Chapter 11
Vaughn
“Knock it off, Luca,” I snapped as I eyed my brother. Aleks jumped at the sound of my voice and his eyes flitted from where Con was stitching up my arm to where Luca was sitting on the opposite side of the kitchen table. Luca shot me a brittle look before he stood and began moving.
Pacing.
Not something he did often.
That would have meant showing actual emotion and my brother just didn’t do that.
Showing emotion was like exposing one’s throat in our world.
It was a trait that had only worsened for him in the years since Gio had been taken.
“Stay on that side,” I said as Luca looked like he was going to expand his movements to the side of the table Aleks and I were sitting on.
I still had my gun out and while I wasn’t pointing it at Luca, it was lying on the table in front of me and aimed in his general direction.
Despite the fact that he hadn’t tried to grab Aleks and use him against me when he’d had the chance, I didn’t trust him for even a second.
Luca frowned at me like he was surprised by the command but remained on his side of the table. The fingers on his right hand were twitching and I knew why.
Yeah, he was definitely in a bad way.
But any pity I normally would have felt for him had been made obsolete the moment he’d sent his men after Aleks.
I glanced at the young man next to me. He was trembling, but I didn’t dare reach for him.
I was still reeling from his attack on me.
I didn’t care that he’d cut me – I was actually happy he’d finally defended himself.
But to know I’d pushed him to a place where his psyche had felt the need to lash out so violently was heartbreaking.
Even with all Marcus had done to him, I’d never heard of Aleks ever blacking out and fighting back against the man.
But when I’d backed him into a corner, both literally and figuratively, he’d responded in the most unexpected way.
“Does it hurt?” Aleks asked softly when my eyes met his. He glanced at where Con was putting in the final stitches. The cut wasn’t overly long or deep, but it was bad enough that it wouldn’t have stopped bleeding on its own.
“Just stings a little,” I said. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but Aleks was already feeling a shitload of guilt for what he’d done, and I didn’t want to add even another ounce to that.
“He did worse climbing trees in Central Park as a kid,” Con said.
Aleks looked briefly at Con, then back at me. “You liked to climb trees?” he asked.
“He loved it,” Luca cut in. He was still pacing but wasn’t looking at us as he spoke.
“He doesn’t have a lick of sense when it comes to heights,” he muttered.
“Our mother called the fire department the first few times he did it because she was sure he couldn’t get down.
He’d wait until the firemen got all the way up to him with their ladders and then he’d climb right back down the same way he’d gone up…
on his own.” Luca waved his hand impatiently.
“The neighbors actually used to ask him to go up after their damn cat because he could climb higher than any fireman, or anyone else for that matter.”
My brother’s voice was gruff, but I didn’t miss the admiration in it. It made his betrayal just hurt that much more.
“You weren’t scared?” Aleks asked me.
I shook my head. “Getting to the top of a tree always made it feel like the next step would be to start flying,” I said softly.
“Central Park… that’s in New York City, right?” Aleks asked. “I saw it in a movie once and Dante said he and Magnus would take me there one day. They say it has a little bit of everything.”
“It does,” I acknowledged and was about to offer to show him around someday when I realized he and I would never have a someday.
When I figured out how to get him out of this mess, he’d go back to his life and I’d go back to mine.
Even on the off chance I found my nephew, I knew I’d never truly be able to get out of the world of kids being trafficked for sex – there were just too many kids like Aleks out there waiting for help to come.
Not to mention I’d never be able to get Aleks’s trust back now. I didn’t deserve it anyway.
The look on his face when he’d put two and two together and realized I’d left him to Marcus’s cruelty, even though I’d had the power to stop it…
Right after that his eyes had gone blank.
I’d been trying to talk to him to get him back at the same time that I’d been keeping an eye on Luca and Con, so I hadn’t seen him pull my knife from his pocket.
When he’d suddenly darted past me, I’d grabbed him because he’d been heading right for Con and Luca.
I’d been so stunned by the knife slicing through my skin that I’d released him and he’d run at my brother and friend.
But I suspected he hadn’t really even seen them in his altered state of mind.
Con had rushed to aid me as I’d tried to catch up to Aleks but when I’d closed my fingers over Aleks’s, he’d swung at me with the knife again and I’d barely stepped back out of the way to avoid getting nailed in the side with it.
That was when Luca had intervened.
During the scuffle, Con had grabbed me to keep me from aiming my gun at Luca, probably because he hadn’t been certain I wouldn’t shoot my own brother to protect Aleks – a fact I hadn’t been so sure of myself in that moment – and Luca had grabbed Aleks’s arm from behind.
Aleks had lashed out at him and the move had taken both men to their knees.
Luca had managed to get a hold of the hand Aleks had been holding the knife with.
I’d been certain he’d do what we’d both been trained to do – snap the wrist to disarm Aleks.
That was why I’d knocked Con off me and put my gun to Luca’s head.
But unlike Con, my brother had seemed pretty certain I wouldn’t shoot him, because he hadn’t followed the order. Instead, he’d merely held onto Aleks until he’d managed to talk him out of the blackout that had so disoriented him.
Look at how far he will go for you, no matter what! He’s never betrayed you! You could put that thing in his fucking gut next time and he’d still lay down and die for you!
They weren’t words I’d ever spoken to my brother, but he’d clearly figured it out from my actions.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Aleks had been my weakness from day one and I knew what happened when you had something of value.
You lost it… usually because someone took it from you to use against you.
I’d learned that long before I’d been sucked into the world that had first taken Aleks, then Gio.
But I’d never thought I’d have to worry about protecting something I cherished from my own brother.
Luca and I had a relationship that was anything but traditional, but somehow, despite our father’s intent to keep us emotionally disconnected, we’d become closer than any blood bond could have predicted.
I couldn’t help but look at Luca again as he paced. Normally, I would have been giving him some kind of reassurances that we’d find Gio and he’d be okay and we’d bring him home. But the words got caught in my throat this time.
He went after Aleks, I reminded myself.
“You’re all set,” Con said as he tied off the last stitch.
I eyed the fresh bruise on his face but before I could apologize, he patted me on the shoulder.
Con wasn’t my blood, but he might as well have been because my bond with him, King, and Lex was just as strong as it was with Luca… well, had been.
I didn’t know what the fuck we were now.
Con went to the opposite side of the table after washing his hands and then stepped in Luca’s path.
He said something softly to my brother that I couldn’t hear, then put his hand on his shoulder too.
Luca remained stiff for several beats, then nodded.
Then he was returning to the chair across from me and Aleks.
Con… ever the peacekeeper. He’d played that role when we’d been kids too.
He’d usually been the first to get between me and Luca to break up a fight on the rare occasions when Luca and I hadn’t stopped on our own.
And since he’d known how to kick ass better than the rest of us, the irony had never been lost on us…
and we’d learned early on that when Con told us to knock it the fuck off, we needed to listen.
God, as shitty as my childhood had been, I’d take those days back in a heartbeat.
My eyes met Con’s and I said, “If you really want to help me, you’ll keep him here until Aleks and I are long gone.”
I held Con’s gaze, even though I could practically feel Luca’s eyes burning a hole through me.
“So you’re going to keep running?” Con asked. He looked at Aleks. “Is that what you want, Aleks?”
I managed not to answer for Aleks, despite my instinct to tell Con that what Aleks wanted was his life back.
I looked at Aleks, who seemed surprised at the fact that Con was actually waiting for a response.
“I… I want my family to be safe.”
“They will be,” I said automatically.
“No, they won’t,” Luca interjected.
I snapped my eyes to Luca and was about to rip him a new one when Con put his hand on Luca’s where it was resting on the table, likely in the hopes of silencing him. But Luca was Luca and said exactly what was on his mind.
“He won’t ever be safe, and neither will his family as long as they’re still looking for him!” Luca said impatiently to me.
“And you expect me to believe that’s why you sent your men after him?” I bit out. “To keep him safe?”
“No, I…”
“What?” I yelled when his voice unexpectedly dropped off. “You what?”
Luca opened his mouth to say something, then snapped it shut.
His look was icy as he eyed me. Then he shifted his gaze to Aleks.
I put my hand over Aleks’s where it was resting in his lap because I knew the fear Luca could instill in a person with just a look.
I half expected Aleks to push my hand away, but he curled his fingers around mine instead.