Isaac read it again.
He knows you have it.
Same five words. Same blunt black marker. No shake in the handwriting. No flair. Whoever wrote it hadn't been trying to scare him with style. Just fact.
That was worse.
"What is it?" Jadah asked.
He didn't answer.
Her voice sharpened. "Isaac."
He turned the photo over before she could reach for it.
Too late.
She'd already seen enough of his face to know this wasn't nothing.
The porch. His mother. That man. Him.
Something old and packed down hard in his chest shifted once, mean and heavy.
Jadah stepped closer. "Who's that?"
"No one."
"That's obviously not true."
He slid the photo back into the envelope and folded it once without meaning to, tighter than it had been before. His fingers felt wrong. Too stiff. Too aware.
Jadah watched every movement. "Is that your dad?"
Isaac looked at her.
She lifted both hands a little. "What? I'm asking."
"No," he said, too fast.
That made her eyes narrow.
"You don't know that."
"I do."
"How?"
"I just do."
Jadah's head tilted. "You've never seen him."
He said nothing.
That was answer enough.
A car horn barked down the block. Too close.
Isaac checked his phone.
Ty: downstairs rn
Ty: if u got kidnapped say something weird
Ty: actually u always say weird things nvm
His stomach dropped clean through him.
Not tonight.
The line came back exactly as the man had said it.
And don't let your friends drive you anywhere tonight.
Maybe it was a bluff. Maybe it was just meant to get in his head. Maybe.
He was already moving.
Jadah caught his arm. "Where are you going?"
"To stop something stupid."
"That narrows it down to half this city."
He pulled free and headed toward the curb, eyes searching the street.
At first he didn't see Marlon's car.
Then headlights turned the corner.
Dark blue Honda. Front bumper still scraped on the right from where Ty swore a pole had "appeared maliciously." Music low. Windows down.
Ty was in the passenger seat already half out of it, one arm hanging into the air.
"There this man go!" he yelled. "Bro what are you—"
Isaac stepped straight off the curb and threw up a hand.
Marlon braked hard enough to make the car dip.
Ty leaned farther out the window. "Why you in the street like somebody auntie?"
"Park somewhere else," Isaac said.
Ty blinked. "Hello to you too."
Marlon looked past him, spotted Jadah, then looked back at Isaac.
That was all it took for his expression to change.
Not dramatic. Just awake now.
"What happened?" Marlon asked.
"Nothing yet," Isaac said.
Ty twisted around in his seat to look at Jadah. "Oh brother."
"Shut up," Jadah snapped.
"Gladly. Hate this crossover episode already."
"Ty," Marlon said.
Ty shut up. Mostly.
Isaac put one hand on the roof of the car and leaned down just enough that neither of them had to raise their voices. His shoulder complained immediately.
"Do not drive me anywhere tonight."
Ty frowned. "You on something?"
"I'm serious."
Marlon's eyes dropped to the envelope in Isaac's hand. Then to his face again.
"Who told you that?"
Isaac didn't answer fast enough.
That answered it.
Ty looked between them. "Okay, what the hell is going on?"
Jadah came up behind Isaac and folded her arms like she was cold, even though the heat was still sitting on the block like a damp hand.
"That car came back," she said.
Ty's whole expression changed. "What car?"
"The one with the men asking about him," Jadah said.
Ty stared at Isaac. "The men asking about you?"
"Can everybody stop saying that like it's fun," Isaac said.
"It's not fun," Ty shot back. "It's insane."
Marlon killed the engine.
The street got quieter around them. Not actually quiet. Just enough that the small sounds came through clearer—the tick of cooling metal from some parked car, a screen door slamming somewhere nearby, somebody laughing on the next block over.
Marlon rested one arm on the wheel. "Start over."
Isaac almost said no. Reflex.
Then he looked at Ty's face, the joke gone out of it completely, and Marlon's flat steady stare, and Jadah standing there looking like she hated being part of this and hated even more that she already was.
He gave them the shortest version.
Burner number. Outside the building. Jadah saying two men had asked about him. Gray sedan. Man with the beard. Envelope. The line about Evelyn.
He left out the part where his brain had painted the whole block in blood before anything even happened.
That part was his.
When he finished, Ty just stared.
Then, very softly, "What the fuck."
Marlon said, "Who's Evelyn?"
Isaac looked away.
That made the silence worse.
Ty sat back. "Oh, hell no. You know who that is."
"I know the name."
"Attached to what?"
Isaac rubbed at the back of his neck once. The heat felt thicker now. Dirtier.
"My uncle."
Ty blinked. "You got an Uncle Evelyn?"
"Not by blood."
Jadah made a small face. "That sounds fake."
"It's not."
Marlon was still on the important part. "Why would a stranger tell you he should've left you out of it?"
"I don't know."
"Do you actually not know," Ty said, "or are you doing that thing where you know enough to be difficult?"
Isaac looked at him.
Ty lifted a hand. "That one. Cool."
Jadah pointed at the envelope. "Let me see the picture."
"No."
"You're joking."
"No."
She stepped toward him. He stepped back. Her mouth opened on pure disbelief.
"Isaac."
"You brought me the problem. That doesn't make you part owner."
Ty turned in his seat again. "Can somebody tell me why your ex looks like she's about to either cry or key a car?"
"Mind your business," Jadah said.
Ty looked offended. "This is literally my business now. There are mysterious sedan men."
Marlon held out his hand toward Isaac.
"Let me see it," he said.
Isaac hesitated.
Not because he thought Marlon would do anything stupid. Because once somebody else saw the picture, it would become more real than it already was.
He hated how childish that felt.
Marlon didn't rush him. Just kept his hand out.
Finally Isaac passed over the photo.
Marlon studied the front first. His eyes moved once to Isaac, then back down.
"That's you."
"Yeah."
"Your mom?"
"Yeah."
Ty leaned halfway across the center console. "Move."
"Relax."
"I'm not relaxed, Marlon."
"No one asked you to be."
Marlon turned the photo over and read the writing.
His face didn't change much. But he handed it back faster than he'd taken it.
"We shouldn't stand out here," he said.
Jadah gave Isaac a pointed look like see.
Ty ignored both of them. "Wait, wait. That's really it? A photo and a creepy note? That's all he gave you?"
"And a warning," Jadah said.
Ty looked at her. "You are enjoying being right a little too much."
"I'm actually having a terrible evening."
"Good."
"Ty," Marlon said again.
Ty shut up for almost three whole seconds.
Then: "So what now?"
That was the question, wasn't it.
Isaac looked down the street where the sedan had disappeared.
Nothing there now except normal traffic and the ugly feeling that normal was fake.
The easy answer was get in the car anyway and act like warnings only worked on people dumber than him.
The smart answer was harder, because it involved admitting this was real enough to change plans.
He hated being managed by fear.
He hated even more that the warning had used Ty and Marlon. That part had worked.
"We're not going," Isaac said.
Ty recoiled like he'd been slapped. "Excuse me?"
"Party's dead."
"Because of one cryptic Hallmark envelope?"
"Yes."
"That is insane."
"So is a man pulling up to my building knowing my name and my mother's face."
Ty opened his mouth.
Closed it.
That got him too.
Marlon nodded once. "I'm with him."
Ty looked personally betrayed. "Marlon."
"I'm with him."
"This is exactly how horror movies win."
"This is exactly how people stay alive in horror movies," Jadah said.
Ty swiveled toward her. "Why are you still here?"
That landed cleaner than he probably meant it to.
Jadah's face shut down all at once.
"I tried to warn him," she said. "My mistake."
Then she turned like she was leaving for real this time.
Isaac surprised himself.
"Jadah."
She stopped, but didn't turn around.
He looked at the scrape on her knuckle again. Remembered the way she'd kept checking the street before the car ever showed.
"What happened at your place?"
Her shoulders tightened.
"Nothing."
"Jadah."
Still not turning, she said, "He knocked like a cop."
Ty and Marlon went quiet.
Jadah laughed once under her breath. No humor anywhere near it.
"When I opened the door, he already had his foot on the bottom step. Like he knew I was gonna slam it." She finally looked back over her shoulder. "He was smiling the whole time."
Isaac said, "Did he touch you?"
A beat.
Then another.
"No," she said.
Lie.
Not huge. But lie.
Isaac heard it. So did Marlon, judging by the way his eyes shifted.
Ty looked from one face to another and exhaled hard through his nose. "I hate everybody involved in this."
A window opened somewhere above them. Somebody's auntie voice drifted down into the evening air.
"Y'all need to move from in front that car if you not paying the note on it."
Ty looked up immediately. "Yes ma'am."
The window shut again.
That tiny stupid interruption cracked the tension just enough to breathe through.
Not fix it. Just breathe.
Marlon started the Honda back up. "Get in."
Isaac stepped back. "I said I'm not getting driven anywhere."
"I'm not driving you anywhere." Marlon jerked his head toward the building. "I'm moving the car before the whole block gets a free episode."
Ty nodded. "Fair."
Marlon pulled off and parked farther up near the corner store where the lights were brighter and there were more people around.
Ty got out the second the car stopped and came back at a jog.
Now all four of them were standing on the sidewalk again, tighter together than any of them wanted to admit.
Ty pointed at the envelope. "Okay. Options. One, we call somebody. Two, we go upstairs. Three, Isaac explains why random men know his extended fake-uncle government name situation."
"Those aren't really options," Isaac said.
"They are to me."
Marlon came up last, locking the car. "Do you want to call your mother?"
"No."
Too fast.
Everybody heard that too.
Marlon's stare stayed on him. "Why."
Isaac looked away.
Because if his mother heard Evelyn's name attached to a stranger at the door, her face would change.
Because if her face changed, then this was bigger than weird.
Because some part of him already knew it was.
And because he wasn't ready to watch that happen yet.
"I need to think first," he said.
Ty rubbed both hands over his face. "I'm gonna age bad."
Jadah gave Isaac one long unreadable look. Not soft. Not sharp either. Just tired now.
Then she said, "He told you to read it alone."
Isaac frowned. "So?"
"So maybe there's a reason."
"There's definitely a reason," Ty said. "The reason is creepy men love drama."
"No," Jadah said, eyes still on Isaac. "I mean maybe he wanted to see who you'd show."
That shut everybody up.
Even Ty.
The thought slid in clean and ugly.
Isaac looked down at the bent corner of the photograph inside the envelope.
A test.
Maybe.
Or a threat pretending to be a test. Same difference sometimes.
Marlon spoke first. "Too late now."
"Yeah," Isaac said.
But his voice sounded farther away than he meant it to.
Across the street, a dark car rolled slowly past the end of the block.
Not the sedan. Different shape. Different headlights.
Still, every muscle in Isaac's back tightened at once.
He watched it go.
Didn't trust his own eyes until it turned and disappeared.
When he looked back, Ty was watching him with all the joking stripped out again.
"We're not leaving you alone tonight," Ty said.
Isaac almost argued.
Then his phone lit up in his hand.
Unknown number.
All four of them saw it.
Nobody spoke.
Another message came through before he opened the first.
Not home.
Good.
Then a third.
Check the porch light.