I only knew him as Vaughn. I wasn’t sure if that was his lastname or first. I shouldn’t have even known that much about him, because Father hadn’t liked it when the guards talked to me.
But Vaughn had done more than talk to me. He’d become like the thin stream of light that had somehow managed to break through the black paint covering the little window of the first room I’d been cast into after I’d been taken.
Sometimes that stream of light had been the only thing that had kept me wanting to open my eyes each day.
“Aleks?”
Dante’s soft voice broke through the memories of the dark-haired, dark-eyed man who’d been my only source of light for the longest time…
“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll take the bus, Dante.” I was proud of how firm my voice sounded, even though my stomach was tied in knots.
“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit,” Dante said.
“Okay. Love you, meu melhor…”
Dante paused for a moment, and when he said, “Love you too, irmãozinho,” I could tell he was choking up a bit. I was too. I always did when he called me his little brother. I’d thought him lost to me forever for so long that it was sometimes hard to accept I had my big brother watching out for me again like when we’d been kids.
I hung up the phone and tucked it into my pocket, then hurried to finish closing the store for the night. It was already starting to get dark out and I really didn’t want to risk missing my bus and being forced to wait fifteen minutes for the next one. I’d lucked out that my work was on a bus line that went directly by Magnus and Dante’s house. It meant not having to deal with transfers. The bus itself usually wasn’t too crowded, but on the occasions it was busier than normal, I usually stood near the back exit rather than sitting and reading a book on my phone (a concept I still hadn’t gotten used to).
As I worked, I found myself reaching for the bracelet on my left wrist, only to remember it wasn’t there. Touching the bracelet throughout the day had become a habit that I just couldn’t break myself of.
Because it wasn’t an ordinary bracelet.
My brother had designed it to include some kind of tracking device so he’d always be able to find me. He’d given it to me after I’d forgotten my phone one day about two months after Dante and Magnus had rescued me. I’d been walking the four blocks from home to the library and had gotten lost. Instead of remaining calm and asking someone for directions, I’d panicked and gotten myself even more lost. I’d ended up being missing for hours, and by the time Dante had found me, I’d been sitting in the middle of the sidewalk crying like a baby. A passerby had called the police, who’d managed to get enough information out of me to call Dante and Magnus.
After that, I’d been afraid to leave the house for weeks. It was only when Dante had given me the bracelet and told me it meant he’d always be able to find me that I’d ventured out again. The bracelet had become my lifeline to the outside world.
But I no longer had it. On the day Caleb had been abducted, I’d managed to stuff the bracelet into his pocket. It had allowed Dante and Jace to track Caleb’s location and rescue him from the men who’d taken him. Unfortunately, the bracelet had gotten lost in the shuffle of Caleb being transported to the hospital, and Dante was still working to get me a new one. But I still had my phone. Not only hadImade a point of remembering to grab it the past few mornings, but Dante and Magnus had both checked to make sure I had it on me before I’d left the house.
After making sure everything was locked down, I hurried out the back door. I only had a few minutes to meet the bus, so I didn’t do my usual routine of scanning the alley behind the shop several times before turning my back while I locked the door.
As I began walking toward the northern end of the alley, I heard the sound of squealing tires. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a green van come careening around the corner of the alley’s southern entrance. I told myself not to panic, but instinct won out over reason and I began running. I kept looking over my shoulder as the van closed in on me. When I saw a figure step out of the back door of one of the other shops, I shouted, “Help me, please!”
I practically slammed into the guy. “Please, they’re after me!” Iyelled frantically as I pointed to the van. I wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t just some random, reckless delivery driver, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The van was less than a hundred feet from me and coming fast.
When the man didn’t respond, I tried to push past him, but he grabbed me by the upper arms in a painful hold.
And that was when I knew.
He hadn’t been coming out of one of the shops because he worked there.
He’d been waiting for me.
“No,” I whispered as pure terror ripped through me with violent force.
I opened my mouth to scream again when the man holding me punched me in the face. The blow left me reeling and I hit the ground hard. I tried to get my bearings as pure panic clawed through me, but I wasn’t fast enough.
A second blow left me too stunned to do anything at all. Several pairs of rough hands grabbed me as the world spun. I was lifted and thrown onto a cold, metal floor. More hands, or the same ones – I wasn’t sure – held me down as the van’s door slid shut.
It’s happening again.
Tears streaked down my face. “Please, don’t!” I begged, but that was all I got out before a piece of fabric was jammed into my mouth and tied behind my head. I flailed my arms and legs, but they were bound with plastic ties within seconds.
“Get his phone,” one of the men said.
I was quickly searched and let out a harsh sob when my phone was yanked out of my pocket.
“Toss it,” I heard someone say and then I heard a window opening.
