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That everything Juliana and Pedro Silva said was about the There’d been little mention of how Aleks had suffered But there’d been plenty of blao around The interview had clearly been orchestrated to cast the ht and help move the suit forward, probably for a lucrative settlement deal When the interview reached the part where it talked about Aleks being settled in the US, I kneas looking at the picture of himself His parents and the reporter had been careful not to actually say Aleks was in Seattle, but they’d foolishly used the picture without cropping out the naure out the store’s location

Aleks handed the phone back to me before the interview even ended I stopped it and watched him carefully He looked numb

And so very tired

I was sitting on the floor in front of hiain, I kneouldn’t welcome the contact He ay too raw

“The men who took me from that alley… who sent them?”

“I’ed “Most likely someone orried you’d be able to identify theuess

Or someone anted you for himself…

I didn’t know a lot about Aleks’s past, but I’d heard enough that he’d been a coveted prize because of both his unique looks and his i Aleks off to every perverted piece of shit in his tight circle of deviants The young man had become like a priet the owner to sell I’d had more than one fucker comment on what a shame the loss of Aleks had been – none of those same men had even made mention of Marcus’s death

But it wasn’t soh that he had to face the fact that he was considered a dangerous witness… to learn there werehe didn’t need to deal with at the moment

And he ht even be those illing to use him as a pawn…

That was a fact I myself didn’t want to accept, but I knew I didn’t have a choice

Aleks let out a strangled whian to reach for him, but he pulled away and backed even farther into the corner The rejection stung He shook his head at me “I don’t kno to believe you,” he admitted

I sed hard and nodded I deserved that I put some space between us so he wouldn’t feel so boxed in “I had to get you out of there, Aleks I knew you wouldn’t understand why I couldn’t take you home and I didn’t want to take the tiuys weren’t being followed I couldn’t take the risk that you’d fight me”