I held my breath for what seemed like the longest time.

“No, irmãozinho,” Dante said.

I felt my stomach drop out because I thought that was his answer, but relief shot through me when he quickly added, “I would never ask that of you.” He glanced at Magnus and I saw the pair exchange a smile. But it wasn’t until my brother tucked his gun into his waistband behind his back that I finally relaxed.

Until I remembered where we were.

And why.

I dropped Vaughn’s hand and rushed to Dante. “They lost someone just like you did, Dante. I need to help them. We need to help them. And all those kids out there. Please—”

“We will, Aleks,” Dante quickly assured me. He looked at Ronan. I still felt like a fool for not having recognized the man at first when he’d entered the room, but I’d been too scared to really process what was happening. The sight of Dante pointing a gun at Vaughn’s head had pretty much caused my brain and my body to go to war as one tried to win out over the other.

“How did you know about Stylianos?” Luca asked. “We never posted his name online.”

“You think you’re the only ones who know how to track who hired a bunch of assholes to kidnap a person?” Dante asked.

“We also know they weren’t the only men sent to take Aleks that day,” Ronan said. “The part that wasn’t clear was why the brother of the man who’d had his own men try to kidnap Aleks would stop them… and then let Aleks call home to tell his family he was okay. It took longer than we would have liked to figure out exactly who you were,” Ronan said to Vaughn. “But once we did, the pieces started to fall into place. And led to you,” the man continued as he stopped in front of Luca. “You all are pretty good with computers,” he acknowledged. “But you don’t have what we do.”

“What’s that?” Luca asked.

“Our wife,” one of the men near Luca said. He was huge with short black hair. He was motioning to the man next to him.

“That’s Cash and that’s Sage,” Ronan said as he pointed first at the bigger guy, then the one with the reddish-orange hair. “They’re married to Daisy, who’s currently expecting their first child. Daisy is the one who helped us put the brakes on your plans by messing with your tech.” Ronan nodded toward Luca’s suit jacket and I knew he was talking about the button that was also a video camera.

“Once we found out who you were, we had to find out why you’d taken Aleks. The picture nearly ended it all,” Ronan admitted. “You have Magnus to thank both for stopping Dante from storming into your house and killing you all and for making us look harder for the truth.” He looked at Vaughn. “He was convinced that something he saw between you and Aleks two years ago was the real deal.”

I looked at Magnus. He sent me a reassuring smile and then his eyes met Vaughn’s and he tipped his head.

I got the impression they were even now. Vaughn had saved all our lives two years ago and Magnus had returned the favor.

“So you know about Gio?” Luca asked, his voice losing some of the edge it’d had before. “And Stylianos.” I knew it was just now hitting him that we weren’t any closer to finding Gio.

“We do,” Ronan said. “As I said, Daisy is the best. She hacked all of your computers and found the transcripts you’d saved where you tried to draw the man out two years ago. We made the connection as soon as we saw you were trying to locate a child with hair that was so light it was almost white and nearly clear eyes.”

My heart broke for Luca as he dropped his eyes. I felt fresh tears stinging my own eyes as I realized we’d never really even gotten close to finding the now fifteen-year-old boy.

“We found Stylianos, Luca. We have him,” Ronan said softly. The entire room went so incredibly quiet as Luca, Vaughn, and I, and presumably Con and King, looked at Ronan.

“What?” Luca whispered.

“He was in Chicago. He’s now in a secure location trying to save his ass by naming names.”

“And Gio?” Vaughn asked, his voice breaking. I suspected he and his brothers both couldn’t wait to hear the answer and were afraid of it too.

“He told us about a boy who matched your son’s description,” Ronan said to Luca. “But he swore up and down he didn’t know where he was.”

“He was probably lying,” King cut in as he stepped forward. “You have to question him the right way!”

“We did,” Ronan assured him. “This is Vincent,” he added as he motioned to one of the taller men in the group. He was older than most of the other men in the group, but just looking at him intimidated the heck out of me. “Vincent came out of retirement to help us with this,” Ronan said.

King turned on Vincent and began asking him what techniques the man had used. He wouldn’t even let Vincent respond before he turned back to Ronan and said, “Let me talk to him. I can get the truth out of him.”

“We got what we needed,” Ronan responded. “Vincent,” – he nodded toward the older man – “got what we needed.” Ronan looked at Luca again. “Stylianos didn’t know where Gio was or who he was with, but he did eventually remember something.”

“What?” Luca breathed. He seemed terrified to even ask the question.

“The online screen name the man who was talking about Gio used.” Ronan paused only for the briefest of moments before saying, “Daisy’s motto is that you can’t ever really delete things from the internet and she was absolutely right. She found the alias and that led us to the man who your son was sold to shortly after he was taken.”

“And?” Con asked.

Ronan kept his eyes on Luca. “We found a boy that matches his description, Luca. Alive.”

Luca let out a harsh sob and then covered his eyes with his hand. He reached out his other hand to Vaughn and his brother immediately took it.

“Where?” Luca asked. “Where is he? Please…”

“He’s safe,” Ronan said. “As I said, he fits the description and we had one of our guys who used to work for the FBI do an age progression photo using one of the last photos you’d taken of Gio… the one you use as wallpaper on your phone and computer. It seems to be him, Luca, but the only way to know for sure is to do a DNA test.”

“I’ll know,” Luca said. “I’ll know it’s him,” he cried, then he and Vaughn were hugging. “It has to be him, Vaughn. It has to be.”

“It is, Luca,” Vaughn said. “They wouldn’t have told you if they didn’t think it was.”

I turned and walked into my brother’s arms. He hugged me hard. “It’s him, right, Dante?”

He kissed the top of my head as he hugged me back. “We’re pretty sure it’s him, Aleks.”

I let out a sob and nodded. I knew Dante and Ronan were both reluctant to commit to saying it was Gio, but Vaughn was right. They wouldn’t have gotten Luca’s hopes up if they hadn’t truly believed they’d found his son. No matter how angry my brother might have been with Luca and his family, he never would have used something like that to punish the men.

“Where is he?” Luca asked. Con and King had moved to his and Vaughn’s side.

“He’s in Seattle,” Dante said.

“Luca,” Ronan said softly when Luca and his brothers began talking excitedly amongst themselves. Luca turned to look at Ronan.

“The boy is physically okay, but he had to be hospitalized.”

“What?” Luca asked. “I don’t understand. If he’s physically okay then why—”

“The man he was living with killed himself as my men were closing in. Gio witnessed the whole thing. He tried to kill himself with the same gun the man used, but my men were able to stop him.”

Luca went ghostly white.

“Why?” King asked. “Why would he do that if he was being rescued?”

I saw Ronan and Dante share a look and I knew whatever Ronan was about to say was really bad. I went to stand by Vaughn and closed my hand over his.

“Gio told my men that the man was his husband… he said he loved him and he didn’t want to live without him.”

I felt like I was going to be sick, and I didn’t need to look at Luca or the other men to know the shock they had to be feeling.

“My men brought Gio back to Seattle and took him to a house my husband and I own on Whidbey Island. We were hoping once we’d gotten him out of that environment that he’d feel safer. The second we turned our backs, Gio grabbed a knife and tried to slit his wrists. He didn’t cut deep enough to do any permanent damage, but we knew he was mentally beyond our help. I had to have him admitted to keep him safe. It’s a private institution. A man my men and I once helped many years ago faked the admission papers so no one would question who Gio really is. As far as the staff is concerned, he’s just the mentally disturbed son of an anonymous but very wealthy family. The man we helped is the only one who’s actively treating Gio. Your son has been there a little over a week now and he’s shown no improvement. He continues to deny he was ever abducted and just keeps saying he wants to be with his husband.”

“Oh God,” Luca whispered.

“He’s alive, Luca. That’s what matters,” Vaughn said firmly. “He’ll be okay.”

Luca looked at him, then me. He held my gaze for a long time before he nodded. “Yes, he will.”

“Would you like to see a picture of him?” Ronan asked as he pulled out his phone. “It was taken during one of his calmer moments,” the man added.

Luca nodded and dashed at his eyes. “Yes.”

He steeled himself as he took the phone from Ronan. We all gave him a moment to himself to take in his son’s image. “It’s him,” he whispered. “It’s him.” His voice cracked as he spoke. Vaughn, King, and Con looked over his shoulder at the phone. I managed to get a look but didn’t want to crowd Luca, so I did so from a distance.

I didn’t have a good enough view to see if the boy resembled the picture Luca had shown me weeks ago, but it wouldn’t have mattered because I doubted I would have known one way or another. What mattered was that Luca seemed certain.

“Ronan,” one of the men called from the opposite side of the room. “It’s done. We need to go so Declan can make the call.”

Ronan nodded and the men began heading for the door. “Wait, no!” I cried as I hurried to Dante. “No, we can’t go, Dante. We have to help the kids. The boy Mr. Oak had on his lap and the one Brian hurt and—”

“It’s okay, Aleks,” Dante began.

“No,” I said almost violently. “Please, Dante. You have to do something.”

My brother grabbed my face. “It’s already done, irmãozinho,” he said gently.

“What?” I asked. I felt Vaughn at my back. His hands came to rest on my shoulders.

“It’s done, Aleks. They’re safe. Come see.” Dante put his arm around my shoulders, but when Vaughn didn’t move, it became a weird stand-off.

It was Magnus who intervened. He closed his fingers around Dante’s and said, “Come on, MawMaw. You and Vaughn can have a ‘whose is bigger’ match later.”

I swore I heard my brother mumble that his was bigger, but he gave in and followed Magnus. There was also a comment about the hated nickname Matty had given Dante two years earlier. Since he called his grandfather Pop-pop, he’d taken to calling Dante MawMaw. It had started as a joke, but Matty and his little friends had gotten a kick out of how much it had annoyed Dante, so they’d all started calling him that.

And it had stuck.

Vaughn took my hand and we followed the men out of the room. As we made our way back toward the main room, I saw that all the doors to the private rooms were open and they all had damage to them.

Like they’d been kicked in…

I felt my blood run cold when I saw that the room Brian had been in was open too.

I came to a stop and stared at the empty room.

Vaughn wrapped his arm around me from behind. “We’ll find him again, Aleks. I promise.”

I nodded and then let him tug me away. My brother and Magnus had stopped at some point to watch the exchange between me and Vaughn, but Dante didn’t ask me about it. I was still trying to deal with the fact that Brian had managed to elude punishment, so I didn’t notice what was happening in the main room until I heard Con say, “Holy fuck.”

I looked up and gasped when I took in the sight before me.

More than a dozen men with guns had formed a large circle around another group of men, all on their knees and bound and gagged.

Some of the bound men were sobbing, others looked sullen. But not one of them was making any kind of sound otherwise. I recognized Mr. Oak and Mr. Stark among the men on their knees… along with Brian and the rest of the party guests.

They were all bound and gagged.

Caught.

Helpless.

Afraid.

Like all the kids they’d hurt.

“What is this?” Vaughn asked in disbelief.

“This,” Ronan said as he came up next to us, “is Aleks’s family.” He nodded at the men forming the circle. “Every single one has suffered at the hands of another or known someone who has. And like Aleks, they had to choose to let it break them or to survive it and then fight back when they could. This is them fighting back for themselves, for the people they love, and for those who aren’t able to fight for themselves just yet.”

My eyes scanned the faces of all the men. I didn’t know any of them, but my heart swelled at knowing that they’d been willing to risk their lives to help me, Luca’s son, and most importantly, the kids who’d spent every second of tonight wishing a miracle would happen and they’d get to go home.

“Where are the kids?” I asked.

Ronan motioned to the door. Several men were ushering a line of kids out the door. A couple of the smaller children were being carried by the men and a couple of the older kids. I saw the little boy that had been with Brian in one of the men’s arms.

“Did your brother ever tell you how he and I met?” Ronan asked. “Or how he came to work for me?”

I shook my head.

“It was several years ago. We were both in Chicago looking for the same man. That man had hurt Mace and Cole’s then-boyfriend, Jonas. They’re now all married to one another,” Ronan said with a smile.

I glanced at Vaughn, who looked positively confused at the mention of three people being married. I’d been in the same boat when I’d been introduced to one of the many threesomes in our family. Dante had explained to me that none of them were legally married, but they’d said vows in front of their family and friends to show that they were going to spend their lives together just like regular couples. I took Vaughn’s hand in mine and waited until he looked at me. “I’ll explain it to you later,” I said with a wink. He laughed at that and I smiled.

It felt good to finally be the one who had more experience with something.

“The man who hurt Jonas tried again shortly after Mace, Cole, and Jonas fell for one another. I knew he’d always be a threat to Jonas, so I made sure he wouldn’t be anymore,” Ronan hedged. “Your brother and I sort of stumbled upon one another. He was not happy with me,” Ronan said with a smile.

Dante appeared at my side. “I was looking for leads on you and Ronan had taken out the one lead I’d had in a long time. It wouldn’t have panned out anyway, because the guy hadn’t had any information on you, but Ronan offered to help me in my search. He had more resources than I even knew was possible.”

Dante looked pointedly at Vaughn, who ignored him.

Oh God, they were just going to kill each other at this rate.

“We haven’t been in this world for as long as you, Vaughn,” Ronan said. “But we’ve seen the same things. Some of my men more than others. But like you and your family, we’ve discovered that if you cut the head off a snake—”

“Two more will grow in its place,” Vaughn murmured.

“But we keep cutting and like you and Luca and your brothers, we try to get the kids out. Having more resources means we’ve learned some new tricks,” Ronan said. “We did what you did – we got some men in– we just did it on a bigger scale.”

Ronan motioned to a few of the men who were guarding the others.

I recognized a couple as men who’d worked the party or had been guests. One of the men had been one of the guards at the back exit near the bathroom. I also recognized the bartender. He actually waved at Vaughn.

So that was how Ronan and his men had gotten into the building. They’d had men already on the inside.

“What’s the plan?” Vaughn asked.

“The cops will be here within minutes of us leaving. We have a friend in Seattle, the captain of the Seattle Police department actually, who is going to call his brethren out here and mention an anonymous tip he got from a suspect about a bunch of sick fucks who like to abuse kids getting together for a drink. We’ll leave enough men here to make sure these assholes can’t go anywhere, and they’ll slip out before the cops surround the building.” Ronan motioned to the men. “Behind every man’s gag is a flash drive,” Ronan said as he held up a little stick that was about the size of my thumb. “Daisy’s been very busy collecting information on every single piece of shit here, and in the rare case she wasn’t able to find enough to make sure a lengthy prison sentence is coming, we did a little bit of photoshopping. Those men who manage to get off because of technicalities will receive a death sentence,” Ronan said easily.

Even I understood that.

And I couldn’t be anything but happy about that.

“What if they swallow the drive?” Luca asked.

“Well, if they’re lucky enough to get it past the rags in their mouths, the cops will just have to go in after it… the drives will survive that long. And if not, like I said, death sentence.”

Ronan reached out to brush my arm. “We should get going. We need to get those kids home.”

I managed a nod but nothing more.

The kids were safe.

Gio was safe.

We were all going home.

“You go with Ronan and Luca, okay?” Vaughn said to me. “Your brother and I need to have a little chat.”

“What? No,” I said.

“It’s fine, Aleks,” Dante said with what I could only classify as an evil-looking grin. “We’ll be along shortly.”

Magnus was the one who took my arm. “Come on, Aleks. Let’s let them get it over with.”

I wanted to say there was no time, but Magnus was leading me away. I looked over my shoulder but it was hard to see past the men guarding the guests. I saw Vaughn say something to Dante and my brother’s face went from somewhat amused to downright deadly.

Then Vaughn pointed to Brian.

Dante looked at me, then back at Brian. I saw him stride forward and grab Brian by the arm and yank him to his feet. Brian looked terrified and I could hear him screaming through his gag as Dante dragged him from the group. I knew Vaughn couldn’t have told Dante the things Brian had done to me in such a short amount of time, but it was enough time for him to have told Dante that Brian was the first man who’d bought me.

And I remembered that I’d said Brian’s name when I’d told Dante that Brian had told me that my brother wouldn’t come for me if I didn’t behave.

So either way, Dante would have put things together as soon as Vaughn had pointed to Brian and told him the man’s name.

It was another case where I couldn’t find it in me to care what would happen to the monster.

I didn’t care what that made me.

Dante was grim-faced as he pulled Brian past me, Luca, Ronan, and Magnus. “This one’s coming with us,” he said to Ronan. “I’ve been meaning to ask Vincent to show me some of his interrogation methods and now I can finally get some hands-on practice.”

Brian let out a cry of distress at that, but Ronan merely nodded and stepped aside.

Vaughn came up to us and took my hand. “Let’s go home,” he said.

I nodded and gripped his fingers hard as he led me from the building.

I just had one question, but I was too afraid to ask it.

Where exactly was home now?