He was breathing so hard I was worried he was going to pass out. I’d closed my eyes when I’d pressed my forehead against his in the desperate hope of getting him to listen. I was reluctant to open them because he was finally still in my hold and it just felt so damn good. I’d never allowed my attraction to Aleks to get out of control, not only because he was just so young, but also because he wasn’t in any position to deal with any of it. But admittedly, it was hard not to respond to his closeness.

I opened my eyes and saw that he was staring at my chest. He was sucking in lungsful of air, probably to try and calm himself. I began rubbing my fingers over the back of his neck. He remained stiff for several beats, then suddenly let out a whoosh of air and closed his eyes as he relaxed a little. My other hand was on his upper arm. I moved it to his back and began trailing my fingers up and down his spine in the hopes of calming him more. I wanted to offer him the water so he could rinse his mouth out because I was certain getting sick had left behind a sour taste, but I was too afraid I’d lose him if I stopped talking. And I sure as shit didn’t care that some of his sick had transferred to me during the scuffle.

“After you and Dante and Magnus left the house, I torched it. Do you remember that?”

He nodded. “It blew up,” he said quietly.

“Right. I needed to destroy all the evidence. The cops passed it off as a gas leak and the whole thing was considered a tragic accident. No one knew about you except the people who hurt you.”

He nodded again.

“I spread the word that you were killed in the explosion… so no one would come looking for you.”

He stiffened a bit and I could tell he was battling with himself to believe me. I had no doubt his internal struggle was a brutal one. I barreled on so he couldn’t talk himself out of giving me a chance to explain.

“I was worried the story about your return would eventually get out and those people would recognize you and figure out you hadn’t died in the blast, so I came out here about a week after you got here and watched things for a bit.”

He opened his eyes and I could see the surprise in them. “You… you were watching me?”

“From a distance,” I said with a nod. “I had feelers out back in Chicago too to see if anyone found out you were still alive. I kept waiting for the reporters to start showing up…”

“Dante convinced Mama and Papa not to tell anyone back home I’d been found. They got me an emergency passport but then told the people they got it from that it had all been a mistake and that it hadn’t been me who’d been found. It was a false...”

He seemed to search for the right word for a moment, so I offered, “Alarm?”

He nodded. “Yes. False alarm.” He lifted his hand to wipe at his mouth. “Mama and Papa didn’t want people to know what happened to me,” he said softly. Color deepened his already flushed cheeks. “They… they wanted me to come home and be normal but when I wouldn’t let them take the…”

Aleks’s voice dropped off and he reached up to finger his neck.

He was looking for the collar.

It’d been gone by the time I’d gotten to Seattle. I’d just assumed he’d taken it off as soon as he’d been free of Marcus, but now I was starting to wonder if it hadn’t been more complicated than that. I silently cursed his parents for putting that kind of pressure on him. But as much as I hated the people who’d put us in this position, I hated having to tell Aleks the truth about it.

But it couldn’t be helped.

“Aleks, your parents, they did an interview with a reporter in Brazil a few days ago. Did you know they were suing both the mall you were taken from and the police department?”

Aleks’s eyes went wide. “What?” he breathed.

“They filed the suit last week. They’re seeking damages for the pain and suffering they endured. The suit they filed attracted the attention of reporters, or their lawyer reached out to them, but either way, your parents granted an interview to one of the bigger news anchors down there. It aired two nights ago.”

Aleks shook his head. “They… they didn’t say anything. Dante, he would have been so angry.”

“I’m pretty sure they didn’t tell your brother,” I reassured him. “They probably didn’t expect the story to even get out, and it didn’t. But the people who took you twelve years ago are still at work down there, Aleks. They’re just a small part of a bigger organization that has ties all over the world. The story showed a picture of you from earlier this year in front of your flower shop.”

Aleks pulled back from my touch and I instantly missed the connection. But I could tell he wasn’t deliberately trying to escape me. The shock had him leaning back against the wall and his hand came up to cover his mouth. I took out my phone and pulled up the clip of the news story. I handed it to him. “Hit play,” I said, because I knew he wouldn’t believe anything I said until he saw proof of it for himself.

It was a reality I’d brought upon myself by not telling him sooner what was happening. Even now I was leaving out a critical piece of information, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit that piece of the story to him.

I wasn’t worried about Aleks trying to make a call with my phone. Not only was my location using the phone untraceable, but he was already focused on the clip because the still image showed both his parents in what was clearly an interview of some kind. He hit the play button. The interview had been done in Portuguese, but the clip had subtitles, so even if Aleks was a bit rusty when it came to his native language, he’d be able to understand the gist of the news story. My heart hurt for him as I watched the expressions dance across his face as his parents talked about what life had been like without Aleks. I just hoped he wasn’t noticing what I’d noticed when I’d seen the interview for the first time.

That everything Juliana and Pedro Silva said was about them and their suffering. There’d been little mention of how Aleks had suffered. But there’d been plenty of blame to go around. The interview had clearly been orchestrated to cast the mall and the cops in a negative light and help move the suit forward, probably for a lucrative settlement deal. When the interview reached the part where it talked about Aleks being settled in the U.S., I knew he was looking at the picture of himself. His parents and the reporter had been careful not to actually say Aleks was in Seattle, but they’d foolishly used the picture without cropping out the name of the flower store. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out the store’s location.

Aleks handed the phone back to me before the interview even ended. I stopped it and watched him carefully. He looked numb.

And so very tired.

I was sitting on the floor in front of him, but as badly as I wanted to take him in my arms again, I knew he wouldn’t welcome the contact. He was way too raw.

“The men who took me from that alley… who sent them?”

“I’m not sure,” I hedged. “Most likely someone who was worried you’d be able to identify them.” I didn’t add in my second guess.

Or someone who wanted you for himself…

I didn’t know a lot about Aleks’s past, but I’d heard enough that he’d been a coveted prize because of both his unique looks and his impeccable obedience. Marcus had taken pride in showing Aleks off to every perverted piece of shit in his tight circle of deviants. The young man had become like a prime piece of horseflesh that everyone wanted but no one could get the owner to sell. I’d had more than one fucker comment on what a shame the loss of Aleks had been – none of those same men had even made mention of Marcus’s death.

But it wasn’t something I wanted Aleks to know. It was bad enough that he had to face the fact that he was considered a dangerous witness… to learn there were men who just wanted to possess him was something he didn’t need to deal with at the moment.

And he most definitely didn’t need to know that there might even be those who were willing to use him as a pawn…

That was a fact I myself didn’t want to accept, but I knew I didn’t have a choice.

Aleks let out a strangled whimper that distracted me from my thoughts. I began to reach for him, but he pulled away and backed even farther into the corner. The rejection stung. He shook his head at me. “I don’t know how to believe you,” he admitted.

I swallowed hard and nodded. I deserved that. I put some space between us so he wouldn’t feel so boxed in. “I had to get you out of there, Aleks. I knew you wouldn’t understand why I couldn’t take you home and I didn’t want to take the time to explain it to you. I needed to make sure those guys weren’t being followed. I couldn’t take the risk that you’d fight me.”

Aleks let out a harsh laugh. “I don’t fight,” he said softly. “You of all people should know that.” Before I could respond, he dropped his eyes and whispered, “So what happens now?”

The fact that he seemed more willing to believe me didn’t make me feel even a sense of accomplishment. “I’m still working on that part,” I admitted.

Aleks raised his hands to wipe at his wet face. As soon as he was done, he curled one long arm around his raised knees, then held out his hand. “I want to call my brother, please,” he said.

My stomach dropped out at that.

So my words hadn’t been enough to convince him I was just trying to help him.

Fuck, that hurt.

But hell if I’d go back on my word. And it wasn’t like I could really blame him for choosing his brother over me.

I unlocked the phone and handed it to him. “Our location can’t be traced so you’ll have to tell him where we are,” I said. “We’re in Huxley. It’s a small town on the southeast side of Lake Chelan. This house is a foreclosure that’s about three miles north of highway ninety-seven. It’s on Parkview Lane.”

Aleks studied me for a moment, then dialed. I was surprised when he put the phone on speaker. As it rang, he softly said, “He’s going to kill you for this.”

The words weren’t spoken as a threat or in some kind of vendetta-like fashion. In fact, he almost sounded regretful. I had no doubt who he was talking about.

The line rang twice before Dante answered. “Aleks? Aleks, is that you?”

Regret went through me at the sound of the man’s panicked voice, but it wasn’t until Aleks began crying again that I felt the bile rise in my own throat.

The sight of those silent tears streaking down Aleks’s cheeks was a brutal reminder that I deserved anything his brother chose to do to me.

“Dante?” Aleks finally managed to get out on a strangled sob.

“It’s me, irmãozinho.”

I didn’t know what the Portuguese word meant, but it had a profound effect on Aleks because he covered his mouth with one hand.

“I’m coming, Aleks. I’m coming to get you. Just tell me where you are.”

“Dante,” Aleks whispered brokenly. I could tell he was on the verge of losing it and I could feel my own eyes stinging.

“It’s okay, Aleks. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come get you and take you home and it’ll all be over. I won’t let anyone hurt you, do you hear me? I’m coming right now… just… just tell me where you are.” Dante’s voice broke and I heard him suck in a breath. “Look around the room. Tell me what you see. Can you see a window? Do you hear anything? Are they in the room with you?”

The rapid-fire questions were hard to follow and I could picture a desperate Dante clinging to the phone as he tried to stave off his panic. When Aleks didn’t do anything but whisper his brother’s name again, I started to reach for the phone so I could tell Dante myself where we were.

But Aleks suddenly pulled the phone closer to his mouth and with surprising strength said, “Dante?”

“I’m here, little brother. I’m here,” Dante said.

“Dante, I…”

Aleks suddenly looked up at me and held my eyes. I could see the terror in them. But there was something else too. Some emotion I couldn’t name. When he spoke again, Aleks kept his eyes on me.

“Dante, I can’t come home right now.”

“You can, Aleks. Just… just stay on the line as long as you can, okay? Magnus is having Daisy trace your call. We’ll know where you are in a minute.”

“Dante,” Aleks repeated. “I can’t come home… it’s not… it’s not safe.”

There was a beat of complete silence that was almost deafening as Dante finally seemed to understand what his brother was saying. I held my breath as I stared at Aleks in surprise.

Was he… was he…?

God, he was. He was choosing me. He was choosing to stay with me.

“Why isn’t it safe, Aleks?” Dante asked carefully.

Aleks finally dropped his eyes. “They found me. Don’t be mad at Mama and Papa, Dante. They didn’t know…”

“Aleks,” Magnus’s voice cut in. I heard some background noise, so I figured Magnus had put the phone on speaker as well. “Aleks, talk to us,” the older man said, his voice calm but carrying an edge of something to it.

“I’m okay, Magnus,” Aleks said. “Tell Dante I’m all right. They didn’t hurt me.”

“He’s here,” Magnus said. “He can hear you, Aleks.”

“Dante,” Aleks whispered, his own voice cracking a bit. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, irmãozinho,” Dante said softly. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Dante, you have to get out of the house. You and Magnus… and you have to watch out for Matty and Hawke and Tate and everybody because they might come to the house looking for me.”

“Who?” Magnus asked gently.

“He doesn’t know,” Aleks said as he looked up at me. “I… I believe him, Magnus.” There was a tremor in Aleks’s voice as he spoke. “He says he took me to keep me safe and I believe him.”

I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was still holding.

“Is it Vaughn?” Magnus asked. “Is that who you’re with?”

Aleks didn’t answer. He held my gaze and chewed on his lower lip nervously. I gave him a nod.

“Yes,” he breathed into the phone.

“Is he there in the room with you?” Magnus asked carefully.

“Yes,” Aleks repeated. “He can hear you.”

“Aleks,” Dante said calmly, his voice now holding a cold edge to it. “Take the phone off speaker and give it to Vaughn,” the man said.

“Dante—” Aleks began.

“Aleks,” I interrupted as I held out my hand. “It’s okay,” I said. Aleks hesitated, then handed me the phone. I took it off speaker. By the time I had it to my ear, Dante was talking.

“Tell me where you are,” was all he said.

“The second I figure out how to keep him safe, that’s exactly what I’ll do,” I said.

“Vaughn,” Magnus said. “You need to bring him back. If what you say is true, he’s going to need as many eyes on him as possible.”

I wanted to laugh at the man’s attempt at pragmatism. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get a chance to respond.

“If you even touch him—” Dante began, but then stopped and I could practically feel his fury vibrating through the phone. “I’m going to kill you for this,” he finally whispered, his voice deadly.

“I know,” was all I said. “I’ll keep him safe. Watch out for your family, Dante. These people will use whatever means it takes to get what they want.” I was about to hang up when I saw the starkness in Aleks’s eyes. “Talk to your brother, Dante,” I said gently, then handed the phone back to Aleks, who put it to his ear.

I watched as Aleks mostly listened as Dante spoke. I suspected the first part of the conversation was Dante trying to convince his brother to tell him where he was, but when Aleks began apologizing again and his voice cracked, something seemed to shift because Aleks began nodding and began repeating to his brother, “I will.” Then he was making Dante promise to watch out for everyone… he rattled off one name after another and I felt my insides warm as I realized what all those names meant.

Aleks had people who cared about him besides just his brother and Magnus… and from the sounds of it, it was a lot of people.

I hid my smile when Aleks made some comment about reminding someone named Leo to keep his clothes on, then he was laughing at whatever his brother said in response and I wanted to kiss Dante for steering the conversation in a different direction.

When it came time to end the call, Aleks sobered and wiped at his face again. “I love you, meu melhor,” he murmured.

Whatever Dante said had him smiling. After a few moments, Aleks managed to hang up the phone after saying goodbye to both his brother and Magnus. When he handed it back to me, his hand was shaking. He began crying again but before I could say anything, he was climbing to his feet. I stood as well. Aleks cowered in the corner as he crossed his arms. “Can I use the bathroom to clean up?” he asked.

“You’re not a prisoner, Aleks,” I reminded him, but that only seemed to make him more tense. “Yes,” I finally said when he didn’t move. “Down the hall, first door on the left.”

He waited until I stepped aside before he hurried past me. When he reached the door, I called his name. He paused but didn’t look at me.

“Thank you for trusting me, Aleks,” I said softly.

He was silent for so long that I didn’t think he’d answer. And I kind of wished he hadn’t because his next words cut me to the core.

“I don’t.” He paused for a beat and added, “I said I believed you but that doesn’t mean I trust you.” He shook his head. “I don’t… not anymore. Not ever again, Vaughn.”

And with that, he left the room.