Aleks nodded against his chest.
“Meu melhor,” Aleks said softly.
Dante let out what sounded like a wet laugh and then responded in Portuguese. They only did their little back and forth a couple times before Aleks pulled back and wiped at his eyes. “I chose to help them.” He looked at Ronan. “It was always my choice.”
Ronan nodded gently at him. Aleks looked over his shoulder at me, then Luca. “They’re like us, Dante. They argue and they fight and they love each other. Luca is the one who takes care of everyone but himself.” Aleks looked at Con and King. “Con is the peacekeeper and he cooks when he’s upset… he makes me grits and they’re almost as good as Magnus’s. And King yells when anyone scares me. Otherwise he’s really quiet. And I haven’t met Lex yet, but he’s the baby of the family and they all watch out for him. And Vaughn, he…”
Aleks paused and then looked at me.
“Vaughn is my James… he showed me that I’m not broken, and that I’m strong enough to make choices and it’s okay to make the wrong ones and… and he loves me like Magnus loves you and you love Magnus.” I felt my heart slamming against my chest as Aleks’s beautiful eyes held mine. As far as I was concerned, all the other people had disappeared, and it was just me and him. “And I love him too.”
Aleks was in my arms a moment later, though I wasn’t sure if he’d come to me or the other way around. I kissed him softly, since I couldn’t discount the fact that his brother and the rest of his big-ass family were all watching us. “I do,” I said softly as I pulled him against me and wrapped my arms around him. “So much, Aleks.”
“Me too, James,” he sighed. I held him for a moment and then he was carefully pulling free of my hold.
But only to turn around and face his brother.
He linked our fingers together, then said to his brother, “Don’t make me choose between you and him, Dante. Please… that’s one choice I don’t want to ever make… but I will.”
Chapter 26
Aleks
I held my breath for what seemed like the longest time.
“No, irmãozinho,” Dante said.
I felt my stomach drop out because I thought that was his answer, but relief shot through me when he quickly added, “I would never ask that of you.” He glanced at Magnus and I saw the pair exchange a smile. But it wasn’t until my brother tucked his gun into his waistband behind his back that I finally relaxed.
Until I remembered where we were.
And why.
I dropped Vaughn’s hand and rushed to Dante. “They lost someone just like you did, Dante. I need to help them. We need to help them. And all those kids out there. Please—”
“We will, Aleks,” Dante quickly assured me. He looked at Ronan. I still felt like a fool for not having recognized the man at first when he’d entered the room, but I’d been too scared to really process what was happening. The sight of Dante pointing a gun at Vaughn’s head had pretty much caused my brain and my body to go to war as one tried to win out over the other.
“How did you know about Stylianos?” Luca asked. “We never posted his name online.”
“You think you’re the only ones who know how to track who hired a bunch of assholes to kidnap a person?” Dante asked.
“We also know they weren’t the only men sent to take Aleks that day,” Ronan said. “The part that wasn’t clear was why the brother of the man who’d had his own men try to kidnap Aleks would stop them… and then let Aleks call home to tell his family he was okay. It took longer than we would have liked to figure out exactly who you were,” Ronan said to Vaughn. “But once we did, the pieces started to fall into place. And led to you,” the man continued as he stopped in front of Luca. “You all are pretty good with computers,” he acknowledged. “But you don’t have what we do.”
“What’s that?” Luca asked.
“Our wife,” one of the men near Luca said. He was huge with short black hair. He was motioning to the man next to him.
“That’s Cash and that’s Sage,” Ronan said as he pointed first at the bigger guy, then the one with the reddish-orange hair. “They’re married to Daisy, who’s currently expecting their first child. Daisy is the one who helped us put the brakes on your plans by messing with your tech.” Ronan nodded toward Luca’s suit jacket and I knew he was talking about the button that was also a video camera.
“Once we found out who you were, we had to find out why you’d taken Aleks. The picture nearly ended it all,” Ronan admitted. “You have Magnus to thank both for stopping Dante from storming into your house and killing you all and for making us look harder for the truth.” He looked at Vaughn. “He was convinced that something he saw between you and Aleks two years ago was the real deal.”