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Don’t run, Aleks Just do as you’re told and you’ll be okay

I felt bile rise in h my head I actually had to close my eyes because I felt so dizzy I hadn’t heard his voice in years, but it was like he was standing right next to me

“In a safe place,” Vaughn responded as he slowly got up off the bed He moved around the foot of it, his eyes wary, like he aiting for h at that because not only would my body not respond to the instinct, but I knew he’d catch me with next to no effort

“Why?” I bit out as I looked at the bed, thenallon the floor next to the bed I looked at the bed again There were no restraints of any kind

But all he’d need were plastic ties like the other guys They could easily be in his pocket And in truth, we both knew he didn’t need theer thanI could even find the courage to fight back

And since I couldn’t find the guts to even try and run, I knew there was no chance ofhim I had no doubt he knew it too

“Is it you?” I asked “Or someone else?”

“No one is going to hurt you, Aleks”

He had the audacity to actually look pained as he said the words, but I didn’t believe hiht be a coward, but I wasn’t stupid I’d long ago learned that the master manipulators were the ones who kne to use the words you wanted to hear against you

I took a h there was a certain tiredness to his eyes that I’d never noticed before Like his soul had aged at a considerably faster rate than his body I guessed him to be in his mid-thirties or so He was taller than hed me by maybe sixty pounds He wasn’t a muscle head, but he was really well built with a broad chest and trihs flexed beneath the black dress pants he earing as he ht-blue button-up dress shirt but had taken his jacket off at so It could easily be at his back

Vaughn’s black hair was a little longer on top and trier than it’d been two years ago I’d always had this weird obsession anting to knohat the neatly grooers I’d only ever seen Vaughn dressed in suits, so it had always fascinatedhe wore in his left ear… I always iined it to be some kind of silent “fuck you” to the world

My gaze dropped to Vaughn’s muscular forearms He’d rolled his shirt sleeves up so I could see that his right arm had a tattoo on it, but his left didn’t Another silent act of rebellion? Or was that who he really was and the suits were the fake part?