Page 88 of Agony

“Because I…fuck, I don’t know. I’m exhausting every scenario possible.”

“Why isn’t he with you guys?”

Justice briefly closed his eyes. “It’s hard for me to talk about.”

“What’s his name?”

“Rip, he’s our little brother.”

“Rip is short for?”

“Ripley.”

“Ah, okay…”

“He was taken.”

“By who?” Steel stopped walking and gave him his full attention.

“By my father.”

With as few words as possible, he told Steel about his abusive alcoholic father and about the day the man had taken Rip.

He left out the part about his brother’s screams filling his nightmares because it was too painful to talk about. And he didn’t mention his mother’s passing. She had died four years after Rip was taken.

“So that’s the gist of it,” he murmured.

“That fucking sucks.”

Justice nodded and jerked his chin and they got walking again.

One day, he silently vowed, he’d find his brother.

Unless Rip was dead.

The thought sat like lead in his chest.

They caught a break two hours after it got dark and a hooker was willing to point out Crow, who stood with another man.

Crow wore black clothes and the other guy wore regular street clothes.

When he and Steel were spotted, the two men split up and ran.

Justice sent Axel after the darkly dressed fucker. But Crow was fucking fast. Faster than lightning, and Justice could only gape when the man literally ran up the side of a building, caught the end of a fire escape ladder, and easily leaped over the railing.

Axel planted his paws on the wall and barked up at Crow.

“Quiet.”

At Justice’s command, Axel sat on his haunches, tongue lolling out.

The access between the two buildings was well lit, so it surprised the fuck out of him when Crow stopped and glanced down at him and Steel. Dressed in all black, there were a pair of handles crisscrossed on the assassin’s back. While a person couldn’t see the swords, Justice knew they were there. He suspected Crow’s were just like the ones Fisher carried.

In that brief moment, Justice could see that Crow was absolutely gorgeous.

There was no other way to put it.

Beside him, Steel gasped and a quick glance at his friend found his eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open.

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