Chapter 14
Aleks
“He’ll be here soon, Aleks. Everything will be all right,” Con said from where he was sitting on an armchair that looked like it cost more than my brother’s car.
I was sitting on a couch made of the same fabric, so I was afraid to move for fear that dirt would transfer from my clothes to the fine material.
I wanted to ask Con how he was so sure he was coming, but I was too afraid to open my mouth.
Because then I might ask the three men staring at me like I was some bizarre-looking animal at the zoo to take me home… or back to that little house in the middle of nowhere so I could get rid of that note and just crawl back into Vaughn’s arms.
What the hell had I done?
“No,” I whispered so the men around me wouldn’t hear. “I did the right thing.”
“Did you say something?”
I jumped when the man named King spoke.
“Um, no, sir… sorry,” I croaked.
I chanced a glance at him and saw that he was watching me with a mix of pity and understanding.
He was a really big guy… bigger than both Con and Luca.
He wasn’t classically handsome and had lighter features, but he scared me the most. A dark green T-shirt was pulled across his broad chest. His arm muscles were stretching the thin material to the brink and I could see a tattoo on his bicep, another on his lower arm and even on his hand.
I told myself just to take deep breaths. Vaughn would come. He had to.
Unless I’d angered him so much that he wanted nothing more to do with me. He’d said he’d always come, but maybe always didn’t really mean the same thing when you defied someone.
“Can I get you anything to eat or drink, Aleks?” Con asked. If I hadn’t been so nervous I would have smiled at how the man always seemed to be wanting to feed me.
I shook my head. “No, thank you.”
No way was I going to throw up in front of these men, and that was exactly what would happen if I tried to put anything in my belly at this point.
Where was Vaughn?
Luca and Con had said he’d probably be right behind us…
that it would be only a couple of hours at the most until he arrived.
But it had already been three hours since we’d arrived at the too-big house.
The drive to Vegas had taken a couple of hours and the flight had taken almost five, so it was nearing the twelve-hour mark since I’d last seen Vaughn.
“He never picked up the ticket,” Luca said as he hung up his phone, his face pulled into a mask of irritation.
“Ticket?” I asked.
Luca sat down in the other armchair. To say I’d shocked the man when I’d found him early this morning and told him I’d help him find his son was an understatement. The man continued to look at me like he couldn’t believe I was there.
I couldn’t believe it either.
“I left a ticket for him at the airport. It was an open ticket so he could grab the next available flight to New York as soon as he realized we were gone. I had Con text him the information when we left Vegas.”
I nodded. I’d finally discovered we were in Nevada when Luca, Con, and I had left the house in the early morning hours.
We’d flown out of the city on a private jet, but I hadn’t thought to ask where we were going or how Vaughn would get there.
Admittedly, I’d been too numb to do much but sit there and stare out the window.
It had taken every ounce of control I’d had not to lose myself to a blackout.
Or to beg Luca to turn the plane around and take me back to Vaughn.
I hadn’t actually made the decision to help Luca find his son until I’d been lying in bed with Vaughn and he’d talked about staying in the life he’d had to take on to look for the boy.
It was the part when he’d admitted he and his family couldn’t come back from what they’d been through that I’d known what I needed to do.
I’d already been mulling over what it would mean to try and help Luca find Gio but knowing Vaughn would go back to that life and do it alone, without his brother and friends, had made me realize Gio wasn’t the only one who needed to go home.
They all did.
Just like Dante had needed to go home.
My brother had been lucky because he’d had Remy to help him and me. And of course, Vaughn had saved us all.
I needed to give that back to Vaughn and his family, and I needed to help Gio because I was Gio and Gio was me. There were hundreds of Gios out there, thousands even, and they were all waiting for someone to come for them.
I couldn’t save them all, but I wouldn’t let my fear keep me from trying to save at least one.
Would Vaughn understand that?
Would he forgive me?
Was he even going to come?
“He knows we’re here?” I asked, my voice cracking a bit. “Not in the city?”
Luca nodded, his expression softening a bit. “He knows we’re in the Hamptons and he knows how to get here. We spent most of our childhood in this house because our mother preferred it to the city.”
I managed another nod. I couldn’t stop shaking so I tucked my hands under my legs so it wouldn’t be as obvious.
Then I remembered the dirt on my fingers. “I’m sorry,” I cried as I yanked my hands from beneath my legs and jumped to my feet to see if I’d stained the pretty fabric.
“Aleks—”
“I should have washed my hands better,” I said, completely horrified. “Those men took me from work so my hands were still dirty and I was too upset to really scrub them but I should have when I got here—”
Terror began to skate through my system. What kind of punishment would I have to endure for staining the cold man’s expensive couch?
“Aleks!” Luca called and I snapped my eyes to him. King and Con were both standing now. They looked worried.
“Aleks, the couch is fine and your hands aren’t dirty. Even if you rolled around in mud and then on this couch, I swear to you, I wouldn’t care. It’s okay.”
Luca seemed tense and I realized he was probably waiting for me to slip into another one of my blackouts.
Part of me kind of wished that would happen. I forced myself to take several deep breaths as I tried to accept that I wasn’t in trouble. But I couldn’t find any sense of calm.
Oh God, I couldn’t do this.
“Where’s Vaughn, Luca?” I whispered.
Luca carefully reached out to touch my upper arm. It was all I could do not to pull away. “He’s coming, Aleks. I swear he is.”
“He’s here,” King said softly. I jerked my head to look at him and saw him holding his phone out so Luca could see the screen. “My guy says he just pulled up.”
“Make sure your guys stay out of his way,” Luca said as he stepped back from me.
“Luca, not even you could pay them enough to get in his way,” King said as he put his phone away. There was a hint of humor in his voice, but I didn’t understand it.
Vaughn was here.
He’d come.
Luca moved away from me and then Con was at my side. I was shocked when he actually put his body between me and the big door that led into the hallway.
“Con?” I said softly in confusion.
“He’s gonna need a minute, Aleks. Just stay behind me, okay?”
“I should tell him I’m sorry,” I said. “I… I should take my punishment without argument.”
Con looked over his shoulder at me. “Aleks, the only thing you need to worry about is him hugging you a little too tight,” he said with a little grin. “You’re not the one whose ass he’s going to kick.” He motioned to King. “Why do you think I called King in for backup?”
I looked toward the other two men and saw that King was standing just a few feet from Luca. And Luca actually looked a little nervous.
“Vaughn said you try to make them talk things out before they fight,” I said.
Con chuckled. “Even I’m not that good,” he said.
The huge door suddenly flew open with violent force. Vaughn’s eyes swung to mine and I swore I saw the slightest bit of relief in them. Then it was like he forgot all about me and he was on Luca without a word.
It was a violent encounter and Luca didn’t seem to be doing more than trying to defend himself. I didn’t actually see him throw a punch.
I shouted Vaughn’s name a couple of times, but he completely ignored me. King finally intervened, but Vaughn turned on him instead.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” he snarled as his rabid eyes remained on his brother.
“He’s had enough, Vaughn!” King said.
“I’ll say when it’s enough!” Vaughn responded. “You’re no longer my brother!” he bit out, then his eyes were on King, then Con. “We’re no longer family!”
“Vaughn, it was his—” Luca began, but Vaughn hit him hard.
“Shut the fuck up! Don’t tell me it was his fucking choice because you guilted him into it!”
When Vaughn slammed his fist into King’s face, I felt the tears start to fall.
“Vaughn,” I said softly, though I knew he wouldn’t hear me.
Con moved away from me and toward the struggling men.
All four men began shouting so loud at one another that I knew I’d never be able to get Vaughn’s attention.
I looked around desperately, then grabbed a large sculpture that looked like a green rock.
It was heavier than I would have thought, but I didn’t care.
I also didn’t care what punishment damaging it would earn me.
I pulled my arm back and with every ounce of strength I had, I let the thing fly.
I’d expected it to just make a hole in the window and figured the breaking glass would make enough of a sound to be heard.
But to my horror, the entire floor-to-ceiling window shattered and the sound was deafening as glass flew.
Fortunately, none of the glass hit me or any of the other men.
There was a beat of silence as we all looked at the window.
And then everyone was looking at me.
Luca’s face was covered in cuts and bruises and his lip was bleeding.
King had a fresh bruise on his cheek.
Con and Vaughn both seemed unhurt.
“James,” I whispered as my eyes met Vaughn’s.
“Get out,” he practically snarled, but I knew he wasn’t talking to me. His eyes never left mine as the other men silently left the room. I didn’t look at them.
I had eyes only for him.