CHAPTER 2: THE MEN AT THE DOOR

The two men moved through the restaurant without looking at the guests.

They were not ordinary security guards.

They walked with the calm precision of people who expected everyone else to move aside.

The taller man reached inside his jacket.

Adrian’s personal bodyguard, Mason Reed, stepped between them and the boy.

“Stop right there.”

The taller stranger smiled.

“We’re here for the child.”

“On whose authority?”

“The boy escaped from a private medical facility.”

The boy grabbed the back of Adrian’s wheelchair.

“They’re lying.”

Adrian looked at Mason.

“Lock the doors.”

Mason signaled the restaurant staff.

The main entrance clicked shut.

The second stranger’s expression hardened.

“Mr. Vale, this doesn’t concern you.”

Adrian raised the old photograph.

“This concerns me now.”

The man’s eyes shifted toward the picture.

For the first time, his confidence disappeared.

He spoke quietly into a microphone hidden inside his sleeve.

“He has the photograph.”

The restaurant lights suddenly went out.

Screams filled the room.

Someone overturned a table.

Adrian felt the boy release the wheelchair.

“Eli!” Adrian shouted, though the child had never told him his name.

Emergency lights flickered on three seconds later.

The two strangers were gone.

So was the boy.

Mason ran toward the service corridor.

Adrian looked down and saw a thin trail of blood leading behind the bar.

His heart hammered.

He pushed his wheelchair forward, following it into the dark hallway.

Behind a stack of wine crates, he found the boy crouching with one hand pressed against his nose.

“You’re hurt.”

“It happens when I wake someone’s body.”

Adrian stared at him.

“You knew my name. You knew Elena. Tell me who you are.”

The boy wiped the blood with his sleeve.

“My name is Eli.”

“Where is your mother?”

“They took her three nights ago.”

“Why?”

Eli looked toward the locked restaurant doors.

“Because she stole something from them.”

“What did she steal?”

Eli pointed at the photograph.

“That.”

Adrian turned it over.

For the first time, he noticed faint handwriting beneath the stains.

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