“Since you seem to like kneeling, you can stay right there for a bit. If your knees need a break, then sit on your butt.”
I nodded, flexing my hands against my thighs.
“Drink.” He handed me a cup of water, and with a shaky hand, I took it. After taking a decent-sized drink, I passed it back.
Before long, he began typing and messing around on the computer, nearly ignoring me the entire time.
I wasn’t sure what was worse—being ignored or being used.
Chapter 9
Allister
Rubbing my chest for the millionth time, I glanced at the boy. He hadn’t moved much since he took position by the chair. I had figured he’d go to a corner, as far from me as possible, when I told him to kneel.
I think having him in this room was more of a punishment for me rather than for him. I hated having him so close, yet something about seeing him kneel here next to me sparked the things I had thought I buried deep inside me.
Sighing, I saw the boy jerk out of the corner of my eye. I knew he expected me to hit him, and I would never lay a hand on him.
He needed to heal. And kneeling on the hardwood floor of my kitchen wasn’t a way to do that.
Even if those green eyes were like windows to his soul, when I got to see them, they blew everything away. And now, I think this boy could easily have me wrapped around his finger.
I feared that once he found his voice, he’d find out just how easy he’d get me to give him the world if I could.
I wanted to blame my beating heart, but I knew I had felt a pull to him from the very moment I saw him on that stage. Seeing his eyes wasn’t going to be any different.
Hearing the car door from the driveway, I stood. “Stay.” My order was soft, but it seemed to make the boy relax slightly.
“I figured you’d be a few more days,” I greeted Collin, seeing that he was once again alone. His two partners, who usually were at his side, weren’t there, and I did wonder why. But it wasn’t my business.
“I have some good news. And I wanted to check on the kid.”
“He’s in my office.” I started to lead the way. “He still hasn’t given me much information.” I hadn’t tried all that hard. I thought maybe if I slowly eased him into things here, he’d open up better.
“That’s okay. I have my ways to track down more than enough info that even the police can’t find.”
I took a seat back in my chair, making sure to run my hand across the top of his head. The boy caught himself as his body tried to follow the motion.
Once Collin took a seat in the chair, his eyes bounced from me to the boy. Finally, after what felt like minutes but only a few seconds or close to it, did he speak.
“Would you like to share your name with us yet, kid?” The boy jerked, then scooted just a tad closer to my leg at Collin’s voice. “I take that as ano. But I do have to say, I found it. I found you.”
At that, the boy moved just slightly to release the pressure on his knees.
“Nineteen years old, which isn’t all that old for the slave traffickers, but it started before then,” Collin said after shifting around and pulling out a small pile of papers. I drew my gaze back to him. “Both parents were drug dealers, which ended up being some sort of shit-storm there alone. When the parents couldn’t pay for the drugs they used, they sold their one and only kid at the age of fifteen. From there, it’s hard to track where and when this kid went. Most of the time, he’s not on a paper trail of any kind. He’d pop up hereand there in ads to be of service, which we both know what that means.” I nodded when he looked up at me. It meant that the boy was used for his body by many others. “Then, he didn’t show up again for a few months until the auction.”
“Where’s the parents now?” Did I really want to know?
“Dead. One OD’d. The other had an accident while in jail under drug charges. They won’t be looking for him. And there’s no other family.”
Of course, there wasn’t. The human trafficking runners always took those that didn’t have a lot of people that would be out looking for them. Not always, but a majority of them, anyhow.
“Dakota Knob.” The boy next to me slumped forward. If I hadn’t been in tune as well as I was already with him, I wouldn’t have noticed the shift. His shoulders dropped, and his chin fell to his chest. “Four years in some sort of captivity can do a whole lot of damage.”
“He’s lucky.” I wasn’t sure if he was or not, with how it sounded his life had been like. I couldn’t stopmyself from running a hand through his hair again. The boy only breathed.
“That’s four years of torture, training, and sexual abuse.” Collin deadpanned. In the doctor’s eyes, it was customary for him to sprout off all the facts as quickly as it was to talk about what football team was winning. He had two partners he saved from human trafficking. He was still working on bringing other trafficking rings down, one at a time.
