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Or, had he been forced?
Echo kicked at the cage door even though he knew it wasn’t going to give.
Two boys that couldn’t have been more than sixteen or seventeen jumped and huddled together in the next cell over. They looked like they might be twins and Echo had to wonder how the fuck Solomon had gotten his hands on them. Twins without a home seemed rare. They were both pretty, but one was slightly more delicate than the other.
“Sorry,” Echo said and they stared at him with eyes that had seen more than any human that age should have. “When I leave this place, I’ll take you with me.”
“You will?” the prettier one whispered.
“Don’t talk to him,” his brother said under his breath, but Echo heard it and clearly knew who the leader was of the pair.
“It’s okay. I grew up in a shithole just like this. Except we didn’t have jail cells, we had dog cages.”
The leader stared at him, his face filthy, hair hanging in rat tails to his shoulders and the clothes were dirty and worn.
“How long have you been here?” Echo said.
“A year,” pretty boy said.
“I told you, don’t talk to him,” his brother hissed.
“I know what you’re going through,” Echo told the leader twin who glared at him, chin tipped up in defiance and his hands squeezed into fists.
“Does he still use the rebar?”
Pretty twin ducked his head into his brother’s shoulder and the boy wrapped him up tight. Echo held the leader twin’s gaze across the distance.
“I can help you, if you let me.”
Hope, fear, rage, and terror filled the boy’s eyes. Echo knew that feeling, it was born out of murdering and his chest hurt so fucking bad. He’d never regretted what he’d become until this very moment. He knew without a doubt he’d never stop being an assassin, but these boys didn’t have to live this way.
“Stop giving them false hope,” Rogue said from the doorway and the twins tried to make themselves as small as possible.
Echo turned on the man he considered a brother. “It’s not false. Let me out of here, Rogue. Do the right thing.”
“When have you ever cared about doing the right thing?” Rogue growled.
“I’m learning how to do that from watching someone I lov—admire.”
Rogue narrowed his eyes. “Who? Ice? He’s a killer.”
“By choice, not by force.”
Rogue snapped his mouth closed and stared at him and Echo watched the myriad of emotions flicker across the man’s face. Did Rogue regret living this life? Echo knew that Rogue had been too young to even remember how long he’d been with Solomon. He also knew that Rogue had been with Solomon the longest out of all them. Even after Fisher had broken out of their cage at the age of eighteen and disappeared, Rogue had stayed behind—too scared to leave through the broken door of the cage. Fisher had tried to get Echo’s cage open, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Go, Fisher, run,” Echo sobbed, clawing at the cage from the inside.
Fisher tried until his hands and fingers were a bloody mess while Rogue stayed frozen and terrified in the open cage.
“Hurry, Fisher.” Echo pushed the teenager’s hands away.
“Echo!” Fisher said through tears.
“Go, live for us and don’t ever look back.”
“Fuck that. I’ll send help,” Fisher hissed and then looked at Rogue. “Come with me.”
“I can’t.”
