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But that day, he had snuck out of work early to watch Toward the ame, a scrawny boy with tanned skin took a nasty spill, and soashed his cheek It was a superficial wound, so Vincent grabbed a first-aid kit froency room "Thanks, Doc," he’d said "Oh, what did the doctor say when the invisible man asked for an appointment?"

"I’hed hysterically at his joke "Get it? Can’t see you? You know, because he’s invisible!"

Vincent s the boy’s wound, and Caruilt hit him "I did"

Carmine threw his arm around the boy’s shoulder "This is uard Car--he was closed off and shut down, so er went off as he stood there, theout The sparkle in Carrown accustole word spoken

But all hope was not lost, Vincent realized, because Carmine had so, innocent boy, haunted by demons others couldn’t see

After their fallout, he watched his son spiral out of control He alking down the one path Vincent wanted hio But then she happened The girl who had never been able to call her life her own taught a boy who had the world at his fingertips exactly what it meant to live He wasn’t alone anyot the joke he had told him that first day, because Nicholas was a lot like the invisible h life, unnoticed by h, even if he couldn’t fix him And as he stood on that pier under the cloak of darkness, he wished he would have done soazed down at the water, fixated on the spot where Nicholas’s body had disappeared ust He had watched the boy grow up and had now sent hii uccidian of the cross Today we kill, tomorroe die

Vincent headed to his car hidden in the trees, and he drove away fro back He had already cleaned up the house, having hosed down the driveway and redistributed the gravel to hide all signs of the incident, but he had bigger issues he needed to deal with

As soon as Vincent made it home, he slipped inside the room under the stairs and headed down into the basement The place was cleaned out, the crates relocated elsewhere, so he had no proble the back and opened a metal electrical box on the wall beside it He slid a section of panel down, revealing a small keypad, and punched in the numbers 62373

There was a loud click He slid the panel up, closing the electrical box as the bookshelf shifted a few inches The door led into a safe rooeon The rooer than a prison cell, had steel reinforced walls layered with bulletproof Kevlar

It was the kind of room few men went into and even fewer ca the side, and fluorescent lights lit up the slare with his hand Groans rang out from the corner where Johnny lay shackled to a table on the concrete floor

"Vincent" The voice was barely audible "Helpto help s"

"I know The bullet hit your spinal cord"

"A bullet? I’hed with annoyance "Toughen up"

"What happened?" Johnny struggled to ot a call that soate and found , an innocent kid dead in my front yard, and you injured You, at the scene of an attack on my family So how about you tell ot shot, and I don’t knoho"

Vincent said, leaning against the table and crossing his aret drawn into things that get out of control, but it’s not too late to fix it I need you to tell irl"

"I can’t!"

Vincent could sense his panic and fought to keep his expression calm so as not to alarm him further "You have to be in pain, and you need your wound cleaned before infection takes hold It’s your only option"

"I can’t tell you anything," he said "I don’t know anything"

"You’re lying," Vincent said "You wouldn’t go along with so unless you knehy Where did he take her?"

"You have to believe me, Vincent I can’t tell you!"

"You can tell me, you just won’t! There’s a difference, and that difference is as vast as life and death"

"Please!"

He shook his head "Don’t beg! It’s unbeco of you"

"You have to understand--"

"No, you have to understand They’ve taken so to stop until I find her If you want even the slightest chance ofit out of this room alive, you’ll tell , they’ll kill me"

"If you don’t tell me, I’ll kill you," he said "And I won’t taketo be right here, and I’ until she’s back where she belongs"

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife Carmine had heard the phrase soin that i back nausea at the stench of fresh leather, that he finally understood what itfrom the man beside him too much to take