I flinched as the voice permeated my mind. I’d worked for two long years to get Father’s voice out of my head, but every time I was certain I’d managed to silence it, it would randomly appear again.
I was coming to accept that it was a part of me.
Just like I had long ago accepted that I would always refer to Marcus Parks as Father, despite sharing no blood with the man. Not to mention the fact that the things he’d done to me had had absolutely nothing to do with being any kind of father to me.
Even the man’s death hadn’t changed that.
Father’s death automatically had me thinking about another man I’d tried long ago to vanquish from my thoughts, but for a whole other set of reasons.
I only knew him as Vaughn. I wasn’t sure if that was his last name or first. I shouldn’t have even known that much about him, because Father hadn’t liked it when the guards talked to me.
But Vaughn had done more than talk to me. He’d become like the thin stream of light that had somehow managed to break through the black paint covering the little window of the first room I’d been cast into after I’d been taken.
Sometimes that stream of light had been the only thing that had kept me wanting to open my eyes each day.
“Aleks?”
Dante’s soft voice broke through the memories of the dark-haired, dark-eyed man who’d been my only source of light for the longest time…
“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll take the bus, Dante.” I was proud of how firm my voice sounded, even though my stomach was tied in knots.
“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit,” Dante said.
“Okay. Love you, meu melhor…”
Dante paused for a moment, and when he said, “Love you too, irmãozinho,” I could tell he was choking up a bit. I was too. I always did when he called me his little brother. I’d thought him lost to me forever for so long that it was sometimes hard to accept I had my big brother watching out for me again like when we’d been kids.
I hung up the phone and tucked it into my pocket, then hurried to finish closing the store for the night. It was already starting to get dark out and I really didn’t want to risk missing my bus and being forced to wait fifteen minutes for the next one. I’d lucked out that my work was on a bus line that went directly by Magnus and Dante’s house. It meant not having to deal with transfers. The bus itself usually wasn’t too crowded, but on the occasions it was busier than normal, I usually stood near the back exit rather than sitting and reading a book on my phone (a concept I still hadn’t gotten used to).
As I worked, I found myself reaching for the bracelet on my left wrist, only to remember it wasn’t there. Touching the bracelet throughout the day had become a habit that I just couldn’t break myself of.
Because it wasn’t an ordinary bracelet.
My brother had designed it to include some kind of tracking device so he’d always be able to find me. He’d given it to me after I’d forgotten my phone one day about two months after Dante and Magnus had rescued me. I’d been walking the four blocks from home to the library and had gotten lost. Instead of remaining calm and asking someone for directions, I’d panicked and gotten myself even more lost. I’d ended up being missing for hours, and by the time Dante had found me, I’d been sitting in the middle of the sidewalk crying like a baby. A passerby had called the police, who’d managed to get enough information out of me to call Dante and Magnus.
After that, I’d been afraid to leave the house for weeks. It was only when Dante had given me the bracelet and told me it meant he’d always be able to find me that I’d ventured out again. The bracelet had become my lifeline to the outside world.
But I no longer had it. On the day Caleb had been abducted, I’d managed to stuff the bracelet into his pocket. It had allowed Dante and Jace to track Caleb’s location and rescue him from the men who’d taken him. Unfortunately, the bracelet had gotten lost in the shuffle of Caleb being transported to the hospital, and Dante was still working to get me a new one. But I still had my phone. Not only had I made a point of remembering to grab it the past few mornings, but Dante and Magnus had both checked to make sure I had it on me before I’d left the house.
After making sure everything was locked down, I hurried out the back door. I only had a few minutes to meet the bus, so I didn’t do my usual routine of scanning the alley behind the shop several times before turning my back while I locked the door.