She quickly reached for her phone, but the message came from an unknown number—yet another disturbing text:

"Baby, I’m in black today. What about you?"

Below the message was a picture of black men’s briefs.

Emerald froze. She had thought the person harassing her was Mr. Santos, but she now realized she was just a pawn in Ethan’s game. Alaric and Mr. Santos must have come to an agreement, so there was no reason for him to continue troubling her.

Unless she had been wrong all along, and he wasn’t the one sending these messages.

As she tried to make sense of it, her phone vibrated again, and another message...