They all heard the shout from the parking lot and knew everyone had realized Mo wasn’t there. Mo shook his head and took a step back to the fence. Daniel aimed his gun. “Stand right where you are and drop the weapon.”
“No.” Eli glanced at Daniel. “Let me.” Daniel didn’t move, but Mo took another two steps back. The door was now in between them. They heard shouts from inside.
“Stand where you are,” Daniel repeated just as the back door to the office was flung wide and one of the cops appeared, gun raised.
“No,” Eli yelled as the cop swung his gun at the same time as Mo raised his, and the cop fired. Eli blurred. Daniel would never have believed it was possible for someone to move that quickly, but Daniel leaped forward as Eli dove on the ground as Mo turned and ran at the fence. The cops all spilled out from the office, and by the time Daniel had gotten to Eli, Mo was gone. Daniel didn’t even care. “Eli!” He crouched down and immediately put his hands on Eli’s neck at the same time as Eli opened his eyes. “Where are you hurt?” His pulse was beating like a hummingbird, and Daniel watched him blink his violet eyes until they darkened.
“I’m okay.” Eli brushed Daniel’s hands away and tried to sit up. Daniel couldn’t seem to let go.
“Get me the paramedics here,” Chris bellowed and crouched down, assuming the same as Daniel.
Eli shook his head. “I’m fine.” And Daniel gazed in astonishment as Eli scrambled to his feet. Two cops came back running toward the office.
“The factory next door has just finished, and there has to be two hundred people getting in cars. The shooter vanished in the middle of them.”
Chris blew out a frustrated breath. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
Eli nodded and held out his clenched fist palm up. “You might want this as evidence though.” He uncurled his fingers, revealing a bullet.
Daniel gaped. “You-you caught it?”
Eli nodded as if he didn’t believe it himself. “It’s still hot, so be careful.” And he dropped it in the bag Chris pulled from his uniform
“What a clusterfuck,” Chris muttered and went to start issuing orders to his men.
“Daniel?”
Daniel turned to see Talon and Sawyer jogging up the path. Daniel put a not too gentle hand on Eli’s arm and pulled him toward Talon. “Let’s talk in your truck.”
Talon nodded and remained silent as they all got in. Daniel couldn’t ask Talon to drive off much as he wanted to because they would have to talk to Chris at some point and explain what was going on.
“Who wants to start?”
Daniel opened his mouth, but Eli beat him to it. “It was the man from the store on Monday. I knew him. Mo from Caffrey’s foster home.”
“Moses Samms?” Talon clarified, opening his phone. “We got some background on him. He was hospitalized along with Caffrey for severe burns to his hands, but there was a note to say that the damage wasn’t recent. He completely clammed up. Refused to speak. Put in another group foster home and after his first unsuccessful suicide attempt was transferred to another one. His second attempt was at eleven. He tried to slit his throat but was disturbed by another child. He was then put on emergency hold in a psychiatric unit and has been in and out until he left the foster system at eighteen and basically disappeared off the face of the earth.” Talon was silent for a few seconds. “He has a condition called vitiligo which causes his skin to lighten in patches, and he has severe skin contractures on both hands. He usually keeps them bandaged for protection—not always gloves—but usually covered.”
It all made sense. Horrible sense. Daniel moved his hand nearer Eli’s, but Eli moved his out of the way.
“What can you tell us?” Talon glanced up at Eli.
Eli took a few steadying breaths, but his hands were curled into fists. “Caffrey was a bastard to us all, but Mo was his punching bag. He used to have scrap metal brought in, clean it up and sell it. He used acid to get the rust off, and he’d make Mo do it without gloves. His hands were wrecked.”
“Vitiligo can occur because of stress,” Talon confirmed. “So, Moses is out to get Caffrey.”
“Sounds like it,” Daniel murmured, still wondering why Eli wouldn’t look him in the eye.
They all looked up as Cruz pulled in the parking lot in a blue sedan. He barely glanced at the shaded windows of Talon’s truck and hurried to where the paramedics were treating Jasmine McKinty.
Talon sighed. “I think we need to try and find out where Moses lives. There are no sightings of him with a vehicle in either instances, and I still think the first time we saw him at the store was a coincidence. If he was driving, his car would have been at the store. If he was walking, then he must live nearby.”
“Chris will want reports,” Daniel said. “How about Eli and I stay here and you go see if you can find anything on Moses?”
“What about Cruz? Is he a problem?” Daniel glanced at Eli as they got out of the car and told Talon they would head home afterward unless they heard from him.
“He’s a coward,” Eli snapped out. “He never stopped Caffrey, but he never actually joined in. It’s hard to remember.” Eli frowned. “He was cruel, but more because he was afraid to do any other, not because he enjoyed it.”
“He might recognize you.”
“I imagine he’ll know about me, and I have no idea if he was there that night.”
“He didn’t live on the premises?”
“No, just Caffrey and his brother.” Eli closed his eyes a moment, then blinked them open. “You know Talon had the names of four other kids apart from me?”
“Yeah, including the girl,” Daniel confirmed.
“Well, I don’t know what was going on, but they were wrong.”
“Wrong? As in they weren’t there?”
Eli shook his head. “No, as in there weren’t just four. It’s hard to remember, and Callum, Mo, and I were definitely there the longest. I don’t remember the girl, but I can remember at least four or even more boys. One Ramsay brought definitely.”
“And they stayed?”
Eli shrugged. “It was like one minute they were there, one minute they weren’t. Callum and Mark had their own room. Mo and I had another. I don’t know where the other kids slept.” He frowned. “That’s odd, isn’t it?”
“I guess going through your own hell didn’t make tracking numbers any easier,” Daniel said quietly.
Eli nodded to the receptionist. “I need to go talk to her.”
“Oh,” Daniel said, catching on. “You want to see if you can tell anything from her.”
Eli nodded. “Come on,” It seemed like everything was conspiring today to make Eli relive his nightmares.
Daniel stepped away from the wall at the same time as his brother stood up from crouching down talking to Jasmine. It was odd and strangely satisfying to see the disbelief on Carmichael’s face as he glanced warily between both brothers. “This isn’t a case involving an enhanced,” he clipped out as Daniel and Eli drew nearer.
“Well, if you ask Officer Dougal over there that Agent Stuart just saved from taking a bullet, I’m for sure he would damn well disagree,” Chris said in a disgusted tone. Carmichael flushed and hurried away.