Chapter 1 – The Ring in the Pocket and the Shadow of the BusThe Chicago rain didn’t just fall; it wept, beating a relentless, heavy rhythm against the cracked aluminum roof of the bus shelter. My fingers were clamped so tightly around the velvet ring box in my coat pocket that the sharp edge of the hidden hinge bit directly into my palm.

to a hollow man.

I shoved the box back into my coat, sprinted to my BMW parked in a tow-away zone, and punched the engine to life. I didn’t care about the red lights. I didn’t care about Amelia’s waiting table. I tailed that bus through the rain-slicked arteries of the city, my knuckles white against the steering wheel, driven by a desperate, pounding terror that I was about to lose everything twice.