Chapter 5

Silver didn't saya word when we sat down in the booth of the busy little restaurant. He seemed to be in some kind of trancelike state.

I waited until the hostess handed me both menus and walked off before I softly said, "Silver?"

I had to repeat his name two more times to get his attention and snap him out of the weird silence he'd been lost in. When his eyes met mine and awareness returned to him, he snatched away the hand I'd put mine on and cradled it against his chest as if I'd physically hurt him.

His reaction stung but I did what I always did. I allowed a mask of indifference to slip over my face and placed one of the menus in front of him before flipping through mine.

It didn't take me long to make my selections, so I put the menu down and reached for the glass of water the hostess had left on the table. I took a long drink before discreetly reaching into my pocket for the bottle of painkillers. I did my best to ensure what I was doing went unnoticed as much as possible. I drank enough water to swallow the two pills down. When I put the glass down, I noticed Silver watching me intently.

There was no way he could have missed what I'd been doing.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the question that came out wasn't the one I'd been expecting.

"What did you say to him?" he quietly asked.

"Who?"

"The man outside. The one with the red car."

"I just told him to be a little more careful to watch where he was going," I murmured as I fiddled with my menu.

"Oh," Silver responded, sounding a little dejected.

I casually reached for the little plastic sign that showed pictures of some of the desserts available.

"And I told him that he was lucky we were in public because if we weren't, I would have ripped off a certain part of his body for calling you that word and that maybe he should rethink doing something like that in the future because he might not be as fortunate to have witnesses around."

"Oh," Silver repeated, this time his voice carrying the notes of surprise and confusion I was looking for. I wasn't sure why it mattered that he knew I'd basically threatened the asshole who'd nearly hit him with his car and called him a bitch, but there was no denying that I did care.

I still didn't know what had possessed me to approach the stranger in the first place. Probably because I'd needed someone to take some of my internal anger out on. Or worse, I'd done it because I'd refused to allow anyone to cause Silver any more hurt than he was already feeling.

I tried to pretend I wasn't watching Silver as he reached for his glass of water and took a healthy swallow. I failed miserably. My hungry eyes clung to the way his lips curled around the glass, the way his Adam's apple bobbed gently as he swallowed, and finally, the tiny drop of water that danced along the corner of perfect lips. But it was the moment his tongue darted out to collect the wayward liquid that my entire body went rock hard.

And not because I was having any kind of episode related to my injuries.

My dick never stood at attention during those kinds of episodes.

It was only the waitress's appearance to ask if we were ready to order that kept me from leaping over the table and crushing my mouth to Silver's. I could practically hear the little whimpers he would let out as I slid my tongue between those soft, plump lips and laid claim to his sweet body.

"I'll have the cheeseburger with fries and a Coke," I managed to grate out as I fumbled with my menu so I could hand it to the lady.

She and I both looked at Silver expectantly. His eyes went wide as he sat there like a deer in headlights.

"Maybe give us another couple minutes," I suggested to the waitress as I saw Silver's body begin to tremble.

As the waitress disappeared, Silver's eyes shot to the menu in front of him. He opened it like it was a ticking bomb and then just stared at it.

It didn't take me long to figure out what the problem was.

"Silver, do you know any kinds of American food you like?"

I swore I saw his eyes pool with tears, but he managed to blink them back while he shook his head and continued to stare at the menu.

"I'm sorry, sweet—" I caught myself before I could finish the endearment because I sure as hell had no right to be using those kinds of words on him. My brain and tongue needed to get in sync on that fact. "I'm sorry, Silver. I didn't even think about the fact that you might not have eaten a lot of American foods while you lived… overseas."

Silver didn't even look up from the menu, but I could tell he wasn't actually reading it.

"It's okay, I'm not really hungry," the young man across from me murmured as he closed the menu. His stomach chose that moment to betray him with a loud rumble.

"Why don't we get you something and if you don't want to eat it here, we can have them wrap it up for you to have later?"

My suggestion seemed to fall on deaf ears because Silver was jerking his head all over the place as he seemed to finally remember that the restaurant was swamped with people. Despite my promises that no one would show up and grab him, he clearly hadn't believed me. I passed the tightening in my chest off as a normal reaction to the pain the rest of my body was feeling.

Just leave it alone, Dalton. He's not your problem, remember?

I ignored my inner voice and called "Silver" loudly enough to get his attention. His head swung back in my direction as his whole body jolted.

"Is there any particular kind of meat you like? Did you have a favorite meal?" I asked.

He relaxed a tiny bit and said a word in German that I didn't understand. I pulled out my phone and looked up a translator website. I handed my phone to him. "Can you type the name of it in the first box?"

Silver didn't ask questions about why I wanted him to do it and he didn't seem surprised when the translator immediately changed the words into English.

"Haferbrei," he began. "Por-ridge," he added carefully.

"Porridge," I said with a nod. Since I doubted this restaurant served porridge, I asked, "Anything else?"

This time Silver replied without hesitation, "Pastry with meat, cheese, cab… cab…"

"Cabbage?" I supplied. I reached for Silver's menu and scanned it. "How about a pot pie?" I asked. "They have chicken or beef. It's like a pie with meat and vegetables baked inside of it."

Silver nodded and then handed me my phone. Since he didn't say which one he wanted, I chose the beef, then the waitress reappeared and I ordered him a couple different kinds of soda, some juice, and another glass of water. I also ordered cookies and cream milkshakes for both of us but in to-go cups.

"No, it's too much," Silver whispered as he leaned across the table after the waitress had gone to put in our orders.

I actually thought it wasn't enough since Silver clearly hadn't had a square meal in a long time, but I didn't say as much. "It's fine," I responded. "I'll eat and drink whatever you don't like."

My words seemed to mollify him.

We sat in silence for several minutes before Silver loudly said, "You can take my portion of the bill out of the two hundred dollars."

More than a few people turned their heads our way but since Silver hadn't seemed to notice them, I ignored them too.

"Have you ever spent time in the US?" I asked. "You don't have a Russian or German accent."

Silver eyed me suspiciously. "How do you know I speak Russian and German?" he asked. "Did Jace tell you that?"

I sighed and shook my head. "You were mumbling in your sleep. I could only make out a few words, though. Some were Russian, some were German, and there were a few English ones too."

"What words did I say? The English ones?" he asked in response.

"You were calling for your parents. You asked them not to leave you." It would have been easy to lie to him but even if I didn't understand the reason why, I had a craving to earn his trust, and that would only happen if I told him the truth. "You said Maggie's name a few times too. I don't speak Russian or German, so I can't repeat the other words." I paused for a moment before carefully adding, "Your parents left you?"

Silver stiffened, then leaned back against the booth as if to put as much space between us as possible.

"Why do you hurt so much?" he blurted.

I shook my head too quickly before I could think about what I was doing, and my body immediately screamed in protest. Pain raced down my spine and out to what seemed like every nerve in my body.

I braced my hands on the table to ground me and pulled in several long, deep breaths. Clearly, the painkillers hadn't kicked in yet. At least there was a silver lining… the hard-on I'd been sporting for the young man across from me died a quick death.

"Like that," Silver whispered.

Heat enveloped one of my hands. I managed to shift my eyes enough to see that one of Silver's hands was resting on mine.

"Combat injury," was all I said, and I didn't even know why I was telling him that because it wasn't any of his or anyone else's business.

I was both grateful and surprised when Silver turned my hand over and began massaging my wrist and then the rest of my hand. His gentle but firm touch gave me something to focus on. It wasn't until he did the same treatment to my other hand that he began speaking again.

"Yes. They left me," was all he said.

I remembered that I'd asked about him mumbling about his parents leaving him.

"When?"

Surprisingly, my pain had begun to dissipate, so when Silver began to pull his hand back, I gently linked my fingers with his. Silver hesitated, as if he were determining whether he should make a spectacle of himself as he tried to get free of my hold or if he should just ask me to release him.

He didn't do either.

He left his hand where it was and this time, I was the one doing the massaging.

"I'm not sure," he answered. "I think I was around eight or so. I only know that because I have this memory of a birthday cake with eight candles on it. Ivan never acknowledged my birthday, so I guess I'm remembering it from the time I was with my parents. But it could have been someone else's birthday cake… before I belonged to Ivan, I mean."

I was forced to release Silver's hand when the waitress appeared with our drinks. I nearly laughed at all the glasses lined up in front of Silver. "Dalton…" he began with a shake of his head.

"Just take a sip of each one," I reminded him.

When he didn't move and just continued to look longingly at the line of drinks in front of him, I realized why he wasn't reaching for any of them, and I wanted to kick my own ass for my insensitivity.

"You've only ever had water before," I suggested. "It was all you were… allowed."

The last word made me sick to my stomach just to say it out loud.

So he wasn't worried about wasting them. He was afraid of what would happen if he took even one sip. I didn't know everything about Silver, but I knew he'd been held captive for a long time, and captives usually weren't given choices.

Any kind of choices.

And if they were ballsy enough to do something that went against the rules and ended up getting caught, they were repaid with punishment.

"Fuck," I whispered under my breath. I knew I just needed to stay out of all of it since I was only doing a favor for this kid because of his connection with Jace. But once again, my brain and tongue were on opposite ends of the response spectrum.

"He's not here, Silver. No one's here to tell you no or hurt you if you do something wrong. You get to choose. I know that's easier said than done but based on what I've seen, that's what you want. To choose. To be free."

Silver managed a shaky nod but that was it. Several long seconds passed before he finally said, "Tell me which one to start with."

My heart ached to know that he wanted to take this step, but he still needed that moment of direction to proceed. "Start with this one," I said as I pointed to the first drink on his left side. "It's the same as what I'm drinking. It's called Coke."

Silver didn't even hesitate to reach for the drink after I pointed to it. He took a sip of it and then sat back, his body stiff, his eyes wary.

Waiting for the first blow from a cruel fist to strike his flesh.

When nothing happened, he let out the breath he'd been holding. "It's very sweet," he said.

"Most of them will be like that," I responded. "Especially if you're just used to drinking water."

Silver nodded, then took another deep breath before exhaling loudly and reaching for the next drink in the lineup. It wasn't until he got to the lemonade that I saw his expression change.

"This one," he affirmed. "What is this one?"

"Lemonade," I said with a small smile. "Try the last one… the shake."

Silver nodded and pulled the shake to him. He couldn't see the contents because it was in a Styrofoam cup, but that didn't stop him from wrapping his lips around the straw and sucking. I decided to take the small sign of trust as a victory.

"Nothing is coming out," Silver said as he sat back in disappointment.

"Shakes have ice cream in them, so they're really thick. You have to suck hard."

Silver picked up the cup and sucked hard on the straw. The sight of his hollowed-out cheeks went straight to my dick. Shame crawled over me. I was sitting across from a young man who'd clearly been abused in every way possible for years and here I was getting yet another hard-on just from the sight of him drinking.

The shame quickly turned to anger but not at Silver.

At myself.

I knew what Silver had been turned into. I might not have known the details, but I didn't have to. If he'd been with someone who'd made their living off of trafficking humans for sex, it meant Silver hadn't gone untouched. Before me sat a young man trying a milkshake for what was probably the first time in quite a while, if not ever, and I was getting turned on.

What kind of sick fuck did that make me?

"We should order the food to go. I want to get back on the road," I snapped even as I saw the pleasure light up in Silver's eyes when he'd finally managed to get his first taste of the shake. "Do you want anything else besides the pot pie?" I asked as my eyes searched the restaurant for our waitress.

Silver watched me warily as he carefully picked up his menu. He scanned it quickly then put it down before saying, "The milkshake is enough. I… I don't need the pie thing."

"Yes, you do. You need some real food in your belly."

Something flashed in Silver's eyes for the briefest of moments. Without another word, he stood and left the table. I watched him walk toward the doors but assumed he was going to veer left and go to the bathrooms. To my surprise, he just kept walking straight and right on through the main doors, leaving me gawking.

My anger notched up another level as I stood and fished out my wallet to leave enough cash and a hefty tip for the drinks and food we'd ordered but hadn't eaten. I snagged Silver's milkshake and hurried as best as I could to catch up to him.

I was stunned to find his ass hanging out of the back seat of my SUV. I went ahead and put the shake in the front seat cup holder and then stepped back. By then, Silver was backing his way out of my car. Even with my loose-fitting sweats, his small, tight ass was on perfect display. His awkward movements as he tried to back out of the rear seat had my dick filling painfully as the material tightened over his backside even more. The sight of him on all fours reminded me how long it had been since I'd thrust my cock into the welcoming grip of a man's body.

How many empty days had gone by since I'd last experienced that heat enveloping me and making me feel?

"Fuck," I whispered under my breath as a storm of emotions swept over me.

It wasn't until I felt something soft hitting me in the face that I returned to reality. To my disbelief, Silver had taken the sweatshirt I'd given him and removed it, right there in the parking lot of the gas station/restaurant combo. Before my muddled brain could catch up, he ripped the sweats off his lower body and kicked them toward me.

It took way too many seconds for my scrambled brain and hardening dick to comprehend that the man had stripped himself completely bare right there in the public parking lot for anyone and everyone to see.

"Silver—" was all I managed to get out before he was on me.

Verbally, at least.

"There's not going to be any fucking, Dalton. I'm not getting on my knees for you and my mouth and tight little ass aren't yours for anything you want to do to me," Silver shouted as he closed the distance between us and pointed his finger in my face. He was still completely naked.

"‘When you want it, how you want it.' That's what you said, right?" Silver asked. His finger jabbed me in the chest. "I didn't sign up for this," he snapped as he motioned between us.

His anger only served to fuel my own. "This? What the hell does that mean?"

"You treating me like shit one minute and then being nice to me the next. Ivan played those mind games with me. Fucking me is one thing, but no one gets to do those other things to me ever again!"

Silver was more enraged than I'd ever seen him, giving me the opportunity to witness his range of emotional responses. Even if his nudity wouldn't have caught everyone's eyes, his shouting most definitely would have.

"Hey kid, you lookin' for a ride?" I heard some guy yell. I automatically shifted my body so it was in front of Silver's. The guy offering the ride was in a semitruck. His pockmarked, portly face and nearly bald head had me fuming.

No fucking way.

"Yes!" Silver called.

I spun around and saw that Silver was already dragging on his pants.

His own pants, not my sweats.

They had to be cold and damp, but he didn't seem to care. His eyes were on the semi driver. I glanced at the asshole in the huge rumbling cab of the rig and saw him smiling like he'd just won the fucking lottery.

Considering Silver had initially asked me to take him to a bus station so he could get on his knees for some stranger to earn a bit of cash, I had no doubt Silver knew exactly what he was getting himself into with the truck driver. I turned back to Silver just as he was bending to grab his shirt which had fallen to the ground at some point. The sight of long thin scars on his back had me seeing red.

By then, we'd attracted the attention of at least a dozen gawkers in the parking lot, not to mention all the people inside the restaurant who had their noses pressed up to the glass. Some of the assholes even had their phones pointed right at us so they could catch the whole thing on video. Videos that would already be on several social media sites before we even got into my SUV.

"Get in the car, Silver," I demanded as he began working his hands into the sleeves of his shirt.

"Go to hell, Dalton," he returned, his fury clear.

God forgive me but all his words did was turn me on even more. He wasn't the same young, vulnerable kid who just minutes earlier had been struggling to do something as simple as ordering a drink.

Silver managed two steps toward the truck driver still sitting in his semi with a shit-eating grin on his face before I shot my arm out and slammed it against the side of my car, preventing Silver from moving forward.

"You're not going with him," I practically growled. "Do you have any idea what that fucker will do to you?"

Silver didn't cower at my words or tone even a little bit. "Whatever he wants, I expect. Maybe not for two hundred bucks, but I can live with that if it means I don't have to spend even one more second with you," Silver said, his words cold and even.

"Yeah, and when he's done with you, he'll throw you into a ditch somewhere like you're nothing more than a piece of garbage. You'll be lucky if you're still breathing at the time!"

Silver tipped up his chin in defiance. Despite the bruises on his face, all I could focus on were those gorgeous lips of his.

Plump, soft, glistening.

And those eyes. They shone with anger and determination, and I loved it. It meant the fuckers who'd hurt him in the past hadn't taken all of him. His strength, his spirit… God, how I fucking envied him for it.

Something primal consumed me in that moment. I wanted to mark him as mine somehow. I wanted that defiance to melt away and be replaced with pleasure.

I left my arm where it was and lifted the other and pressed it against the car, caging him in. The rest of the world fell away as I stepped forward so that our bodies were separated by mere inches. Silver was still shirtless since he'd only managed to get his hands into the cuffs of the sleeves. He was strikingly pale with smooth skin except for the line of thin dark hair that ran from his navel down to the waistband of his pants and beyond.

If I hadn't been so hyperfocused on him, I would have missed it.

That little indrawn breath as his body tensed up.

And the trembling.

But it wasn't from fear or dread or anger.

The world fell away as I let my eyes caress his upper body. Silver let out a rough breath as if he could feel my touch even though I hadn't laid a finger on him.

His body began to shake harder and his breath started to seesaw in and out of him. His pupils were blown. Whatever he'd been feeling when he'd left the restaurant was long gone but it wasn't just desire consuming his eyes, there were other things too.

Confusion.

Fear.

Hope.

Warning bells were going off in my head, but I ignored them.

I had to know. I just had to.

Before I could even consider the consequences of my actions, I captured his mouth with mine. I had my answer within seconds of my lips brushing over his.

He'd never been kissed before.