Page 84 of These Rough Waters

“Looks like I was right,” Rett sighs, rubbing his temples, “Our new friend, Trevor, put a bounty and reward on Maya’s head.”

“When?”

“This was listed months ago,” Rett shows me the screen and my blood runs cold. Maya’s face stares back at me but it isn’t the girl I know today. No, the girl I see here is a broken shell of a woman, pale, gaunt, sickly, with bruises, old and new covering her pretty face and a freshly split lip. It’s a photo taken of her as if by surprise, like they called her name and snapped the photo when she looked up. Her green eyes are dull, even her hair is limp and lifeless. The woman I was looking at was a living corpse.

“Tor,” Rett continues, “The reward was paid. Five days ago.”

“So, someone reported it.” I stand, cracking my neck, “Can you find out who?”

“I can try.”

“And the bounty?”

“Still active. I guess the guys from last night were hoping to cash in also.”

“There’ll be more since those guys never returned.”

“Or he’ll show and save himself some money.”

“Oh, I hope he shows, Rett, I really do.”

“I’ll dig in, see if I can find details on who ratted out Maya’s location. Least we know the girl is smart and has kept off the radar.”

“But not anymore,” I sigh, “I want that post down. Who knows what kind of sick fuck is looking at my girl.”

“You know how the dark web works, Tor, I can’t pull it down.”

“Maya was right about Trevor; he is in some sort of organization.”

“Want me to find out?”

“No, I don’t care. It won’t protect him.”

“I almost feel sorry for the guy,” Rett says, getting back to work while I pull ingredients from the fridge, “he has no ideatheTorin Avery is about to rip him to shreds.”

“He’ll know.” I chop up the vegetables, imagining all the ways I could use this knife to send the fucker to oblivion slowly, with tiny little cuts over and over and over again, “My face will be the last thing he ever sees.”

“Maya is good for you, Tor,” He says suddenly, throwing me off, “It’s good to have you back.”

“I’m not going back to the life, Rett.”

“I’m not talking about the life, Tor, I’m talking about you. You weren’t living. Now you are.”

“Yeah well, sometimes you need a little push. She gave that to me.”

“And you’re ready to fight for it.”

“With every damn thing I have.”

Rett works through dinner, choosing to take his meal and his laptop into the small home office so he could concentrate. While my brother was an ass, he was a smart one, okay, more like genius even if he never chooses to reveal that about himself.

He’d get what we needed and once the ex was dealt with, whoever gave up her location would be next. It could only be someone in this town, but I couldn’t think of a single person that would do that here and I was a pretty good judge of character.

The food I prepared goes down well, a little different to the grilled steaks I cooked before and nothing in comparison to what Maya can do, but Harper practically licks her plate clean before going up for seconds.

But then when dinner is done, and the plates are stacked in the sink, the house falling into a somewhat peaceful evening like everything wasn’t going to shit, I find Maya sneaking off.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She jumps a foot off the ground, her back to me as she fills the sink with water.

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