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He acknowledges that truth with an inclination of his handsome head. "It's not a pretty story."
"Does it have anything to do with this?" Breaking his stricture not to move my hands, I trace the Cerberus tattoo and the Greek writing under it.
Placed over his heart, it has to be important to him.
"Yes."
"What do the words mean?" Or is that too personal? Will he refuse to answer?
"Give them nothing, but take from them everything."
"That's grim."
"I told you. Not pretty."
I wave between our bodies. "This isn't pretty either."
The way our bodies connect is too brutal forpretty, but it is also soul stirringly beautiful.
"If you are going to connect with my soul, I want to know why yours is only adarkember." Ineedto know.
"I was kidnapped when I was ten years old."
My hands move of their own volition to curve around his neck and my legs come up around his hips as I hug him with my whole body. "I am sorry."
Wealthy families are always at risk for kidnappings. Because in the mafia, that risk is increased, especially if there's a war going on, I had training from early childhood how to react if I was taken.
It never happened to me, but I remember the nightmares after sessions for me and my brother with our instructor.
"What happened?" I ask.
"They demanded a ransom from my grandfather."
"Not your father?"
"Grandfather had what they wanted."
That's not surprising. As the patriarch of the family, his grandfather would hold the bulk of their wealth until his death.
"Your grandfather couldn't pay what they were asking?" I find that hard to believe.
His family owns Zesti, but maybe they weren't as affluent when he was a child.
"Herefusedto pay." There is a wealth of feeling in those four words. Resentment. Disillusionment. Anger.
His grandfather's refusal is still affecting Atlas today. Memory of something he said tickles the back of my mind. Family is everything to him and his brothers. Not their parents.
Clearly not their grandfather.
Atlas swallows and then speaks again, his tone low. "They kept me for a year, sending my grandfather video proof of the torture they were putting me through."
That's where the scars under the giant tattoo on his back come from. The Spartan makes sense now too. A symbol of strength and stoicism.
"A year? Were they holding you in another country?" I'm not surprised the authorities couldn't find him.
Children go missing every day and many are never heard from again.
"I got away. That's all that matters now."
