Chapter 6
Rooster
Another day, another twenty-four hours without finding a single new clue about Henry.
I'm not surprised because my brother won't be found until he's ready, but it doesn't stop me from looking for more information.
I have had more successes in life than I could ever count, and my biggest success is the most recent one. Being called up and invited to join Cerberus will always be one of my greatest accomplishments.
Despite my success, Henry has always been better. He taught me a lot of what I know. Since I knew early on in our quest to learn everything about computers that he would choose the dark side of what was possible, he stopped teaching me what he'd learned.
In keeping things as ethical as possible, there were things I'd never be able to do. Henry's lack of integrity meant he could travel through all sorts of holes and pathways to get what he needed.
I've dabbled. There is always an unethical part of finding information needed on the internet. Every firewall you cross is a violation. I've justified my searches and information seeking because they lead me to help people. I see it as a lesser evil than whatever someone is facing. Then there's the fact that many of the firewalls crossed are into the computer systems put in place by criminals, and I have no problem at all crossing those.
I drop my head into my hands, frustration quadrupling inside of me.
All of my efforts seem futile. Why have I been losing sleep trying to track Henry down when I've never been able to catch up to him, much less get a step ahead in order to catch him?
I lift my eyes to one of my screens. I don't have the volume on, but I don't have to have audio to remember the conversation I had with Morgan in the hot tub last night. I've played it in my head over and over.
I don't know if I should be concerned with how easily she pulled such personal information from me.
I know that I'd have an issue talking about Henry with others because until my brother pops his head up, I don't bring him up. It's always with the hope that I can get through one stage in my life without him disturbing my peace.
Maybe I offered answers to her questions so readily because I wanted her to feel safe around me. I didn't want to see more of the fear in her eyes when she first saw me in the house and thought I was Henry.
Maybe I got lost in her eyes, and the woman could've asked me anything, and I would've told her the truth.
I smile too when I see her smile on the playback.
I could've stayed in that hot tub until my skin started to melt from my body, and I would've smiled the entire time. Just thinking that snaps me back into reality.
I've only had contact with this woman because of Henry's manipulation.
With Morgan not being Henry's type, it makes it even more blatantly obvious that she's Henry's pick for me.
I'm playing into exactly what he wants me to do—protect the scared, terrorized woman. He knows I'd do anything in my power to keep her safe from him.
I'm doing exactly what he expects of me in this game. It's my turn, but he's backed me into a corner and forced my hand.
I drop my eyes to a different monitor, typing in code to start yet another search with slightly different parameters.
Every other time Henry has forced me into one of these damn games, when it's over and he's done playing, he's quick to let me know exactly how easily I could've caught him. It's always a simple fix, a half of a step over a line I'd never cross.
It's as if my brother is trying to pull me into the darkness. I know the satisfaction he'd feel to know that he was able to taint me somehow, but this is the first time he has used another human to put me in this position. That tells me just how awful he has gotten.
He has done some awful stuff over the years, but I never knew him to become one of the types of monsters that would hurt a woman.
Part of me wants to argue that he terrorized Kaylee a little, that the nick on her throat from his knife was minor at worst, but I think that's what he wants me to do. He wants me to justify his behavior, and it's not something I'm going to do this time around.
"That info was excellent."
I snap my eyes up to Bandera as he walks into the conference room.
I feel a spark of joy knowing I was able to help him yesterday evening. He's been tracking one of the women he met on the strip and lost her in the crowd. Thankfully, the little information he did have was enough to find a home address.
"Not in danger then?" I ask. Most women and girls who the guys come into contact with wouldn't have a permanent residence. More than half have been moved from place to place so often it's nearly impossible to even identify them.
He pulls in a deep breath before responding. "I don't know of a single person in Vegas who isn't in some sort of danger, but she isn't being trafficked. So I guess that's a good thing."
"So you're moving on to the next job?"
He tilts his head, his attention not on me, and I don't have to follow his eyes to know exactly what he's looking at. I don't give him any reaction. At least I try not to, but I feel like the guy almost getting busted jacking off by a college dormmate.
For the record, I did not have my hands anywhere near my dick but, full disclosure, my body has had a very primal and visceral reaction to watching Morgan in the hot tub.
"You don't find that a little creepy?" he asks, pointing to the monitor.
"I'm in the hot tub with her," I say by way of explanation.
"And that?" he says, pointing to a different monitor.
I look, hoping he's asking about the code I have running to try and track Henry, but shame settles inside of my gut when I look at the second monitor.
"I'm just making sure she's safe," I say, finding it difficult to pull my eyes away from the sight of her sitting in one of the plush chairs in the den, reading a book.
"She's here," he says with a scoff. "Of course, she's safe."
"You don't know Henry," I argue, clicking a few keys and making both screens that had her on them turn black.
Silence fills the space between us, and although I can feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of my face, I keep my eyes locked on the computer monitors. I hate that my brother seems hell-bent on destroying any happiness I may find.
Henry is the reason I've never spent much time or invested much energy into anything real in life.
I haven't heard from him or been an unwilling participant in one of his stupid games in several years. Part of me hoped that he'd gotten jailed or killed so that I wouldn't have to deal with him any longer. Of course, those thoughts also brought a wave of unbearable guilt and shame because we're supposed to love family no matter what, right?
I hated the relief I also felt when Morgan accused me of being the man who she'd had brief sexual encounters with. It meant my brother wasn't hurt, and that meant there was still a chance he could be saved from the darkness he surrounds himself in.
I don't know that I'll ever be able to give up hope that the man could be rehabilitated. In a perfect world, we'd both be working for Cerberus.
Who am I kidding? If Henry hadn't chosen the dark path in life, he would be sitting here, not me.
"Do you think he knows where she is?"
"Yes," I answer without hesitation.
There isn't a chance that my brother doesn't know where she is. I have no doubt Henry knew before we even showed up and walked through the front door at this address that this was where Cerberus would be.
I doubt there is a move I've made in the years that I haven't heard from him that he hasn’t been tracking me. The psychological damage of not knowing if he was alive or dead for years would've been part of his game. The man lives to torture me.
"So not only is she in danger, but that also puts Kaylee and all of us in danger."
I shake my head.
"I would argue that Henry isn't a violent person. That's not how he gets his thrills, but his current behavior is... new. He isn't the type to kick in the front door and do something terrible. That being said, the man knows he's outnumbered if he comes here. He'd be more likely to pull something when she's more vulnerable."
"Like outside?" he asks, pointing to the blank monitor that showed her in the hot tub.
"Possibly, or when she leaves the villa."
Bandera seems to work this information through his mind as if already trying to strategize how to keep her safe.
"I'll be honest…" I begin. The words that are coming already bring an acrid taste to my mouth because it feels like a betrayal to my brother. "He could probably press a button and shut all this down."
Bandera watches as I wave my hand over my computer system.
"Hell, he could probably shut Cerberus down from the inside out."
"Really?"
"I'm not just saying that because he's beat me at every turn in life. I'm not giving him a god-like status other than for the fact that he deserves one. Henry is the most diabolical hacker on the earth right now. There are teams of people who can't do what he does on a random Tuesday just for fun."
"Sucks that he's on the bad side," Bandera mutters. "What stops him from doing exactly that?"
"None of this is fun for him if he can't watch me scramble to try and catch him. I bet he's tracking keystrokes, and if I get close, he'll move his marker a couple more plays forward. Henry won't be caught unless Henry wants to be caught. Even if he is, and we think that he's going to be held accountable for what he's done, then that'll be part of his game as well."
"Fuck," Bandera mutters as he sweeps a hand down his face.
"Yeah," I quickly agree. "Fuck."