Page 47 of Damaged

I was surprised when Silver tugged me to a stop. He didn’t say anything as he gave me a gentle pull and then led me to the lounge chair. The knowledge that he knew how much more comfortable I’d be in the chair was proof of how much he’d truly seen in the past couple of weeks. The young man might not have understood some of the unfamiliar things like seat belts and what foster homes were, but he was sharp as a tack. The mere fact that he’d known how to use my computer to research things had caught me completely off guard. It made no sense because the last thing the fucker who’d stolen Silver’s innocence would have wanted was for him to have any kind of access to the outside world.

Silver waited patiently for me to get comfortable in the lounge chair. I expected him to sit on the ottoman, but he shocked me yet again by saying, “Do you have room for one more?”

The lounger was wide and Silver was slim, but it would still be a tight fit.

I didn’t give a shit.

I held out my hand to him as I moved as far as I could to one side of the lounger. Silver took my hand and then carefully situated himself next to me. I fully expected him to try and keep as much distance between us as he could, but he surprised me again when he rolled onto his side and carefully placed his hand on my chest and tipped his head so it was resting lightly on my shoulder.

“Is this alright?” he asked.

All I managed was a nod. It was so much more than alright.

“Tell me if you need to move,” Silver added before falling silent.

I loved the feel of him against my body. Despite the fact that I was taller than him by several inches, he was still a perfect fit for me.

We lay there for a long time, and it wasn’t long before my eyes drifted shut. The gentle sway of the boat and the sound of the water against the hull would have normally put me to sleep, but with Silver’s body pressed up against mine, sleep was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to roll our bodies so that his was beneath mine. That way I could see every emotion in his beautiful eyes whenever and wherever I touched him. I wanted to taste him again. I wanted to hear his sexy moans and whimpers as he experienced that coil inside of him getting tighter and tighter until it finally snapped and he was flying again.

I forced myself to open my eyes. Puffy clouds moved slowly through the sky, allowing us only glimpses of the warm sun. I knew Silver was waiting for me to continue telling him about my childhood, but coward that I was, I found myself asking him, “How do you know so much about computers and the internet?”

Silver tensed for a moment, but it was only a handful of seconds before he softened and let his body once again mold itself against mine.

“Over the past few years, Ivan began to change. Up here,” he said as he carefully removed his hand from my chest and then tapped his forehead. I was glad when he returned his hand to my chest.

“How so?” I asked. As much as I hated treading into this particular territory, I wanted to know everything about Silver’s captivity, but at the same time I didn’t want him to have to relive any of it.

“He became forgetful and confused. When it first started, the episodes didn’t last more than a minute or two. But over the years, he got worse. He started to believe everyone was out to get him. To kill him and take all his money, the girls, the house, everything.”

I knew what he meant by “girls.” Jace’s sister, Maggie, had been one of those girls. She’d been kidnapped and her boyfriend killed while they’d been backpacking through Europe. Jace had spent years looking for her.

“He made me start tasting everything before he ate it because he was convinced his chef was poisoning his food. After a while, he made me start cooking some of his meals for him even though I really didn’t know how. I was good at breakfast but not much else. Ivan didn’t seem to care if the food tasted good or not.”

“He trusted you,” I said.

I felt Silver nod against my shoulder before he said, “Yes. But he still had lucid moments, so I had to be careful about what I said and did. He had a lot of men working for him, but he didn’t trust most of them. He thought they were all plotting against him or that they were secretly working for his brother, Dmitri. I had more freedom than the girls he took. They were just another source of money to him. He didn’t trust his men not to have sex with them, so he had this woman who got them ready for… for the men who paid to… see them.”

Silver’s voice cracked a little at the end, so I covered the hand he had on my chest and began stroking his thumb.

“After the men were done with the girls, Ivan wanted me to take care of the ones who’d had… rough dates. That was what he called it.” Silver fell silent for a long time. “Dalton, the things those men did…”

“I know,” I offered when Silver began to sniffle. “Why did he pick you to take care of them?”

“Because he knew I’d never betray him. He’d made sure of that early on.” I felt Silver shake his head against my shoulder. “The girls, they begged me to help them, but I didn’t. I didn’t,” he whispered. I could hear the shame and despair in his voice.

“You couldn’t have helped them, Silver. You were as much of a prisoner as they were.”

I hated the fact that I’d led him down this path. I hadn’t earned the right to ask him to confide his secrets in me. I’d manipulated him by using his lack of knowledge about things and I’d been too brazen to assume he wouldn’t figure any of it out. I’d shoved money at him in the hopes of protecting him in the only way I could, and I’d selfishly kept him at arm’s length for two weeks so that when it came time for him to leave, I wouldn’t feel guilty.

“Then I met Maggie,” Silver continued. I knew he didn’t believe what I’d said about him not being able to help the girls even though he’d wanted to.

I found myself pressing a kiss against the top of Silver’s head. “Jace told me the rest, sweetheart. He didn’t mention you by name, but he said Maggie had been killed while trying to escape with her baby. You were the one who saved Willa,” I said softly. “You know that Jace and Caleb consider you family, don’t you?”

Silver didn’t respond, nor did he continue.

I didn’t press him any further. Instead, I played with his fingers, linking and unlinking them with mine. I didn’t ask him to continue. I knew I owed him explanations, but I was too ashamed of exposing myself to him.

“You have no idea how fucking strong you are, do you?” I asked.

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