Chapter 12
Aleks
He found me pretty quickly and I felt bad when he threw open the bathroom door (which I’d actually managed to shut on my own this time) in a panic.
Vaughn took a few deep breaths when he saw me.
“Sorry,” I murmured. “I wanted to try and get the blood out,” I said as I motioned to the shirt in my hands.
I’d put my own shirt back on so I could wash Vaughn’s out in the sink and while I’d managed to get the worst of the stains out, I actually missed wearing it. And it didn’t smell like him anymore.
I’d checked.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” he finally said. I almost smiled because it was something Dante would always say to me when I apologized for something.
Instead of leaving, he came into the small room and shut the door behind him. “Can I lock this?” he asked as he motioned to the lock. My eyes fell to the gun in his hand.
So he still wasn’t certain we were safe from his brother.
I nodded.
Vaughn flipped the lock, then came and sat down next to me on the floor. I was leaning against the side of the small bathtub.
“Con’s making something for us to eat… he thinks he’s got grits.”
“This is his house?” I asked.
“It belonged to his grandparents.”
I nodded. “I recognize him,” I said. “Dante and Magnus like him… he does that fighting… not the boxing kind.”
“MMA… martial arts,” Vaughn said with a nod.
“He’s very good,” I said.
Vaughn laughed. “That he is… it’s funny because he’s one of the least violent and most levelheaded people I know. When Luca and I used to get into it as kids, Con was always trying to talk us through our argument before the fists started flying. King used to tell him he should be a shrink.”
“King is his brother? And Lex too?” I asked.
“Yeah. They’re not actually brothers, but they grew up in foster care together and became really close… even when they were split up and moved to different homes in the city, they never lost that bond.”
“You and Luca, were you foster kids too?”
Vaughn shook his head and looked at his hands. He tilted the gun back and forth. “No… that’s more complicated,” he finally said.
I was certain he wasn’t going to say anything else and I was actually smarting from the knowledge that he didn’t want to share something like that with me when he suddenly said, “We’re half-brothers… same father, different mothers.”
“You’re older than him?” I asked. “You called him little brother.”
“By a couple of years. His mother was the one to raise me.”
“What happened to your mother?”
I could see he wasn’t comfortable talking about the subject, though he didn’t fall silent. But he also wouldn’t look at me while he spoke.
“She died when I was two. But I’d already gone to live with Vidone and Theodora Covello by then.”
I shifted closer to him so our bodies were just barely touching. “Why?” I asked. “Your mother couldn’t care for you?”
Vaughn shook his head. “She was a showgirl… in Atlantic City. Do you know where that is?”
“No,” I said. “But it’s like Las Vegas, right? People go there to lose money so they can try and win more money.”
Vaughn smiled and I felt it ease some of the pressure in my chest. I was scared to death about what was going on around me, but having this moment where we talked about normal things and he looked at me like I hadn’t just cut his arm open with a knife gave me the few minutes of quiet I needed to keep from escaping into my head.
“Exactly,” he responded. “My father was already engaged to Luca’s mother when he went to Atlantic City for what was supposed to have been his bachelor party. He drank too much and when his friends brought in the entertainment, he indulged.”
“Entertainment,” I repeated as I tried to make sense of the word.
“Being a showgirl didn’t pay all the bills,” Vaughn said softly.
Understanding dawned and I dropped my eyes. “Oh… I’m sorry, Vaughn.”
I shot him a glance from the corner of my eye and saw him shrug. “It was what it was. When my mom found out she was pregnant, I guess she saw a chance to fund her showgirl stint for a bit longer.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Luca’s dad was pretty well-known around New York and New Jersey, just not for the right reasons.”
I must have looked confused because he clarified, “His business dealings weren’t always aboveboard.”
I realized what that meant… his father had been a criminal.
“Anyway, my mother saw the chance to make a buck and took me to his house in the city. His new wife answered the door.”
“Oh,” I whispered in disbelief.
“My mother proceeded to tell Theodora Covello all about her husband’s indiscretion the weekend they’d gotten married nine months earlier. She told Luca’s mother if she wanted it to stay quiet, she’d pay her ten thousand dollars. Want to know what Theodora did?” he asked me.
I nodded.
“Gave her twenty thousand, took me from her and told her to get the hell out of there… though I’m sure she used the word ‘heck’ – she wasn’t big on swearing.”
“Me neither,” I whispered.
“I know,” Vaughn said softly. I looked at him and immediately got lost in his eyes. That strange tingling sensation returned and I wanted to yell at it for having the worst timing ever.
“So she took you in,” I prodded.
“She did,” Vaughn said. “Raised me as her own. Loved me as her own,” he added, then looked at his gun again.
“Luca came along a couple years later. You’d think that would have changed things, but she treated us like real brothers.
I wasn’t suddenly disposable or sloppy seconds… at least not to her.”
I wasn’t sure what “sloppy seconds” meant, but I had no doubt it wasn’t a good thing. And the last part meant someone had treated him that way.
“Your father?” I guessed.
Vaughn nodded. “He was not happy about his wife taking in the proof of his indiscretion. He actually loved Theodora quite a bit and he’d told her about the indulgence with the showgirl from Atlantic City before they’d married.
They’d worked it out and wed as planned.
My father was a bastard with everyone but her,” Vaughn said quietly.
“He would have given her anything she wanted, and for some reason, she wanted me.”
“She sounds like a very good woman,” I said.
“She was.”
Was.
“You lost her?”
Vaughn nodded. “When Luca and I were still little. I was twelve, he was ten. Everything changed.”
“How so?”
He shook his head a little. “My mother must have known Vidone would get rid of me if he had the chance. He told me once that she’d made him swear that if anything happened to her, that he’d keep me. He kept his word.”
“But he wasn’t a father to you,” I guessed.
Vaughn sighed and looked at me. “She made up for it,” he said.
“And you had your brother,” I offered.
He chuckled. “God, he was such a little shit,” he said affectionately.
I felt my stomach drop out at that because that little laugh and that small smile told me everything I needed to know.
Whatever had happened between them was more recent.
Either after Vaughn’s nephew had been taken, or worse, after Vaughn had chosen to save me rather than use me to find the man who knew where Gio was.
All the anxiety I’d been feeling came rolling back. “Is he going to let me go?” I asked.
“Luca?”
I nodded.
“He doesn’t have a say in it,” Vaughn practically growled.
It should have made me feel better to know he was still choosing me for whatever reason, but I couldn’t stop thinking that in all likelihood, I was the reason the two brothers were at each other’s throats.
What if that were me and Dante? How would I survive such a rift?
“Vaughn…”
“Don’t, Aleks,” Vaughn said softly, then he leaned into me just a little so I could feel his touch. “None of this is your fault.”
I didn’t respond to that because I didn’t know how. It wasn’t like I wanted to throw myself to the wolves to save their relationship. And if Luca had been willing to take me off the street just like those other guys had, did that really make him any better?
He’s trying to get his son back.
My thoughts shifted to Gio… a topic I’d been trying to avoid from the moment I’d heard his name. I felt cold run throughout my entire body as I thought about what the little boy would have gone through. What if I’d seen him at some point?
“Do you really think you guys can find him?” I asked.
It was eerie how Vaughn seemed to know exactly what I was talking about.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a credible lead.”
“Credible?”
“It means valid… substantial.”
I nodded, feeling foolish.
“They took so many kids, James,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why it was so important to use his first name.
Yes I did.
It was my way of telling him something he probably didn’t want to hear.
And I didn’t actually want to tell him, especially considering that I’d been found after so many years.
But I also knew my situation wasn’t typical.
I’d seen the parties the men had had where they could trade and buy kids, or just show them off to one another…
or even share them. There was no way Vaughn and his friends could have saved them all.
Not all the kids had even lived long enough to be found by their loved ones.
Some had even resorted to taking their own lives…
“I know,” Vaughn acknowledged. “But we can’t stop looking… not until we know for sure.”
“You shouldn’t,” I said. “It’s just…”
“Yeah,” Vaughn whispered.
So he knew what I was trying to say. They needed to keep looking because if Gio was alive, he was waiting for them. But they needed to be prepared to not find him, or worse…