Unbroken (The Protectors 12)

“What?” Luca asked. “I don’t understand. If he’s physically okay then why—”

“The man he was living with killed himself as my men were closing in. Gio witnessed the whole thing. He tried to kill himself with the same gun the man used, but my men were able to stop him.”

Luca went ghostly white.

“Why?” King asked. “Why would he do that if he was being rescued?”

I saw Ronan and Dante share a look and I knew whatever Ronan was about to say was really bad. I went to stand by Vaughn and closed my hand over his.

“Gio told my men that the man was his husband… he said he loved him and he didn’t want to live without him.”

I felt like I was going to be sick, and I didn’t need to look at Luca or the other men to know the shock they had to be feeling.

“My men brought Gio back to Seattle and took him to a house my husband and I own on Whidbey Island. We were hoping once we’d gotten him out of that environment that he’d feel safer. The second we turned our backs, Gio grabbed a knife and tried to slit his wrists. He didn’t cut deep enough to do any permanent damage, but we knew he was mentally beyond our help. I had to have him admitted to keep him safe. It’s a private institution. A man my men and I once helped many years ago faked the admission papers so no one would question who Gio really is. As far as the staff is concerned, he’s just the mentally disturbed son of an anonymous but very wealthy family. The man we helped is the only one who’s actively treating Gio. Your son has been there a little over a week now and he’s shown no improvement. He continues to deny he was ever abducted and just keeps saying he wants to be with his husband.”

“Oh God,” Luca whispered.

“He’s alive, Luca. That’s what matters,” Vaughn said firmly. “He’ll be okay.”

Luca looked at him, then me. He held my gaze for a long time before he nodded. “Yes, he will.”

“Would you like to see a picture of him?” Ronan asked as he pulled out his phone. “It was taken during one of his calmer moments,” the man added.

Luca nodded and dashed at his eyes. “Yes.”

He steeled himself as he took the phone from Ronan. We all gave him a moment to himself to take in his son’s image. “It’s him,” he whispered. “It’s him.” His voice cracked as he spoke. Vaughn, King, and Con looked over his shoulder at the phone. I managed to get a look but didn’t want to crowd Luca, so I did so from a distance.

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, irmãozinho,” 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.