Chapter 26 #2
I didn’t have a good enough view to see if the boy resembled the picture Luca had shown me weeks ago, but it wouldn’t have mattered because I doubted I would have known one way or another. What mattered was that Luca seemed certain.
“Ronan,” one of the men called from the opposite side of the room. “It’s done. We need to go so Declan can make the call.”
Ronan nodded and the men began heading for the door. “Wait, no!” I cried as I hurried to Dante. “No, we can’t go, Dante. We have to help the kids. The boy Mr. Oak had on his lap and the one Brian hurt and—”
“It’s okay, Aleks,” Dante began.
“No,” I said almost violently. “Please, Dante. You have to do something.”
My brother grabbed my face. “It’s already done, irm?ozinho,” he said gently.
“What?” I asked. I felt Vaughn at my back. His hands came to rest on my shoulders.
“It’s done, Aleks. They’re safe. Come see.” Dante put his arm around my shoulders, but when Vaughn didn’t move, it became a weird stand-off.
It was Magnus who intervened. He closed his fingers around Dante’s and said, “Come on, MawMaw. You and Vaughn can have a ‘whose is bigger’ match later.”
I swore I heard my brother mumble that his was bigger, but he gave in and followed Magnus.
There was also a comment about the hated nickname Matty had given Dante two years earlier.
Since he called his grandfather Pop-pop, he’d taken to calling Dante MawMaw.
It had started as a joke, but Matty and his little friends had gotten a kick out of how much it had annoyed Dante, so they’d all started calling him that.
And it had stuck.
Vaughn took my hand and we followed the men out of the room. As we made our way back toward the main room, I saw that all the doors to the private rooms were open and they all had damage to them.
Like they’d been kicked in…
I felt my blood run cold when I saw that the room Brian had been in was open too.
I came to a stop and stared at the empty room.
Vaughn wrapped his arm around me from behind. “We’ll find him again, Aleks. I promise.”
I nodded and then let him tug me away. My brother and Magnus had stopped at some point to watch the exchange between me and Vaughn, but Dante didn’t ask me about it.
I was still trying to deal with the fact that Brian had managed to elude punishment, so I didn’t notice what was happening in the main room until I heard Con say, “Holy fuck.”
I looked up and gasped when I took in the sight before me.
More than a dozen men with guns had formed a large circle around another group of men, all on their knees and bound and gagged.
Some of the bound men were sobbing, others looked sullen. But not one of them was making any kind of sound otherwise. I recognized Mr. Oak and Mr. Stark among the men on their knees… along with Brian and the rest of the party guests.
They were all bound and gagged.
Caught.
Helpless.
Afraid.
Like all the kids they’d hurt.
“What is this?” Vaughn asked in disbelief.
“This,” Ronan said as he came up next to us, “is Aleks’s family.
” He nodded at the men forming the circle.
“Every single one has suffered at the hands of another or known someone who has. And like Aleks, they had to choose to let it break them or to survive it and then fight back when they could. This is them fighting back for themselves, for the people they love, and for those who aren’t able to fight for themselves just yet. ”
My eyes scanned the faces of all the men. I didn’t know any of them, but my heart swelled at knowing that they’d been willing to risk their lives to help me, Luca’s son, and most importantly, the kids who’d spent every second of tonight wishing a miracle would happen and they’d get to go home.
“Where are the kids?” I asked.
Ronan motioned to the door. Several men were ushering a line of kids out the door. A couple of the smaller children were being carried by the men and a couple of the older kids. I saw the little boy that had been with Brian in one of the men’s arms.
“Did your brother ever tell you how he and I met?” Ronan asked. “Or how he came to work for me?”
I shook my head.
“It was several years ago. We were both in Chicago looking for the same man. That man had hurt Mace and Cole’s then-boyfriend, Jonas. They’re now all married to one another,” Ronan said with a smile.
I glanced at Vaughn, who looked positively confused at the mention of three people being married.
I’d been in the same boat when I’d been introduced to one of the many threesomes in our family.
Dante had explained to me that none of them were legally married, but they’d said vows in front of their family and friends to show that they were going to spend their lives together just like regular couples.
I took Vaughn’s hand in mine and waited until he looked at me.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” I said with a wink. He laughed at that and I smiled.
It felt good to finally be the one who had more experience with something.
“The man who hurt Jonas tried again shortly after Mace, Cole, and Jonas fell for one another. I knew he’d always be a threat to Jonas, so I made sure he wouldn’t be anymore,” Ronan hedged. “Your brother and I sort of stumbled upon one another. He was not happy with me,” Ronan said with a smile.
Dante appeared at my side. “I was looking for leads on you and Ronan had taken out the one lead I’d had in a long time.
It wouldn’t have panned out anyway, because the guy hadn’t had any information on you, but Ronan offered to help me in my search.
He had more resources than I even knew was possible. ”
Dante looked pointedly at Vaughn, who ignored him.
Oh God, they were just going to kill each other at this rate.
“We haven’t been in this world for as long as you, Vaughn,” Ronan said. “But we’ve seen the same things. Some of my men more than others. But like you and your family, we’ve discovered that if you cut the head off a snake—”
“Two more will grow in its place,” Vaughn murmured.
“But we keep cutting and like you and Luca and your brothers, we try to get the kids out. Having more resources means we’ve learned some new tricks,” Ronan said. “We did what you did – we got some men in– we just did it on a bigger scale.”
Ronan motioned to a few of the men who were guarding the others.
I recognized a couple as men who’d worked the party or had been guests. One of the men had been one of the guards at the back exit near the bathroom. I also recognized the bartender. He actually waved at Vaughn.
So that was how Ronan and his men had gotten into the building. They’d had men already on the inside.
“What’s the plan?” Vaughn asked.
“The cops will be here within minutes of us leaving. We have a friend in Seattle, the captain of the Seattle Police department actually, who is going to call his brethren out here and mention an anonymous tip he got from a suspect about a bunch of sick fucks who like to abuse kids getting together for a drink. We’ll leave enough men here to make sure these assholes can’t go anywhere, and they’ll slip out before the cops surround the building.
” Ronan motioned to the men. “Behind every man’s gag is a flash drive,” Ronan said as he held up a little stick that was about the size of my thumb.
“Daisy’s been very busy collecting information on every single piece of shit here, and in the rare case she wasn’t able to find enough to make sure a lengthy prison sentence is coming, we did a little bit of photoshopping.
Those men who manage to get off because of technicalities will receive a death sentence,” Ronan said easily.
Even I understood that.
And I couldn’t be anything but happy about that.
“What if they swallow the drive?” Luca asked.
“Well, if they’re lucky enough to get it past the rags in their mouths, the cops will just have to go in after it… the drives will survive that long. And if not, like I said, death sentence.”
Ronan reached out to brush my arm. “We should get going. We need to get those kids home.”
I managed a nod but nothing more.
The kids were safe.
Gio was safe.
We were all going home.
“You go with Ronan and Luca, okay?” Vaughn said to me. “Your brother and I need to have a little chat.”
“What? No,” I said.
“It’s fine, Aleks,” Dante said with what I could only classify as an evil-looking grin. “We’ll be along shortly.”
Magnus was the one who took my arm. “Come on, Aleks. Let’s let them get it over with.”
I wanted to say there was no time, but Magnus was leading me away. I looked over my shoulder but it was hard to see past the men guarding the guests. I saw Vaughn say something to Dante and my brother’s face went from somewhat amused to downright deadly.
Then Vaughn pointed to Brian.
Dante looked at me, then back at Brian. I saw him stride forward and grab Brian by the arm and yank him to his feet.
Brian looked terrified and I could hear him screaming through his gag as Dante dragged him from the group.
I knew Vaughn couldn’t have told Dante the things Brian had done to me in such a short amount of time, but it was enough time for him to have told Dante that Brian was the first man who’d bought me.
And I remembered that I’d said Brian’s name when I’d told Dante that Brian had told me that my brother wouldn’t come for me if I didn’t behave.
So either way, Dante would have put things together as soon as Vaughn had pointed to Brian and told him the man’s name.
It was another case where I couldn’t find it in me to care what would happen to the monster.
I didn’t care what that made me.
Dante was grim-faced as he pulled Brian past me, Luca, Ronan, and Magnus. “This one’s coming with us,” he said to Ronan. “I’ve been meaning to ask Vincent to show me some of his interrogation methods and now I can finally get some hands-on practice.”
Brian let out a cry of distress at that, but Ronan merely nodded and stepped aside.
Vaughn came up to us and took my hand. “Let’s go home,” he said.
I nodded and gripped his fingers hard as he led me from the building.
I just had one question, but I was too afraid to ask it.
Where exactly was home now?