5. Chapter 5
A fter Luca finished breakfast and I had the kitchen cleaned, we got into my car and I took him to Target in Rosslyn, purchasing him a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, some normal fucking underwear for men, a few T-shirts, and a hoodie, along with some toiletry essentials.
I shoved everything I bought into a backpack I also grabbed and handed it to him.
Before we left the store, I hit the ATM and pulled out five-hundred dollars.
I made him change his clothes in the restroom at the store since he was still wearing my things. When he came out wearing a plain blue T-shirt, shorts, and a pair of sneakers, he looked more like the man he was. He looked… good. Nope, I couldn’t go there.
After we left the store, we drove in silence, thank fuck, until I reached the Greyhound bus station in Washington. I pulled over to the side of the road on Massachusetts Avenue, and jumped out of the car, opening his door, and ignoring the car horns blaring at me.
“Last stop. It’s time for you to move on.”
He climbed out of the car without complaint, but I couldn’t ignore the tears welling in his eyes.
I swallowed the fucking lump in my throat, forcing myself not to feel anything for him.
To rationalize this away. That it was the best for him.
I couldn’t take care of him, and it was dangerous to know me.
He was better off. But my fucking rational brain reminded me of the lie it was. He wouldn’t survive.
I couldn’t afford to care.
Gently grabbing his arm, I led him to the bus station. “You can grab a bus here to anywhere you want to go. I’ve given you enough money to buy a ticket and get some food along the way. Go find a job or something, kid. You can do whatever you want with your life.”
He just looked at me with disbelieving eyes full of water and sadness. Yeah, I didn’t believe me either.
Not my fucking problem.
I rushed back to my car before I changed my mind and looked back once more to see him looking at me with tears spilling down his eyes, and holding his rabbit close to his face. Not once did he complain or come after me. He just stood there, silently begging for me to come back.
Don’t fall for it, Dante. You are in no position to take care of him. Let him be someone else’s problem.
I got in the car and pulled out into traffic, barely taking my eyes off him from the rearview mirror as the surge of guilt nearly choked the life out of me. I gripped the steering wheel tight enough to turn my knuckles white, driving further and further from Luca.
He’s going to fucking die.
He won’t survive.
How the fuck is he going to find work with no identification and carrying that fucking rabbit wherever he goes?
No, I work alone.
I don’t have time for a young man who doesn’t know how to do anything on his own.
Someone else will take pity on him and take care of him.
People sucked. No one will give a shit. Those people who bought him proved that well enough.
My internal battle waged war between my selfish side and my cursed growing empathy, which grew stronger the further I drove away.
I slammed my fist several times on my console. “Fuuuuck!”
As soon as the light turned green, I took a right on N.
Capitol Street, another right onto G. Street, and one more right onto 1st Street.
When I pulled up to the front of the busy station, Luca was sitting on the sidewalk with his knees drawn close to his chest, looking terrified out of his fucking mind, jumping at every noise and person who walked by.
And as expected, people just ignored him without a single fucking glance. No one would ever care about him.
My guilt won over, and I quickly jumped out of my car. When I reached him, I grabbed him by the arm to stand and led him back to the car, cursing the entire way.
I opened the passenger side door and shoved him in while I ran around to the driver’s side. Once I got in, Luca jumped me, giving me a hug.
“I knew you’d come back for me, Angel. I’m your purpose and you’re mine.”
“There are going to be fucking rules.”
He nodded quickly, biting his bottom lip to keep from smiling through his tears. “Yes, of course.”
Before I could say anything else, Luca climbed onto my lap, and I was too shocked to say or do anything. Frozen as my mind processed what the fuck was happening.
I killed for a living, analyzed complex infiltrations, took down leaders without batting an eye, and this young man had my mind reeling and confused as fuck.
He straddled my thighs and wrapped his arms around my neck. I had to calm my heart, mind, and breathing to the strange emotions filtering in. His sitting on me felt intimate somehow, and lustful thoughts started to punch their way through, so I shut that shit right down.
“Now that you are mine, and I am yours, we will make plans. Lots of plans.”
I raised a brow. “You’re in no position to make demands. You do as you’re told.”
“Yes, of course,” he said again, completely undeterred.
His voice was easy, and he wore a big smile despite the still-wet tears streaking on his face from earlier.
He lifted the rabbit and showed me the back of it.
There was a Velcro strip of fur underneath his overalls.
Luca peeled it open with a scratching noise, dug inside with long, thin fingers, and pulled out a small dark blue velvet satchel.
He held it up by the drawstring. “I want to hire you.”
My mind went blank again. Seriously, if it kept doing that, I was going to get killed. I reclaimed my brain and scoffed. “Hire me? With what? That?”
“Yes.”
“And what are you hiring me for, exactly?”
“Death. You are an angel of death, right?”
“I am,” I said carefully.
“You can be my death bringer.”
Luca opened up the small bag and poured out some of the contents into his hand.
My eyes widened, seeing all the diamonds shimmering in the morning sun.
I lifted one up to the window and brought it close to my eye.
For the first time in years, my heart beat a little faster in excitement, staring at these beauties.
“Shit, are these real?”
“Yes, I stole them from Father. I prayed and prayed for a very long time for you. When you never showed, I planned for my escape. But…”
He put the diamonds back into the bag and handed them to me. I took his rabbit and shoved them back where they belonged. They were safer there. No one would suspect the rabbit held diamonds from this timid and scared young man. “But?” I urged.
“I was afraid, not knowing how to live on my own or how to even use diamonds. I only knew they were worth a lot of money after overhearing Father talking about them on the phone. He never suspected it was me, but he raged and raged at his men, believing one of them stole the diamonds. Eventually, they searched my room, but they never looked inside Rabbit.”
That clever little shit. “How long have you been planning this?”
“Rabbit has held them for almost a year, I think. The only sense of real time I have is from Nanny and the seasons. She would let me know the day, month, and year. She was nice to me in private. Father never allowed me to read beyond children’s books, so I had no idea how to leave or make money or—”
“I get it. He kept you from learning how to take care of yourself. To make you need him for your very survival.”
“Yes.”
I met Luca’s sky-blue eyes, seeing him differently for the first time.
Maybe he couldn’t survive on his own, but there was cunning and determination on his part.
He wasn’t entirely helpless. Even without an education, you could sense his intelligence.
Who knew what kind of man he would be with the proper education?
“I never thought about revenge until you saved me and I saw Father dead. Now, I want all those who hurt me punished. And I need to…”
He looked away, staring out the window as a mask of hurt crossed his face. “What do you need?” I asked, actually entertaining this craziness.
“Eleven years ago, I was taken at only eight years old. They bought me and trained me. I need to find out if I was taken from my parents or…”
“Sold?”
He looked back at me and nodded. “Is there a way to do that?”
“Perhaps.”
I’d have to reach out to Sid or Malik, the founders of our little merry band of assassins.
First, if we were doing this, I’d have to get permission.
I couldn’t just go on a killing rampage because Luca wanted to hire me with diamonds.
Besides, Sid and Malik got a cut of whatever I earned.
Then we’d have to confirm the authenticity of the diamonds and their value.
After that, it was a matter of following a trail as Luca was shuffled around and sold.
It wouldn’t be easy since he was taken when he was eight, confirming his age of nineteen.
If anyone could find the information, it was Layla, though I might have to go back to that mansion and dig around for evidence of a purchase or anything. Fuck, that was too damn risky, though.
“Angel?”
“Yes?”
God, why was I responding to that moniker of his? It just fucking became automatic, like I wanted to be his angel of death. Ridiculous. But I didn’t correct him, either.
“I want you to make me strong like you. I’m tired of being a slave and men taking what they want. Can you teach me to kill and fight and… protect myself? I don’t want to be afraid and weak anymore. I’m tired of crying when I’m scared. You make me want to be strong.”
“Agreed.” The only reason I agreed to that was to make letting him eventually go that much easier. There would be less guilt involved if I knew he could survive without me.
His smile was big as he wrapped his arms around my neck again and rested his head on my shoulder. “I knew as soon as I saw you that you were mine. You were confused at first, but now you understand. You know that we belong together. Thank you, Angel.”
I may not have been currently right in the head, but I knew enough to keep him from getting attached to me, so I lifted him by his armpits and put him back onto his seat. Fuck, he was so light. Too light. The first thing on the agenda was to get him to eat more and get some exercise.
“Buckle up.”
Twenty minutes later, we were back in fucking Target.
Luca tried to be well-behaved, but since I came back to him and he hired me, he had been filled with boundless energy and excitement, especially knowing he wasn’t going to be punished for it.
I made that abundantly fucking clear in the car on the way here.
Strangely, he believed me and trusted me when he had no right to.
I let him go to town, picking out bedding for my spare room and more clothes. If the items were too childish, I did my best to redirect him to more mature items, for his benefit as well as my sanity.
We checked out, and I ignored the strange stares at the burn marks around his neck and the bruising on his face, not to mention my eyes turning black and blue from the broken nose.
Then they’d look at me as if I had a hand in his fucking pain.
I glared at the girl at the register until she quickly looked away and swallowed.
Two grueling hours and three thousand dollars later, we hauled everything out of the store and crammed it in my car. Shit, what else was I going to spend all my money on?
Once we got in the car, he put on his new Washington Capitals baseball hat over his blond locks, sticking out under the cap, and looked at me with such a genuine and happy smile, full of deep dimples, he nearly turned me into a good person.
Tomorrow, I’d call Sid or Malik and give them a heads-up.
With their approval, I’d take Luca to the headquarters so that Layla could set him up with new documents.
Even if we found out his true identity, I wasn’t sure he was safe to use it now that I wiped out his owners, so he’d be better off with fake documents for now.
Who knew who bought him or for what reason?
If they found him missing, they could come looking for him.
Which begged the question, why didn’t the person who hired us, inform us there was a boy living there and what to do with him?
We’d find out soon enough. For now, I had to get him comfortable in my home while I adjusted to having someone live with me.
I fucking hoped I didn’t regret this decision, but the job he hired me for certainly improve my outlook.
I didn’t need the money. Not really. I loved getting paid, but I barely made a dent in my savings.
It was the job and challenge that motivated me the most. And taking out human traffickers of little boys would make my fucking year.
As I hit Georgetown Parkway on the way home, I glanced at him inspecting the package of M&Ms I bought him.
He looked unsure of what to make of it. Based on what little he told me, I came to the conclusion he’d probably never had candy before, at least not since he was a young kid, so I bought the package of chocolates spontaneously at the checkout aisle.
He was careful opening the small package and poured out a few pieces of the colorful candy.
He looked closely at them, sniffed them, then put a blue one in his mouth.
I had to admit, observing him was fascinating, watching him explore things with new and fresh eyes he didn’t have before.
Even the simplest of tasks amazed him. And he hadn’t stopped fucking smiling since I went back to get him from the bus depot.
His eyes grew wide again as he looked over at me.
“Whoa. Yummy! I think… I remember this taste of chocolate or eating these before. Like a vague and cloudy dream. I’m not sure.
Try it!” Luca suddenly reached for me while tugging his seat belt loose and cramming a piece of candy into my mouth before I could react.
I slowly chewed the chocolate piece. “I’ve had them before.”
“Yummy, right?”
“Yes. Stop shoving fucking food in my mouth.”
He sat back in his seat, and not even my growling at him got him to stop fucking smiling. I better not regret this.
Fucking empathy.