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I paused to pull in a breath and automatically glanced at the stairs Aleks had disappeared up. Then my eyes were back on my brother and my friend. “So yeah, I saw an opportunity and I took it. I set Aleks free because I knew you’d want to use him. You wouldn’t have just sent him home or found him a new life like the others. You’ve become so fucking blind to everything in your desperation to find Gio that I couldn’t trust you to let Aleks go.” I pointed at the stairs. “His family came for him! Just like we’re coming for Gio. Aleks and his brother had a right to put their lives back together. And the fact that you can’t see that…”
Luca’s mouth was set into a firm line and he didn’t even move a muscle as I spoke. But I saw something flash in his eyes the moment I accused him of not letting Aleks go… of choosing his son over Aleks’s freedom.
I was surprised when he finally lowered his gaze and stared at his hands.
“What would you have me do, Vaughn? Every second that passes, my son waits for me to come for him. Eight years… eight years of sick fucks hurting him and him calling for me.”
Con settled his hand on Luca’s shoulder, but Luca pulled away.
He lifted his eyes to meet mine and I saw a moment of agony before he hardened his jaw. “Yes, I would have taken advantage of having Aleks in my hands, but he would have been safe. And I would have made sure he made it home, both then and now. I did some unforgivable things in those early days when I was trying to find Gio, but I’m not… I’m not a fucking monster. If anyone should know that about me, it’s my own goddamned brother.”
With that, Luca stood and headed for the front door. I reached for my gun with the intent of calling him back so I could keep him in my sights, but Con reached across the table and grabbed my arm. “Don’t,” he said softly. “Let him go… he can’t go anywhere and there’s no way for him to call anyone.”
I sighed and lowered myself back down to my seat. “What did he mean about that unforgivable part when he first started looking for Gio?” I asked.
Con shook his head. “I don’t know. You know he doesn’t talk about those first couple weeks where he tried to find Gio on his own. Maybe he just meant the guilt about not asking us for help sooner.”
I stared at the door my brother had walked through. Con could be right, but I wasn’t so sure. My brother wasn’t one who dwelled on the mistakes of the past. He put them behind him and moved on; he focused on the task at hand.
But then again, Luca wasn’t someone who spoke about what he was feeling, no matter what. Neither of us did. Our father had been a good teacher when it had come time to instill that particular lesson.
Covellos didn’t feel.
Even fake Covellos like me.
“We need to figure this shit out together, Vaughn,” Con said. “Otherwise it will just be you and him running.”
“We?” I asked. “Do you actually expect me to believe Luca suddenly only has Aleks’s well-being in mind? Because you know him as well as me, Con. He’s going to put Gio first, no matter what. And I get why… I’ve been doing that for eight years now! I love Gio and I hear the same screams and pleas from that boy that Luca does. But I will not use Aleks like that! Hell, it’s not even a sure thing… it never was!”
“King was able to confirm those were Stylianos’s men,” Con said quietly as he lowered his eyes.
My stomach dropped out. I’d suspected as much, but somehow hearing it out loud just made it all the more real. For whatever reason, the man was obsessed with Aleks, even though there was no evidence he’d ever even met Aleks. The rumor was that Stylianos and Marcus had gotten into a contentious bidding war over Aleks when his previous owner had sold him, but there was no proof of that. But if the bastard really had sent five men to get Aleks within hours of Aleks’s parents airing that picture and giving away both the fact that he was alive and where he was in the U.S., it was pretty telling how desperate the man was to get his hands on him.
“Is King on his way here?” I asked.
“No, he’s still cleaning up the mess you left behind,” Con said. “You can’t leave five bodies in the middle of nowhere and expect it to just get swept under the carpet… at least not without a little help.”
