“Yeah,” he said softly. “I only did low level shit…I was basically a glorified errand boy. I never saw any kids or anything,” he said hastily.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Dante,” I said as I glanced at him. “If Jenna had been in that situation…” I let my words trail off because I didn’t want to even consider the prospect. Jenna had struggled and she’d suffered at the hands of her killer, but Dante’s brother would have had to endure so much more.
Dante studied me for a moment and then dropped his gaze to his lap. He had his phone in his hand and began flicking his nail against the edge of the protective case. “I was in long enough that I figured out which guys specialized in supplying kids and where they were sending them.”
“The U.S.,” I offered.
He nodded. “I learned which cities they typically sent the kids to. I started in L.A. and was there for almost a year. I focused on the kids instead of the guys running the rings.”
“What do you mean?”
Dante began chewing on his lip. “I was desperate, Magnus,” he whispered.
“Hey,” I said and waited until he looked at me. “I get it,” I said. “Nothing changes,” I added softly.
He nodded and then said, “I hired kids who I suspected mightbe a part of the ring. Some were, some weren’t. I never fucked any of them,” he added quickly.
I nodded because I knew he wouldn’t have been capable of that. “Go on.”
“If I could get the kids out without giving myself away, I would. Sometimes it meant getting rid of their handler.”
He cast me another tentative glance so I merely nodded. I knew what he was saying and even though the cop in me rebelled at the idea of vigilante justice, the pragmatist in me knew it would have been the only way to help the victims.
“I couldn’t save them all,” Dante murmured and then his eyes were back on the window. “Some didn’t want to be saved.”
I knew his thoughts were on Aleks.
“So your search led you to Chicago?” I prodded.
“Yeah…about a year ago. There was a power struggle going on and this guy named Eduardo Santero had just taken over the business. One of the kids I hired had been in the ring at one point, but he’d gotten out.”
“Remy,” I murmured.
Dante nodded. “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” he said softly.
“What do you mean?”
“He managed to escape Santero’s ring only to end up with a pimp who turned him into a junkie,” Dante said. He shook his head. “I offered to get him into rehab...”
“What’s his link to Aleks?” I asked.
“When I would hire the kids, I’d ask them if they’d seen Aleks. He has a distinctive birthmark…it’s in the shape of a heart on his collarbone near his neck. If he’s wearing a shirt with a low collar, it’s easy to see.”
“So, Remy recognized the birthmark.”
“Yeah. Only kid who ever did…I’d thought I’d won the fucking lottery. Turns out he and Aleks were held in the same house when they were first taken. Remy was a couple years older. He told me Santero was working as a handler for the ring at that point.”
“So Santero became your link to Aleks.”
“He did. Remy was moved to a new house a few days later so he didn’t know what happened to Aleks. When I met him last year, I asked him to call me if he saw or heard anything about Aleks. I never really expected to hear from him…he was my last hope, though, so I kept calling him to see if he’d heard anything. He never called me back.”
“What about Santero?”
“That’s where things get complicated,” Dante said quietly and I saw him cast me a sidelong glance.
When he didn’t continue, I said, “Tell me.”
He hesitated before saying, “Am I talking to Magnus, my boyfriend or Magnus, the cop?”
