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The assassin spun, eyes darting around.
“Up here,” Echo called out.
Rogue finally located him. “What did you do!”
Echo shrugged, staying on the balls of his feet in a crouched position, he bounced slightly on his perch and grinned.
“Where are they?” Rogue spat, stepping toward him.
“They are long gone.”
“Your mistake was in not going with them.” His brother’s voice turned flat.
“Still carry that nine-millimeter?”
Rogue’s face suddenly resembled stone beneath the bright cage lights, his expression giving nothing away. “I would never shoot you.”
“You might have to,” Echo said conversationally.
“Why?” Rogue’s voice turned hoarse. “Why don’t you stay here with me? I won’t lock you up again. It can be like before.” The man’s voice cracked.
Echo briefly closed his eyes. His friend was so far under Solomon’s influence that he wasn’t sure he’d ever break away. He felt so fucking bad, and guilty, and pissed off all at the same time.
“And do what, Rogue? Snatch children who already have a fucked-up life and make it worse?”
“It’s not worse,” Rogue argued. “They get food and a safe place to stay.”
“When they aren’t being tortured by a piece of rebar and limited food,” Echo added. “Oh, and let’s not forget…forced to kill.”
“It’s not like it was with us. I make sure they get food.” Rogue’s hands fisted.
“You always were a bleeding heart,” Echo reminded his brother.
“No…I’m not. That was your job.” Rogue shook his head.
“And how many times did you share your food with me and Fisher?”
There was a sudden tiredness that swept over Rogue’s face and it made Echo worry.
It was the look of defeat.
Rogue was on the verge of giving up and ending it all. Echo could see it. The weariness that went bone deep and with it, the urge to sleep and never wake up. And the hope that with that never-ending sleep there was a peace that came with it.
Echo shook his head and blinked back the prickle in his eyes. “You know, I’m just curious about something.”
“What?” Rogue frowned.
“When I shot Ice, why weren’t you there to make sure the job was done?”
Rogue glanced away.
“You couldn’t do it. I guessed correctly. You couldn’t kill Ice because you knew that I would never forgive you.” Perhaps his brother thought that he would just kill Ice and be done with it. But Rogue had not factored in just how much he’d begun to care for Ice, even if he hadn’t yet realized it himself.
“I know you set us up. I know you replaced my bullets so I wouldn’t miss killing whomever it was. And I was even thankful that you’d done that when I left my apartment.”
Their gazes locked and held across the distance. Other than the one earlier step, Rogue hadn’t come any closer.
“But it wasn’t you, was it?” Echo said softly. “I bet my life that Solomon gave the order to kill Ice.”
