“Carter, Carter my baby,” she cried kissing her son’s forehead.
“Mama, where am I?”
“Carter, you were brought here by our friends, Bull and Rory,” said Luke. “My name is Luke.”
“My stomach hurts so bad,” he said staring at them.
“We’re giving you a massive push of fluids right now, Carter,” said Riley. “It’s going to take a while to get it all out of your system but you only had the one shot so you should be okay.”
“What did he give me? He said it was going to help me compete at a different level.”
“He was giving you drugs that we are still trying to identify,” said Riley. “A great deal of what was in there, was female hormone therapy.”
“F-female? He was trying to make me a girl?” he whispered.
“We’re honestly not sure yet,” said Riley. “We’ll want to keep you here for a few days and run some tests. Your mom can stay as well.”
“She has to work,” he said shaking his head. “We can’t pay the rent if she loses her job.”
“You let us worry about that,” said Eric.
“I can’t take money from you,” said Ginnie.
“Well, we’re not offering money,” smirked Eric. “We bought your rental property. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on that house, so while we’re doing the work, you’re going to stay here in a guest cottage. When the work is done, you and your son can move back in and we’ll talk about lowering the rent.”
“Lowering?” she whispered, staring at the group of people. “No one lowers rent. I’m going to ask this again. Who are you people?”
“We run a security and investigation company called LEGACY. It’s an off-shoot off our fathers’ company, Gray Wolf Security,” said Cam. “This is what we do every day, every week, every month. We will find out what Butch and his sister are doing and we will make them pay.”
“I just want my son safe and away from that gym,” she said gripping her son’s hand.
“We’ll make sure that happens,” said Luke. “When he’s well enough, we will be training him with our own training team. They’ll prep him for whatever he wants to do in life. College athletics, military service, no matter what it is.”
“H-how much?” she stammered.
“Free,” said Luke. “We don’t charge to help young men become great grown men. We consider it a service to the community.”
“What do we do now?” asked Ginnie.
“You stay here until we can figure this out. If he finds you, or your son, he may suspect that someone is helping you. He won’t understand until it’s too late that he’s chosen the wrong group of people to piss off.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Helen and Butch stared at one another as they boxed up the new batch for demonstration. They were remembering how this all began.
The Woerter house crouched at the edge of town like a clenched fist, full of angst, anxiety and fear.
Its windows were always open, even in winter. Vladim Woerter believed cold air hardened the lungs. He believed hunger sharpened instinct. He believed love, if it existed at all, was proven only through victory.
Butch learned that lesson first.
He was eight when his father dragged him into the backyard at dawn and set a rusted barbell across his shoulders.
“Again,” Vladim said.
Butch’s knees trembled. Frost silvered the grass and soaked through his socks. He tried to lift the weight. It sagged and tipped him sideways.
“Again.”