CHAPTER THREE
Benny knelt beside the bed holding her hand for a long time before he moved over to the corner of the room. He couldn’t take his eyes off Stevie. His knees were held to his chest and when the fear came back, it felt like an old friend.
He could see her bound shoulder and the bruising that peeked out of the white bandages. The pale skin of her face was also bruised where Frankie hit her. Her eyes were still closed and he could see the stress of the pain she’d been in since last night was still with her.
The rest of her body was covered up by blankets but he could see the steady rhythm of her chest moving up and down as she breathed. For the first time in forever, he felt his heart calm in his chest. At first, he didn’t know what it was but the longer he felt it, the better he felt.
Usually, he only felt this this feeling when he was with his sister as she held him and he felt safe even if it only lasted a little while. Benny frowned when he realized Stevie wasn’t even touching him this time.
He felt safe being here with Stevie. Was it just being with her again and knowing she wouldn’t disappear on him again or was it being under their protection? Who were these men? How could they really protect them against the Kings? He shivered when he thought about Caulder Briggs and his brothers.
He wasn’t sorry to have pulled the trigger on Frankie. Frankie wouldn’t have stopped kicking and beating his sister until he did some real damage. Or maybe even killed her.
What he overheard last night would be dangerous knowledge to have. Caulder was going to bring war to the street of Baton Rouge but he also knew the Briggs brothers wouldn’t stop until they found him and shut him up. He knew Caulder wouldn’t allow him to live and if Caulder ever found Stevie, Benny knew he wouldn’t stop coming after her either.
He was so caught up in his own thoughts he missed Roman coming into the room and kneeling beside him. When Roman placed his hands on Benny’s shoulder, he startled and ducked as if he were ducking from a swinging hand.
“Hey there little man.” Roman’s voice soothed his fright. “I don’t mean you or your sister any harm. I just wanted to check on you.”
Benny swallowed hard. “Sorry, an old habit,” he muttered.
Roman just stared at the boy for a long moment then asked, “Are you hungry?”
Benny eyed him silently before he answered, “I could eat.”
Roman patted his arm. “Well, come on then. I’ll make you some breakfast.” He chuckled. “I could eat as well.”
Benny looked over at the bed and saw his sister was still sleeping. “Is she gonna be okay?” he whispered.
“She’s going to be fine. Her body just needs to recover and get some rest. Sazon assures me she’ll be ok.” Roman hesitated then told Benny, “You know she’s pretty beat up right? Well, it’s going to take her some time to heal and while she does that, you will be safe right here where we can protect you.”
Benny stared at him for a moment. “No one has ever done that before you know, protected us I mean. Stevie and me I mean. We’ve always had to protect ourselves. She was always watching over me until about four years ago when she had to leave. She hated the fact she had to leave me behind but she couldn’t take me with her. I always knew she was close and still watching over me though. I might not have seen her but I knew she was there.”
“Why did she leave you?” Roman asked.
Benny didn’t talk for a few minutes then he whispered, “Mrs. Harris wanted her to work for her and Stevie didn’t want to.”
Roman cocked his head to one side. “Would that have been so bad? Did your sister not want to work?”
Benny raised his head and glared at him. “Mrs. Harris runs a line of teen age girls that sell their bodies to anyone with a twenty dollar bill in their pocket. They are forced to do this and Stevie wasn’t going to let anyone force her into that situation. The girls don’t even get to keep the money they earn. My sister doesn’t mind honest work but she won’t sell herself for someone else’s profit, especially Mrs. Harris.”
Roman stopped completely snapping his head to glare at the boy beside him. “Tell me this is a joke? Who is this Mrs. Harris?”
Benny shook his head and hung his head. “She’s a foster mother,” he whispered.
Roman’s hands tightened into fists as he tried to hang on to his temper.
His brothers were watching but they couldn’t hear what the conversation was about all they could see was Roman’s temper flaring. Yuri and Sazon got to their feet and stared at them.
Roman raised his head and glared at his brothers.
Standing at attention, they saw the rage in his eyes.
“What happens if the girls fight back?” he whispered the question to the boy.
“Not many of them do,” Benny whispered back. “Mrs. Harris has ways of making them realize they’d better cooperate. She held me against Stevie and the first chance she got, Stevie got both of us out of the house and we ran away, but I was just a kid when that happened and I got caught right away. They had people looking for me, even reported me missing to the police and that’s how they found me. They held me prisoner until Stevie came back but she never did. I managed to escape a few other times and Stevie found me every time but every time I was caught and dragged back to Mrs. Harris’s house.”
“And what did this woman do to you when they brought you back?” Roman asked.
Benny hung his head but didn’t say anything. Instead, he said, “I’m hungry.”
“Come on then let’s eat.” Roman patted his shoulder and motioned toward the kitchen.
The boy winced at the pat.
Barshan and Yuri caught it. Barshan looked over at Yuri but neither of them said anything about it.
Roman went to the refrigerator and brought out a dozen eggs. Grabbing a pan and a loaf of bread, he quickly whipped up scrambled eggs and toast, sitting down at the counter he watched the boy as he sipped a cup of coffee while Benny scarfed down six scrambled eggs and a couple slices of toasted bread.
Without another word, Benny got to his feet when his plate was clean and went back to the bedroom.
Roman then set the cup down on the counter and glared at his brothers. “We need to find a foster mother named Mrs. Harris.”
Yuri shook his head. “Do you have any idea how impossible that might be? We have no idea where to start looking for this woman.”
“This woman takes young teenage girls and prostitutes them out.”
Yuri frowned. “She does what?” he asked softly.
All four brothers knew what that tone in his voice meant.
“Sazon, you need to check this kid,” Barshan told them.
“For what?” Sazon shrugged. “He seems ok.”
“But he’s not,” Barshan assured them. “I have a feeling this Mrs. Harris has beaten the boy to keep him in line. When you touched his shoulder, I saw him wince.”
“And I have to say I don’t think he’s eaten in quite some time. Not the way he scarfed down those eggs,” Mikial passed on his opinion.
Roman looked down the hall toward the closed bedroom door.
“Maybe I should have a look at your head while I’m here,” Sazon stated. “You were hit hard enough to put you out.”
“I’m fine. I don’t even have a headache anymore,” Roman replied in a distracted tone as he continued to stare at the closed door down the hall.
“Yeah, well you’ve still got blood all over your neck and clothes,” Yuri informed him. “Maybe you should take a shower and change your clothes.”
Roman turned his head to stare at his brothers. “Will you guys stay here while I do that? I have a feeling we need to watch over these two for a while.”
“I don’t think that girl is going anywhere for at least a day or two,” Sazon assured them. “Somebody worked her over pretty good.”
“But who and why?” Yuri wondered. “And what other secrets are they hiding?”
“Well, we aren’t going to get any answers until we can get them to trust us enough to open up to us,” Mikial added. “The question is how do we do that? How do we get them to trust us? That kid doesn’t trust anyone except for the girl and she isn’t in any shape to talk about anything.”
“Da, I agree.” Barshan nodded. “I think they’re running from someone or something and that could bring trouble here.”
Yuri ran his fingers through his hair and glared at the others. “What do you suggest I do? Lean on a small child? Threaten a kid to talk to us?”
Roman glared. “Nyet! You won’t do that. I won’t allow you to hurt them any more than they are already hurt.”
Yuri snapped his head around and growled at Roman. “I would never do something like that.”
Roman stared at the other man for a long moment before he nodded. “I know that. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Yuri laid his hand on Roman’s shoulder. “I know you didn’t but we need information. We need to know who they are and what they’re doing here. If someone is coming after them, we need to know so we can stop them.”
“You might want to get the girl on our side first,” Mikial remarked.
“Why?” Roman looked over at his brother.
“Because it was her that called Yuri after the kid knocked you out. She told him you needed us, that you needed help. She called him when she didn’t have to say anything.”
Roman hung his head for a moment then shrugged. “I’m going to get cleaned up.”
The others watched as he disappeared down the hall and closed his door.
Mikial turned to Yuri. “So what are we going to do here?”
Yuri shrugged. “I don’t know but those kids aren’t going anywhere until we get some answers.”
“What about extra security?” Barshan asked.
Yuri nodded. “And I’ll get someone to track down that old scar. I’m sure that has something to do with their injuries.”
As Roman stripped off his blood stained clothing he thought more about what he’d learned from Benny. He really wanted to know more about this Mrs. Harris and her supposed Foster business.
Turning on the hot water, he finished dragging off his clothes. He stood three inches over six feet and weighed in just under a solid three hundred pounds of pure muscle. At forty, he’d seen a lot in his life but nothing like the men waiting out in his living room. With them, he finally felt safe again and although he never told them, he’d never felt helpless like he had in his childhood.
When the hot water ran over his shoulders and down his own scarred back, Roman groaned. His head pained him some from the blow Benny had given him earlier but the heat from the water helped. His brown hair went almost black when it was wet as he closed his eyes and just let the water rush over him.
The water ran red for a moment or so but quickly turned clear as the blood went down the drain. He quickly finished up and dressed in fresh clothes. When he left his room to join the others, he checked on Stevie and Benny and found Stevie was awake.
Benny was sitting on the bed next to her and she looked over at him and smiled. Holding out her good hand, she urged him to join them.
Roman came over to the bed.
She smiled. “I want to thank you for your help,” she said softly.
“It was my pleasure.” He nodded. “I think I also owe you thanks for calling my friends for help.”
Stevie blushed and quickly glanced at her brother. “Yeah well, that was unintentional I assure you. Benny shouldn’t have hit you in the first place.”
“I think he did the right thing.” Roman nodded his head. “As he pointed out, I did have a gun in my hand and you didn’t know what I was going to do with it. He was just protecting you.”
Stevie glanced at Benny for a moment then bit her lips. Looking back to Roman, she stated, “I understand that you have questions.”
Roman nodded. “Would you mind if my brothers were here for this part?”
Benny reached out and took her hand. “We don’t know if we can trust them Stevie,” Benny whispered.
Stevie stared at her brother. “We don’t have a choice Benny. We can’t do this on our own anymore.”
“But I’m scared.”
“So am I, but these guys can protect us until I’m well enough to go.” Exhaling she added, “We have to trust someone. Maybe we should try them.”
Benny stared at her for a long time before he finally nodded. “I just want you to be safe.”
Stevie pulled him to her and as she kissed his forehead she whispered, “And I want the same for you. Don’t you get that Benny? You mean the world to me. I just want you safe too.”
Roman stepped back and peered down the hall. He caught Mikial’s gaze and motioned for them to come and join him.
When the others crowded into the room, Stevie sat up against the headboard and viewed the five brothers. She dropped her gaze down while she picked at the blankets for a moment. Then she raised her head and met their gazes head on. “I know you have some questions.”
Yuri nodded. “We do. We need to know who and what you and Benny are running from.”
Stevie reached out and took her brother’s hand before she said anything. Taking a deep breath she let it out, “Benny and me came from Baton Rouge. We were going to leave that city for good last night but something happened.”
“What happened?” Barshan asked.
“Frankie Briggs caught up with me,” she explained still holding his gaze. “The Briggs brothers have been looking for me for four years now but I always managed to stay under their radar until last night.”
“Frankie was chasing me,” Benny supplied. “And like a dumb sock, I led him straight to Stevie. All I knew was that I had to get to my sister. I had to protect her and I knew she would protect me too.” He hung his head. “But Frankie found her first.”
“Did he beat her?” Yuri asked.
Benny nodded.
“Why was he chasing you?” Mikial asked.
Benny didn’t say anything for the longest time.
Stevie squeezed his hand and whispered, “Tell them what you heard and saw.”
Benny looked at her and tears rolled down his cheeks. “I can’t,” he whispered. “Caulder will kill me.”
Stevie raised her hand and cupped his chin. “Caulder isn’t here and he needs to be stopped. These guys might be strong enough to do that. We have to trust in someone. We have to try and keep the city safe.”
“What does this man have to do with keeping Baton Rouge safe?” Yuri frowned.
Benny turned to look at the men. “Caulder wants to bring a drug cartel in. He’s got big plans to run their guns and drugs through Baton Rouge. He wants to use the river to bring the drugs and guns up from the gulf and run them out by highway. He’s in the King’s Crew and last night, he murdered Banger the leader of that crew to do that. He plans to blame the local MC for the murder. Banger was killed as a distraction, so no one would know what was really going on.”
Yuri glanced at his brothers a moment before he turned back to Benny. “This local MC? What is their connection to the gang?”
Benny swallowed hard. “The Advocates are trying to keep the city clean. They’ve rousted out one of the street gangs already and Banger was trying to work with them to keep the streets clean but that was something Caulder didn’t want. He wanted to get some big business back and make the kind of money to live the good life. Banger didn’t want that, not for his city or his MC and he tried to tell Caulder that but Caulder wouldn’t listen.”
“Why?” Mikial asked.
“Caulder is greedy.” Benny shrugged. “He liked the extra money he had coming in.”
“What money was that?” Barshan asked.
“Money from people like Mrs. Harris.” Stevie growled.
“Who is this Mrs. Harris?” Yuri demanded.
Stevie rolled her eyes in disgust. “Mrs. Harris is a bitch who runs a house of sin. She’s a foster parent along with her husband and neither one should be in charge of young kids.”
“Why?” Barshan asked.
Stevie caught Benny’s eye and stared at him while she responded, “They like to have siblings, one girl and one boy. When the girl reaches a certain age, usually fourteen or so, they put them to work. They keep the younger brother at the house while the girls work the streets. If the girls object, they show her just how much they control her actions.”
“How do they do that?” Yuri looked enraged.
Stevie squeezed Benny’s hand. “Show them,” she whispered.
Benny shook his head.
“They need to know,” Stevie urged.
Benny hung his head. Tears rolled down his cheeks and fell on their clasped hands. Slowly, he raised his hand and pulled his t shirt up to his shoulders.
Everyone saw the bruises, both old and new.
Roman also saw the faded scars and his heart began to beat a little faster.
“Why didn’t anyone ever turn her in to the authorities?” Sazon queried.
“Her husband is the authorities.” Stevie continued to stare at them. “Everything has to go through him to go further up the food chain.”
“That’s why her house is never raided and no one bothers the girls.” Benny scowled. “Or the kids in her home. She’s allowed to do whatever she wants because no one has the balls to stop her.”
“And what happens to the younger siblings in her charge?” Mikial asked this time.
“The girls spend two years working for her then they are allowed to start working off the price of her younger siblings,” Stevie explained.
“And what is that cost?” Yuri demanded.
“I don’t know.” Stevie stared at him.
“Benny said you never went to work for Mrs. Harris,” Roman stated.
“I had nothing she could hold against me,” Stevie informed them.
“What about Benny?” Yuri queried.
Stevie looked at Benny then grabbing his hand and squeezing it she said, “Benny and I aren’t related by blood, but by something much stronger. He’s my brother in every way that counts except for that.”
“Then why did you leave four years ago?” Roman asked.
Stevie scoffed. “When I wouldn’t work for the old bitch she sold me to Caulder. She told me he would sort me out. I was forced to leave. I didn’t choose to leave Benny behind.”
Yuri turned to his brothers. “I’m sending over a security team. I’m going back to the penthouse to begin working on this. Roman…” He looked at the other man. “You stay here and watch over them. I’ll keep you informed as I find out what we need to know.”
Roman nodded then noticed Benny and Stevie whispering. Again, he noticed Stevie was watching her brother while he spoke. He frowned, not quite knowing what this meant. Then something Benny did registered and Roman stared at the pair of them for the longest time. Then he turned and went into the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Sazon and Barshan joined him.
“What’s going on?” Sazon asked.
Roman glanced up at his brothers and shrugged. “I’m not quite sure yet.”
“What does that mean?” Barshan frowned.
“I think there is more to their story,” Roman informed them.
“Such as?” Yuri joined them.
“I think the girl might be deaf,” Roman broke the news.
“Damnation,” Yuri swore.