“Dante,” Aleks croaked from behind me. His fingers squeezed mine, but I refused to release him.

Not until I figured out what the fuck was going on.

But it looked like Dante wasn’t even going to give me an opportunity to ask questions because he walked straight up to me and put his gun to my head.

“Dante, don’t!” Aleks cried.

“Take him,” Dante said softly. I heard rather than saw the other two men in the room approach us. Luca went after the long-haired one but my brother was outmatched… not something that happened often. Not to mention the big fucker was armed and after punching Luca, he put his gun to his forehead. When the black-haired man reached for Aleks, I ignored the gun aimed at me and hit the guy.

“Keep your fucking hands off him!” I snarled.

“Dante, stop this!” Aleks said as he tried to push past me to get to his brother. But I held him firm.

Dante’s expression softened only the littlest bit when his eyes met Aleks’s. “Confie em mim, irmãozinho,” he murmured.

I had no clue what he’d said to Aleks, but he quieted.

“Let him go,” Dante said to me. “He’ll be safe with Cole and Mace.” He motioned to the other men.

I had no clue what the fuck was going on, but I’d seen enough to know this man would never betray his brother. “Go with him,” I told Aleks.

“No,” Aleks whispered.

I turned and said, “It’ll be all right, Aleks.”

But Aleks ignored me and as soon as I released him, he squirmed away from the dark-haired man and hurried to his brother. “Dante, please don’t do this. It was my choice to go with him. This… I can explain all this.”

Before Dante could respond, the door opened and several men entered. I only recognized one of them.

Magnus.

Dante’s fiancé.

“Magnus,” Aleks said softly, then he walked into the other man’s arms. “Tell him to stop. It’s all a mistake.”

All of the men with Magnus were armed but one, and they moved into a circle around us. I hoped like hell King and Con were on their way into the building because Luca and I were sorely outnumbered.

“It’ll be okay, Aleks,” Magnus said softly.

Aleks began to cry as frustration consumed him. But when he tried to come back to me, Magnus gently grabbed his arm. Dante lowered his gun long enough to approach his brother. He wiped at Aleks’s tears, but when his eyes fell on the collar, I could practically feel the rage rolling off him.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Aleks sobbed. I could see he was completely overwhelmed. Dante leaned down and whispered something to him, then clasped his face as he kissed his temple. Then his hand was reaching behind Aleks’s neck and with one flick of his finger, the collar’s clasp clicked open. Dante gently pulled it from his brother’s neck, then turned to me.

He put the gun back to my head and I heard Aleks whimper.

“Look at me, not him,” Dante snapped when I looked at Aleks.

“Fuck you, Dante,” I said. “You’re scaring him.”

Dante actually flinched at that, then his anger was back in full-force. He threw the collar at my feet. “You know why you’re still breathing?” he asked. “Do you know why I didn’t kill you the second you entered this room?”

“Dante,” Aleks whispered.

“Because of him,” he said as he pointed at Aleks. “Because I heard something in his fucking voice in his calls that I haven’t heard since he was a little boy. And the only reason I had the sense to actually listen to my brother’s voice and what he wasn’t saying was that man right there,” he said as he pointed at Magnus. “But that” – he pointed at the collar – “and this” – he took a photo from his pocket and tossed it next to the collar – “is making it really hard not to put a bullet in your head.”

I looked at the picture and saw it was the fake one we’d taken of Luca and Aleks.

And if Dante had the picture, that meant he’d probably seen the posts we’d made up about Luca “owning” Aleks now.

“It’s not real!” Luca snapped. “It was all a set-up!”

Most of the men with Dante had formed a circle around us, but there was one who’d stayed by the door. I could tell he was the leader of their little group because he had an air of authority about him.

“We know that, Mr. Covello,” the man said as he stepped in front of Dante for a brief moment so he could see my brother as he spoke. He seemed unconcerned with the gun that he’d stepped into the line of fire of for that short moment. “I think we should wait for your brothers before we chat some more.”

I stiffened at that because I knew we were royally fucked if he knew about King and Con waiting outside.

“Yeah, why don’t we?” Luca bit out. “We’ll see who’s got more firepower then.”

A couple of the men around us actually chuckled. The man watching my brother merely smiled. “Your brothers put up a good fight, Mr. Covello, but they were at a disadvantage,” he said patiently. “You see, my men also know how to do their homework. And while your brother, King, has an impressive list of men on his employee roster, there is one thing that makes them different from my men.”

Luca didn’t respond to the comment and I knew it was probably because he was still struggling to accept what the man had said about our brothers putting up a good fight.

“They’re not family,” the man said softly, his voice holding a bit of an edge to it. “You stole something precious from that family, Luca.” The man’s gaze shifted to me. “Your intentions toward keeping Aleks safe were honorable, Vaughn. But you and your brothers should know better than anyone what it feels like to not know what’s happening to someone who’s so much a part of who you all are.”

He couldn’t be talking about Gio.

There was just no way he knew about him.

Before Luca or I could respond, the door opened and King and Con were escorted inside. I was relieved that they both looked unharmed. There were several men surrounding them and a couple of those men had bruises, but clearly King and Con had been caught unawares.

“My men will tear this place apart, Luca,” King muttered.

“Mav,” the man who’d been talking to Luca called. A man with long black hair stepped forward and held out a small device.

“Know what this is?” the man called Mav said. He didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s a nifty little device that jams all radio and video signals within a twenty-five-foot radius. That’s why you” – he looked pointedly at Con and King – “didn’t know your brothers were in trouble. Cole is carrying one. As are most of the men who surprised you in your car. But see, we figured that wasn’t enough, so we had the lovely young woman who also works for Ronan here” – he pointed at the man who’d been talking to me and Luca – “intercept the signal your brother’s camera was transmitting. She recorded a few seconds of the video of him sitting at the party and then muffled the sound with static so you would think it was just a problem with the sound. It was enough time to distract you both while you tried to figure out if it was a technical glitch or not.” Mav smirked at King and Con. “Seems to have worked, huh?”

“Fuck you,” King bit out.

The man called Ronan looked at me. “Daisy, that’s the young woman Mav was talking about, is monitoring the police frequencies. So even if one of your brother’s men gets wise and calls the cops, we’ll know.”

The asshole really did have us beat. I glanced at Aleks and saw how heartbroken he looked. His eyes met mine and I smiled at him. Then I looked pointedly at Dante and said, “I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. There’s only one thing I’d change, and it has nothing the fuck to do with you. The only one I owe an apology to is Aleks for something that happened when I first took him.”

I looked at Aleks again and he nodded.

Yeah, he knew what I was talking about.

That moment I’d chosen to leave him bound rather than take the time to tell him the truth after I’d gotten him out of that van. “I’m sorry, baby,” I said, not caring that we were surrounded by Dante and all the other men. “If I could relive that moment, I’d do it differently. I’d have told you everything then and there, no matter what the risk.”

Aleks wiped at his face. “Don’t be sorry,” he said. I laughed when he repeated the words back to me that I’d said to him so many times.

I looked at Ronan. “You talk a good game. But talking isn’t going to help any of those kids out there,” I said as I motioned to the door. “When you’ve spent as many years as I have watching kids suffer like Aleks did, then you can fucking preach to me about family and loyalty.”

Ronan studied me for a moment, but he seemed unimpressed by my words. He looked at Aleks. “Aleks, is there something you want to tell your brother?”

Aleks looked both surprised and relieved at the same time. “Yes,” he said with a nod.

Ronan motioned toward Dante. Magnus released his hold on Aleks and the second he did, Aleks hurried to stand in front of his brother. Dante lowered his weapon.

Aleks opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He looked at me in distress and I knew what was happening. His mind was struggling with the processing thing that happened when he was completely overwhelmed. With everything that had happened, it was no wonder he was having a hard time putting his thoughts into words.

Not to mention the huge audience he had…

“Just breathe, baby,” I said. “Remember that story you told me… about the do… do…”

Aleks pulled in a breath. “Dobradinha,” he said softly. The reminder of the funny story seemed to ground him for the moment he needed to get his thoughts in line. He looked relieved. I could feel Dante’s and just about everyone else’s gazes on me, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t take my eyes off Aleks because I was just so fucking proud of him. If there’d ever been a time for him to escape into his head or lose himself to a blackout, this was one of those moments.

But his voice was firm as he began speaking.

Firm, but quiet.

Soft.

So very much him.

“Dante, I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered. “So very much.”

Dante actually seemed to shudder as some unnamed emotion went through him. “Me too,” he said with a nod. “I was so fucking scared, Aleks.”

Aleks nodded and wiped at his face. I wished I could see his eyes, but he was facing away from me.

“Do you remember when you came to Fath… Marcus’s house?” he asked. “I betrayed you at first.”

“No,” Dante said firmly. “No, you never betrayed me, irmãozinho,” he said, his own voice thick with emotion.

Aleks managed a nod. “Vaughn knows why I told Marcus about you.” Aleks’s tongue seemed to trip over using Marcus’s name, but I was so damn proud of him for not referring to the man by the title he’d forced Aleks to use. It was yet another step forward for Aleks.

“You had no choice,” Dante said.

“I did, Dante. But it was the only choice I knew how to make. I knew if I fought when they took me, I’d die. I didn’t want to die and I knew you were going to come for me so I did what they told me to do. This man… Brian… he said if I was good enough, if I behaved, you would come get me and take me home and Mama and Papa would want me again. So I was really good.”

Aleks let out a harsh sob. “But you didn’t come and I started to think that maybe it was true, but I knew in here it wasn’t.” Aleks pointed at his chest.

I heard Dante suck in a ragged breath, but I didn’t look at him. I didn’t need to. I knew what he was feeling. Luca and I and our brothers felt it every single damn day when we thought about Gio.

“I found ways to escape but only in here.” Aleks pointed to his head. Dante reached out to clasp his cheek, but he didn’t speak. Aleks reached up to cover his brother’s hand with his own. “When you came and I saw that note, I thought it was a trick… it was someone trying to make me be bad so Fath—Marcus could punish me. And even when I saw you in that office, I was still afraid. It took so long for my head to catch up to my heart,” Aleks whispered. “But in my heart I knew it was you and that you had come to take me home.”

“Always,” Dante breathed. “I will always come for you, Aleks.”

Aleks nodded and pulled in several breaths. “My mind still plays tricks on me, Dante. I thought if I couldn’t be normal, you might not want me anymore. So I pretended. I got a job and I made decisions and I told you I was okay all the time… I’m not okay, Dante.”

Dante pulled Aleks to him and wrapped his arms around his brother. “You’re perfect just as you are, Aleks. You don’t need to change for anyone but yourself. I will always love you, no matter what.”

Aleks nodded against his chest.

“Meu melhor,” Aleks said softly.

Dante let out what sounded like a wet laugh and then responded in Portuguese. They only did their little back and forth a couple times before Aleks pulled back and wiped at his eyes. “I chose to help them.” He looked at Ronan. “It was always my choice.”

Ronan nodded gently at him. Aleks looked over his shoulder at me, then Luca. “They’re like us, Dante. They argue and they fight and they love each other. Luca is the one who takes care of everyone but himself.” Aleks looked at Con and King. “Con is the peacekeeper and he cooks when he’s upset… he makes me grits and they’re almost as good as Magnus’s. And King yells when anyone scares me. Otherwise he’s really quiet. And I haven’t met Lex yet, but he’s the baby of the family and they all watch out for him. And Vaughn, he…”

Aleks paused and then looked at me.

“Vaughn is my James… he showed me that I’m not broken, and that I’m strong enough to make choices and it’s okay to make the wrong ones and… and he loves me like Magnus loves you and you love Magnus.” I felt my heart slamming against my chest as Aleks’s beautiful eyes held mine. As far as I was concerned, all the other people had disappeared, and it was just me and him. “And I love him too.”

Aleks was in my arms a moment later, though I wasn’t sure if he’d come to me or the other way around. I kissed him softly, since I couldn’t discount the fact that his brother and the rest of his big-ass family were all watching us. “I do,” I said softly as I pulled him against me and wrapped my arms around him. “So much, Aleks.”

“Me too, James,” he sighed. I held him for a moment and then he was carefully pulling free of my hold.

But only to turn around and face his brother.

He linked our fingers together, then said to his brother, “Don’t make me choose between you and him, Dante. Please… that’s one choice I don’t want to ever make… but I will.”