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A/N: I return! Sorry its taken me a long time to post the next chapter and THANK YOU to everyone that has added this story to their watch list. A special thank you to those that have left me feed back.
Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men or their related enemies.. I still do not own a cat. (Though I am working on getting air conditioning in my apartment.. I don't know if that counts)
Meh.. read and review please!
Remy took a deep breath and settled down into the comfiest chair in the mans office. he was at his wits end and was hoping that this man could help him find Rogue. Since she had gone missing he had pooled all his resources, called in all his favours and still he hadn't found her.A long shot lead had lead him to a richly furnished office that belonged to a man who he had only agreed to go and see once he had worn out every other possibility for finding Rogue.
Dennis Mallory was slimy, Remy had heard about the him through a friend of a friend of a friend, it seemed that his reputation exceeded him. Dennis, was short in stature, with greying hair and a widows peak forming on his wrinkled brow. He could have been someones favorite family doctor, especially dressed as he was in a brown tweed suit, complete with leather patches on the elbows.
Instead Dennis Mallory traded and trafficked in human flesh and he had a nasty habit of finding pretty young mutants who might be purchased by his continually lengthening list of buyers. He had listened to Remy talking about Rogue and had politely looked at the picture of her that Remy supplied.
"She is a very pretty young lady Mr Lebeau, and a mutant no less, very highly sought after, and very highly priced" Remy's eyes darkened and he glared at the man the unspoken 'how much' was easy to read. Mallory named a price that would have made Remy's eye brows lift in shock if he hadn't been so angry. No wonder Rogue had gone missing if people were willing to pay THAT much to have a mutant as a sex slave.
"And that, Mr Lebeau, is just to find the young lady. It will be double to have her returned safely. I'm sure if she were sold through me then the buyer will want compensation for loosing their pet."
Remy had heard enough he lifted the brief case he had bought with him onto the table and put it down. "Down payment is half. you find her and tell me where she is and I will pay the rest. I don't want you to bring her back." Dennis drummed his fingers on the desk top. He had heard this bravado all before. he was fairly sure he hadn't even had dealings with the girl, he would have remembered the white streaks that framed her face, but if it was a way of making a quick buck out of a desperate person and Dennis Mallory had built his empire on making quick dollars out of desperate people.
Remy turned the case around and snapped open the locks so that Mallory could count the money. As he did so the phone in his pocket began to vibrate. He excused himself and pulled the phone out and answered it. Mallroy ignored his rudeness and began counting the money, stacking it into piles on his desk.
Dennis Mallory had counted only four hundred thousand dollars out when Lebeau returned to his seat and said in a calm tone.
"Mallory, I think dat yous lied to Remy." His eye brows shot up in surprise.
"I beg your pardon Mr Lebeau?"
"See, Remy jus' got a phone call from his Tante in Ne'orleans. Saying dat she picked up Rogue near da theives guild house." Dennis swore quietly to himself, sometimes desperate people got good news before they left him with the money.
"So Remy, he be thinkin' dat you need ta put dat money back into da case and forget dat ya ever met wit him." Mallory knew a threat when he heard one and nodded hurriedly packing the money back into the case, secreting approximately twenty thousand dollars into his lap as he packed. Remy shook his head and stood, walking smoothly around the desk and grasping Dennis by the back of the neck before slamming his face against the desk. "Pack all of it back in. You wasn't no help ta Remy at all so you get nothing." Dennis nodded and made sure all of the money went back into the case. Remy closed the locks and released Dennis before he picked up the case and glared at the trafficker. "next time you see Remy he will be taking you down Mallory"
Then he was gone from the office. Leaving Dennis Mallory wondering if he seriously needed to find a new line of work.
Remy drove fast, knowing that if Jean-Luc, Henri or Tante, especially Tante could have seen where the needle on the speedometer was that he would have been banned from driving by his own family. He felt lucky that they had begun to accept him back into their folds after his refusal to help Jean-Luc destroy the Rippers stronghold. He believed that Tante had finally brow beat his father into listening to him.
He pushed his foot down to the floor and his car screamed about being so badly abused. Tante had told him that she had found a girl claiming to be Rogue wandering in the swamps on the main road to New Orleans from the guild house she had fallen asleep in the car and still slept in a bed at the guild house. Remy was determined to be back at the guild house before she woke so that he could look into her eyes when she opened them, so she knew that she was safe.
Safe with him.
It had been four weeks of hell for him. He hadn't stopped looking the whole time and it was desperation that had sent him to the family for help. They had, getting in contact with their own people and getting him the Dennis Mallory lead. Jean-Luc had lent him the money to pay the man, not that he needed to, Remy had his own finances, but Jean-Luc truly believed that paying to help find Rogue was a way of patching up part of the damage he had inflicted on his son. Mallory had turned out to be a terrible lead but bless Tante and her kind heart that regularly picked up hitch hikers and strangers and dropped them off in New Orleans or invited them home for a good hot meal. Bless Tante and her love of strays.
He slugged from the can of energy drink that had kept him going when he knew he should have been asleep. Scarily, every time he had shut his eyes over the past four weeks he could see Rogue. Hear her screaming as people shrouded in darkness poked and prodded at her, stabbed her with needles, pulled her apart and put her back together wrong. Every time his body failed him and dropped him into slumber the nightmares met him with open arms.
But now. Now that she could possibly be safe, he would check and make sure she was alright and then maybe the nightmares would leave him alone.
Maybe.
