Unbroken (The Protectors 12)

So that was how Ronan and his men had gotten into the building. They’d had men already on the inside.

“What’s the plan?” Vaughn asked.

“The cops will be here within minutes of us leaving. We have a friend in Seattle, the captain of the Seattle Police department actually, who is going to call his brethren out here and mention an anonymous tip he got from a suspect about a bunch of sick fucks who like to abuse kids getting together for a drink. We’ll leave enough men here to make sure these assholes can’t go anywhere, and they’ll slip out before the cops surround the building.” Ronan motioned to the men. “Behind every man’s gag is a flash drive,” Ronan said as he held up a little stick that was about the size of my thumb. “Daisy’s been very busy collecting information on every single piece of shit here, and in the rare case she wasn’t able to find enough to make sure a lengthy prison sentence is coming, we did a little bit of photoshopping. Those men who manage to get off because of technicalities will receive a death sentence,” Ronan said easily.

Even I understood that.

And I couldn’t be anything but happy about that.

“What if they swallow the drive?” Luca asked.

“Well, if they’re lucky enough to get it past the rags in their mouths, the cops will just have to go in after it… the drives will survive that long. And if not, like I said, death sentence.”

Ronan reached out to brush my arm. “We should get going. We need to get those kids home.”

I managed a nod but nothing more.

The kids were safe.

Gio was safe.

We were all going home.

“You go with Ronan and Luca, okay?” Vaughn said to me. “Your brother and I need to have a little chat.”

“What? No,” I said.

“It’s fine, Aleks,” Dante said with what I could only classify as an evil-looking grin. “We’ll be along shortly.”

Magnus was the one who took my arm. “Come on, Aleks. Let’s let them get it over with.”

I wanted to say there was no time, but Magnus was leading me away. I looked over my shoulder but it was hard to see past the men guarding the guests. I saw Vaughn say something to Dante and my brother’s face went from somewhat amused to downright deadly.

Then Vaughn pointed to Brian.

Dante looked at me, then back at Brian. I saw him stride forward and grab Brian by the arm and yank him to his feet. Brian looked terrified and I could hear him screaming through his gag as Dante dragged him from the group. I knew Vaughn couldn’t have told Dante the things Brian had done to me in such a short amount of time, but it was enough time for him to have told Dante that Brian was the first man who’d bought me.

And I remembered that I’d said Brian’s name when I’d told Dante that Brian had told me that my brother wouldn’t come for me if I didn’t behave.

So either way, Dante would have put things together as soon as Vaughn had pointed to Brian and told him the man’s name.

It was another case where I couldn’t find it in me to care what would happen to the monster.

I didn’t care what that made me.

Dante was grim-faced as he pulled Brian past me, Luca, Ronan, and Magnus. “This one’s coming with us,” he said to Ronan. “I’ve been meaning to ask Vincent to show me some of his interrogation methods and now I can finally get some hands-on practice.”

Brian let out a cry of distress at that, but Ronan merely nodded and stepped aside.

Vaughn came up to us and took my hand. “Let’s go home,” he said.

I nodded and gripped his fingers hard as he led me from the building.

I just had one question, but I was too afraid to ask it.

Where exactly was home now?

Chapter 27

Vaughn

“The key is using stone-ground grits and if you have the time, put them in a slow cooker,” Magnus said as he held up a bag of grits. I nodded in agreement.

“You writing this down, son?” the man asked as he looked pointedly at the piece of paper and pen in front of me.

The ones Magnus had put there as soon as I’d sat down at the kitchen island.

“Oh, um, yeah, sorry,” I said as I rubbed at my eyes and grabbed the pen. I knew Magnus wasn’t actually that much older than me, so calling me “son” probably wasn’t an age thing, but it sure as shit was an indirect reminder that he loved Aleks like a son, not just a future brother-in-law.

I somehow managed to listen and take notes as Magnus got the grits in the slow cooker, but I was more than a little bit happy when he said the things needed to cook for several hours.