Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
"It's Gio," King said. "We found him… alive."
I wasn't sure I'd understood King at first. It was like my mind couldn't catch up… like everything was happening in slow motion. I pulled my hand from Gideon's and used it and my other one to cover my mouth. "He's alive?" I choked out.
"Yes," King said.
"Oh my God," I whispered. "We found him. We found him." I kept repeating the phrase over and over because I didn't know what else to do. After all the years of searching, I’d started to give up hope that we’d ever find the little boy.
Though, after eight years, he would no longer be a little boy.
It was too much emotion to process at once and while I wasn't particularly proud of it, I couldn't stop the sobs that spilled from my throat. I buried my face in my hands as the years of worry and fear seeped out of me.
"Lex," Gideon said softly as he leaned across my back and put his arms around me.
I wanted to tell him they were tears of joy, but I wasn't capable of forming any actual words. I'd have to rely on King to do that for me.
"Who are you talking about?" Gideon asked. I only half listened as King answered.
"Our brother Luca's son. He was kidnapped eight years ago when he was eight years old. We've been looking for him ever since."
"When?" I managed to ask. "When did you guys find him?" The guilt that I hadn't been around to help in the search for Gio over the past several months was like acid eating away at my belly.
"Sixteen days ago," King responded. "But it wasn't us who found him."
"What?" I asked in confusion. Something soft was pressed into my hand and I realized it was a dishtowel. I used it to wipe at my tears.
"It's a long story, but basically friends of a friend found him."
I wanted more details, but I was too hung up on the tone of King's voice. Instead of being overjoyed, he sounded grim.
"You said he's alive," I said softly. I wanted that to be it. I wanted that to be the end of the story. I wanted King to tell me that the little boy who was now a teenager was back home with our brother and everything was fine. But I knew in my heart it wasn't. I'd spent years working with my brothers to find Gio and while I hadn’t been on the front lines like them, I'd seen enough from behind the scenes to know what happened to kids when they were stolen from their families.
We'd always assumed Gio had been taken because of who his father was. Luca had inherited a list of enemies a mile long from his own father and while he’d done everything in his power to protect Gio from them, it hadn't been enough. Or so we’d thought. But the more we'd searched for the little boy, the more we'd learned of the dark world of child sex trafficking and we’d realized the child hadn’t been taken as an act of revenge at all.
"No," I whispered in denial. But King didn't deny it. The fact that he didn't even try to sugarcoat it was proof enough that Gio hadn't come home unscathed.
I stood up so quickly that I ended up knocking the chair over. I felt Gideon's fingers close around my upper arm to steady me.
"I have to go," I said aimlessly as I was bombarded with one image after another of Gio being violated. I hadn't known Gio as long as the others because he'd been born while I'd still been in foster care, but I remembered a free-spirited little boy who'd adored his father and had called me Uncle Lex.
"I have to go," I repeated. "To New York." Despite my declaration, I couldn't move.
"We'll go, Lex." Gideon squeezed my hands. "Let's go get our things packed."
The mere fact that Gideon was coming with me without me needing to ask helped make it possible for me to move. But as Gideon began to lead me from the kitchen, King said, "Gio isn't in New York. Neither is Luca."
"Where are they?" Gideon asked before I could.
"Seattle. The people who found Gio took him back there. Gio…" King began, but then his voice dropped off and I swore I heard a hitch in it. But that wasn't possible. King didn't get emotional.
Ever.
"Tell us," I demanded. As much as I wanted to bury my head in the sand, I knew it wasn't an option. "Tell us, King!" I shouted.
My brother’s continued silence was terrifying. I gripped Gideon's hand hard.
King seemed to take an inordinate amount of time clearing his throat before he said, "The people who stole Gio sold him to some fucker in Texas. The guy brainwashed him. Gio thinks they were married and he thinks… he thinks he loved him. The guys who found Gio killed the man, but when Gio learned he was dead, he tried to take his own life." King paused for a moment. When he spoke again, I almost didn't recognize his voice. "Twice."