“How old was she?”
There was a brief but brilliant flash of anger through Nick’s expression before it drained away. “Fourteen.”
“Jesus Christ.” Ian’s research had her disappearing at sixteen. She’d been someone’s property for two years?
Nick laughed bitterly. “Yeah, he was no help.”
Since Nick seemed to be in a talkative mood, Shane thought he might be willing to discuss other things, too. “Tell me about Brian.”
Nick tensed. “She told you about Brian?” Shane neither confirmed nor denied it, just continued to look at Nick with expectant eyes. “Yeah, guess she must have,” Nick mumbled more to himself than Shane. “How else would you know...”
“Tell me,” Shane prompted when another minute passed and Nick still said nothing.
Nick dropped heavily down into a chair. “Brian was different from the rest of them. He liked Nicki – I mean really liked her. Brian was a runner, like me, and for that reason alone, she wouldn’t have anything to do with him. But he was persistent. Couldn’t stand what Benny was doing to her.”
“Benny?” Shane interrupted.
Nick’s face twisted in disgust. “Benny Marscone. The pimp drug dealer our dear mother sold Nicki to in exchange for drugs and a nicer list of clients.”
The name sounded vaguely familiar; Shane knew he had heard it before. He tucked it away for later reflection. “Go on.”
“Brian came up with a plan to escape, to get her away from Benny. They started meeting together in secret. The day Nicki turned sixteen, they snuck off and got married. Brian thought if he could get her over the state line, they’d be alright.”
Shane’s brows drew together. “Wouldn’t they need parental consent forms?”
“Nicki did. Brian was already eighteen by then. But hell, man, getting around something like that is child’s play for those of us in the system long enough.”
Shane nodded, indicating that Nick should continue. “Well, Benny had already begun to suspect she was doing something behind his back, so he had them followed. Anyway, Benny’s guy called it in, and when they got back to Brian’s place, Benny was waiting.” Nick’s voice grew quiet. “Nicki never told me exactly what happened, but I heard about it on the streets. It was brutal.”
Shane didn’t ask him to elaborate. Ian already uncovered the fact that Brian had been shot execution-style, and Nicki had been taken away in an ambulance. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know any more detail than that.
“The rest is kind of sketchy. Like I said, Nicki doesn’t like to talk about it, and I don’t push. Nicki disappeared that night, but two of Benny’s men showed up dead, and he was found barely alive in a gutter somewhere. I guess not even Hell wanted that rat bastard.”
“What happened to Nicki?”
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know, man. Benny said he’d killed her, but other than a shitload of blood at the scene, there was no evidence. She just disappeared. That was it for me, man. With Nicki gone, I had no reason to stick around. I blew town. It was another couple of years before I even knew she was still alive.”
Holy shit, Shane thought, glad that he was hearing this first instead of Sean. He was going to have to call all of his brothers in on this one, because Sean was going to go ballistic when he found out.
“So where’s she been all this time?”
“How the hell do I know?”
Shane leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “You expect me to believe you haven’t been in contact with her all this time,” he said, shaking his head. “Yank someone else’s chain, Nick. I’m a twin myself.”
“Yeah, I heard that,” Nick said, narrowing his eyes, looking at Shane more closely. Shane kept his expression neutral. It was almost impossible for anyone outside of the immediate family to tell them apart if they didn’t want them to.
“And I didn’t say we weren’t in touch. I said I don’t know where’s she’s been.”
“She didn’t tell you when she contacted you?”
Nick shook his head. “No. She refused to. But I used to get these calls, you know, with no one on the other end? And sometimes I’d get these texts with an ICE (in case of emergency) number, the id blocked, but I knew it was her. I was just so happy she was alive I didn’t question it.” A sad smile ghosted about his lips. “And she always sent me something on our birthday.”
They sat in silence while Nick finished off another donut and cup of coffee. Shane excused himself for a few minutes. When he came back, he was tucking a small phone back into his pocket. “Come on, Nick. We have to get over to Sean’s.”
Nick blinked. “Sean’s?”
“Yeah,” Shane said with a smile. “My brother’s.”
Chapter Fourteen