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“Ho long since… since they took ht?”

More guilt went through me as I realized the trauma had left him without any sense of tiht before His memory appeared completely clear up until the point where he’d asked me to take him home and I’d told hi Marcus was still alive

“It’s been about ten hours since they took you from the alley behind your shop,” I said “After I…” I paused because I most certainly didn’t want to verbalize the next part

After I took you and refused to take you home…

“After I got you out of the van, we drove for a little over an hour You were… tired,” I said lamely

He’d been a lot worse off than “tired”

“I found the abandoned house and carried you inside because you’d fallen asleep I took your shoes off and put you in the bed”

“Did you sleep with me?” he asked

I had no idea if he was asking me if I’d had sex with him or if I’d slept in the same bed with him, and the fact that I couldn’t make that distinction made me feel like the lowest form of life on the planet It was a question he never would have asked ht as well have been his jailer

Because he’d trusted me then…

“I sat in the bed next to you, but I didn’t touch you I worked on my computer while you slept and when you had a bad dream, I just called your name to wake you up… until that last one I had to touch you that ti to just my voice”

Aleks pulled in a deep breath and nodded

“You slept for about eight hours”

He nodded again “I forget to eat,” he said softly “I have to set a reminder on my phone because I’m not used to…” He shook his head and then said, “I would like to eat so, please”

If he’d asked ladly would have found a way to do it And while stopping at a restaurant to eat wasn’t exactly theto fly under the radar, no way in hell was I going to make him eat shitty food from a fast food place