Page 83

“Hi,” Silas muttered, wandering into the room and making a beeline for the couch I kept along one of the back walls.

“Well…” Jackie interrupted, “I’ve got some work to do. I’ll be in my office if you need me. You want to hang with me, Lex?”

Lexington looked between me and Jackie, then turned to Silas after a beat. “You cool if I help you out? I’ve been the one working on the case, so I think I can be of some use to you, if you’ll have me.”

Silas looked up at Lexington, surprised, his eyes wide in both wonder and confusion. “I get to pick?”

My heart broke for the boy who had never had any choices, but Lexington stepped in right away. “Of course, kid. This is your project. You tell me where to go, and I’ll follow.”

“Umm…” Silas thought for a moment, his voice trailing off, before finally nodding. “That would be cool. You can help.”

Jackie clapped her hands together happily. “Now that that’s decided, I’ll be on my way. I’m just across the hall if you need me, Silas.”

He threw her a thumbs-up, and I could have sworn his cheeks flushed with a slight blush. Lexington must have caught it as well, as he shot me a raised brow. I just shrugged with a smile and went to sit next to Silas. Who could fault the boy for having a crush.

“How do you want to start?” I asked as I sat next to him, peeling off my jacket and tossing it on the floor. Lexington laughed lightly at my antics, picking it up and hanging it on the back of my office door. “We can go by name, if you’d like, or we can just start writing the stories you know.”

Silas was quiet for a moment and glanced at Lexington. “Is he just going to stand there?” he whispered to me.

I held in a laugh and motioned toward my office chair for Lexington to sit. “He’s here to help however either of us needs. So, start with names?”

Silas shook his head. “I know some of the names, all the ones who came after me at least. We were all kids when we were brought there and I didn’t think to ask their full name, so I only know their first.”

I nodded in understanding. “Would pictures be better?”

He looked at me, surprised. “You have pictures of all of them?”

“We do,” Lexington interjected. “A few of you, too. Want to see them?”

Silas nodded timidly, but I could see the excitement. Lexington excused himself to grab the photos from his own office, leaving Silas and me alone.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Silas asked me the moment Lexington was out the door.

I was taken aback by the question. “What?”

“Lex? Is he your boyfriend?” he asked again, his eyes bright and inquisitive. It was interesting how much more open he was when alone with me. I guess the two of us had moved past the awkward stage in that hellhole.

“He’s…” I trailed off because I had no clue what Lexington and I were. “Why do you ask? What makes you think he is anything more than a friend?”

Silas smirked. “That wasn’t an answer to my question.”

“And that wasn’t an answer to mine,” I challenged with a smirk of my own.

“He looks at you… well, he looks at you like you're the most precious thing in his life, like he would move mountains for you if you simply asked,” Silas remarked. “He looks at you the way my dad used to look at my mom.”

“Do you remember much of them?” I asked softly.

Silas shrugged. “I remember flashes. A smile, a hug. My mom used to sing me a lullaby every night. She sang me one… that night.”

Lexington wandered back into the office, his gaze focused on the open files in his hands as he thumbed through the documents. He stopped in front of us, pulled a photo out, and handed it to Silas.

Silas reached out and took the picture with hesitant fingers. Leaning in beside him, I smiled at the sight of his younger self—a little boy beaming from ear to ear. This particular photo was of Silas and his brothers. They were all little, dressed in soccer uniforms, their cheeks pink from what I assumed was the cool air around them.

“Brooks and Blake,” he mumbled, his thumb brushing over his brothers in the photo. They were a few years older, but had matching dark hair and stood behind little Silas, looking ready to fight the world for their brother.

“Are they twins?” I asked. I hadn’t realized when I spoke to Brooks that Blake was his twin. It wasn’t consequential, but seeing the photo made their similarities impossible to ignore.

Silas nodded, smiling wistfully at the photo. “I so badly wanted to be just like them. They were the coolest people I knew. I was only six, though. Pretty easy to impress.”