Atonement (The Protectors 6)

Why was I so fucking cold?

“Dante,” Magnus said softly. I managed to focus on him, but he too looked blurry. I realized it was because of the tears filling my eyes. I blinked to clear them and felt the warm liquid slide down my cheeks.

“We have to find him, Magnus.”

“We will, baby. I promise.”

I should have told him not to make a promise he couldn’t keep, but I really needed that promise. So instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and his warmth instantly seeped into my skin as he held me. As frantic as I was to get to Aleks, I was also afraid to let go of Magnus. I’d been planning for this moment for years, but now that the prospect of bringing my brother home was within my reach, I was crippled by a fear I didn’t want to give voice to.

What if he was alive, but I was still too late?

Even the strongest of men would have struggled to overcome the brutality Aleks would have faced after he was taken. My little brother had been sweet and gentle and often overly sensitive to even the mildest show of anger. How much of that would have survived what he’d been through?

Magnus carefully pushed me back and then grabbed the tablet. He used his sleeve to dry the tears I hadn’t realized had fallen on the screen and then handed it back to me. “Find us a flight, baby,” he said.

I nodded. I could do this. It didn’t matter how broken Aleks was when I found him. And I could live with him hating me for the role I’d played in his abduction. I was bringing Aleks home because he was my brother and I’d always promised to look out for him.

I’d failed him once.

I wouldn’t let it happen again.

Chapter Twenty

Magnus

“Have you been looking for Aleks all this time?”

Dante cast me a glance and then turned his head to stare out the window. I highly doubted he was really seeing any of the passing scenery, but I suspected he preferred the blur of cars and flat farmland flying by to looking at me. After all, he hadn’t been able to look at me even once since he’d finally managed to focus on finding us a flight to Chicago. It bothered me more than I wanted to admit, but I needed to concentrate on the situation at hand. With Dante waffling between sheer desperation and crippling devastation, I needed to be the one to keep a cool head. I had no doubt that Dante had dreamed of this moment for years, but the reality of what it really meant was crushing him.

Because he wouldn’t be bringing home the same little boy who’d been stolen from him ten years ago.

“I started after my parents kicked me out, but it took me a while to make any kind of progress.”

“How did you even know where to start?” I asked.

“I started with the cops investigating the kidnapping. One of the guys took pity on me – probably ‘cause he was there when my parents kicked me out. He told me everything he knew about the different trafficking rings shuffling people out of Brazil. Then I started asking questions closer to home.”

“What do you mean?”

“A favela isn’t exactly a model neighborhood,” he murmured. “I did whatever I needed to get the information I wanted. Who was who and who was running what. It took me about four years to finally learn there were three major players running various sex trafficking rings out of Rio.”

“Did you have specific information on Aleks?”

Dante shook his head. “I was careful…I knew if I asked about a specific kid, people would get suspicious. I pretended I wanted in.”

“You mean you pretended you wanted to be in the business.”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I only did low level shit…I was basically a glorified errand boy. I never saw any kids or anything,” he said hastily.

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Dante,” I said as I glanced at him. “If Jenna had been in that situation…” I let my words trail off because I didn’t want to even consider the prospect. Jenna had struggled and she’d suffered at the hands of her killer, but Dante’s brother would have had to endure so much more.

Dante studied me for a moment and then dropped his gaze to his lap. He had his phone in his hand and began flicking his nail against the edge of the protective case. “I was in long enough that I figured out which guys specialized in supplying kids and where they were sending them.”

“The U.S.,” I offered.

He nodded. “I learned which cities they typically sent the kids to. I started in L.A. and was there for almost a year. I focused on the kids instead of the guys running the rings.”