what he was told when he was told to do it.
And Eli had thought he was going to die, and a very large part of him—too big a part—hadn’t cared. Then Caffrey had locked him in one of the trailers without cleaning it out. Two days he’d been in there. Eli had been beside himself in terror. When Eli had been let out, he didn’t talk to Mo anymore. He didn’t have anything to say.
And Eli was so ashamed because it hadn’t been Mo’s fault, but afterward he treated him like it had been. “I never understood at first why no one seemed to care. I thought for a long time Ramsay—”
“The social worker?” Daniel asked.
Eli nodded. “I never believed Callum at first. I thought Ramsay would come and get me, but Callum promised if you ran you would just get brought back and locked in one of the containers.”
And that had been when Eli had known he couldn’t let himself be locked in there ever again. And eventually he took no holding down, no drugs. Because he had come to accept that it was his life.
Eli blinked as Daniel nudged the bottle of water at him. “I’m sorry.”
Daniel shook his head. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for.”
Eli met Daniel’s eyes and took the water. “I can’t believe I told you that.” Then he flushed because he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
“You can tell me anything,” Daniel promised. Eli gazed at him. Could he? Did he dare?
“How much did you see of the brother?”
“Not as much. I think he was as scared of Caffrey as we were.” He’d watched though. “The chicken’s cold.” Daniel had stopped eating as soon as Eli had started talking.
Daniel regarded him steadily. “It doesn’t matter, unless you’re hungry.”
“Yes.” He wasn’t hungry at all, but if he didn’t eat he didn’t think Daniel would and that wasn’t fair.
Daniel smiled. “How about we veg out in front of the TV and just get snacks when we want?”
That didn’t sound bad actually, and Daniel wasn’t acting all weird because Eli had told him stuff. Things he’d never told anyone.
Eli turned and went into the kitchen. “Do you want something now?”
He looked up and took an immediate step backward, stumbling slightly, as Daniel had followed him silently and he hadn’t known. Daniel reached out quickly, grabbing his arm to steady him.
A little girl laughing. Blond hair. Cherries. Cherries? But they were sweet, and her fingers were covered in them. Then she looked down at her hands, and it wasn’t juice.
The smell of the blood hit him from before, and he pushed at Daniel frantically. “Let go.”
Daniel’s hands dropped immediately, and he stood back. “Eli? What’s wrong?” Eli shook his head mutely and took another step back. Daniel winced like he’d been hit. “I won’t touch you.”
Eli took deep, clean breaths. The scent had faded. For a second he’d thought he was gonna hurl, but as soon as he let go it went.
“What did you see?”
Eli didn’t reply. He wasn’t sure where to start.
Daniel nodded as if he had answered and walked back out of the kitchen straight into his own room and perched on the bed. He didn’t try to close the door, just sat there with his head in his hands. Eli was torn between leaving him alone and going in.
“Who is she?” Eli’s feet had taken him to the door.
Daniel dropped his hands and met his gaze. “The reason I left. She was called Sarah.”
Eli’s breath hitched, and his stomach roiled. “What happened?”
“Sarah Jane Leadsham. She was seven. Good family, not an easy mark.”
Because Eli knew it was easier to take the ones that no one would miss. He didn’t think anyone had ever missed him.
“I’d love to say it was when I was a newbie—no experience—but I’d be lying. We had a group similar to the ones who had restarted Playpen, but nothing we were doing was helping. Months after months we got nowhere, and then we got a break and Sarah’s uncle got flagged. We weren’t working that case as we didn’t think they were connected. His online history wasn’t as well protected as he thought, and a random search had found connections to a site that was a front for obscene images of minors, but there was a good chance he didn’t know and had used it innocently. The team looking for Sarah wanted to act right away as she had been missing for nine days, but they had nothing good