He already knew the answer.
“You,” Luca whispered.
“Jesus, Luca, just shut the fuck up!” I snapped as I got to my feet. I grabbed the gun and suddenly I was the one pacing. “Con, get him the hell out of here!” I shouted. When Con didn’t move, I dropped down into a crouch next to Aleks. “Aleks, please, just come with me now. It’s not safe to stay here.”
Aleks didn’t move at first. When he did, he turned just a little so he could look me in the eye. “Why was the man meeting with Father?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past,” I said quietly, wishing like hell he would drop it.
“Was Father going to sell me to him?” Aleks asked.
I lowered myself to my knees. “It looks that way,” I finally said.
“Why didn’t you want him to tell me that?” he asked as he glanced at Luca.
“Because I knew what it would do to you,” I answered as I dropped my eyes to his lap. His fingers were lax, but I knew that didn’t mean anything.
“What will it do to me?”
“Even though you’re safe, you won’t be able to stop thinking about what it would have been like… to have to start over with someone new… to think about that fear of needing to learn how to please someone new, to obey them so they wouldn’t hurt you. You’ll think about how close you came to never seeing your brother or family ever again.”
“That’s not all,” Aleks whispered. “Is it?”
I shook my head.
“Is he… do you think he’s the one who sent those men after me?”
When I didn’t answer him, I felt his fingers stroke over the back of my head.
“I’ll keep you safe, Aleks. That’s all that matters.”
I knew Aleks was no longer talking to me when he asked, “So you wanted to use me as bait?”
I willed Luca not to answer.
He didn’t.
But whatever Aleks saw on his face was answer enough because he pulled his fingers from my hair and asked, “Can I please go to my room now?”
I wanted to tell him we needed to go, but I knew he wasn’t in any shape to do anything but escape. I was half-tempted to ask him if he wanted to call his brother, but I was afraid of his answer so I merely nodded. He got up, making sure to get off his chair on the opposite side so he wouldn’t touch me even by accident. I stood with my gun in hand to make sure Luca didn’t try to make a grab for him. Despite my brother not being armed, he had the skills to hold Aleks in such a way that I’d have no choice but to put down my weapon.
I watched Aleks go to the stairs and head up them. There was no way for him to escape from the second floor so my biggest concern was keeping an eye on Luca and Con so neither tried to take him from me while the other distracted or disabled me.
The reality was that if they really wanted to, it wouldn’t take much for them to incapacitate me. The only thing protecting me was my gun, and the idea of shooting either man, despite my need to protect Aleks, left a dead weight in my belly.
“Vaughn, sit,” Con said. “I’ve got some steaks in the freezer that I can defrost. There aren’t any eggs but I can fry up some canned potatoes—”
“I’m not hungry,” I said.
Con sighed and Luca shook his head.
“We were so fucking close,” my brother finally whispered, his voice full of bitterness.
I knew what he was talking about, of course. “What was I supposed to do, Luca? Let them all die? The meeting had already been fucking canceled!”
“And why didn’t you know about that?” Luca shot back. “That kid’s brother—”
“His name is Aleks and he’s not a kid!” I bit out.
