9. I found him
NINE
I found him
STEVE
Steve pulled the covers up around his brother’s shoulders. Nick had finally drifted off to sleep again after a second night of fits and starts.
After more than a year of searching, Steve finally located his younger brother two days earlier in one of the worst, crime-ridden neighborhoods in Columbus, Ohio. The house where Nick was found was nothing more than a holding place for anyone wanting a place to lay low, get a quick hit, or entertain a customer for an hour. Sadly, Nick got mixed up in all that, though Steve doubted it was by choice. Nick wasn’t exactly aware of his surroundings when they got him out.
Following Derek’s advice to seek help from Sheriff Strager, he learned that some known criminals in the region were holding Nick.
Growing up in an ultra-conservative household outside St. Louis, Missouri, Steve and Nick were never part of a loving family. Their parents weren’t the type to find joy in having children or create a house filled with love. Instead, they based their entire parenting style on fear. And when Nick was outed as gay, their abuse took on whole new levels of cruelty.
Steve always knew parents could take a switch to their kids as a form of punishment, but it was another thing altogether to make it a way of life. He and his father took more trips to the workshop out back than he could count. Steve knew nothing different, but what they forced Nick to endure in the name of their religion was even more cruel. As if physical and emotional abuse weren’t enough, what they did was beyond reprehensible.
Steve would never forgive them for that.
When their parents realized they couldn’t force Nick to be straight or prevent Steve, who’d known all along, from protecting his little brother, they resorted to being no better than the people from whom Steve had just rescued Nick.
As he grabbed a beer from the fridge, Steve thought back to the night his fire station was called to the scene of a two-alarm house fire.
Gregory and Gwendolyn Cook were not good parents, but thank goodness, they weren’t very good arsonists, either. Their father was pronounced dead at the scene, and their mother sustained burns to her face and one side of her body.
Except for Nick’s guitar and whatever Steve had in his locker at the fire station, they lost everything the night their childhood house went up in flames. But, Steve will always consider it a good night, too. It was the night they gained freedom and relief for Nick, who was still in high school then.
He and Nick both testified at the trial, after which their mother was eventually found guilty of more crimes than Steve could count, though not nearly enough in his eyes. That list was far too long. At least she had another twenty-five years to go before she would even be eligible for parole.
Despite having some family right there in St. Louis, Steve had to get Nick away from the place that held nothing but horrible memories for them. His great aunt and uncle on their mother’s side took them in to live and work on their farm in northern Illinois, offering them both a fresh start.
Steve sat on his couch and opened the small drawer in the end table. He pulled out a picture of Nick and him posing with their Uncle Sam and Aunt Evie in front of some cows at the Sullivan family dairy farm in Mendota, not far from Chicago.
They were happy there. Nick was safe and enjoyed working with the animals on the farm. He had friends, and no one cared that he was gay.
Not long after Steve finally enlisted in the Marines, their safety net fell from underneath them. Maybe it didn’t fall out so much, as Nick cut it loose. While Steve served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nick dropped out of school and moved to Chicago, where he started working at a hotel.
Nick started working a second job outside of the hotel, too. He wrote about how he was so happy. He lived in a nice apartment with some great roommates who were truly great. He always promised Steve he’d return to school and get his GED, but in the meantime, he wrote about how he had a healthy social life, could buy nice clothes, and had fun playing his guitar for money outside Comiskey and Wrigley fields during baseball season. Nick was talented and made good money busking but apparently made better money working as an escort. Until he met the wrong client, who demanded exclusivity and didn’t take no for an answer.
After a while, Nick no longer spoke of his music. In fact, he barely spoke at all, often cutting conversations short because he was on call.
Steve flipped through the pictures to find another picture of them standing next to each other at Busch Stadium, each wearing big grins and their St. Louis Cardinals T-shirts. Steve was barely out of high school in the picture, and Nick was ready to start his freshman year.
The Cards beat the heck out of the Red Sox that day, the last happy day they had together before their parents sent Nick away. Steve kept it in his locker at the fire station, which is how it survived the house fire.
Despite being in Grant’s Crossing for nearly two months, Steve still hadn’t done anything to decorate his apartment. With only a bed, dresser, couch, and a couple of end tables, he’s barely furnished it, so framing pictures wasn’t in the cards. Instead, they stayed in the drawer.
The Marines taught him to make due with the bare necessities and that was what he did. His only expense was the Harley he bought after leaving the service.
After the Marines, Steve spent a couple of years working as a firefighter both in Chicago and outside of Detroit. In Chicago, he saw his brother from time to time until Nick vanished.
What few clues his brother left behind led him to Ypsilanti, Michigan where Steve was able to live with a Marine buddy while continuing his search for Nick. That search led him to Detroit where Steve missed Nick by one day.
One lousy day.
Steve leaned back against the couch, taking a breather, knowing all he ever wanted to do was take care of his brother because his parents didn’t. When Nick disappeared, he convinced himself that he had failed spectacularly, cursing himself for always being one step behind the people who kept a tight grip on his brother, forcing him to move again and again.
It was only thanks to some unexpected help from his firefighting brethren, Derek and Kiro, that allowed him to get Nick out of the hovel in which they’d found him. They never thought twice about driving him down there to that decrepit crackhouse in the middle of a drug-infested neighborhood in the middle of Columbus. Derek even went inside with him, where the handler was too busy counting money while selling Nick’s services to the highest bidder.
Or at least the latest bidder.
He’ll never know why Derek and Kiro helped him, but Steve would be eternally grateful. His only regret that day was not throwing a few more punches while inside that house. Derek must have understood since he didn’t even try to stop him. And though Steve still wore the cuts and bruises, he would have gladly taken on more to pay them back for what they did to Nick. Sure, Nick was in his mid-20s, but Steve would never stop playing the role of overprotective big brother.
Steve closed his eyes momentarily before taking another pull from his beer. With an audible exhale, he dialed his Uncle Sam’s cell number.
Steve waited patiently while the phone rang. From when he first left Chicago well over a year ago, to now, he promised to let his great aunt and uncle know when he found Nick.
“Hello?” An older man answered the phone. “Steve?”
“Uncle Sam?”
“So good to hear from you.” In a muffled voice, Uncle Sam spoke to his wife. “Evie, it’s Steve!”
“Do you have news?”
“I do,” Steve breathed out a laugh. “I found him. I found Nicky.”
“Oh, thank goodness.”
Uncle Sam’s voice became muffled again as he relayed the info to Aunt Evie on the other end of the line.
“Where did you find him? Is he okay?”
Steve hesitated for a few moments before responding. “I uh…”
“Steven? Is your brother okay?”
Steve exhaled. “Yes. All things considered, yeah, but he’s had it…rough.”
“What do you mean, rough? Steve? Where did you find him?”
Steve brought his aunt and uncle up to speed on how and where he found Nick. “He’s agreed to check himself into rehab.” Steve scrubbed his face with his hand. “There’s a good place nearby. He’ll get the help he needs, and…he’ll be safe there.”