So I gently grabbed his arm just as he got the door open. I expected him to fight me or struggle, but he suddenly went completely still. The tears seemed to dry up on their own and even in the dim light I could see his eyes go blank. Then his bound hands were reaching for his throat and I automatically knew what he was looking for.
The collar.
The fucking collar Marcus had put around his neck to remind him he was nothing more than a possession… a pet. It’d been made of heavy chain link, the kind a large dog would wear. But unlike an animal, Aleks’s collar had been designed so it couldn’t be taken off. I’d seen the burn marks myself on his thin neck. He’d never told me as such, but I’d known in my gut they were the scars from when Marcus had had the links in the chain permanently welded together so the only way the collar could ever be removed was if it was cut off.
“Vaughn,” Aleks whispered quietly as he rubbed the absent links that I strongly suspected still existed in his mind. “Do you think he’ll finally do it this time?” he asked so softly I almost didn’t hear it. His empty gaze turned to meet mine and I felt it like a throat punch.
Just like that, Aleks, the young man who loved flowers and smiled whenever he first tasted that rush of buttery, sugary flavor of the hard candies I’d snuck him whenever I could, was gone. The past two years had been wiped away as if they hadn’t existed.
He didn’t give me a chance to respond to him.
“I’ll ask Father to forgive me, but I don’t think he will,” Aleksmurmured. His eyes shifted so he was staring out the windshield. “Not this time…”
“Aleks…” I began, but he interrupted me. I doubted he’d actually even heard me say his name.
“It’s okay, Vaughn. You should take me home now. Father is waiting.”
Chapter 2
Aleks
“I just wanna go home.”
“I know you do, but your parents can’t take care of you anymore, Aleks. They said it was just too hard.”
“’Cause they don’t have much money?”
“That… and ’cause you were bad.”
“I didn’t mean to be bad. Please, I’ll tell them I’m sorry and I’ll be good. I promise!”
“Aleks, it doesn’t work like that. It’s too late. I’m sorry.”
“No!”
“Hey, hey, calm down. Everything will be okay.”
“I wanna go home!”
“I know you do, but you can’t. But you can stay with me, okay? For as long as you want. Hey, don’t cry, Aleks. I’ll take care of you. I promise. We can be friends.”
“We can?”
“Best friends.”
“But… but you’re a grown-up.”
“I’m not that much older than you. Besides, being friends with a grown-up would be kind of cool, right? We can do lots of fun things. Like eat ice cream for breakfast and play video games all day. That sounds cool, doesn’t it, Aleks?”
“Can… can I go home and we can still be friends?”
“No. Remember what I told you about your parents?”
“But… but maybe Dante can take care of me. He can talk to Mama and Papa…”
“Dante? Is that your brother?”
“Yes, he watches out for me and he—”
