Chapter 4

The burn on my arm had settled into something steady and mean, the kind of pain that doesn't peak—it just sits there, breathing, reminding you it exists. I could feel my sleeve sticking to the skin underneath, wet and tight, and I kept my elbow slightly lifted away from my body because pressing it against anything made the world go briefly white.

Devin picked up his desk phone. Not his cell. The desk phone, the one he used for internal calls, the one that meant official business.

"Send Nancy in," he said.

Nancy Lane came in with her tablet tucked…