Chapter Twenty-Three

Echo kicked at the cage door even though he knew it wasn’t going to give.

Two boys that couldn’t have been more than sixteen or seventeen jumped and huddled together in the next cell over. They looked like they might be twins and Echo had to wonder how the fuck Solomon had gotten his hands on them. Twins without a home seemed rare. They were both pretty, but one was slightly more delicate than the other.

“Sorry,” Echo said and they stared at him with eyes that had seen more than any human that age should have. “When I leave this place, I’ll take you with me.”

“You will?” the prettier one whispered.

“Don’t talk to him,” his brother said under his breath, but Echo heard it and clearly knew who the leader was of the pair.

“It’s okay. I grew up in a shithole just like this. Except we didn’t have jail cells, we had dog cages.”

The leader stared at him, his face filthy, hair hanging in rat tails to his shoulders and the clothes were dirty and worn.

“How long have you been here?” Echo said.

“A year,” pretty boy said.

“I told you, don’t talk to him,” his brother hissed.

“I know what you’re going through,” Echo told the leader twin who glared at him, chin tipped up in defiance and his hands squeezed into fists.

“Does he still use the rebar?”

Pretty twin ducked his head into his brother’s shoulder and the boy wrapped him up tight. Echo held the leader twin’s gaze across the distance.

“I can help you, if you let me.”

Hope, fear, rage, and terror filled the boy’s eyes. Echo knew that feeling, it was born out of murdering and his chest hurt so fucking bad. He’d never regretted what he’d become until this very moment. He knew without a doubt he’d never stop being an assassin, but these boys didn’t have to live this way.

“Stop giving them false hope,” Rogue said from the doorway and the twins tried to make themselves as small as possible.

Echo turned on the man he considered a brother. “It’s not false. Let me out of here, Rogue. Do the right thing.”

“When have you ever cared about doing the right thing?” Rogue growled.

“I’m learning how to do that from watching someone I lov—admire.”

Rogue narrowed his eyes. “Who? Ice? He’s a killer.”

“By choice, not by force.”

Rogue snapped his mouth closed and stared at him and Echo watched the myriad of emotions flicker across the man’s face. Did Rogue regret living this life? Echo knew that Rogue had been too young to even remember how long he’d been with Solomon. He also knew that Rogue had been with Solomon the longest out of all them. Even after Fisher had broken out of their cage at the age of eighteen and disappeared, Rogue had stayed behind—too scared to leave through the broken door of the cage. Fisher had tried to get Echo’s cage open, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Go, Fisher, run,” Echo sobbed, clawing at the cage from the inside.

Fisher tried until his hands and fingers were a bloody mess while Rogue stayed frozen and terrified in the open cage.

“Hurry, Fisher.” Echo pushed the teenager’s hands away.

“Echo!” Fisher said through tears.

“Go, live for us and don’t ever look back.”

“Fuck that. I’ll send help,” Fisher hissed and then looked at Rogue. “Come with me.”

“I can’t.”

“Go, Fish, run!” Echo cried.

A door clanged from far away and Fisher had done what Echo had begged of him.

Solomon had cleaned out and moved them all to another location that day, and it would be many years later before the three reconnected. Echo learned then that Fisher had indeed called the cops, but Solomon had been one step ahead. After that, Fisher had joined the Navy to escape recapture.

“It’s doesn’t matter if it’s by choice or force,” Rogue said, drawing Echo from whatever hell created the look in his eyes.

Out of the three of them, Echo may be broken, but he had the softest heart, which had caused more emotional harm. Even though Echo would deny it, Rogue knew better. Echo could live a good life, but only if he disappeared and stayed gone.

Loving Ice was not the answer.

Rogue thought his brother would have stayed away when he’d been gone for six years, but Echo had found his way back. He suspected Solomon had had a hand in that.

“They’re just kids. They’re like we used to be,” Echo said and Rogue shook his head.

“They stopped being kids the moment they killed.”

“Are you working here?” Echo’s voice sounded appalled, and Rogue clenched his teeth at the accusation.

“If not me, then who?” At least this way, he could keep Solomon from going overboard.

“Why the fuck did you come back?” Rogue whispered, and his eyes burned. “You were in the clear.”

“I came back because of you.”

“Me?” Rogue looked confused.

“Solomon promised to let you go if I came back.”

“Fuck that,” Rogue spat. “You idiot!”

“I know that now,” he whispered. “But we need to put an end to him,” Echo whispered. “If we’d have done it years ago, none of this would have happened.”

“How are we going to do that? He has power.”

“He can be killed,” Echo said, gripping the bars to keep their conversation low and almost inaudible.

“There’s more than just this place,” Rogue hissed, his eyes burning.

“How many more places like this are there?” Echo asked, his voice filled with shock.

“Three that I know of.” Rogue’s eyes held agony.

Echo reached through the bars and caught the back of Rogue’s neck and drew him closer. “Get me out of here and we’ll rescue them all.”

“We don’t know how many there are. What if there’s some five-year-old waiting for him to come back and feed him?” Rogue caught his arm and shook his head. Echo tightened his grip, but Rogue twisted away, taking several steps from the cage.

“We can make him give up the locations,” Echo argued.

“Don’t you think I’ve thought of that? Don’t you think I’ve dreamed of a hundred different ways to kill him? Like I said, he’s got power.” Tears stood in Rogue’s agony-filled gaze.

“I’m sorry.” Echo reached through the bars, but Rogue backed further away.

“It’s better to not fight,” his brother said with a dull voice and turned his back.

“I used to think that way too,” Echo whispered at Rogue’s back.

But he didn’t think that way now and the biggest difference was that he had Ice in his life.

Ice gave him courage and Echo wanted to give that courage to Rogue. He knew in his heart his brother wanted to do the right thing, only the fear could be paralyzing.

Rogue was absolutely right. What if there were other street kids caught in cages and couldn’t get out? They’d slowly starve to death waiting for Solomon. All this time, Rogue had carried that weight on his shoulders.

Fuck!

There had to be an answer to this mess somewhere.

“Where’s Fisher?” Echo asked.

Rogue glanced over his shoulder and Echo’s heart pounded in his chest.

“Tell Fisher I want to see him,” he hissed when Rogue walked toward the door. “That’s the least you can do!” he shouted, but Rogue didn’t turn back.

“Fuck!” He slapped the cage and then glanced at the twins.

He longed for the days prior to Ice when he didn’t give a shit about anyone else but his own skin. But something had changed him in the Maldives. Which wasn’t true. If he had to pin a time down, it had started when Ice began pursuing him.

It was on the island where he’d opened himself to Ice. And now? He fucking cared about these kids. He shook his head when it dawned on him.

Damn it. He’d always cared about the kids, so that wasn’t new. But he’d forgotten about—his humanity had crumbled beneath the onslaught of blood and gore. And Ice had been the one to remind him of who he was. And he remembered what it felt like to really care for another human being.

“We’re getting out of here,” Echo promised.

The boys stayed silent, watching him with dull gazes, and Echo remember that feeling of hopelessness.

This time, though, Solomon was not going to win.