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But no, I hadn’t been able to risk it back then

What if I had? Would we even be here now? Would things have been better for Aleks if I’d just given in to the temptation?

“Vaughn”

I startled as I realized Aleks was calling led I turned to look at hiainst the car door, but he wasn’t His hands were in his lap and he atching me, a look of concern on his face

Concern?

For me?

At least he’d called me by my name

The rage and regret were still too strong to make it possible for me to respond to him

“I’hn I shouldn’t have called you that You… you don’t deserve that It’s a habit—”

“Aleks,” I practically croaked

He stopped talking and dropped his eyes I couldn’t help but reach for his face, though I only touched his chin briefly so that he’d look at me, because I didn’t trust myself to have any kind of extended contact with him Not to mention I didn’t want to cause any kind of disco into contact with the bruises the men who’d abducted him had left on hiy,” I said firmly

He held , but as soon as he opened his ers

“What happened here?” I asked as I ers I already knehat they were, but I needed so And there was one thing I knew Aleks would talk about without fail

“They’re, u with the flowers,” he said as he studied the nicks on his fingers I could see a little bit of dirt on the pads It was the perpetual plight of so job, but for Aleks, those little flecks of dirt were new Although Marcus had rewarded Aleks by letting hireenhouse on the property’s mansion, he hadn’t tolerated dirty hands I’d seen Aleks scrubbing his fingers until they were raw on rime completely off before he ht as well have been wearing gloves when he’d worked with his beloved plants I’d once asked hiloves, but all he’d said was then it wouldn’t feel the same I hadn’t been sure if it’d been a literal reference to not being able to ith the plants and flowers as well, or if it’d been so that dirt had somehow made him feel free and safe and… normal

“Father would be so angry,” Aleks whispered when he fingered some of the dirt

God, I wanted to kill the fucker all over again