“I just wanna go home.”

“I know you do, but your parents can’t take care of you anymore, Aleks. They said it was just too hard.”

“’Cause they don’t have much money?”

“That… and ’cause you were bad.”

“I didn’t mean to be bad. Please, I’ll tell them I’m sorry and I’ll be good. I promise!”

“Aleks, it doesn’t work like that. It’s too late. I’m sorry.”

“No!”

“Hey, hey, calm down. Everything will be okay.”

“I wanna go home!”

“I know you do, but you can’t. But you can stay with me, okay? For as long as you want. Hey, don’t cry, Aleks. I’ll take care of you. I promise. We can be friends.”

“We can?”

“Best friends.”

“But… but you’re a grown-up.”

“I’m not that much older than you. Besides, being friends with a grown-up would be kind of cool, right? We can do lots of fun things. Like eat ice cream for breakfast and play video games all day. That sounds cool, doesn’t it, Aleks?”

“Can… can I go home and we can still be friends?”

“No. Remember what I told you about your parents?”

“But… but maybe Dante can take care of me. He can talk to Mama and Papa…”

“Dante? Is that your brother?”

“Yes, he watches out for me and he—”

“He knows you’re here, Aleks. Who do you think told us about your Mama and Papa being mad at you and not wanting you anymore?”

“No… no, he… he wouldn’t do that. He… he loves me.”

“Well, maybe he does. How about you come stay with me for a while and if he wants to come see you, he will?”

“You’ll tell him where I am?”

“I will, I promise. But if you want me to do something for you, you have to do something for me.”

“Wh… what?”

“You just have to behave, Aleks. That’s all. Just do what I tell you. And you can stay with me until Dante can convince your Mama and Papa to give you another chance.”

“Um…”

“You trust your brother, right? Then he should be able to come get you real soon. But my house is much nicer than this place. You can have your own room and watch TV and eat whatever you want. As long as you behave.”

“Okay… but I can go when Dante comes?”

“Of course. But until then, we’ll be the best of special friends, how does that sound?”

“Okay.”

“My name’s Brian, Aleks. Let’s go home, okay?”

“No… no!”

“Aleks, wake up, you’re dreaming!”

“No, I don’t want to go with you!”

“Aleks, damn it, wake up!”

I jerked awake at the voice that was too deep and desperate to be Brian’s. Brian never got angry. He punished, he manipulated, he threatened, but he never raised his voice to do it. There was a slight pressure on my upper arms as I tried to get my eyes to open, but between the pounding in my head and chest and the way my eyes felt stuck together because they were dry, I couldn’t escape that moment when I’d naïvely put my hand in Brian’s and let him lead me from the dark, empty room with just the one mattress on the floor. I began to cry because I couldn’t even tell my young self to run.

Just run.

I’d never run.

I’d never even tried.

“Just behave, Aleks, and your brother will come soon.”

“And you’ll tell him I was good?”

“I’ll tell him you were the best.”

Meu melhor…

My best…

“Dante,” I whispered as I forced my eyes open. “Meu melhor,” I gasped as I sat up.

I waited for him to play the game with me. The first time I’d called him my best, he’d started making up ridiculous guesses to finish the statement and it had become our thing. Even now, we still did it and it was how I knew I was okay… that everything was finally okay.

But it wasn’t Dante’s gentle expression that met mine when I managed to focus. And it wasn’t his big hands on my upper arms.

“Vaughn,” I breathed in relief.

Until I remembered I couldn’t feel relieved around this man.

Not anymore.

I scrambled back from him and he immediately released me. My back slammed into something behind me and I realized it was a headboard.

Jesus, I was in bed with him.

I lurched away from him and would have fallen out of the bed if he hadn’t chosen that moment to latch onto my arm again. “Don’t!” I screamed and he instantly released me. I’d regained enough of my balance so that this time I didn’t fall, but I quickly got out of the bed and backed up until I was lodged into the nearest corner. I began jerking my eyes around the room to look for Father when my brain caught up to my reality.

Father was dead.

I’d seen his body for myself. I’d felt his warm blood on my skin. I’d stared into his open, empty eyes. Those eyes haunted my nightmares, just like Vaughn’s eyes dominated my dreams.

Father was dead. I knew that.

Vaughn was here.

He’d kidnapped me.

I knew that too.

But that was all I knew.

I looked down at my hands and saw they were no longer bound. Not like they’d been in the car.

I fought to remember the events after he’d told me he wasn’t taking me home, but there were only bits and pieces.

“Where are we?” I managed to get out, despite my ragged breaths. The room was dim, but not dark. It had old-looking wallpaper and there were just a few simple furnishings including a bed and dresser with a vanity mirror on it. There were two doors. One that was closed, either for a closet or a bathroom. And one that led out of the room. It was currently open and I wondered if I could make my escape through it.

Don’t run, Aleks. Just do as you’re told and you’ll be okay.

I felt bile rise in my throat as Brian’s voice filtered through my head. I actually had to close my eyes because I felt so dizzy. I hadn’t heard his voice in years, but it was like he was standing right next to me.

“In a safe place,” Vaughn responded as he slowly got up off the bed. He moved around the foot of it, his eyes wary, like he was waiting for me to try and get past him. I wanted to laugh at that because not only would my body not respond to the instinct, but I knew he’d catch me with next to no effort.

“Why?” I bit out as I looked at the bed, then myself. I was still wearing all my clothes. All except my shoes, and I could see those sitting on the floor next to the bed. I looked at the bed again. There were no restraints of any kind.

But all he’d need were plastic ties like the other guys. They could easily be in his pocket. And in truth, we both knew he didn’t need them. He was much bigger and stronger than me. He’d have no problem subduing me, assuming I could even find the courage to fight back.

And since I couldn’t find the guts to even try and run, I knew there was no chance of me fighting him. I had no doubt he knew it too.

“Is it you?” I asked. “Or someone else?”

“No one is going to hurt you, Aleks.”

He had the audacity to actually look pained as he said the words, but I didn’t believe him or the imagined emotion. I might be a coward, but I wasn’t stupid. I’d long ago learned that the master manipulators were the ones who knew how to use the words you wanted to hear against you.

I took a moment to study him. He looked the same, though there was a certain tiredness to his eyes that I’d never noticed before. Like his soul had aged at a considerably faster rate than his body. I guessed him to be in his mid-thirties or so. He was taller than me by several inches and outweighed me by maybe sixty pounds. He wasn’t a muscle head, but he was really well built with a broad chest and trim hips. The muscles of his thighs flexed beneath the black dress pants he was wearing as he moved a little closer to me. He was wearing a light-blue button-up dress shirt but had taken his jacket off at some point. I didn’t see his gun, but that didn’t mean anything. It could easily be at his back.

Vaughn’s black hair was a little longer on top and trimmed short on the sides. His beard was also a touch longer than it’d been two years ago. I’d always had this weird obsession with wanting to know what the neatly groomed hair would feel like beneath my fingers. I’d only ever seen Vaughn dressed in suits, so it had always fascinated me to see the single black earring he wore in his left ear… I always imagined it to be some kind of silent “fuck you” to the world.

My gaze dropped to Vaughn’s muscular forearms. He’d rolled his shirt sleeves up so I could see that his right arm had a tattoo on it, but his left didn’t. Another silent act of rebellion? Or was that who he really was and the suits were the fake part?

Why did I even care?

He wasn’t real.

At least not the version of him I’d imagined in my head. The one who’d saved me two years earlier.

Why had he done that?

Maybe his goal had only been to kill Father? Maybe they’d had some kind of falling out.

But he’d let me and Dante and Magnus go.

Oh God, Dante… he had to be going crazy with worry. How long had it even been since I’d been taken?

I looked at the single window in the room but the curtain was drawn. There was no light filtering in through it, so that meant it was probably still dark out.

Or dark again.

God, why couldn’t I remember anything?

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked. My limbs felt heavy and before I could even consider the vulnerable position I was putting myself in, I slid my back down the wall and dropped to the floor. I drew my knees up against my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I was aware of Vaughn moving, but I was suddenly too tired to care. He’d do whatever he wanted. Better to let him get it over with.

Because there would be no rescue this time. Even once he got me back to Chicago, he or whoever he was delivering me to would make sure Dante could never find me again. When I’d first been taken as a child, they’d moved me around from place to place so many times I’d eventually lost count. All sense of time had been stolen from me until Brian had come and offered me a chance to go home.

And stupid kid that I’d been, I’d taken him up on it.

I’d been so damn good that I was sure I’d make my parents proud and they’d want me back.

“Here,” Vaughn said, and then a bottle of water was being put into my hands.

The words, “fuck you” were on the tip of my tongue, but I bit down on the flesh rather than speak them. I wasn’t someone who naturally swore, but even if I had been, it was against the rules. There were some habits I’d eventually managed to break in the two years I’d lived with my brother and his fiancé, but so many things were so ingrained that they’d become my new normal. I had no idea if I would have been someone who swore if I’d been allowed to be a regular kid, but it didn’t matter anyway.

I took the water and obediently drank a sip.

And gagged.

The water was fine, but my stomach was in such tight knots that the cold liquid made me feel all kinds of worse.

Who would have thought such a thing possible?

“Take a few bites of this,” Vaughn said as he handed me some kind of protein bar.

I wanted to say no, I really did. But he hadn’t been asking. He wasn’t the Vaughn who’d snuck butterscotch candies into my palm when no one was looking.

My body shivered as I remembered the little sparks I’d always feel when he touched me like that. I’d only ever felt those sparks around him.

I wasn’t sure what that meant.

But there were no sparks this time as I took the protein bar.

Thank God for small mercies.

Because being cold made it so much easier to deal with the bad stuff, and I always started with mentally reciting my most favorite flowers and their meanings. It was the first step in escaping into that pretty little place in my head where no one could touch me. Dante was there. The rest of my family too. It’d been a particularly brisk day, but we’d decided to go to the beach anyway and everyone, even Dante and my father, had seemed to get along. Dante and I had spent hours building the perfect sand castle and then had let our baby brother, Breno, destroy it. In that place I was warm and safe and happy. But to be warm, I had to be cold first.

And I’d never felt that around Vaughn.

Not even on that day when I’d first seen him in Father’s office. I’d tried to escape into my head long before I’d entered that study, but I hadn’t managed it in time and once I’d caught sight of the scary-looking dark-haired man sitting in the armchair, I’d been momentarily trapped in the present. It wasn’t until Father had snapped his fingers at me that my brain had thankfully turned off. The blackness had let me stay in its peaceful grip until one of Father’s men had taken me by the arm and led me back to my room. I’d tasted Father on my tongue and usually when that happened, it meant I was spared from the rest of it. Since Father never shared me with anyone, I hadn’t had to worry about Vaughn that particular day. I hadn’t even been sure I’d see him again.

But he’d been there a few days later and when one of Father’s men had let his hand linger on my body just a little too long, Vaughn had slammed the man back against the wall and informed him in no uncertain terms what would happen if he ever touched me like that again. I’d waited for him to add the caveat that I belonged to Father, but there’d been nothing else.

Just the singular threat to never touch me like that again.

And that was when it had happened.

That little something inside of me that kept me from seeking out the blackness whenever Vaughn was around.

Like if I did, I’d miss something important. I hadn’t known what exactly, but it hadn’t mattered. That seed had been planted. Then it had gotten worse.

Because I’d begun to look forward to seeing him – even if it was while I was being taken to see Father or any number of the men who came to admire Father’s well-behaved pet.

I’d still somehow managed to escape into that place in my head during the worst of times when Vaughn wasn’t around, but after a while he’d started showing up on the beach with me and my family. Near the end just before Dante had come for me, it had somehow only been me and Vaughn on that beach. We hadn’t been doing anything but sitting on the sand watching the sun set, but it’d been how we’d been sitting that my mind had craved. I’d been in front of Vaughn with his legs on either side of my body. My back had been pressed against his chest and his powerful arms had been wrapped around me, protecting me from the biting wind. Every once in a while, he’d leaned down and whispered something into my ear, but I’d never been able to make out the actual words.

But all that was gone now.

There was no safe place to go anymore… it had abandoned me when I’d finally stopped needing it. I’d been kind of glad, but now I had to wonder if maybe it hadn’t been too high of a price.

Two years of freedom.

Of feeling safe.

And hoping.

All those things had had an expiration date but that safe spot in my head had been a sure thing. It had become my best friend. And I’d happily cast it aside.

God, I was such a naïve fool.

The first bite of protein bar felt like a rock as it landed in my belly. And I knew in that moment this was one order I couldn’t follow. I felt tears sting my eyes as I began retching. Humiliation went through me as I threw up all over myself. It was mostly just the dreaded piece of protein bar and a little bit of water, but it felt like what little pride I had left exited my body at the same time. I began sobbing uncontrollably.

I heard my name whispered softly then suddenly I was dragged against a broad chest. I was enfolded in the warmest embrace I’d ever known and that just made the betrayal sting even more.

I told myself to push him away.

I told myself to call him every swear word I’d ever heard my brother use.

I told myself to order him not to touch me or I’d kill him.

I didn’t do any of those things. To my horror, I fisted my hands in his shirt and opened my mouth against the spot on his neck where his top button had been left undone. I let out a bloodcurdling cry that didn’t sound human.

I hated him.

I just fucking hated him.

Except I didn’t.

And that was what was so messed up.

What I was feeling wasn’t anger. The pain ripping through me was a thousand times worse than the many times my body had been stolen from me and violated in the ugliest of ways.

“I trusted you,” I cried out. “You made me trust you!”

A big hand came up to clasp the back of my head. “I know, baby,” Vaughn murmured against my ear.

Like how he’d whispered to me on that beach… the one in my head.

My safe place.

The safe place that no longer existed.

The endearment felt like the cruelest of violations though, and for the second time in as many years, I did fight. I shoved back from him, but he refused to let me go. I’d gotten some of my sick on him and I could still taste it in my mouth, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Aleks, listen to me!”

“No!” I shouted. “I trusted—”

“Just fucking listen, Aleks! And I swear on my life, I’ll call Dante for you myself when I’m done if that’s still what you want!”

How many times had I heard that before? That if I just did what I was told, Dante would come and get me. It had all been a lie. I was about to tell him so when he grabbed me gently by the back of my neck and pressed his forehead against mine. “Aleks, my real name is James Vaughn Covello and I was working for Marcus Parks in the hopes of finding someone… someone who was taken just like you.”

I stilled at that and sucked in a breath.

“Please, Aleks… please, just listen.”