Page 66 of Agony

And time was something he may not have a lot of.

Now though, he had to find somewhere to stash Boston.

No way could he let a sixteen-year-old come with him when he ended Tanis and Blue.

It was late afternoon a few days later when Justice stalked into the room of his home that housed his surveillance videos.

Doing a job had helped, but it hadn’t taken his mind from what Fisher had suffered.

From what he’d put Fisher through, he reminded himself.

He quickly pulled up the footage on the computer that sat on the counter that stretched the length of the room.

After seeing firsthand the warehouse where they’d kept Cash, Apollo, and Azrael, watching the scene unfold in his own basement was very fucking different.

Even though some of Fisher’s questions were on the odd side, the man’s anger and hate now made perfect sense.

The screen flickered and the video started rolling. He had watched the footage over and over for what seemed to be the hundredth time, but he looked at it now with new eyes.

After tossing the cot and bucket in the first initial burst of anger, Fisher had stumbled to the corner of the cage and sat with his knees pulled to his chest.

The man’s lips were moving, but Justice couldn’t decipher the words. After staring into space for over an hour, Fisher dropped his forehead to his knees and didn’t move.

Axel had grown restless or worried because the dog started pacing back and forth in front of the bars.

Fisher never lifted his head.

Two hours after that, Axel barreled toward the basement door and disappeared. How Rogue got his guard dog into the closet outside of the basement was anyone’s guess.

After several moments, Rogue came into the basement, grabbed the key on the wall near the door, and hurried over to open the cage.

Fisher didn’t move.

Rogue rushed across the enclosure and crouched down in front of Fisher. Rogue was saying something, but Fisher still didn’t move. In the next instance, Rogue scooped Fisher up from the floor and carried him out of the cage.

Justice turned off the video feed.

He’d built the six-by-six cage to train Axel with search and rescue and it had stood empty for months. Placing the cot and bucket had been done the night before by him.

The cage should have stayed empty.

It should have not been used as a prison cell.

It didn’t matter that he hadn’t realized the hell it represented to Fisher.

Not stopping to think, Justice walked out of the computer room and into the basement. He snatched up a sledgehammer from the bench.

Swinging it with all his might, he smashed and ripped the cage apart.

It was too late.

Way too late.

After tearing down the cage, Justice took the rest of the afternoon to drink. He didn’t normally do that, but he wanted to go numb if only for a few hours.

He paid for it the next morning when he rolled from bed with a pounding headache.

“Fuck,” he groaned, sitting on the edge of the bed holding his head.

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