8 Mile & Rion (34 page)

No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t for the life of me remember this house or where he grew up specifically. I never knew my mother; her life was shared with me through stories and pictures. This was her home growing up? Senior never told me that either. To be fair, I had to assume he didn’t know. Henry told us his father had died and he was supporting his mother and that he lived in an apartment. The only house I seized recently was to be torn down. Then again, I’d never seen the house in person I just went off of what Rio said. But when it came to Henry, he was a quiet guy who didn’t talk about his past. Content to go where I went and do what was asked of him he was kind of an enigma. He never said much or asked questions, he just hung out with me when he wasn’t working. Truth was, everyone hung out at the apartment or in the office not each other’s houses. Senior sprung college on me so when I left for school, we went from talking all the time to him disappearing.

“Explain all this to me, Henry,” I ask him politely. “How this went from being a harmless joke, to taking me from my home against my will.”

“Our father’s had an agreement, one my father took very seriously. I’ll admit at first I didn’t like it. When my father died, I lied about my past knowing Senior would hire me. Anyone who knows him knows about his second chances. If I was going to do this, I wanted to see who she was and if I could follow through with it. Then I saw you and knew my father was right. That first day I saw you, I knew our wills were no longer our own, Rion. It was fated.”

“You’ve gone about this all wrong,” I point out. “A stupid bet while drunk isn’t a binding agreement, let alone sane. I’ve even got the degree to prove it. You can’t use people as collateral on a bet, Henry and I’m seriously disappointed that you’ve gone to the lengths you have only to walk away empty handed.” In my mind I may have said, walk away at all but I was keeping that to myself.

“You belong to me, Rion,” he says reaching for his glass and taking a drink.

“Stop calling me that,” I warn him. “My name is Junior, remember it.”

“Do you know how many hours I’ve got invested in watching you?”

“No,” I tell him smiling. “But I imagine it was entertaining especially the time I---”

Then like a switch was flipped turned on, he became a different person. Slapping me hard across my face the force of it had me falling from my chair to the floor with a thud. Picking me back up and setting me down, he gets in my face and begins screaming at me. Oddly enough, I didn’t hear a word he said; instead I focused on his eyes. When he stomps away and starts pacing, I stow my own anger away and remember what Shayla had said. Reverse phycology only works with people who know how to use it. Well shit, here goes nothing.

“You do know they’ll find me, right?” I tell him. “I mean, come on, Henry, you really think we’re going to live happily abducted after, a few miles from my place? The kid I remember was quiet not dumb. You restrained me because you know for a fact I’ll tear you apart. I can picture what Rio will do to you when he sees you and I like it. But let’s be fair shall we, untie me Henry,” I taunt him. “I’ll even give you a fighting chance.”

“Oh right,” he says laughing. “Rio the man whore. The man was so far up your ass he didn’t notice the threat sitting right next to him. Rio doesn’t scare me, Rion.”

“No? Okay that’s fair. Stupid, granted, but fair. But you haven’t met Loyal yet, and when that happens I’ll need my phone to get that shit on video to show my grandkids on special occasions.”

“What did you just say?” he screams turning to face me fully. I can’t even find it in me to be afraid right now. Henry was a bitch and I don’t do bitches.

“Seriously? You want me to repeat all of that or can I just highlight the fun parts?”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because seconds later my eyes were rolling back after he sucker punched me upside the head. Score one for Henry, he hit like a sledgehammer.

‘Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.’

~ Robert A. Heinlein

For hours we tore the office apart looking for anything useful. He pulled everything Senior saved from the day he made that bet forward. There had to be hundreds of letters from the guy threatening to take Rion by force if he didn’t hand her over willingly. Ten years ago, he wrote a letter saying her time was up when she was twenty. Two weeks later, she was in college living in a gated community off campus. Like Rio said, if she wasn’t here on weekends he was there making sure she was safe.

For all of these letters, not one even hinted at who the son was.

My specialty wasn’t research, it was extraction. I was given coordinates, an objective and a weapon, that was it. Rio had the Intel here, he’s known for years someone wanted her and he had to know something even if he wasn’t consciously aware of it. The other problem was, I wasn’t skilled in interrogation either and beating him for info probably wouldn’t work even if I did get satisfaction from it.

“He had pictures of her dating back to her in high school. This guy knew her. Go over the pictures again and tell me what you see. Look past her, check the background for landmarks. The answers are there Rio, find them.”

“On it,” he says arranging the photos chronologically by age. While he did that, I went back across the hall and looked at Senior’s place with fresh eyes. It wasn’t easy knowing she was stolen right out from underneath my nose. But how? We were on the porch outside the living room and it was a two story drop. The only access to the building was the front door facing 8 Mile and the garage in the back. There was no way he came in through that front door and the apartment while we were in it. I’m missing something.

“Loyal,” he says, stealing my focus when he enters the room. “This picture was taken at the office,” he says, pointing at the photo and in the background is a framed photograph identical to the one behind her desk. “Junior bought this for his fiftieth birthday; it’s of Brigg’s Stadium. This one here was when we all went ice skating and that right there is my god damn arm.”

“First, tell me how anyone could take her out of here with us fifteen feet away. There’s two exits, the garage and the front door.”

“Fuck!” he screams then punches the wall. Following him I watch as he pulls the closet door open, moves the clothes aside to show me where a board once was. “It leads to the fire escape,” he growls, kicking it open and when I lean over I see the ladder was pulled down. “He wanted her to have an escape if she was ever in trouble. Dammit I forgot about it!”

“Who else knew about this?”

“It wasn’t a secret to the guys. Hell, at some point we were all told to use it if we needed it.”

“The man who took those pictures did this. Who was with you?”

“Senior, Tank and---” he pauses then starts to lose it completely.

“Who, god dammit?”

“Henry,” he groans. “It was Henry. He was always taking pictures of us, or hell of her. The kid never bothered nobody. Jesus Christ how did I miss this?”

“When he left, did he return his key?”

“Fuck man, I don’t remember that shit, he says. “Senior said we were always welcome back. Maybe he did, I don’t know.”

“Find me a picture of Henry,” I order him and when he stays put, I push him hard. “Do it now!”

“He was tall and lean---”

“I’m not a fucking sketch artist Rio! A picture! I need a fucking picture!”

Bolting from the room, he comes back a minute later with a photo album with the label of
our
family
on the front. “He kept everything in here,” he says opening it up. Flipping page after page he finally stops at one, turns the book and hands it to me with his finger on one man. “Him,” he says. “That’s Henry.”

“That ain’t Henry,” I mumble. “That’s Honor, my brother.”

“Oh fuck,” he says, falling into the nearest chair. “How is this possible? Your old man made the bet with Senior?”

“My old man is dead,” I tell him ripping the picture out so I can memorize it. “Honor was adopted out. I need to know everything about him including any property he or his old man owned. She took back the house I was crashing in, find out who’s name that house was in and any another houses they had.” Looking at the photo again, I told myself that I wouldn’t recognize him if he was standing right in front of me. I was wrong, I’d know him anywhere. We both share our father’s eyes and at that moment I was truly scared shitless. I wasn’t fighting an unknown, I was about to take my own brother down.

“His name is Henry James,” he says.

“Henry is his middle name and James is mine,” I correct him. “Find out who his adoptive father is, Rio, that’s the link I need. Start with public record on that house and work your way back.”

“All them years, he followed her around,” he says to himself. “He seemed harmless man, said he needed a second chance.”

“He didn’t need a second chance, he needed access to Rion. I need your head straight, Rio. Get me that information yesterday.”

“I can give you the information now,” he says, pulling up a chair to the computer. “His father’s name was Lucas Sullivan. Major piece of shit. Senior couldn’t stand the guy now I know why, fuck. He died a year ago from a heart attack. Got off easy, if you ask me. His last known residence was the house we took back.”

“Give me the last known address for Lucas personally,” I order him. While he worked on the computer, I went over to her apartment and loaded up her pistols to be ready to bolt once he gave me addresses. My god damn brother took her. Of all the scenarios I could come up with, that wasn’t one of them. Taking a moment to calm down, I find myself looking around her place again. The letters, the clocks and the photos all of it was mocking me. Was she safe? Had he touched her? Did she know she was with the enemy?

Minutes later he hands me an address. Breaking for the door he stops me. “I go where you go, head case,” he says holstering his own gun. “You ain’t the only one who loves her.”

“Let’s go,” I tell him and together we run down the stairs to the garage. Because Rio knew the streets, I took his cues and turned where he told me. Within fifteen minutes, I was kicking in the door but this house was empty. No one had been here in months. This house was a diversion.

“Fuck!” I scream. “Where the fuck is she?”

“Drop me back off and let me ask around,” he says, climbing back into my truck. “Somebody had to see something.”

“No,” I growl. “I’ll get answers my way now.”

Flooring it through town, I managed to make the ten minute drive under five without getting pulled over. The minute we walked in, spotted him and he inclined his head. I knew I’d come to the right place.

‘Love your enemies and hate your friends. Your enemies

~50 Cent

Headaches were nothing new to me. However, a headache from being jacked in the temple was a whole ‘nother story. Keeping my eyes closed as long as possible, I make sure not to move an inch. I can hear him moving around and without the use of my hands the best I could do was sit up. Deciding the floor was my best option, I listened from there instead.

He was talking to himself about how he owned me, how I should be appreciative and how he’d make me listen if he had to. The Henry I remember was gentle, content to stay in the background. This Henry was aggressive and fucking coo-coo. He was also three times the size he was last time I’d seen him. When he comes to stand over me, I can feel his anger like a physical thing. Yes, I knew basic self-defense but that was with the use of my hands. The fact was, I was no match against crazy.

“Wake up,” he says slapping my face. There was no way to hide the wince and I brought my hands up to protect my head automatically. “Tell me the truth and I won’t have to hurt you again,” he says pulling me up. “Are you hurt?”

“Yes.”

“What hurts?”

“My head and wrists.”

“I’ll get you something for your head,” he says leaving the room in favor of the kitchen. Looking around, I have to figure out how to get the fuck out of here. When he showed up at Senior’s, I was changing my clothes in my old bedroom. I didn’t sense him and in a flash I was jabbed in the arm with a needle, gagged and blindfolded before being drug through the closet down the fire escape. He tried to keep me relaxed by talking to me but the second I heard his voice, I wasn’t relaxed even with whatever he gave me.