She turned, wide-eyed. “Did you see her?”

“Kind of. I got to the doorway of her room.”

“What did she say to you?”

He grimaced. “To get the hell out. I thought she sounded damn lucid at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have bad and good days. I was escorted out—politely—by her aide.” He remembered Belinda’s cold eyes, her sneer. Having now met Ephraim Burton in person, he could see the resemblance.

“Were Harry and Aubrey her only children?” Mercy asked.

“Yes. As far as I know, anyway.”

She frowned. “Can anyone trace the visit back to you? I don’t want Ephraim gunning for you, too.”

“Oh, I think that’s a given after the airport last night. He was decidedly unhappy with me.” He fell silent then, waiting until she’d once again met his gaze. “I want him to come gunning for me, Mercy. I’m ready.”

She exhaled on a sigh. “I can’t even go there right now, Rafe. I know you’re some big bad cop, but—”

“But a crippled one?” Rafe interrupted bitterly.

Her eyes flashed. “Do not put words in my mouth, Detective Sokolov. I was going to say that you might be a big bad cop, but he’s a sociopathic monster who’d kill everyone in your family to bring you to your knees.”

Rafe blinked at that. “Excuse me? What does that even mean?”

Mercy began to pace. “It means exactly that. I remember several moves during the time I was in Eden. We’d always move after someone was either devoured by wolves because they got caught too far from the main gates after sunset or deliberately cast out into the forest to be devoured by wolves because they’d ‘betrayed’ their faith.”

“Devoured by wolves?” Rafe repeated. “Really?”

Mercy stopped pacing to level him a glare. “Yes, really. It’s a genuine concern in the mountains. If not wolves, then bears. Their remains were sometimes brought back for burial—if there was enough left over. It’s what they claimed happened to Gideon after he ‘ran away.’” She used finger quotes.

“But they didn’t have a body. Because he actually escaped.”

“True, except that they had remains. Whose remains, I don’t know.” She sucked in a breath in alarm. “God, Rafe, that means they killed someone. Someone else, outside Eden.”

“Let’s table that for later. For now, let’s focus on Eden. Did you ever see the remains of other escapees?”

She pursed her lips. “Yes. Not something my mind can ever completely lock away. It was meant to keep us afraid. To keep us in line.”

“And it worked?”

“Yes, it worked,” she snapped, exasperated. “Of course it worked. It was horrific.” She drew in a breath, let it out, visibly calming herself. “My point is, the family of whoever was ‘devoured’ or whatever was punished for their relative’s sin. Or their foolishness, if they claimed it was an accidental devouring. I remember three moves—one when I was four, one when I was seven, and the one after Gideon left when I was nine. The first two times, the families didn’t move with us. They were outcast.”