The sightof my brother huddled on the floor of Ace’s stall had my frantic heart clenching painfully in my chest. I’d died a thousand agonizing deaths in the few seconds it had taken to hear the three words I’d never wanted to hear in my lifetime ever again.
Aleks is gone.
I was grateful that Nina had turned on one row of the overhead lights on Ace’s side of the barn because it made it easier to see that Aleks appeared to be unharmed. At least from what I could see, because Ace was gently nudging Aleks’s hands where they were resting on the horse’s muzzle. I maneuvered my way beneath Ace’s neck, keeping an eye on Aleks as I approached. He lifted his eyes to mine for the briefest of moments as I lowered myself to sit next to him on the floor. Then his gaze was back on Ace who continued to snuffle at Aleks’s clothes. The big horse’s massive hooves were just inches from our folded legs, but I wasn’t worried he’d inadvertently step on us.
I wasn’t sure where to start so I decided not to. If all Aleks wanted to do was sit here all night, I was more than okay with that. Hell, I’d move into Ace’s stall if that was what Aleks needed.
Several minutes passed before Aleks said, “I couldn’t remember where you lived.”
“That’s okay,” I responded. “I’m glad you knew to come here.”
“The man driving the car…he had to use his phone to look up this place. I only remembered the word ‘Free’ from the sign.”
I nodded in understanding. The farm was calledFlying Free Ranchand there was a big sign at the end of the driveway proclaiming the name.
“I didn’t know I had to pay the man to drive me here. Is he still mad?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “We took care of it.” The fact that my brother knew nothing about cabs and how they worked was a brutal reminder of how sheltered he’d been, despite the ugly cruelties he’d had to face.
“What happened, Aleks?” I asked when he didn’t continue on his own.
Aleks looked around the stall. Ace had taken a few steps away to feed on some slivers of hay spread around in the soft bed of shavings.
“Papa wanted to take it off,” he said as he fingered the collar. “He found someone at the hotel with the right tools to remove it.” My brother swallowed hard. “I told him Father would be angry…”
I felt my insides tighten. I could only imagine what my parents would have thought of hearing Aleks refer to his captor as ‘Father.’ They’d known why Aleks had been taken as a child and they were smart enough to know that the man who’d been holding him hadn’t treated him as a son.
“What did Papa say?” I asked, the term ‘Papa’ sounding foreign to me since I’d never been allowed to call my stepfather that.
“He told me…he told me that the man was gone and I needed to forget about what had happened. That I was safe and things would go back to normal now.”
Anger simmered in my veins. How the hell did my parents think anything my brother faced going forward would be normal?
“He said it was coming off in the morning and that was it,”Aleks continued. His pain filled eyes shifted to me. “I know he’s…he’s dead, but…”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Aleks,” I said softly. “From this moment on, nothing happens that you don’t want.”
And I realized it was true. I would fight my parents with everything I had to make sure Aleks got what he needed. And what he needed was the time and the freedom to start making his own choices.
Aleks dropped his hand from the collar. “I wanted to call you…I wanted you to tell them not to take it off, but they took the phone you gave me away. They said…they said I couldn’t see you anymore…that it was your fault I got taken in the first place.”
A wave of heat passed through me as I realized we were at the moment I’d been dreading from the instant I’d discovered my brother was alive. But I wasn’t the same person anymore. I’d changed because there’d been someone out there who’d shown me it was okay to be the flawed man I’d become.
Flawed, but not broken.
Tarnished, but not irredeemable.
“Do you remember that day? We went to the arcade, but you wanted to go to the toy store?”
Aleks nodded. “I wanted to spend my birthday money. You told me we’d go after you were done at the arcade.”
“I told you that I was there to interview for a job.”
Aleks shrugged, but I wasn’t sure if that meant he remembered or not. “I lied to you about why we went there. I was meeting someone. A man.” I paused as I tried to figure out how to proceed. For all the things my brother had been through, a part of me still saw him as the little eight-year-old boy he’d been. I drew in a deep breath and said, “For sex.”
Aleks remained quiet as he dropped his eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Aleks. If I’d known what could happen, I never would have left you. I’ve wished for those few minutes back so many times…”
