 12

Anderson Blackwell stood frozen in the dimly lit kitchen, the note in his hand and the phone pressed to his ear, but something didn’t sit right with him. The number he had just dialed remained uncalled, his finger hovering over the screen. His gut churned, a deep sense of foreboding washing over him.

"Why would they leave such an obvious trail?" he muttered to himself, the unease growing within him. The whole setup reeked of a trap, something designed to lure him into a situation from which he might not emerge alive. His intuition had saved him before, and he wasn’t about to ignore it now.

He slowly lowered the phone, his mind racing. The stakes were too high to rush in blindly. If this was a trap, he couldn’t afford to fall into it—not with so much on the line. Mark’s life was important, but so was his own. He needed to approach this carefully, think several steps ahead of whoever was orchestrating this.

Slipping the note into his pocket, Anderson made up his mind. He would bide his