Unbroken (The Protectors 12)

“Done what?” I asked.

“Take Aleks. It was a mistake. Just like asking you to…”

“To what?”

When he didn’t answer, I got in between him and the bench and snatched the new cigarette he was about to light.

“What?” I bit out. “To help you find your son?”

He didn’t answer but he dropped his eyes.

Something Luca rarely did.

“You didn’t ask me or our family to do that, Luca,” I said. “We all love that boy and we all want him back. That shit I said the other day about never asking you for anything… that was my fear talking… I would have spent the rest of my days in that life to find Gio.”

Luca turned his head away but fortunately, he didn’t turn away from me.

“I will spend every day looking for him until we bring him home. Every. Fucking. Day,” I vowed.

He still wouldn’t look at me and I knew it was because there was something he wasn’t telling me.

“What?” I whispered. “What is it?”

He shook his head.

“Tell me,” I almost pleaded.

“There was a boy, Vaughn,” he began as his dark eyes lifted to meet mine. The agony and shame I saw swimming in them was a punch to the gut.

“When I first went in after Gio without you guys. He was only thirteen or fourteen. I had to… to prove I was who I said I was.”

I swallowed hard because I knew what he was trying to say. The people who’d stolen Gio would have wanted to make sure Luca wasn’t a cop or someone trying to expose them.

“I didn’t touch him,” Luca quickly said. “I knew there were video cameras in the room, so I couldn’t just say I’d fucked him… They wanted me to prove I wanted a little boy. I’d told them I wanted a younger kid… someone with light hair and fair features, but they put me in with him and told me to have fun while they checked their ‘inventory’ for someone who matched what I wanted and was closer to the age I was looking for. That’s the fucking word they used, Vaughn. I knew it was a test and I knew what would happen if I failed it.”

I knew too.

He never would have been shown any other boys.

And they likely would have killed him even for just suspecting he was a fraud.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He was terrified… he was crying in the corner and begging me not to touch him. Kept saying he wanted to go home.”

I watched in horror as my brother actually wiped at his eyes.

“I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet… we were in full view of the camera so it had to look real. But I swear to God, Vaughn, I didn’t hurt him.”

My brother was so distraught that I put my hands on his upper arms. “I know you didn’t, Luca. Tell me what happened.”

He sucked in a breath to collect himself. “I turned him around and made him face the wall. I knew they’d only be able to see my body from behind. I leaned down and whispered in his ear that I wouldn’t hurt him and that I’d find a way to help him go home. I told him I needed to make it look real and to not be scared. He… he nodded and asked me to promise him I’d take him home.”

Luca covered his eyes with his hand. “I did. I promised him. While I was pretending to… to hurt him I just kept whispering in his ear. I told him about this beach. How you and me used to play out here every day and how Mom used to collect shells and how we’d see dolphins while we were swimming and that one came up to you the one time and you touched it. I promised I’d show it to him someday. When I was done, I told him he needed to sit on the floor and cry so it looked like I’d really done that to him. He said he would and then he made me promise I wouldn’t forget about him.”

I began rubbing Luca’s arms because he was shaking, though I knew it had nothing to do with the slight breeze.

“What happened to him, Luca?”

“I left him there, Vaughn. There weren’t any other kids there – it had all been part of the test. I was told to go to a different address to look at the merchandise they had for purchase that met my needs. That address led to another and another. But none of the places had Gio so I had to keep pretending they didn’t have what I wanted so they’d show me more boys. Then I got a lead on a boy that sounded exactly like Gio and I just couldn’t risk losing it… it took me three days to get back to that house but it was empty. The boy was gone… the whole place was abandoned, like none of them had ever been there. All the other places were empty too.”