Unbroken (The Protectors #12)

Prologue

Aleks

“Thanks, Aleks! These are definitely getting me out of the doghouse with the missus!”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Dunbar,” I said as I locked the door behind the older man and flipped the Open sign to Closed and drew down the full-length blind that kept people from seeing into the flower shop after hours. I instantly felt more relaxed.

“So much for all the progress you’ve made, Aleks,” I murmured quietly to myself.

Progress? What progress?

I told my inner voice to shut up and reached for my phone.

I wasn’t surprised when it rang before I could even unlock it.

My brother Dante’s name flashed on the screen, along with the picture of him, his fiancé Magnus, Magnus’s grandson Matty, and Matty’s best friends, Leo and Jamie.

The picture had been taken during Matty’s birthday party at our house – the private one.

Because I hadn’t been brave enough to attend the real party he’d had with his friends or the one with the entire family.

While Matty definitely hadn’t minded having multiple parties, I knew Dante and Magnus had made special arrangements with Matty’s fathers to give the boy a small party that I could attend that wouldn’t overwhelm me.

It had been both humiliating and a relief.

Because I’d wanted to celebrate Matty’s birthday with him, but it was pathetic that after two years of trying to adjust to my new life, I still couldn’t do something as nonthreatening as attend a family gathering that would have more than a handful of people at it.

And not just any people, but ones who knew about my past and were always respectful of my boundaries.

“I’m leaving in a few minutes,” I said before Dante could say anything.

“Let me guess, you stayed open late for Mr. Dunbar again. What did he do this time?”

I smiled. “He used one of Mrs. Dunbar’s favorite vases as a hole for putting practice.

” I didn’t actually know what that meant, but as someone who understood how much Mrs. Dunbar loved her flowers and the vases she put them in, the fact that Mr. Dunbar had even touched one of the vases, let alone used it for a purpose other than it was intended for, explained why Mr. Dunbar had been forced to go for one of the more expensive arrangements today.

“Idiot,” Dante muttered. “Why don’t I come get you?” Dante asked. “If I leave now, I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

I was more than tempted to take my brother up on the offer but doing so would be yet another step backward for me.

“No, it’s okay. I… I want to take the bus.”

I really didn’t, but most of the things I did these days were less about what I wanted to do and more about what I needed to do.

Dante was silent for a moment, no doubt torn between encouraging me and trying to change my mind.

I wasn’t the only one who’d been rattled by the abduction of my friend, Caleb, three days earlier.

I’d been with the young man when some men from his past had shown up at the small park we’d been at.

Caleb and his infant daughter had come with me to support me as I’d tried to work on being around a crowd of people.

I’d done pretty well at Caleb’s brother’s wedding a couple of weeks earlier, so I’d been feeling confident that I could somehow magically handle being around a large group of complete strangers.

I’d been a mess.

But I’d managed not to flee.

Until Caleb had spotted a man who’d been hunting him.

Caleb had shoved his daughter, Willa, into my arms and had told me to go into the nearest shop and call for help.

He’d then taken off to lead the men away.

It had been a horrific situation, but fortunately my brother and Caleb’s boyfriend, Jace, had been able to find him.

The whole thing had set me back quite a bit, and it had undoubtedly given Dante a scare too.

It had all been too reminiscent of my own abduction twelve years earlier when I’d been eight and Dante had been sixteen.

Dante had been with me when I’d been taken from a mall and he’d spent nearly every moment since then looking for me.

Despite knowing the reasons I’d been taken, I had no doubt that Dante had been shocked by what he’d found when he’d shown up at a mansion just outside Chicago one night to rescue me.

I could still remember the events of that night as if they’d happened yesterday, instead of a little over two years ago. Dante and Magnus had watched in horror as I’d followed the command I’d been given to strip and bend over a desk. I hadn’t even hesitated to do as I’d been told.

Because it was all I’d known.

Show this man what you are…

I flinched as the voice permeated my mind. I’d worked for two long years to get Father’s voice out of my head, but every time I was certain I’d managed to silence it, it would randomly appear again.

I was coming to accept that it was a part of me.

Just like I had long ago accepted that I would always refer to Marcus Parks as Father, despite sharing no blood with the man. Not to mention the fact that the things he’d done to me had had absolutely nothing to do with being any kind of father to me.

Even the man’s death hadn’t changed that.

Father’s death automatically had me thinking about another man I’d tried long ago to vanquish from my thoughts, but for a whole other set of reasons.

I only knew him as Vaughn. I wasn’t sure if that was his last name 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, irm?ozinho,” 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 had I made 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!”