Chapter 2 - The Third FootprintMiles did not answer Harper immediately.
That silence told her more than an explanation could have.
Four people had known Silas’s schedule.
Harper.
Miles.
Silas’s younger brother, Adrian.
And Owen Pike, the head of security who had served the Ror family for almost fifteen years.
“Medical room,” Harper ordered.
Within seconds, two physicians moved Silas through a reinforced door at the rear of the garage.
Eli stayed where he was.
Nobody had told him what to do.
That was a feeling he knew well.
Adults had spent most of his twelve years deciding where he could not stay.
His mother had died two winters earlier. The foster home that followed had lasted six months. The second lasted eleven weeks. After the third placement, Eli had decided sleeping behind a closed grocery store was preferable to being passed between strangers who kept calling him “a difficult case.”
He had survived ever since by becoming invisible.
Now he stood in a mansion where armed men watched every doorway.
Harper turned toward him.
“You’re Eli?”
He nodded.
“You saved my husband?”
Another nod.
Harper studied the oversized coat hanging from his shoulders.
“Where are your parents?”
Eli’s expression changed.
Miles saw it.
Harper did too.
“My mom’s dead.”
“Your father?”
“Don’t have one.”
Harper’s voice softened by only a fraction.
“Where do you live?”
Eli glanced toward the garage door.
“Around.”
That single word hit Harper harder than crying would have.
She had grown up around powerful people. She knew how adults disguised humiliation behind expensive language.
Eli had learned the same trick with one word.
Around.
“Tonight,” Harper said, “you live here.”
Eli immediately stiffened.
“I’m not asking for anything.”
“I know.”
“I can leave.”
“I know that too.”
That confused him.
Harper walked toward the house.
“You’re still staying.”
Miles almost smiled.
He had watched Harper negotiate contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Apparently, a homeless twelve-year-old received roughly the same opportunity to argue.
Inside, Eli stopped beneath a chandelier.
Everything seemed too clean.
His sneakers left small streaks of mud across the marble.
He stared down at them.
“Sorry.”
Harper looked at the muddy footprints.
“For what?”
“The floor.”
“My husband almost got buried alive tonight. I promise the floor has fallen considerably lower on my list of problems.”
Eli looked at her for several seconds.
Then, unexpectedly, the corner of his mouth moved.
It was the first sign that a child still existed beneath all that fear.
Miles’s phone vibrated.
His expression changed as he read the message.
Harper noticed.
“What?”
“The two men from the woods are gone.”
“Gone where?”
“We found their vehicle abandoned three miles south.”
“And them?”
“Nothing.”
Harper looked toward the medical room.
“Someone cleaned the scene.”
Miles nodded.
Before either could continue, the doctor appeared.
“Mr. Ror is stable.”
Harper’s shoulders dropped half an inch.
It was the only visible sign of relief.
“Concussion, dehydration, sedative in his bloodstream, two fractured ribs. He needs monitoring, but there’s no internal bleeding.”
“Can he speak?”
“When he wakes.”
Miles turned away.
Harper stopped him.
“You found something else.”
He looked toward Eli.
The boy was studying the room, but Miles knew better than to assume he was not listening.
“The tracker was removed.”
Harper went still.
“Correctly?”
“Yes.”
Only someone familiar with their security protocols would have known where it was.
Harper’s eyes hardened.
“Owen.”
“Maybe.”
“Adrian?”
“Maybe.”
“Me?”
Miles met her stare.
“I’m considering everyone.”
Harper nodded once.
“Good.”
Eli suddenly spoke.
“There was another man.”
Both adults turned.
“What?” Miles asked.
“I didn’t see him right.”
Eli closed his eyes, trying to reconstruct the forest.
“When those two guys were dragging Mr. Ror, one of them looked behind him.”
“At what?”
“Somebody standing farther back.”
Miles stepped closer.
“You said there were two men.”
“There were two digging.”
Eli swallowed.
“But somebody else was there.”
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
Harper shot Miles a warning glance.
Eli pressed both palms against his temples.
“He never came close. He stayed between the trees.”
“Height?”
“Tall.”
“Clothes?”
“Dark coat.”
“Face?”
Eli shook his head.
Then his eyes opened.
“But he limped.”
Miles froze.
“Which leg?”
“Right.”
Harper slowly looked at him.
Only one person among Silas’s closest circle had an old injury that caused a slight right-leg limp when the weather turned cold.
Owen Pike.
Before either adult could speak, a voice came from the hallway.
“Harper?”
Eli turned.
A handsome man in his mid-thirties entered wearing a charcoal coat over an open-collared shirt.
Adrian Ror.
Silas’s younger brother.
He looked exhausted.
And genuinely frightened.
“Where is he?”
“Alive,” Harper said.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Thank God.”
Then he noticed Eli.
“Who’s the kid?”
“The reason your brother is alive.”
Adrian stared at him.
Something strange passed across his face.
Not gratitude.
Recognition.
It lasted less than a second.
But Eli saw it.
Street children survived because they noticed the moments adults assumed were too small to matter.
Adrian recovered quickly.
He approached Eli and extended a hand.
“I owe you more than I can say.”
Eli did not take it.
Adrian slowly lowered his hand.
Miles noticed that too.
“Where’s Owen?” Harper asked.
“Looking for Silas.”
“No,” Miles said. “He isn't.”
Adrian frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Miles’s phone vibrated again.
This time he answered.
He listened for perhaps ten seconds.
Then his eyes shifted toward Harper.
“When?”
Another pause.
“You’re certain?”
Miles ended the call.
“What?” Harper demanded.
“Owen Pike’s body was just found inside his apartment.”
Adrian went pale.
Harper stared at Miles.
“How long has he been dead?”
“Preliminary estimate? At least twelve hours.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Eli felt cold again.
Owen could not have been the man standing in the woods.
Which meant someone else had the same limp.
Or wanted a twelve-year-old witness to believe he did.
Then Silas screamed from the medical room.
Harper ran.
Miles followed.
Eli remained frozen until another sound reached him.
Not Silas.
A faint vibration.
He looked toward the coat Miles had given him.
Something inside the pocket was buzzing.
Eli reached in.
His fingers closed around a phone he had never seen before.
The screen contained only one message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HIM DIE.
Eli stopped breathing.
May you like
Then a second message appeared.
NOW THEY KNOW YOU EXIST.
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