Page 69 of Damaged

I hadn’t even known service dogs existed until Jace had introduced us to Sadie. The dog was specially trained to sense when Dalton was having a nightmare or panic attack and was able to stop them before they had a chance to take hold by simply licking Dalton or nudging him in some kind of way to get his attention. With service dogs in high demand, we’d gotten lucky that Jace knew someone who knew someone who trained service dogs. Sadie had been finishing up her training when she’d been diagnosed with a congenital eye condition that wasn’t serious, but did slightly affect her vision, so she’d no longer qualified to be in the training program. So it was by pure chance that she’d come into our lives.

As it turned out, she wasn’t just for Dalton. She’d ended up doing the same thing for me that she did for him. Even if I was awake and not having any kind of anxiety attack, she could sense when something was troubling me and she’d often lay her head in my lap. It helped me not to escape into my head like I’d been prone to do in the past.

Even though Sadie’s job was to be with Dalton at all times, the smart, sweet dog had a knack for knowing when Dalton and I didn’t exactly need an audience while we were doing naughty things to each other, and she knew exactly when to return when we were done. At night, she slept at our feet, which meant at my feet when we were on the boat because I was shorter than Dalton. It was always a tight squeeze for the three of us, but I liked having her weight on my lower legs. She just… fit.

“I call dibs on the shower,” I said as I climbed to my feet.

I made my way to the tiny bathroom that wasn’t much more than the size of a closet, but just as I was opening the door, I heard Dalton say, “Hey, Silver.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Do you know how real fishermen shower?”

My mind must’ve still been in post-orgasm land because I didn’t make the connection to Dalton’s strange question and the things that happened right after that until it was far too late.

Before I knew it, a very naked Dalton had swept a very naked me into his arms, rushed up the stairs and without hesitation, jumped over the side of his boat and into the freezing water. I was still in his arms when we made it to the surface but before I could call him every curse word I knew in every language I knew, there was a huge splash next to us.

Despite the second soaking thanks to Sadie’s doggy cannonball, I started my cursing streak, directing it at both man and dog until Dalton shut me up with a bone-melting kiss.

And just like that, the water didn’t seem so cold anymore.

Chapter 23

DALTON

“Okay, Jace, keep me posted and let me know if you guys need anything.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, Silver asked, “Are they all right? Is it Caleb or Willa? Or one of Ronan’s men? Or his fam?—”

I gently placed my hand over Silver’s mouth because with each question he was getting himself more and more worked up.

“Let’s sit,” I said as I led Silver to the lounger on my boat. Sadie was already licking Silver’s fingers.

“Caleb was attacked a couple of days ago,” I began. “But he’s okay now,” I quickly added. “It was someone from his past, but the man is dead now and Caleb is safe. He’s with Jace and Willa and they’re all okay.”

Silver sighed in relief and gave in to Sadie’s attempts to get his attention. “Thank God,” he whispered.

In the weeks since Jace had left, Silver had grown fond of him, not only for what Jace had done for me after he’d found me passed out on the floor with a terrified Silver hovering over me, but because Jace answered a lot of questions for him when I wasn’t able to. He hadn’t really gotten to know Caleb at all, but it didn’t matter. He’d met Caleb the day Silver had given Willa over to her uncle and his lover. Silver had instantly known that despite his young age, Caleb was exactly what Jace and Willa needed.

“There’s something else,” Silver observed.

I would never tire of how in tune Silver and I had become with one another.

“A few days after Caleb was attacked, his best friend, Aleks, was abducted. They haven’t found him yet, but Ronan’s team is searching for him. They know who has him but not where they are yet.”

“Someone he knows? In a bad way?” Silver asked with concern.

“Yes and no,” I hedged. I made sure his eyes were on me before I added, “Aleks was in a similar situation as you, Silver. He was abducted as a child and sold multiple times.”

Silver’s already pale skin went ashen. We hadn’t talked about his captivity since I’d been released from the hospital. I’d tried to broach the topic a few times, but I’d seen Silver mentally shutting down even as he’d said he was “fine” and changed the subject. So I hadn’t pushed him to deal with the emotions he’d managed to lock away somewhere in his mind.

It was like there were two Silvers. Past and present. The few times I met Past Silver was when we were making love. Though we hadn’t had full-on sex, which I had no problem with, Past Silver had shown up whenever I’d inadvertently done something that made him remember Ivan. We always talked through it and then Present Silver returned. I knew he’d have to deal with the trauma someday, but it was like my sobriety. He could only do it when he was ready.

“Aleks’s brother, Dante, had been searching on his own for Aleks for years. He eventually joined Ronan’s team so that he’d have more resources to help him find Aleks. Dante and his boyfriend, Magnus, found Aleks in Chicago, but the attempt to rescue him went wrong. All three of them would have been killed if not for a man who stepped in and saved them. He’d been working for the guy who was holding Aleks captive but for whatever reason, he killed his own boss to save Aleks, Dante, and Magnus. That man, the one who saved them, is the one who took Aleks.”

“How do they know?” Silver asked.

“Because the man let Aleks call his brother to let him know he was safe. No one knows why, but Aleks chose to stay with the man rather than return home to his brother.”

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