Page 111 of Desperate Victory

“You come home with me.”

“Just like that?” He spun to look at me.

“You’re my brother.” I was finally talking to my brother and I didn’t know what to do with the tremulous emotion that kept trying to inflate in my chest. Anger kept it in check, but at the same time…

I’d found him.

“So, yes,” I continued. “Just like that, you come home with me.”

“You make it sound easy. I don’t even know where my passport is.”

“Doesn’t matter.” There were ways to deal with paperwork. “I’ll get you there. You’ll have a home, family, unfortunately school. But we can get you caught up. Do all the normal things.” Whatever the hell normal was.

“Whatever that means,” he echoed my own thoughts on it. When he looked toward Andrea once more, I took a chance and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Her sister lives with me,” I said. “You’ll still be able to see Andrea.”

One squeeze and then I turned to walk away. Better to give him time to process that. For all that we were brothers in blood, we were strangers. It would take time.

It would take all of them time.

Even as I walked I caught sight of Milo talking to Theo. He wasn’t alone, Doc was there with him. I must have missed when Doc arrived on the scene. Made sense to have him here though.

“Hey,” Ezra said as he jogged up. “We’re doing another head count.”

“Why?” I studied him.

“Cause we’re short a kid. I keep getting four boys, and four girls.”

I frowned, then scanned the area. Levi was where I’d left him. He watched me, though he looked away when I glanced at him. I counted.

Four boys.

With Andrea, four girls. The other three were huddled together in another car with a woman who worked for Margareta Waldemar.

“Dark haired boy, maybe 5’8,” I said. “Hundred and fifty pounds, maybe. Definitely in the ganglier stage. Darker skin, more olive in complexion. No scars or significant marks that I can think of.”

I’d let all of those kids out.

There was definitely one missing.

“Fuck,” Ezra said. “We need to get out of here. Get Andrea back to the apartment. I’m assuming Theo over there and your brother…”

I nodded. “I’m going to do another sweep. Just make sure he didn’t go inside to hide in a familiar place.”

“I’ll be here,” Ezra said.

I didn’t even make it to the first stairs to go up to the second floor before Levi caught up with me. “What are we doing?”

“One of the boys is missing. The one who was in 309.”

“That’s Kostya,” Levi said and he turned to go back to the door and stare out at the vast number of moving parts and vehicles out front. “Are you sure he’s missing?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m going to sweep the building. See if he came in to hide.”

“So no one grabs him and sells him onward or worse, turns him over to the government.” From the way Levi said it, the latter was far worse than the former.

“Precisely. Do you know any spots he liked to hide in?”

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