Until Aleks.
There’d been no doubt in my mind that the whole show with Aleks had been meant as a test and what would have happened if I’d failed it. Marcus had paid well for loyalty and if Ihadgiven in to my instincts and sliced his throat from ear to ear, his men wouldn’t have let me walk out of that study alive.
Well, they would havetriedto stop me, anyway.
But even Marcus hadn’t known how truly qualified I’d been for the position. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for Aleks, there’d been something stronger keeping my ass in that chair as Marcus had paraded his toy in front of me.
Loyalty.
Love.
Hope.
My already rolling belly clenched when I considered everything Aleks had endured in the three months I’d ingratiated myself with Marcus Parks in the hopes I’d find the information I’d needed to bring the whole thing to an end.
A few fucking shared butterscotch candies and making sure none of the other guards put their hands on him hadn’t undone any of that. And even though I hadn’t been the one who’d typically had to escort Aleks to wherever Marcus was in the mansion when he wanted to play with his toy, I might as well have been the one who’d handed him over and stood outside the door and listened to the piece of shit’s grunts and groans as he’d taken his pleasure.
The handful of times Ihadbeen forced to listen to Aleks being used by Marcus, I’d managed to not stride into the room and kill the man because I’d beensoclose to getting the information I’d needed. I’d wanted to tell Aleks that… to beg him to hang on just a bit longer, but he’d clearly accepted for some time that his survival was all about hanging on, and he’d learned on his own how to do that.
By becoming exactly what Marcus had wanted.
He’d never spoken out of turn, he’d never cried, he’d never protested; he’d obediently waited for every order to be given, no matter how long it had taken to come… it was just something so ingrained in him that there were times I’d actually come to wonder if he’d tell Marcus about my efforts to befriend him.
He hadn’t, but my instincts that Aleks knew survival meant allowing Marcus to own him in every way possible had been proven right when I’d learned that the young man had told Marcus about his brother’s rescue attempt. I’d only just walked into the mansion’s front door when one of the guards had searched me out to inform me that Dante Thorne, Aleks’s older brother, had managed to track Aleks down and, along with his lover, had tried to rescue the young man – something Aleks had been made aware of. Instead of helping in his own rescue, Aleks had immediately gone to Marcus and told him about the note his brother had managed to get to him while he’d been in the greenhouse on the mansion’s expansive property. It was also the one place Aleks didn’t have to have an escort with him and where the security cameras hadn’t been working at the time.
From everything I’d learned, Aleks had had a good chance of being rescued that night because his brother and the man’s Texas Ranger boyfriend had been more than capable of the task. But Aleks had betrayed his own flesh and blood because Marcus Parks had been God to Aleks. He’d meant the difference between life and death for the young man. I hated thinking about the things he’d had to endure over the years to learnthatparticular lesson…
Dante’s timing had been pretty damn shitty because my plans to get what I needed from Marcus had been in the works for that same night. I’d been so close to coming face to face with the man I’d been searching for for years, but the meeting had been called off whenMarcus had learned of the rescue operation. I hadn’t even had time to curse Dante and his lover, Magnus DuCane, because the scene I’d walked in on after killing the guard who’d come to find me to tell me that Marcus needed me to get rid of some bodies had been utter chaos, and I’d had only seconds to react.
I’d thrown open the door to the study just in time to see Marcus point his gun at Aleks, who’d looked disoriented as he’d leaned heavily against Marcus’s desk. It’d taken only a split second for my brain to process the sight of the gold letter opener sticking out of Marcus’s back and I’d pulled the trigger just as Marcus’s own trigger finger had begun to move. My bullet had rung true and ripped through Marcus’s throat. Blood had sprayed everywhere as he’d made a gurgling sound and then pitched forward onto the desk, knocking Aleks to the ground in the process. I hadn’t given in to the immediate need to check on the young man as I’d turned and taken out the two guards in the room. There’d been two other men in the room, one shot in the arm, the other seemingly unharmed, but I’d ignored them as I’d hurried to Aleks. He’d let me pull him to his feet and when I’d seen the fresh bruises on his face, I’d felt that last chink in my armor break. In all the time I’d been working for Parks, he hadn’t once struck Aleks because the young man had been so unfailingly obedient.
But somehow the sight of the punishment Aleks had received for his act of rebellion had shattered that wall that’d had about a million cracks in it, most of which had only started to form when I’d met the young man for the first time. It’d been wholly unnecessary, but I’d enjoyed putting that final bullet through Marcus’s brain.
I’d managed to get Aleks, Dante, and Magnus out of there, but then I’d been in damage control mode. I’d had only enough time to grab the notebook where I’d often seen Marcus jotting notes and then I’d torched the mansion, not only to get rid of the evidence that would bring the authorities into a world they were ill-equipped to handle, but to cover my own trail as well. It’d been my only chance to not blow my cover. As it was, the whole thing had undone years of hard work, but I wasn’t giving up. And Aleks was safe… that was all that had mattered.
Well, hehadbeen safe.
Fuck, how had this all gone so wrong?
I glanced at him in the blackness of the car. He hadn’t moved or spoken in a while… not since I’d told him I couldn’t take him home and he’d let out the tiniest of choked sobs as tears had flowed down his cheeks. I knew I should have told him everything that was happening then and there, but there was this part of me that just wanted to spare him the truth. I wanted to pretend that none of this was happening and he was still safely tucked away in his little flower shop and living with his brother. But to tell him anything meant I needed to know what the fuck I was doing, and I just didn’t.
I had no clue.
And that was so very unlike me.
But I hadn’t really had the time to form a plan, either. Not only was I dealing with a betrayal I hadn’t seen coming, but things had happened faster than I could have imagined. And even getting Aleks away from those men didn’t mean he was safe. Taking him home to his brother wouldn’t mean he’d no longer be hunted. If anything, that would just put his whole family in danger.
That’s the story you’re trying to sell, you coward?
I ignored the voice in my head and glanced at the clock on the dash. We’d been driving for nearly an hour. I wanted to put a lot more distance between us and Seattle, but we were far enough away from the bodies I’d left behind to at least cut Aleks loose and try to reassure him again that everything would be okay.
I took a few turns onto various backroads until I was able to find what looked like an unused service road of some kind, then drove far enough down it until I was sure the car couldn’t be seen by passersby from the road. When I reached a clearing, I drove until I was in the middle of it so that if Aleks did manage to take off on me, I’d be able to see him without too much trouble… and catch up to him.
I turned off the car but turned on the dome light. I reached into my pocket for the utility knife. “Aleks, I’m going to cut you free now. I just needed to make sure you didn’t try to come after me while I was getting us out of there,” I began to explain, but when I reachedfor his hands, he jerked away from me. His body slammed into the door. He let out a loud wail of pain, but I instinctively knew he hadn’t physically hurt himself.
“Don’t touch me!” he cried as harsh sobs racked his entire body. He tucked his bound hands protectively against his chest. “Please, don’t touch me!” he managed to get out, his throat sounding raw. Then he was reaching for the door handle and part of me actually wanted to let him go.
But I couldn’t.
