Chapter 1 - The Twitch
The baby touched Victor Hale’s knee, and his dead foot moved.
Not much.
Just a sharp little jerk beneath the cafe table.
But Victor had not moved that foot in eleven months.
His fork slipped from his fingers and struck the plate.
The dirty boy holding the baby stared at him as if he had been waiting for that exact sound.
“I told you,” the boy whispered. “She wakes things up.”
Victor looked down at his right shoe. His pulse thudded in his throat.
Across the sidewalk cafe, his driver, Marcus Reed, was already on his feet.
“Mr. Hale?”
Victor lifted one hand. “Don’t.”
The baby blinked at him, completely unimpressed. She had one fist tangled in the worn blanket around her shoulders. Behind the boy stood two more children: a girl of maybe seven and a smaller boy who looked five. All three were thin. All three watched the untouched bread on Victor’s table more closely than they watched him.
Victor looked back at the oldest.
“What’s your name?”
“Eli.”
“And hers?”
“Rosie.”
“You said she did this before.”
Eli’s jaw tightened. “To my sister’s hand. After she got hurt.”
The seven-year-old girl quickly hid her left hand behind her back.
Victor noticed.
He also noticed something else.
The baby’s fingers had brushed the inside of his knee exactly where Dr. Simon Cross always placed a medicated patch before Victor left the house.
The patch was no longer stuck flat.
One corner had peeled away.
Victor reached down and pulled it free.
Eli’s face changed.
“What?” Victor asked.
The boy pointed at the patch.
“My mom had those.”
Victor went still.
“What did your mother use them for?”
Eli swallowed.
“She didn’t use them.”
He looked toward the street, suddenly terrified.
“She said they were hurting somebody.”
Then a black SUV stopped at the curb.
Eli grabbed the other children.
“We have to go.”
Victor caught his wrist.
“Who are you running from?”
May you like
The rear door of the SUV opened.
Eli whispered, “The man who killed our mom.”
