"Where is he?" Jack demanded angrily.
"Where is who?" Snyder feigned ignorance with a cunning smile which made Jack's stomach turn.
"Racetrack! What did you do with Racetrack?" Jack was screaming now, and Snyder continued to grin.
"Oh, did he not make it back to your room? He must have gone for a walk or something."
Jack shook his head and rolled his eyes as he turned to leave Snyder's office. Race would never leave, not without telling Jack where he was going. Not without saying goodbye to Romeo and the rest of their brothers. But Snyder clearly wasn't going to be of any help.
The last Jack had seen Race was hours earlier when Snyder had chosen him out of their morning lineup as his daily victim. Jack cringed when he reflected on it now, but in that moment, he had felt an ounce of relief. Obviously, he hated that Snyder tortured any of his brothers, that it had become so normal to them that the first thing they did each morning was line up in the upstairs hallway for their guardian to randomly select one of them to be beaten by him in his office. But when Race had been picked, Jack felt ever so slightly relieved that it hadn't been one of the younger boys. When it was one of the littles, Jack would sit right outside Snyder's door to be able to comfort him the second he was freed. He would spend the whole day checking in on him, making sure he wasn't hurting too bad, making sure he remembered he was important and loved and not everyone would hurt him the way Spider does. When it was Race, Jack knew his day would be easier. Normally Jack would have expected Race to return soon after, too tough and too stubborn to admit to any pain. Hours had passed, and Jack didn't even notice that Race wasn't back, having been too distracted by the rest of the morning's events.
Jack returned to the room he shared with Race and Crutchie, where the youngest of the three looked to him with questioning eyes. "Spider said he left," Jack mumbled, and Crutchie, too, knew Snyder was lying. He must have beaten Race unconscious and was hiding him until he woke up. Without having to be asked, Crutchie got up to stand guard at the door while Jack dug out their most prized possession, a burner phone Katherine had given them for emergencies like this.
Jack turned it on, pulled up Davey's number, and quickly sent off a text: "Can't find Race. Spider says he left." Then immediately turned the phone off and returned it to its hiding place. Davey knew not to text back. If the phone ever made a sound and Snyder found out they had it... Jack didn't even want to think about what would happen. Instead, about an hour later, Davey showed up on the fire escape by Jack's window with Katherine.
"I ran to Brooklyn. Spot hadn't seen him, and he wasn't at Sheepshead," Davey relayed.
"He wasn't at Jacobi's or Medda's, and they hadn't seen him either," Katherine added.
Those were really the only places he'd go. It only further confirmed what Jack already knew: he was still in their building. Somewhere.
"Are you okay?" Katherine questioned him, reaching for his hand.
"I'll be okay when I know where Racer is," Jack signed. "When I know that he's okay," he amended. Katherine's heart broke, and she reached to rest her hands on either side of his face. When he finally met her eye, she kissed him passionately, and his heart momentarily felt whole, like his battery recharged. But when they broke away and he remembered why she was there at all, he felt himself shatter again. Katherine already had a plan to help find Race, so she carefully climbed back down the fire escape, leaving Davey behind.
"Is everyone else okay?" Davey tried to make smalltalk.
"Not really," Jack admitted. "Romeo had a nightmare last night and only wants to see Race. Spider beat Finch pretty bad yesterday, and he can barely walk. Albert's got a fever."
Davey groaned, regretting he'd asked. He rummaged in his backpack until he found some Tylenol. "For Albert's fever," he stated. "It'll help Finch's pain, too." Jack nodded and accepted it gratefully.
Jack delivered the medicine to the two boys, and snuggled them both close to him until he heard the knock at the front door of their building, Katherine putting her plan in motion. Snyder answered the door to find the beautiful young reporter with her notebook and pen. "I'm Katherine Plummer with the Sun," she introduced herself, knowing Snyder had no idea how often she had been in this building, sneaking through Jack's window with food or blankets or just herself to love on the neglected boys. "I'm doing a story on today's heroes, fine men like yourself who raise street rats into productive members of society. I was hoping to interview you." Katherine internally gagged at her lie, but she knew flattery was the quickest and easiest way into Snyder's office.
"Ah yes, please come in," he gestured and led her to the room that was usually reserved for torturing the boys.
Katherine mindlessly asked questions and pretended to write down Snyder's answers while pacing back and forth, her eyes scanning the room for Race's possible hiding spot, when she noticed the sound her heels made on the floor. She deliberately tapped her foot nonchalantly, then took a few steps over and stomped again. There clearly was a more hollow sound in the second place, followed by the very faint cry of Race. "Nooo," he weakly begged, assuming Katherine's banging was Snyder coming back to torture him again.
Beneath the floorboards in a shallow cubby that Snyder had secretly created, Race lay in the fetal position with his wrists bound tightly together by rope, nursing his aching head.
Katherine immediately fell to the floor and banged with her hands. "Race? Are you in there? It's me, it's Katherine!" Turning towards the door, she yelled to her boyfriend, who she knew would be waiting just outside for her protection. "Jack, he's in here!"
Jack burst through the door just in time to see Snyder grabbing Katherine by the upper arm and shoving her aside. Jack caught and steadied her before she could fall to the ground, then instinctively placed himself between the two. "Where is Race?" he demanded again, and Snyder ignored him but Katherine pointed. "Katherine, run," he ordered, and she did as she was told, rubbing at her sore arm where Snyder had so tightly gripped. Jack threw himself to the floor and removed the wooden planks as quickly as possible, revealing Race in a dark and dusty entrapment. Jack reached out his hands for Race to grab onto and pulled him back to ground level.
Snyder was clearly annoyed that his hiding spot had been so easily discovered and that Katherine's story was a rouse, but he dismissed Racetrack back to his room with Jack. Before they could get exit the office, Snyder grabbed Jack and issued a warning: "You can take him upstairs, Kelly, but if I see his hands are untied, I swear, every single one of the boys here will be tied up for a week."
Race swallowed hard and Jack shot him a sympathetic look. Snyder had tied his hands so close together, Race couldn't move them at all. The rope dug into his wrists so tightly, even breathing was enough movement to irritate the skin. More than anything, Race hated feeling trapped. Jack shuttered thinking of how he must have felt in that dark and tiny entrapment. He glared at Snyder, then wrapped his arm around Race's shoulders and escorted him back upstairs.
"Where was he?" Crutchie gasped as soon as Jack returned to their room with Race. Crutchie immediately reached to untie Race's wrists, but Jack stopped him, wishing so badly to free him but knowing it wasn't worth the punishment for the others.
"You don't want to know," Jack grumbled, then turned to Race. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Race muttered, though Jack knew he wouldn't admit otherwise. His back was littered with bruises, likely from Snyder's belt, but what concerned Jack more was the gash on his forehead which was swollen and dripping blood. He must have hit it on the floor when Snyder tossed him into the hole. He reached for his bleeding cut, but Jack caught his hands and stopped him.
"Don't touch it. You need some ice."
JoJo was walking by, caught a glimpse of Race, and returned a minute later with a makeshift bag of ice and handed it to Jack who gently applied it to Race's head. Race initially winced and pulled away, but he knew it would help in the long run, so he rested his head on Jack's shoulder and let him help.
Snyder watched the scene unfold from outside their door and smiled his crooked smile as his sick mind dreamed up new tortures. "You needed some ice?" he called out, startling Race who groaned and buried his face in Jack's chest knowing this couldn't be good.
"Leave him alone," Jack replied, but Snyder was making his way to them already, and Jack felt JoJo and Crutchie trembling with fear on the other side of him.
"I'm just saying, if he needed ice, he could have asked for it," Snyder threatened, then grabbed Race from Jack's grip and dragged him toward the bathroom where he turned on the bathtub faucet as cold as it would go.
"No, please," Race hated begging but his throbbing head couldn't handle another minute with Spider. Jack, JoJo, and Crutchie gathered at the door, watching with horror, and some of the other boys joined them before Snyder slammed the bathroom door shut to block their view so they could only listen to their brother's screams.
"Okay, everyone to bed," Jack commanded before pulling Albert aside to lay a hand on his forehead, his fair skin even paler than usual, to check if the Tylenol kicked in. It had not. Of course.
Inside the bathroom, Snyder ordered Race to get in the tub. He wanted to fight, but he knew he couldn't win, so he did as he was told. As soon as his first foot hit the water, the cold shot pain up his entire leg. Snyder demanded that Race sit, and he hesitantly obeyed. He lowered himself into the tub, sitting in the freezing water, hugging his knees to his chest, and hiding his face in his lap to keep from making eye contact with Snyder. He immediately began shivering, as the tub slowly filled with frigid water, drenching his clothes. Snyder let him sit huddled in a ball for a while, until the water was high enough that his whole body could be submerged. Then, he grabbed Race's injured wrists and pulled them from his knees, shoving him flat against the bottom of the tub, soaking every inch of him. Snyder held his head under the running faucet as Race struggled to breathe. He had hoped the cold water would at least feel good on his back or wrists which were burning from the belt and rope, but the pain of the water pounding against his head coupled with his muscles tensing from the ice cold far outweighed any benefit.
Snyder stood up from kneeling beside the tub, and Race had a glimmer of hope that his punishment was over, that he could rejoin his brothers in their bed and have a full night of sleep to recover from this miserable day. But Snyder demanded that he stay put, and Race had to hide the tears that stung in his eyes. Snyder opened the bathroom door and called for JoJo to join them. JoJo warily climbed out of bed and crossed the hall to where his brother was being tortured.
"Since you were so intent on getting ice for Racetrack, why don't you go get us some more now?" Snyder handed him a cup that had been sitting near the sink. "Hurry."
JoJo was reluctant, but too terrified of Snyder to disobey him. He hurried down the stairs to the kitchen and filled the cup with ice cubes from the freezer. When he returned to the bathroom, Snyder ordered him to add the ice to Race's bath. JoJo shook his head, begging to not make him participate, but Race assured him he should do as Snyder asked. The cup full of ice cubes couldn't change the temperature of the water anyway; it was already as cold as it could possibly be.
"Go get us another cup," Snyder instructed. "You'll go back and forth as many times as it takes for all the ice from the freezer to be in this bathtub."
JoJo's eyes went wide. "That'll take like 50 trips with this cup," he argued, and Snyder raised his eyebrows as a way of communicating that was his point. Race closed his eyes tight, knowing it would take more than an hour for JoJo to complete the task, wishing so hard time could go faster and he could be back in his bed.
JoJo's first few trips were fast. He was running, skipping every other step on his way up, jumping off from the 4th or 5th on his way down, but he tired out quickly. His thighs began burning from the workout. His heart pounding and his lungs struggling to expand. He wanted to go faster to end Race's torture, but his body was giving up.
Jack listened to the sound of JoJo's feet on the stairs and knew exactly what was happening. He never should have let JoJo get ice for Race's head. He never should have let so much time pass without rescuing Race from under Snyder's office floor. He never should have let Katherine do his dirty work, and now she was hurt, too. By now, he should have found a way to save all his brothers from Snyder's tortures. How could he have let it get this bad?
"It's not your fault," Jack heard Crutchie's quiet voice beside him as he somehow read his thoughts. "No one could do a better job taking care of us than you do."
"Yeah, I'm sure Racer and JoJo and Romeo and Albert and Finch feel the same way," Jack said sarcastically, thinking of each of them suffering in other rooms right now.
"They do," Crutchie assured. "Each one of them. They love you and know you're doing your best; we all do." Jack wrapped him in a big hug, wishing his best could be better for the boys who deserved the world. Their tender moment was interrupted by JoJo's quivering voice.
"Please, I can't do it anymore. I need to stop. Please let it be over, let Race go."
"I mean, you can take a break and rest," Snyder offered. "But Racetrack will sit in this bath with freezing water, his body must be in a ridiculous amount of pain by now, aching down to his bones..."
"I'm fine," Race interrupted through gritted teeth. "Take your time, JoJo, you're doing great. It'll be over soon." He was lying. Snyder was right; being immersed in the frigid water was one of the most painful experiences of his life. JoJo nodded and continued to push through.
It felt like hours later, but JoJo finally made his last trip, dumping the cup of ice into the tub. "That's it, that's the last one," he informed them, collapsing onto all fours trying to catch his breath. Snyder knelt beside the tub to push Race's head under one last time before pulling him out and dropping him on the floor beside JoJo, both boys struggling to breathe. Jack watched through his cracked bedroom door as Snyder retreated to his own room, leaving the boys gasping on the bathroom floor. Jack ran to them and scooped them into the biggest hug he could manage. He needed to dry Race and warm him up, but they didn't have access to any towels. Race was shaking so hard Jack thought he'd explode, so he carried the blonde boy back to their room and wrapped him up in the thin blanket from their bed that wouldn't even keep the three of them warm from a slight fall breeze, but it was better than nothing.
Crutchie immediately jumped up to help, drying Race's hair with a corner of the blanket while the rest was wrapped around his body. "Are you okay?" he questioned frantically.
"I'm fine," Race shivered.
"Racer, it's okay to say you're not okay when you're not okay," Jack reminded him, which made Race smile slightly.
"I'm okay right now, but I'm pretty sure my fingers are gonna fall off. My ears too, probably, and then I won't be okay, because I won't have fingers or ears."
Jack grabbed Race's hands in his own and rubbed them together creating as much friction and heat as he could. "We need to get these wet clothes off of you," he instructed, but realized it was impossible to slip his shirt past his tied wrists. Jack reached under their mattress for his pocket knife, and Race felt his excitement build at the thought of his hands being cut free. But his hopes were dashed when Jack instead cut his shirt and tossed it aside. Crutchie tried to wrap some clothes around his shoulders, but they didn't own anything warm enough to make a difference.
"We should lay him next to Albert. With his fever, he's like a little space heater," Crutchie suggested. Jack knew he was only joking, but it actually wasn't a bad idea. He quietly made his way to Albert's room, where he was sleeping soundly in his bed with Specs and Elmer. Jack once again lay a hand on his forehead. By this time, the Tylenol had started working, and while he was drenched in sweat, he was no longer feverish. Of course.
Jack retreated to his room just in time to find Spot Conlon at their window. "Davey came lookin' for Race earlier. I wanted to make sure ya found him," Spot explained, glancing at the wet shivering boy. "And I see that ya did. But where? The bottom of the Hudson?"
Jack shook his head. "Spider gave him an ice bath."
Spot quickly removed his hoodie to give to Race, who protested. "You'll freeze on your walk back to Brooklyn."
"You'll freeze right here in this room without it. Come on, put it on."
Jack slid it over Race's head, leaving the hood up to further dry his hair and cover his ears. It was big and cozy and warm, and Race was more than grateful. Spot was able to make it back to Brooklyn without ever getting as cold as Race still was. Even cuddled between his two brothers, he couldn't warm up, especially since neither of them were warm having used their blanket as a towel. He was shivering so hard he felt like he was vibrating.
Race never, ever complained, especially not in front of his brothers, but Jack always knew when he was hurting, so he felt less pressure to put on a brave face when it was just the two of them. When Race felt Crutchie's breathing even out and he knew he was asleep, he felt a little safer letting his guard down. "Jack," he said in a small voice. "Please untie me. Please."
Jack's heart shattered. He knew of all the tortures Race had faced that day, having his hands tied was the worst for him. "Racer, you know I can't. I'm sorry. I promise, when we wake up, I'll do whatever it takes to get Spider to untie you. Anything he asks, I'll do it, I swear." Race nodded into Jack's chest, ashamed he'd even said anything, knowing he was asking Jack to put the rest of their brothers in danger. "How's your head feeling?" Jack asked, gently touching Race's bump. "Need to put some ice on it?"
Race chuckled and rolled his eyes. "I never want to see ice again." Eventually the exhaustion overtook the pain, and Race drifted to sleep. Jack followed not far behind.
Way too soon after they all found sleep, Snyder was ordering the boys to the hall for their morning lineup. Race was no longer actively trembling, but his muscles ached from hours of shaking, and he had a difficult time staying upright. JoJo's legs were still hurting from his punishment the night before. Finch hadn't fully recovered from his own beating two days prior. Albert was as pale as ever, and Jack made a mental note to grab him some more Tylenol from Davey. With all the boys standing in place, Snyder was preparing to choose his next victim when a knock at the door interrupted him. He went to answer, and the boys gathered at the top of the stairs to see their unexpected visitor.
Snyder flung the door open. "Pulitzer, what are you doing here?"
"I hear you met my daughter," Pulitzer replied, stepping aside revealing Katherine standing behind him. She was mostly looking down at the ground, seemingly uncomfortable, but took a quick peek inside to shoot a wink at Jack who melted. "Do you care to explain why she has a bruise on her arm in the shape of your handprint?" Snyder was confused, but Jack knew exactly what was happening.
Snyder tried to stammer out an excuse, but Pulitzer had brought two police officers with him as well. "Mr. Snyder, you're going to need to come with us while we investigate this matter of assault of a young female." He was escorted out of the building, and the boys upstairs would have broken into applause if they weren't so shocked. Jack ran downstairs, planted a quick kiss on Katherine's cheek and went to greet Pulitzer.
"Sir," he reached out for a handshake, "I did not want to let her be alone with him, but you know she's very determined. She wouldn't take no for an answer. I swear, I never thought for a second he would lay hands on a girl. If I had, I never would have let it happen."
"It's okay, Mr. Kelly, I know she's stubborn. She speaks very highly of you. Mostly the way you take care of these boys." The two of them turned their attention to the rowdy group of brothers who had mostly joined them downstairs. Katherine had approached the bunch of them, and had already untied Race's wrists and was planting a kiss on Albert's forehead to check his temperature.
"She's... an angel," Jack finally settled on that word, and Pulitzer agreed.
"What are you going to do while Mr. Snyder is gone? Will you be okay here without a guardian for a while?" Pulitzer asked the leader of the group.
"He's not much of a guardian," Jack laughed. "I think we'll manage just fine on our own."
"But, daddy," Katherine came over and squeezed herself between her two favorite men. "The boys here could probably use a little money for food. And maybe a lot for a remodel. They sleep three to a bed." Jack graciously accepted the offer for free breakfast (he couldn't remember the last time the boys had a proper meal, not just scraps smuggled in from the Pulitzer or Jacobs households) but denied the need for new beds.
"We'd all end up piled in one bed anyway. We're used to sleeping close to each other."
Less than an hour later, food was delivered and the boys gathered around the huge table to enjoy a family breakfast. They laughed and talked and ate so much their bellies hurt, but no one could complain. Jack couldn't help but wonder about the future. Surely the Spider would return someday, and he would likely be angrier and stricter than ever before. But for now, Jack was surrounded by everyone he ever cared about. So he watched them joke around and eat and throw food at each other, and his heart filled with the purest joy imaginable.