Chapter 1 - The Boy Who Said His Name
The entire diner went quiet when the eight-year-old boy said one word.
“Jax.”
Jax Mercer had been halfway through lifting a coffee mug to his mouth. His tattooed hand stopped in midair.
The kid stood at the end of the counter in a worn brown jacket and dirty sneakers, looking too small for the room full of bikers. Rain glittered on his messy light-brown hair. In one hand, he held a faded photograph. In the other, he crushed a folded piece of paper so tightly his knuckles had turned white.
Darla, the night waitress, glanced from the boy to Jax. “You know him?”
“No,” Jax said too fast.
The boy walked closer.
Every boot, every leather vest, every half-finished plate seemed to freeze with him.
“My mom said this is you.”
He placed the photograph on the counter.
Jax looked down.
Twenty-eight years of hard choices disappeared from his face in one second.
The picture showed a much younger Jax standing beside a blue motorcycle, holding a baby wrapped in a yellow blanket. Jax had hair to his shoulders even then, but no beard, no gray at his temples, and no fear in his eyes.
On the back, in blue ink, someone had written: JAX AND ELI — AUGUST 18.
Darla leaned in. “Jax… what is that photograph?”
Jax covered it with his palm.
The boy’s eyes filled, but he didn’t cry.
“Mom said Uncle left before I was born.”
Jax’s jaw tightened.
“What’s your name?”
“Eli Carter.”
The mug slipped from Jax’s other hand and hit the floor. It didn’t break, but the sound cracked through the room.
Darla stared. “Carter?”
Jax stood so fast the stool scraped backward.
“Where is your mother?”
Eli swallowed. “I don’t know.”
Jax bent to the boy’s height. His voice lowered.
“When did you last see her?”
“Last night.”
“What happened?”
“She packed a bag. She kept checking the window. Then she gave me the picture and told me to come here if she didn’t come home by dark.”
A low murmur moved through the bikers.
Jax looked toward the rain-black windows.
“Did she say who she was afraid of?”
Eli slowly unfolded the paper.
There were only seven words on it.
Jax read them once.
Then again.
His face went cold.
Darla reached for the note. “What does it say?”
Jax pulled it away.
Outside, a pair of headlights turned into the diner parking lot and stopped without shutting off.
Jax looked through the glass.
A black SUV sat beneath the buzzing neon sign.
May you like
And the note in his hand said:
IF THEY FIND ELI, RUN. MILE MARKER 17.
