Page 5 of Invincible
CHAPTER2
Damn it!Memphis should have just left his brother standing on the front porch.He stared at the evidence bag containing a handful of leather wristbands.
His half brother, Knox, had shown up unannounced on his Harley a few short hours ago.Handing one of his saddlebags to Memphis, he had given him a brief description of what he needed him to do before passing out in one of the guest rooms down the hall.He was supposed to find the girl that these bracelets belong to.
Sitting at his kitchen island, he scratched behind Harry’s ears, only half realizing what he was doing.His wife, Thayer, had insisted they send Knox the tiny puppy when she saw it at one of his client’s farms.She had named it Harry Styles after the boy band singer just to get on her old math tutor’s nerves.
Their own dog, Murphy, was curled up in the living room in his dog bed.He considered the bracelets still zipped up in their sandwich bag with a sigh.
“What do you think I should do, Harry?”The dog thumped his tail on the floor twice before sliding down to lie at Memphis’s feet.“I’m not sure that was helpful,” he said, as the dog started to snore.“You know, the last time I did this I was returned a little worse for wear.”
This time, Harry chose to ignore him, rolling up on his back with a grunt.“Fine.I don’t need your guilt, I’ll do it.”With a shake of his head in mock exasperation, he turned back to the bag of bracelets.
He had a rare talent for finding people.It was really more than a talent, it was more like a fucked-up gift of sorts.He could physically transport himself in the form of a hologram to the missing person as long as he had something of theirs to hold on to.It was how he had met his wife when she was kidnapped by a madman.It was also, coincidently, how he met his brother, Knox.
“What did Knox say?”Thayer asked, walking into the kitchen to find him staring at the bag containing the bracelets.She had lain down on the couch before Knox arrived, not feeling well.After giving the big man a hug, she had left for the bedroom, missing his explanation of why he had shown up unannounced.
“Do you remember Agent Tanaka?”Memphis asked.“He was the FBI agent out of Washington, DC, who led the investigation into your disappearance.”
“Of course, Memphis.You don’t forget something like that.”
He fought the urge to roll his eyes at her back when she pulled open the freezer, reaching for a pint of ice cream.It seemed to him that he had to tiptoe around her irritation at him more than normal lately.
“Right.Anyway, he approached Knox about a missing girl who the police are treating as a runaway.Her dad swears she has always contacted him when she takes off, but not this time.She seems to have just vanished into thin air.
“Agent Tanaka believes there’s something more to her disappearance, though.He told Knox that there have been a series of what he believes to be kidnappings around the DC metro area.He thinks young women are being taken off the streets and transported south before being sold.
“The problem is, he can’t prove any of it.He thought I might have luck finding her.”
“What are you going to do?”Thayer asked, giving him a kiss on the cheek before sliding onto the barstool next to him.Her mood seemed to be improving with every bite of Chunky Monkey.
“You tell me.I asked Harry, but he’s useless.”
Hearing his name, the dog thumped his tail once on the floor.
Memphis opened the folder with the picture of the girl he was supposed to find, pushing it over to Thayer.She had a beautiful face with high cheekbones and perfectly shaped almond eyes.Her hair was dyed with green tips and she was sporting a significant amount of eyeliner.Even through the sneer in the picture, he could tell she was a pretty girl who had to be in early high school.
“Wow, I recognize that look,” Thayer added, looking over at the picture.“It’s the same look I gave Knox when he jerked me out of the rave I snuck out of the house to attend when I was fourteen.”
Memphis smiled, remembering the havoc he had dealt out at that age as well.He had had an amazing foster family to keep his rebellion in check, but he still had to be reined in several times himself.
Thayer had had her dad and Knox, who had been like an older brother, foisted upon her but she’d come to adore him over time.
“Look at her, Thayer.If there’s even a chance she can be found, I have to try.I can’t leave her to the fate of some traffickers if I can help it.It just makes me nervous that the FBI now knows what I can do.”
Thayer hugged him.
“Okay, well I guess there’s no time like the present.”
Standing, Thayer followed him into the living room, taking the chair across from the couch from where he sat down.With a shake of his head, he looked at her, showing a brief glimpse of the pain it put him in.Often, he had been too late by the time he got there.
Memphis found himself sitting in the corner of a trailer or, more accurately, behind a hidden wall in a container loaded onto a trailer.It was a small space with very little ventilation in it.He had heard that smugglers often built a false wall in the front of the container, then stacked boxes to the ceiling on the other side.It was a risky way to move people, but it had obviously served its purpose so far.
There was a collective gasp as the girls shrunk away from him.Looking around the small space, Memphis counted a dozen all around the same age.He guessed they were anywhere from thirteen to seventeen, but it seemed the older he got, the younger everyone looked, so he could be wrong.
“It’s okay,” he whispered as loudly as he dared.He was pretty confident no one from inside the truck could hear him back here, but there was no reason to take chances.“I won’t hurt you.I’m here to help.”
Rocking up on his knees, he looked down at a dozen scared faces looking back at him.It always amazed him how accepting a terrified person could be of someone suddenly appearing in front of them.Usually, if it meant they had a hope of rescue, they would believe anything.
