Chapter 12 #4
Fighters in the world I’d grown up in suffered more.
I’d seen it myself. The kids who’d tried to stop what was happening to them or escape it had been punished in the worst ways.
My friend, Remy, had been one of those boys.
He’d fought tooth and nail to escape the life and he’d suffered so much more than me.
He was also the reason Dante had found me.
“My friend is a fighter,” I said quickly.
“He survived, Luca. The things they did to him were terrible, but he got out and he’s got a good life now.
And he saved me. He’s the only reason my brother even found me.
He had the chance to get out and just run, but he called Dante and told him where I was.
If your son is anything like my friend, Gio will make it through this and you’ll get him home and he’ll keep fighting. ”
Luca turned away from me as he nodded and lit up another cigarette. I saw him wipe discreetly at his face and I quickly looked away so he wouldn’t feel as embarrassed about the show of emotion.
I thought about Remy and the day I’d met him.
Though I hadn’t actually “met” him – I’d encountered him in a bathroom.
He’d been badly bruised and I’d learned later he’d been violently assaulted just moments before I’d walked into that bathroom.
We’d talked for less than fifteen seconds.
He’d recognized a birthmark I had on my collarbone, the same one Dante had, and he’d called Dante as soon as he’d been able to.
I hadn’t known then that Remy and I had met once before…
he and I had actually been kept in the same house when I’d first been taken.
He’d remembered the birthmark from that first time and when Dante had initially come to Chicago to search for me, he’d encountered Remy who’d told him he’d seen me when we’d both been little.
When Remy and I had run into each other in that bathroom years later, he’d reached out to Dante afterwards.
He hadn’t had to do that.
He’d chosen to help me. He’d had no reason in the world to do what he’d done other than it’d been the right thing.
You gave me hope when I had none left, Aleks. I couldn’t leave you behind.
That’s what he’d told me when I’d once asked him why he’d helped me. My aim had just been to comfort him when I’d given him one of the flowers from the ornate arrangement in the bathroom and had told him what it meant.
He’d never really explained how that had given him hope, but I’d never asked him to, either.
There were just some things that neither of us wanted to remember and that night was definitely one of them.
My heart began to pound in my chest as a thought took form in my head and wouldn’t let go.
“Luca,” I said quietly.
He turned to look at me.
“The man you’re looking for… the one who might know where Gio is…”
“Stylianos,” Luca supplied.
I startled at that. “I… I thought you didn’t know his name,” I said. Oh God, had they lied to me about all of it? Was this all just some elaborate scheme to mess with me?
“It’s not his real name, Aleks,” Luca said gently. “We didn’t lie to you.”
I managed to calm down a bit.
“Most of the dealing in kids happens online nowadays – in private chat rooms and forums on the dark web where it’s hard for the authorities to track. Stylianos is the name this guy started using online and so that’s what he’s known as. No one knows his real name.”
“Maybe Stylianos is a real name… Dante uses our father’s last name while I have Papa’s,” I suggested.
“It’s not,” Luca responded. “Stylianos is the name of a saint known as the Protector of Children. We’ve seen the fucker’s chat transcripts…
he actually believes he and guys like him are helping kids to be in their purest state.
Some of the guys like Marcus Parks know what they’re doing is wrong and just don’t give a shit.
And then you’ve got guys like Stylianos who actually believes he’s doing God’s work by creating a world where adults and children are free to love one another.
He’s become quite a power player in the past few years and that’s made him be even more careful to stay in the shadows. ”
My knees almost gave out as nausea swept through me. “Why me?” I asked. “I’m… I’m no one.”
“He’s fixated on you, Aleks. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Our theory is that he saw you at some point and became fascinated with you. He probably tried to buy you but whoever…”
Luca’s voice dropped off suddenly and I knew why.
“Owned,” I said. “Whoever owned me…”
“Right,” Luca murmured. “Whoever that was wouldn’t give you up.
It’s possible he missed out on you during a bidding war…
Marcus had a lot of money and there’s no proof that Stylianos is wealthy, so losing you a second time could have just strengthened that obsession.
When word got out you were still alive, it would have been like some kind of ‘meant to be’ thing with him.
He sees you as his and he wants you back…
it’s like those celebrity stalkers who invent entire relationships with the famous person, even though they’ve never even actually talked to them.
When they don’t get what they want, they can turn desperate… and violent.”
I leaned heavily against the pillar as Luca spoke. If the man was as sick as Luca believed, he’d never stop coming after me.
I’d have to completely disappear again.
“Do you think this man has Gio?”
“We don’t know for sure. Two years ago there was online chatter about Stylianos being willing to arrange a trade.
He knew of a boy that was closer to the age Marcus liked.
A boy with hair that was almost white and blue eyes that were so light they seemed clear sometimes.
If Stylianos didn’t have Gio himself, he knew who did.
Two years ago, Gio would have been thirteen.
That’s around the age Marcus acquired you, right? ”
I managed a nod, but nothing else.
“These men, most of them want boys or girls to be a certain age. Some want them before puberty hits so they’re more childlike, others want them after puberty so they’re more sexually developed.”
I nodded in understanding. I’d been bought and sold a few times but I’d been with Brian and Father the longest. Brian had stopped touching me more and more as I’d gotten older. Father had been the same way. But I’d never made the connection before that I was being bought and sold based on my age.
“Two years ago, Stylianos was talking about having access to a boy who looked like Gio. Gio would have been the right age for Marcus. But it was never clear if Stylianos had Gio himself or if he would have had to trade a boy he did have to get Gio for the trade with Marcus.”
“So you don’t know for sure if he has Gio anymore, or knows where he is?” I asked.
Luca dropped his eyes and shook his head. “We haven’t been able to find any recent chatter relating to a boy fitting Gio’s description. Stylianos seemed to go underground too… until a few days ago.”
When my parents had done that interview.
Luca fell silent and took a few drags on his cigarette. “It’s late, Aleks. Get some sleep.” He flicked the cigarette a few times, then stood. I jumped when he approached me, but with the pillar and porch rail at my back, I had nowhere to go.
He paused and held my gaze for a moment. He actually looked… hurt.
I waited for him to grab me and told myself to open my mouth and call for Vaughn, but that need to protect myself by being as quiet as possible kicked in. To my surprise, Luca stepped past me and opened the screen door. “Go inside, Aleks.”
I made my body move, even as my mind tried to accept that he was going to grab me. But he didn’t. When I was nearly in line with him he whispered, “You’ve got nothing to fear from me, Aleks. I swear it on Gio’s life.”
With that, he carefully released the door so my shoulder was holding it open, then he turned and went down the porch steps and disappeared into the darkness.
“He’ll be back.”
I jumped at the sound of the voice coming from inside the kitchen and dropped the glass I’d been holding.
“Sorry,” Con said as he approached me.
The glass hadn’t broken, so Con picked it up and handed it to me. “Can I get you something to eat or drink?” he asked.
“Um, something light for my stomach,” I said as I forced myself to move into the kitchen.
“Sure,” Con said. “We use this house as a safe house every once in a while so it isn’t typically stocked with perishable food, but I try to make sure there’s plenty of snacks and stuff. It’s been a while since we’ve used it, but there should be something.”
Con went to a closet on the far wall and opened the door, then pulled the string for a light hanging from the ceiling. I followed him to the small room but stayed outside it. The shelves were full of a variety of food.
“What’s your fancy?” Con asked.
“Do you have any crackers or cereal?”
Con grabbed a couple of boxes and handed them to me. “These okay?”
I nodded, then he was snagging some bottles of water from the refrigerator. He grabbed two more bottles of something else… it looked like colored water.
“Sports drink,” he explained as he handed me the bottles. “You’re pretty dehydrated. These will help.”
“Thank you,” I said with a nod.
Con moved past me to shut the screen door and the main door but he didn’t lock them.
“Don’t worry, he can’t call anyone or anything. The nearest neighbor is more than ten miles away. He just needs to keep moving… probably wants to smoke a bit more.”
“You know about that?” I asked.
Con smiled. “I know everything there is to know about all my brothers, Aleks. Who do you think left that pack of cigarettes for him to find?” He looked at my full arms. “You need help with any of that?”
I shook my head. “No, thank you.”
I quickly turned and headed for the stairs.
“Aleks,” Con called just as I reached the first step.
I barely managed to not flinch. “Yes?”
“Everything will be okay, I promise.”
I held the good-looking man’s eyes and saw only truth there.
I nodded and went up the stairs. I didn’t doubt Con’s honesty, but the “everything” he was talking about was only about me.
And I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it needed to stop being about me and needed to start being about someone else who was in the same place I’d been two years ago.
Wanting to go home.