Chapter 4 - The Silver RingMarcus drove without speaking.
The silence between us felt heavier than the city outside.
Finally I asked the question.
“Do you own a silver ring?”
He glanced at me.
“No.”
“You're sure?”
He laughed.
“You think I’m the traitor?”
“I think my brother warned me about someone.”
“He warned you about a ring.”
“Exactly.”
Marcus tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Then maybe you should start looking at your own hands.”
I looked down.
I wasn't wearing a ring.
But there was something else.
A faint dark mark circling my finger.
As if I had worn one for years.
I had never noticed it.
We returned to my apartment.
The front door was unlocked.
I hadn't left it that way.
I pulled my weapon.
Marcus moved behind me.
The living room was empty.
Then we heard a noise.
A child crying.
We rushed toward the bedroom.
Eli was sitting inside my closet.
Alive.
Terrified.
He launched himself toward me.
“Officer Carter!”
I caught him.
“Where have you been?”
He shook violently.
“Daddy said they'd find me.”
“Who?”
“The men from the house.”
“What house?”
“The house with the red door.”
Marcus crouched in front of him.
“Eli, your father is alive?”
The boy nodded.
“He told me to give you something.”
Eli reached into his shirt.
He pulled out a metal key.
There were three letters engraved on it.
H-17.
Marcus went pale.
“What?”
“What does H-17 mean?”
He stood slowly.
“Nothing.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
He stared at the key.
“It's an old evidence classification.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning whatever it opens was supposed to have been destroyed eight years ago.”
The room suddenly went dark.
The power had been cut.
Eli screamed.
Gunfire erupted outside.
I pushed the boy to the floor.
Glass exploded behind us.
“Stay down!”
Marcus fired toward the window.
Another shot.
Then silence.
We waited.
Nothing.
I looked toward the street.
A black sedan sped away.
On the driver's side window was a silver circular emblem.
A ring.
Marcus whispered:
“They found us.”
The next morning, we took Eli to a secure police facility.
I questioned him alone.
“Eli, who is your mother?”
He looked at me strangely.
“I don't have one.”
“You never had a mother?”
“No.”
“Then who raised you?”
“My dad.”
“Where?”
He shrugged.
“Different places.”
“Why?”
“Because Daddy said people were looking for us.”
I felt a chill.
“Did he ever tell you who those people were?”
Eli nodded.
“What did he call them?”
“The Watchers.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“Eli...”
He looked at me.
“My dad said they made you forget.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“He said they made Uncle Colin forget.”
My chair scraped backward.
“Uncle?”
Eli smiled weakly.
“My dad said you're my uncle.”
Eight years of lies suddenly felt like a wall collapsing.
Logan had a son.
A son who knew me.
A son Logan had somehow protected for five years.
And someone had been hunting him.
But the final question was worse.
May you like
If Logan had trusted me enough to send Eli to my door...
Why had he warned the boy that I might not remember him?
