17. Nitro

SEVENTEEN

NITRO

I shouldn't be kissing her, so why the fuck did I kiss her again? Why can't I stay away from her? What is it about her that's taken over me. I'm lying to my brothers, I'm putting myself at risk with her by showing myself to her. Fine it's only my eyes but it's more than what anyone else has ever seen.

The morning was full on busy, two clients both having big tattoos which I knew were going to take up all my morning, and it did. One of them has to come back tomorrow to get the last part of it finished. I wanted it finished today, but he kept wanting a break every fifteen minutes.

I dig my phone out of my pocket to make sure Emily is okay. I told Nyx about the camera as soon as I got into the shop, and he agreed that it's the best way we can watch her, and still be here for work.

She's sitting on the sofa drawing something, her sexy tattooed legs stretched out on the sofa. Quickly putting the phone away before one of my brothers notice I'm watching the phone for too long.

"So what did we need to talk about?" Nyx asks, as soon as Tic and Ares walk over to the table, Esha's in the kitchen making some Indian dish for tonight.

Tic's been working but spray painting the helmets, the man can't move, yet he wants to work. I stop arguing with him after five minutes because I've got a fucking headache, and Nyx didn't even bother saying anything, and Ares well he's been watching his every move, yet he's not a hundred percent either.

It's my biggest fear, I don't fear getting caught by the Gatekeepers again, there is only one thing I fear in life, and it's losing one of my brothers.

"I spoke with Emily last night, and I tried to take her back to when her sister was taken. It's crazy but she's hiding something, but I don't think she knows she's hiding it." I light up a cigarette, and grab my coffee. "From the moment they grab her sister and her, she knows. She said she fought them, screamed, but nothing after that, until after her parents' accident. It's like that part has been erased from her."

Last night I could see she was trying, her body, her voice were both trying to figure out what was happening, but there was nothing.

"So you think someone's taken her memory from her?" Ares asks. "Can that even happen?"

I don't reply because I have no idea if that can happen or not, but one thing I do know is she can't remember.

"She say anything? Can she remember what they look like? I was going to ask her, but she got so freaked out I didn't want to push it. But she's not lying about her sister, I know that much."

"And how do you know that, you found something we can't?" Ares snaps at me, and I shake my head, fucker always needs to be a dick. How Esha's still with him, I have no idea half of the time.

"She didn't want to show us, scared we would take it from her, if the only thing she has is her sister, so I read it and gave it back to her. The police report on her sister-"

"We've not found that report, Wesley said there is nothing." Nyx cuts me off, and I nod, because he's right there is nothing, we've all been looking.

"I know, but this report had the information about her parents talking to a police officer, and he lives an hour away from here. Thought maybe we could talk to him. If he can say he spoke to her parents then maybe she's not crazy." I stare at the three of them as they look between each other.

I know they think I'm too close to her, I agree with them, but out of the four of us she's talking to me, and we need her to talk to one of us.

"Tic is still too fucked up to ride, I can go but two of my wounds keep opening, my woman can't keep her hands off me," Ares shouts making himself laugh and I look over at Esha staring at him.

"Excuse me, I'm sure I've told you not to touch me," she snaps back at him, making me laugh.

"Give me the night, tomorrow we can go." He turns to face me, and Nyx shakes his head.

"We're not killing anyone, the two of us can go and talk to him." I'm relieved he's said that, because I'm not. I can't wait a night to get something on Emily.

"I'll go over to the flat once I finish work, and then you can take over," Ares looks at me, and I nod. "But call me when you're on your way home to let us know what you got."

"I'll do a group call," I tell him, and smile at Esha sitting down to eat her lunch. "How are you feeling now?" I ask her.

She seems like her normal self, Ares went to a meeting with her doctor, and they've started steroid injection hoping it will help. Ares wants to take her to a a private clinic to see if they can help, but can't remember when he said.

"Better, if I have a good time then I'm good for a while, so hoping this is a long run for me." She looks between the four of us and shakes her head. "I know you four don't sleep, but you all look like hell."

The four of us start laughing, a full laugh which I've not done in a while now, and it feels good.

"Oh Princess, hell couldn't handle us," I say through laughter, and she shakes her head at me.

"No one can handle you," she says looking over at Ares as he talks to me.

"Have you changed your bandages?" I didn't get back early from across the street, and when I walked through the door my first client was already here, so had to get straight to work. "Change them before you get a fucking infection." Ares slides the first-aid box over to me.

"I've been busy. When is Wesley coming with the first update?" I ask them, taking my t-shirt off so I can clean myself up.

"Not for a few days, I'm going to ride past the house tonight on my way back to make sure no one is sitting outside it," Nyx tells us, and I look over at Ares reading through one of the note pads.

I don't think he does anything else at the moment, and I'm not complaining because it might give me answers quicker, but the man needs to sleep.

I also have to take Emily for a bike ride tonight, which I'm not looking forward to, her body shouldn't be so close to me right now.

Ripping the bandage off my stomach, I begin cleaning it up, while listening to Ares and Tic talk about the bike they are working on, and Nyx leaves to get back to work. Once I finish cleaning myself up, I pull the notepad closer to me, just see what this one is saying, Ares keeps us up to date with what he's been finding, writing down all the main points he finds, or anything which can help us, and normally I just look through that, but I've got nothing else to do right now.

We sold three boys today, the oldest was putting up a fight, but we've trained them, and he knows there is nowhere to go from here, he will live his new life and be happy about it.

There have been a few we've had to get rid of, they weren't making us any money, no one was bidding for them. Sometimes it‘s hard to find the perfect match for clients. Some people ask for certain things. We have one client wanting twins, but he wants them to be older so he can watch them fight, but for us to do that we have to take them young to teach them, they have to learn how to fight. Hunting for twins is not going to be easy, but it's now the only job I have.

We also got a new little girl, and I've asked if I can have my fun with her, she reminds me of my own little girl.

I stop reading and look at Ares, who is watching me and shakes his head not to say anything, a quick glance over to Esha who is tapping away on her phone. That girl lived the perfect life to the world, but deep down it was all fucked up, and she knows about it, but I think Ares is doing the right thing in not telling her everything. Looking back over at Ares, he has to be wondering the same thing as me, did her dad ever try anything with her when she was little and she doesn't remember anything like that.

We've been doing this a long time, and we've heard little girls telling us they didn't think there was anything wrong with what their dads were doing to them because it was their dad.

Ares shakes his dad again, the man always knows what I'm thinking, pisses me off sometimes. What else has he read in the notepads about her family that he's hiding from us?

"Esha, you want to give us a few minutes," Ares doesn't look away from me, and Esha gets up and gives him a kiss on the cheek then walks to the stairs, and I wait for her to be out of sight before I say anything. "Nyx knows about what you've just read, and I was going to tell you once we were all together, but it's been a little busy at the moment." Ares drinks his coffee, and I wait to see if he is going to say anything else and he doesn't.

"You're not telling her?" I ask.

"No. No point she can't change anything, and I don't want her to keep thinking if her dad ever did touch her, she will go fucking crazy," Ares tells us, and I give him a nod. I understand, when she finds out anything about what her family has done she breaks down, and the last time she ended up in hospital, Ares told us then we were never to tell her anything about what he reads.

"Anything about a baby?" I ask, I know he would have told me as soon as he finds it, but like he said it's been busy, and we've not all had the chance to sit down and talk about anything.

"Nothing yet, but I'm getting through them," Ares tells me, he leans over, takes the notepad and leaves to get back to work. I follow Ares and Tic out to work on my last client for the day, then Nyx and I can go talk to the officer and hope to get some answers about Emily finally.

Nyx and I left soon after it got dark, we weren't sure if we wanted to go as the ghosts, or if we just wanted to turn up as us. I mean we aren't killing the man, and thought we would tell him we were family or some shit like that. We're pretty good at talking shit on the spot, but I said ghosts are better in case the officer is being paid by whoever wants Emily dead.

Someone is making sure she doesn't talk to anyone, so we have no idea who to trust. Nyx said it was fine, and Ares told us to call as soon as they left the house.

"What's up with you, you seem off since last night?" I hear Nyx in my ear piece, as we drive to the house.

The officer doesn't live too far, which I don't mind, but it got me thinking more. If the officer lives only an hour away from us, surely we would have heard something about the accident too, I mean we listen and read up on the news everyday, so the chance of us missing this is slim.

"I'm good, sleep is catching up on me," I reply, as we stop at the traffic lights, and Nyx turns to me. "Just getting pissed off we seem to be always one step behind on everything, when the fuck will we be ahead of them." I don't know what else he wants me to say, I was fucking Emily then I saw the tattoo, yeah I can already see how that conversation will be going. A fucking fight.

Nyx continues to stare at me, and I hear him laughing in my ear.

"She's a pretty one, if the situation was different I could see you fucking her." Nyx says riding off when the lights change and I follow him, not far from the house now. "Tattoos have always been your thing. If she's innocent, and we can prove it, then go for it, until then stay the fuck away," Nyx warns, and i stay quite.

I know I have to stay away, yet you fuckers keep having me be the one to stay with her is what I want to shout at him, but I keep my mouth shut, because hiding what I've found is already killing me. I need to get some fucking answers from this officer tonight. The longer I keep this from my brothers the harder it will be to be around them. Ares can read people better than any of us, and he will pick up my change fast.

"Park at the pub and walk the rest," I tell Nyx. One of the hardest things to do is finding the best place to park, especially when we come on our bikes, because we never change the number plates on them, so we need to make sure no one ever sees us around them.

I found a pub which is ten minutes away, so we can get away without anyone seeing us.

"How come you came, thought you'd be at the bar?" I ask Nyx, every night for the last four years he has been going there, I think he's missed a few when we've been out the city, but if it's things like this, we go when he comes back. We joke around with him about it, but he also knows we back him with where he goes too.

"Not working tonight," Nyx replies. "Ares wanted me to talk to you."

I turn to Nyx, why has he got Nyx to talk to me and not himself. We've never done that before, if we have something to say, we go to the other, it's always been that way, so what's happened.

"Ares just doesn't get time to talk to you at the moment, you're at the flat, and when you're not then Esha's around and he doesn't want to keep kicking her out, she's part of the family now," Nyx begins as we walk down the street, and I put the camera blockers on, so we don't have to worry about them.

"And I'd protect her like I'd protect you, he knows that." Esha didn't know about their family, it's not her fault.

"He knows, but the conversation is about what he's been reading, and well you know-" Nyx turns to me, and I give him a nod because I do. Esha cries every time she finds out what her family did, then she apologises to us every time she can. It's hard for her, she lives with the men who killed her family, and she loves a man her family fucked up. Her head is all over the place at the best of times. "-that's why he said wait a day, but I could see you wanted answers tonight."

"Don't you? I mean she's hiding something, or it's been locked away somewhere and it's not coming to her." I've never seen it happen before, I've seen it on TV shows, and movies before, but never met anyone who's had their memory taken from them.

"Nitro I agree with you, there is something blocking her memory, so let's get what we can tonight, and then you talk to her in a way which might help her remember something." I don't say anything, because the only way she opened up a little to me last time was by showing her my eyes, another thing I can't tell my brothers about. So fucked up, yet the only thing I want from her i, her mouth around my cock so I can fuck it.

"So what did Ares want to tell me?" I ask.

"He's been reading, and he told me about you thinking you were born in the house, which we both thought could be the case, because you know nothing outside of it-" Nyx stops and looks around to make sure no one is around, then we continue. "-If you were born in that house, we might not find out who your parents are, and if it's one of the families, are you prepared to kill them?"

"Yes, nothing changes the fact of what they did to us. All I want to know is who they are. I'm praying it's not one of the families, I'm also praying it's not one of the girls they abused, but no matter what happens I will kill them." I'm going to fucking smile while I kill them, I want to burn them, I want to hear their screams over and over again, I don't care. "All I want to know is was I born in the house? Or was I taken from a family who loved me." I turn to Nyx, and he shakes his head a little and stops to turn to me.

"This is Ares talking now, but I agree with him. Out of the four of us, Nitro is the only one who cares a little, he needs to know everything about who we kill and if it's worth it. Look at him with Emily, I'm scared if he was born in that hellhole, it's going to fuck him up, and I'm not sure how he will react. Ares said that word for-"

"Nyx, I know we have to kill them, my head is always in a fucked up place, nothing will change that, and when we find out the truth we will figure it out then." I continue to walk to the house.

I understand what my brothers are saying, and it's true, I'm not killing someone without finding out everything first, and I will be honest I don't know how I will react when I find out the truth, right now I just want to know what the truth is.

We both look around to see if anyone is around, then put our masks on. I unlock the door and walk straight in. One thing about police officers that we've noticed is not many of them are married, and if they are they've got divorced.

Heading upstairs to the bedroom, Nyx gets on one side of the bed, while I put the light on, and the officer quickly jumps out of bed, and goes for his gun.

Nyx stops him. "I wouldn't if I was you." Grabbing his wrist, the officer screams a little. "We only want to talk, then we will leave."

He looks between both of us, eyes wide, he lets go of the gun, Nyx takes it off the side table, and takes a step back.

"You're a story, you're not-"

"And when we leave, it stays a story. If you talk about this night, then we come back and it won't be for a conversation." I walk closer to the bed, his eyes focused on me. "So are we a story?" I ask, and he nods quickly, and I smile, the fear always makes me smile. "Are you ready to talk?"

"Yes," he whispers, and both Nyx and I stand at the foot of the bed.

"Four years ago there was a report on a missing child, then the parents died in a car crash, we want to know what you know," I begin, and he shifts on the bed, he knows something, he shakes his head looking down at the bed.

"Is Emily okay?" he asks, but we stay quiet. "I always worried about her, I kept telling her not to waste her money on private detectives, but she didn't listen. I was worried she would end up on the street, the amount of money she was spendi-"

"What happened?" I cut him off.

"We got a call, myself and my partner went to the house, and the parents were crying, as you expect them to be worried, scared, both their daughters had been taken-"

"Both?" Nyx asks.

"Yes, Emily and her sister were taken. Her sister hasn't been found, and for four months we didn't think we would see Emily again either." The officer takes a sip of his water, before looking back over at us. "The next time we saw Emily was the day of her parents' car crash, she was in the back seat. We thought her parents had found her, and were taking her home, but he then," he stops.

We give him a moment to get his words together, not wanting to say anything which will scare him, because this is new information for us.

"We got to the hospital, and asked Emily what had happened, and where she had been, but...I don't know, it was strange. She kept telling us she was out with her parents looking for her sister, then a car had hit theirs. I spoke to her for months after that accident and no matter what, she kept thinking she had been looking for a sister, I mentioned a few times that she had gone missing too, and she laughed saying how can I go missing when I've been home with my parents."

He stops when Nyx and I look between each other. We've got answers, but we've got more questions too.

"What do you think happened to her?" I ask, and the officer looks at the window. I know he retired after closing the case on Emily, and you can see it's taken a toll on his life. Wesley always told us, the case got so bad sometimes he couldn't sleep for days, the only reason he is still there is revenge and nothing else.

"The doctors did tests on her, but said there was no point telling her about them, because as far as Emily was concerned, for the last four months she had been home with her family. And if they told her she would have thought it was her parents." He gets off the bed, and walks over to his wardrobe, and looks back over at us. "Is she safe?" he asks with a worry in his tone.

"She's with us, we're trying to keep her safe," Nyx answers because I have no idea what to tell him. I want to say she is, but I don't know if she is.

"She was raped repeatedly, and the doctor said she was beaten, but again she put the bruises down to the car accident." He turns around, with a piece of paper in his hand. "This is the report, I thought maybe one day she would knock on my door, and ask if I knew anything, but that day hasn't come."

I take the paper from him, and Nyx takes a step closer to him. "Have you got anything on her sister? We've been looking into it, and everything has disappeared. Her birth certificate, her parents being married, the accident, everything, she's a ghost. If I wasn't talking to you, we would have nothing."

"I left a month after Emily was found, I don't know what to tell you. I hope she finds out what really happened to her," the officer stops, and without saying a word I leave, there is nothing else he can help me with. It's given me something, I just have to figure out how to help her remember without scaring her to a point where she blocks everything out even more.