It’d taken me nearly two months to earn enough of his trust to get him to talk to me.

I doubted I’d ever be able to get that back after this.

Even when he’d been a prisoner in the Parks mansion, he hadn’t ever flinched away from me or any of the other guards. He’d mostly just been emotionless… a breathing, walking, silent robot who’d done as he was told. I’d never once seen him cry or beg or argue.

Young Aleks, who hadn’t even been allowed to possess a last name, had been the epitome of obedience.

It had made me sick.

Not because of him, though… he’d had no choice. He’d already known what I’d had yet to learn… that Marcus Parks was a twisted, cruel master who’d found as much, if not more, pleasure in mental torture than sexual gratification.

I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t a lesson Aleks had necessarily first learned when Marcus had purchased him like he was nothing more than a prized animal at an auction, but I had no doubt that after years as Marcus’s possession, Aleks had become more than adept at doing what needed to be done to survive his master’s cruel whims.

The day I’d met Aleks was still seared into my brain, no matter how many times I’d tried to will it away. I’d been sitting in Marcus’s lavish study, an expensive glass of scotch in hand as Marcus had sat behind his big desk and pinned me with what probably was supposed to have been an intimidating look. I’d wanted to laugh because the man had had no clue that he was about as threatening as a kitten compared to the man who’d ruled my entire world as a child. I’d also really wanted to put a bullet through the sick fuck’s brain then and there, but I’d had to remember the end game… the reason I was there.

My disinterest had probably ended up working in my favor, but hell if my mask of indifference hadn’t slipped just a little when the man had summoned his “pet” into the office. Marcus had languidly gotten up from behind his desk as a teenage boy had silently entered the study, escorted by a large man in a slick-looking suit.

The boy had remained by the door, eyes downcast and hands carefully folded in front of him until Marcus had motioned to him. By the time Marcus had been sitting in the opulent armchair across from me, his own scotch in hand, the boy had been standing next to him.

I could still remember every detail about Aleks as he’d stood there as still and silent as a statue. He’d been about average height with a boyishly skinny body and naturally bronzed skin that hinted at a mixed heritage. His chocolate-brown hair had been short but there’d been just a bit of curl to it. He’d been wearing clean, pressed khaki pants and a thin shirt that had appeared a little big on him… he’d looked like the countless private-academy-attending rich kids I’d always been secretly jealous of as a teenager. I hadn’t known how old Aleks had been at the time, but he easily could have passed for Marcus’s son.

But there’d been nothing fatherly about the way Marcus had treated the young man. With the wave of one finger, Aleks had dropped to his knees in front of Marcus, opened his pants, and sucked his cock to the back of his throat in one well-practiced move. It was like I hadn’t even been in the room.

And as far as Aleks had been concerned, I hadn’t been.

He hadn’t once looked at me.

Not before he’d serviced Marcus and not afterwards as he’d obediently sat at Marcus’s feet while a trail of cum had dripped down his chin as Marcus had tucked his sated dick back into his pants. I’d somehow managed to not react to the whole thing, but if the glass in my hand hadn’t been made of expensive crystal, I surely would have broken it with the grip I’d had on it. And no doubt if that had happened, I would have used the jagged edge that remained of the biggest chunk of glass to slice open the throat of the man in front of me.

I’d seen a lot of depraved shit in the nearly eight years since I’d first entered the underworld of trafficking kids for sex, but for some reason the sight of Aleks on his knees staring blankly at the floor as semen ran down his chin had broken something inside of me. I’d had no choice but to put up a wall between me and all the kids I’d had to ignore over the years in order to try and save one. Yes, I’d done everything in my power to eventually get those kids out, but there’d been no way to save them all and I couldn’t deny the horrible things that had happened to them in the days and weeks until I’d been able to send someone in to get them out.

So that wall had been very necessary.

It’d been the only thing keeping me from killing every single man I encountered who used kids for their own pleasure. Fucks like Marcus Parks were the hardest not to kill the second I met them. Because not hours after he was using Aleks like he was nothing, he’d likely been in his downtown Chicago loft with his wife and children, listening to whatever it was the privileged family members had done with their day. Then he’d probably waved off his own supposed boring day of running his multi-million-dollar empire and advocating for less fortunate kids through his handful of charities that had made him a beloved social figure in the Windy City. What his family and closest friends hadn’t known as he’d gotten up in front of large crowds of the most socially elite and convinced them to donate to his various fundraising efforts, was exactly what he did in his free time and how many men in his own social circle shared his twisted depravities.

It had taken me years to get into that inner circle of powerful men, and garnering an interview with Marcus Parks for the coveted role of protecting his dirty little secret had been the coup in my illustrious climb to the top. Every degenerate I’d served over the years had pulled me deeper and deeper into the underbelly of a culture that most were afraid to acknowledge existed. But I’d eagerly walked into that very world because it had taken one of my own and I’d quickly erected a barrier between who I’d once been and who I’d had to become.

Until Aleks.

There’d been no doubt in my mind that the whole show with Aleks had been meant as a test and what would have happened if I’d failed it. Marcus had paid well for loyalty and if I had given in to my instincts and sliced his throat from ear to ear, his men wouldn’t have let me walk out of that study alive.

Well, they would have tried to stop me, anyway.

But even Marcus hadn’t known how truly qualified I’d been for the position. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for Aleks, there’d been something stronger keeping my ass in that chair as Marcus had paraded his toy in front of me.

Loyalty.

Love.

Hope.

My already rolling belly clenched when I considered everything Aleks had endured in the three months I’d ingratiated myself with Marcus Parks in the hopes I’d find the information I’d needed to bring the whole thing to an end.

A few fucking shared butterscotch candies and making sure none of the other guards put their hands on him hadn’t undone any of that. And even though I hadn’t been the one who’d typically had to escort Aleks to wherever Marcus was in the mansion when he wanted to play with his toy, I might as well have been the one who’d handed him over and stood outside the door and listened to the piece of shit’s grunts and groans as he’d taken his pleasure.

The handful of times I had been forced to listen to Aleks being used by Marcus, I’d managed to not stride into the room and kill the man because I’d been so close to getting the information I’d needed. I’d wanted to tell Aleks that… to beg him to hang on just a bit longer, but he’d clearly accepted for some time that his survival was all about hanging on, and he’d learned on his own how to do that.

By becoming exactly what Marcus had wanted.

He’d never spoken out of turn, he’d never cried, he’d never protested; he’d obediently waited for every order to be given, no matter how long it had taken to come… it was just something so ingrained in him that there were times I’d actually come to wonder if he’d tell Marcus about my efforts to befriend him.

He hadn’t, but my instincts that Aleks knew survival meant allowing Marcus to own him in every way possible had been proven right when I’d learned that the young man had told Marcus about his brother’s rescue attempt. I’d only just walked into the mansion’s front door when one of the guards had searched me out to inform me that Dante Thorne, Aleks’s older brother, had managed to track Aleks down and, along with his lover, had tried to rescue the young man – something Aleks had been made aware of. Instead of helping in his own rescue, Aleks had immediately gone to Marcus and told him about the note his brother had managed to get to him while he’d been in the greenhouse on the mansion’s expansive property. It was also the one place Aleks didn’t have to have an escort with him and where the security cameras hadn’t been working at the time.

From everything I’d learned, Aleks had had a good chance of being rescued that night because his brother and the man’s Texas Ranger boyfriend had been more than capable of the task. But Aleks had betrayed his own flesh and blood because Marcus Parks had been God to Aleks. He’d meant the difference between life and death for the young man. I hated thinking about the things he’d had to endure over the years to learn that particular lesson…

Dante’s timing had been pretty damn shitty because my plans to get what I needed from Marcus had been in the works for that same night. I’d been so close to coming face to face with the man I’d been searching for for years, but the meeting had been called off when Marcus had learned of the rescue operation. I hadn’t even had time to curse Dante and his lover, Magnus DuCane, because the scene I’d walked in on after killing the guard who’d come to find me to tell me that Marcus needed me to get rid of some bodies had been utter chaos, and I’d had only seconds to react.

I’d thrown open the door to the study just in time to see Marcus point his gun at Aleks, who’d looked disoriented as he’d leaned heavily against Marcus’s desk. It’d taken only a split second for my brain to process the sight of the gold letter opener sticking out of Marcus’s back and I’d pulled the trigger just as Marcus’s own trigger finger had begun to move. My bullet had rung true and ripped through Marcus’s throat. Blood had sprayed everywhere as he’d made a gurgling sound and then pitched forward onto the desk, knocking Aleks to the ground in the process. I hadn’t given in to the immediate need to check on the young man as I’d turned and taken out the two guards in the room. There’d been two other men in the room, one shot in the arm, the other seemingly unharmed, but I’d ignored them as I’d hurried to Aleks. He’d let me pull him to his feet and when I’d seen the fresh bruises on his face, I’d felt that last chink in my armor break. In all the time I’d been working for Parks, he hadn’t once struck Aleks because the young man had been so unfailingly obedient.

But somehow the sight of the punishment Aleks had received for his act of rebellion had shattered that wall that’d had about a million cracks in it, most of which had only started to form when I’d met the young man for the first time. It’d been wholly unnecessary, but I’d enjoyed putting that final bullet through Marcus’s brain.

I’d managed to get Aleks, Dante, and Magnus out of there, but then I’d been in damage control mode. I’d had only enough time to grab the notebook where I’d often seen Marcus jotting notes and then I’d torched the mansion, not only to get rid of the evidence that would bring the authorities into a world they were ill-equipped to handle, but to cover my own trail as well. It’d been my only chance to not blow my cover. As it was, the whole thing had undone years of hard work, but I wasn’t giving up. And Aleks was safe… that was all that had mattered.

Well, he had been safe.

Fuck, how had this all gone so wrong?

I glanced at him in the blackness of the car. He hadn’t moved or spoken in a while… not since I’d told him I couldn’t take him home and he’d let out the tiniest of choked sobs as tears had flowed down his cheeks. I knew I should have told him everything that was happening then and there, but there was this part of me that just wanted to spare him the truth. I wanted to pretend that none of this was happening and he was still safely tucked away in his little flower shop and living with his brother. But to tell him anything meant I needed to know what the fuck I was doing, and I just didn’t.

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.”