Page 18 of Rooster

"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."

---