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I had no clue.
And that was so very unlike me.
But I hadn’t really had the time to form a plan, either. Not only was I dealing with a betrayal I hadn’t seen coming, but things had happened faster than I could have imagined. And even getting Aleks away from those men didn’t mean he was safe. Taking him home to his brother wouldn’t mean he’d no longer be hunted. If anything, that would just put his whole family in danger.
That’s the story you’re trying to sell, you coward?
I ignored the voice in my head and glanced at the clock on the dash. We’d been driving for nearly an hour. I wanted to put a lot more distance between us and Seattle, but we were far enough away from the bodies I’d left behind to at least cut Aleks loose and try to reassure him again that everything would be okay.
I took a few turns onto various backroads until I was able to find what looked like an unused service road of some kind, then drove far enough down it until I was sure the car couldn’t be seen by passersby from the road. When I reached a clearing, I drove until I was in the middle of it so that if Aleks did manage to take off on me, I’d be able to see him without too much trouble… and catch up to him.
I turned off the car but turned on the dome light. I reached into my pocket for the utility knife. “Aleks, I’m going to cut you free now. I just needed to make sure you didn’t try to come after me while I was getting us out of there,” I began to explain, but when I reached for his hands, he jerked away from me. His body slammed into the door. He let out a loud wail of pain, but I instinctively knew he hadn’t physically hurt himself.
“Don’t touch me!” he cried as harsh sobs racked his entire body. He tucked his bound hands protectively against his chest. “Please, don’t touch me!” he managed to get out, his throat sounding raw. Then he was reaching for the door handle and part of me actually wanted to let him go.
But I couldn’t.
So I gently grabbed his arm just as he got the door open. I expected him to fight me or struggle, but he suddenly went completely still. The tears seemed to dry up on their own and even in the dim light I could see his eyes go blank. Then his bound hands were reaching for his throat and I automatically knew what he was looking for.
The collar.
The fucking collar Marcus had put around his neck to remind him he was nothing more than a possession… a pet. It’d been made of heavy chain link, the kind a large dog would wear. But unlike an animal, Aleks’s collar had been designed so it couldn’t be taken off. I’d seen the burn marks myself on his thin neck. He’d never told me as such, but I’d known in my gut they were the scars from when Marcus had had the links in the chain permanently welded together so the only way the collar could ever be removed was if it was cut off.
“Vaughn,” Aleks whispered quietly as he rubbed the absent links that I strongly suspected still existed in his mind. “Do you think he’ll finally do it this time?” he asked so softly I almost didn’t hear it. His empty gaze turned to meet mine and I felt it like a throat punch.
Just like that, Aleks, the young man who loved flowers and smiled whenever he first tasted that rush of buttery, sugary flavor of the hard candies I’d snuck him whenever I could, was gone. The past two years had been wiped away as if they hadn’t existed.
He didn’t give me a chance to respond to him.
“I’ll ask Father to forgive me, but I don’t think he will,” Aleks murmured. His eyes shifted so he was staring out the windshield. “Not this time…”
“Aleks…” I began, but he interrupted me. I doubted he’d actually even heard me say his name.
“It’s okay, Vaughn. You should take me home now. Father is waiting.”
Chapter 2
Aleks
“I just wanna go home.”
“I know you do, but your parents can’t take care of you anymore, Aleks. They said it was just too hard.”
“’Cause they don’t have much money?”
“That… and ’cause you were bad.”
“I didn’t mean to be bad. Please, I’ll tell them I’m sorry and I’ll be good. I promise!”
“Aleks, it doesn’t work like that. It’s too late. I’m sorry.”
“No!”
“Hey, hey, calm down. Everything will be okay.”
“I wanna go home!”
“I know you do, but you can’t. But you can stay with me, okay? For as long as you want. Hey, don’t cry, Aleks. I’ll take care of you. I promise. We can be friends.”
