“Relax, I’m not going to touch you.”
“Then who is? Them?” he growled, nodding his head towards my men driving the car.
“No one will touch you.” Leaning forward, I pulled a bottle of water from the built-in fridge and handed it to him. “What’s your name?”
“Mica.”
“You won’t be going back there, Mica.”
Panic flashed in his eyes. “My brother. I have to go back. He has my brother! Please, I have to go back!”
“We will save your brother too,” I said, rubbing my jaw as I examined the poor kid from head to toe. He was filthy, and his clothes were too small for him. Ettore may have stayed out of the fighting scene, making him harder to find, but clearly, he couldn’t stay away from human trafficking or child prostitution. “Does he have any others?”
He shook his head.
“Where is he keeping your brother?”
“He lives in the blue house on the corner down the street from the bar. He keeps us locked in his basement.”
Fucking asshole.
“Do you have a family, Mica?”
He cast his eyes down to his lap and shook his head. “Only my brother.”
The car stopped at the port, and I glanced out the window to see the small fishing boat, two of my men, the boat’s captain, and Yanna, the woman from the children’s home in my city.
“Mica, can you see that lady?”
He peered out the window, trembling. “Si.”
“She’s a friend of mine. A good person. You can trust her. She will take you and your brother to my city, where you will be safe and well cared for in a children’s home. I will fund your and your brother’s welfare and education until you are eighteen.”
His lips parted. “But… what will we have to do for you?”
I exhaled and leaned forward so he could look into my eyes and see how genuine I was. “Nothing. I want nothing from you or your brother. Only that you stay safe and don’t try to run, can you promise me that?”
He nodded slowly, and the car door opened. Yanna smiled at me as she wrapped her arm around the boy’s shoulders and led him towards the boat. He paused and looked back.
“My brother, Rozzy,” he said again, still unsure if he could trust me, but what other choice did he have?
“He will be with you very soon. The boat won’t leave without him. You have my word.”
“Thank you,Signor.” He closed his mouth and then opened it again, as if he wanted to ask another question but wasn’t sure if he should.
“Si?”
“W-why are you helping us?”
A memory of Finn’s face after he’d told me about his past flashed through my mind. The pain, the shame, and the darkness.
“Because someone once helped save someone I love from the same circumstances, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”
A small smile appeared on his lips, and he carried on walking towards the boat with Yanna. The car door slid shut, and I nodded to my men to take me to the blue house on the corner of the street.
Tugging out the black balaclava masks I had hidden under the seat, I threw two to my men and placed the third over my head, only allowing my blue eyes to show.
“You grab the boy. Try not to scare him. Leave Ettore to me.”
