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“Yes, sir,” the bartender said as he motioned toward where Tuxedo Man was standing. “Douglas will get you all set up with one.”
I nodded and mentally told the girl to hang on just a little longer.
I took the drink he slid me. “Restrooms back there too?” I asked.
The man nodded. “Don’t let your boss fuck his pet in there, though,” the guy said crudely. “Management frowns on that.”
I wanted to punch him but managed to force out a chuckle. “Good to know. Thanks.” I nodded at him and grabbed the drink. By the time I reached Luca, all the other chairs around him and Aleks were taken. Most of the men were alone, but one had a young boy with him. The boy was in his early teens and very petite with feminine features and long black hair. In reality, I couldn’t be completely sure the child was a boy. He or she was sitting on the man’s lap and was fondling the man discreetly through his pants.
The kid had dead eyes.
Just like Aleks’s had always been.
I schooled my features into a mask of indifference as I went around the chairs and set Luca’s drink down on the table next to him. When I went to stand behind his chair, one of the men said, “Vaughn, it’s good to see you.”
“Mr. Stark,” I said with a nod. It wasn’t the fucker’s real name… he was just an avid fan of superheroes. I’d never worked for him, but he’d tried to lure me away from Marcus at one point. The man was extremely wealthy, but he wasn’t a big player. He bought and sold kids like they were a new pair of shoes, and he preferred girls.
“A shame what happened to Marcus,” Mr. Stark said. After Marcus’s death, people hadn’t bothered with his alias anymore. “I was so happy to learn you weren’t at the home when tragedy struck,” the man said to me. “You were always such a valuable asset to our community,” he added.
If I hadn’t wanted to slit the guy’s throat, I would have found the situation humorous. He was clearly still looking to add to his security team. “And of course, the news that Aleks had survived as well was like we’d won the lottery or something,” he said with a chuckle. “Mr. Oak here” – he used the hand he was holding his drink with to point at the man who had the child on his lap – “was actually disappointed he’d already made a purchase… said he’d have made an exception on his age preference for Aleks.”
The man laughed heartily and took a drink. Mr. Oak shot him a glare but it was clear the man was correct because the fucker then leered at Aleks.
“Yes, I believe you reached out to me about an exchange,” Luca said in a bored voice as he reached for his drink but didn’t take a sip. “Your… ‘acquisition’ is quite lovely, but Aleks and I are still getting to know each other, aren’t we, my sweet?” Luca dropped his hand to Aleks’s head and Aleks obediently looked up and nodded.
My gut wrenched painfully because I could see Aleks was one hundred percent there… no escaping into his head, no blackout.
He was hearing, seeing and feeling everything.
“Yes, Sir,” Aleks said softly, reverently.
I wanted to throw up.
Luca touched his chin briefly in what one could have almost called an affectionate way. But then his expression hardened, and he motioned to the floor and Aleks immediately dropped his eyes and went silent. “Of course, if the price were right and I found something that was more in line with my tastes…”
Luca let the words drop off and took a sip of his drink. We’d made it clear online what Luca was actually looking for.
A teenager with fair hair and light eyes.
I forced myself to listen to the conversation as the men talked about different pets they’d had and had either lost or gotten rid of for one reason or another… they could have been talking about cars for all the emotion they showed. Almost forty minutes had passed before Luca reached his hand up to motion to me.
“Yes, sir?” I asked as I stepped around the chair.
“Take him to the bathroom. I don’t want to be interrupted during the auction.”
“Of course, sir,” I said.
Aleks didn’t move until Luca told him to go with me. Then he carefully got to his feet, keeping his hands folded demurely in front of him. Since I was allowed to touch Luca’s property for this purpose, I took Aleks’s arm and led him toward where Tuxedo Man was still standing by the back hallway. I discreetly rubbed my thumb into Aleks’s upper arm, but he didn’t react.
He couldn’t.
I shouldn’t have even done that much, but I wasn’t as strong as him.
