Absolution (The Protectors, Book 1) (20 page)

Mace had stopped moving as he waited for me to get used to the feel of him and I actually felt my body start to relax as the burning sensation eased somewhat. It flared up again as soon as Mace began moving again but I rode it out until I felt his hand press against me and I knew he was as deep as he could go. Jonas was running his hand up and down my side but I barely noticed because Mace pulled his finger almost all the way out before pushing it back in. I flinched as a spear of pain filtered through me but as Mace continued his gentle plunges and withdrawals, the lube began to ease his movements and I felt a spark of sensation start somewhere deep inside me. I finally noticed that Jonas’s hand was slowly stroking my cock back to life, his drags matching the rhythm of Mace’s finger. And when Mace pulled his finger free a moment later, I actually felt a pang of loss. But it didn’t last long because then Mace was breaching me again, only this time with two fingers.

I groaned as another round of pain went through me but it was momentary and not as intense as the first round. Mace’s plunges grew in intensity and then he curled his fingers inside of me. The added pressure messed with the rhythm I’d just started enjoying but then Mace hit something inside of me that sent fireworks directly to my dick. I knew enough from my very thorough internet search on anal sex to know that he was massaging my prostate but nothing had prepared me for the pleasure that ripped through me over and over at the contact. My erection was back in full force and I actually had to press my mouth against Jonas’s chest to stifle the endless grunts and groans that kept spilling from my lips.

Mace straightened his fingers and began gliding them in and out of me and adding in a twisting motion. Every few strokes, he’d strike my prostate so I was always on the edge, even as Jonas gently pushed me onto my back and reached for a condom that someone had tossed onto the mattress at some point. I watched him through hooded eyes as he rolled the condom down his length and slathered some lube over the smooth latex but I was enjoying Mace’s ministrations too much to worry about what would come next.

But when Jonas finally moved into position as Mace pulled his fingers free of my pliant body, I felt my unease come back. I did my best to keep my anxiety from my eyes but I didn’t miss the way Jonas hesitated as Mace pushed my legs up. I watched as Mace dropped his lips to Jonas’s ear and whispered something and then they kissed. Whatever Mace had said got Jonas moving and one of his hands opened me while I felt his cock nudge my hole. Mace eased down next to me and settled his hand on my chest.

“Just feel,” he breathed against my mouth just before he kissed me. So that’s what I did. I felt the smoothness of Mace’s tongue as he explored every inch of my mouth. I felt the burn of Jonas’s entry into my body as one of Mace’s arms wrapped around my leg to pull it farther up, opening me for Jonas. I felt Jonas’s eyes on me as he slowly worked his way past my resistant muscles. And I felt a sense of relief when my hole collapsed and my body stretched to accommodate his length.

But what I felt most was the perfection of what these two men were giving me. And I knew in that moment that I would do anything to keep it. Anything.

There was no pain as Jonas slid all the way inside of me, only a sense of fullness and a desperate need for him to move, to give me the exquisite friction Mace had stirred up in me. But instead of moving, Jonas leaned over me until his lips were right above mine. “I love you so much, Cole.” He kissed me then and seconds later he was telling Mace the same thing and stealing his exhale of breath into his mouth. And then he reared back and began moving. Exquisite agony burned through me as he glided in and out of me with ease, his balls slapping gently against my ass. His arms were holding my legs open to take the burden off of me and I watched as Mace’s hand trailed down my chest, past my cock and around my leg to where Jonas and I were joined. Jonas let out a sharp breath at whatever Mace was doing to him and then it was my turn because Mace’s finger slid inside of me on top of Jonas’s cock. The added pressure had me closing my eyes and reaching for my cock but Mace beat me to that too because his mouth licked over my length before sucking me deep.

I had no doubt that Jonas was suffering with the same raw need that I was as Mace pleasured us, because Jonas began slinging into me desperately, his fingers biting into my thighs where he was holding me. I couldn’t speak or move as they controlled every aspect of what I was feeling. I managed to keep my eyes on Jonas as his eyes widened and his cock began to pulse inside me. I felt Mace’s finger slide out of my body and his hand replaced his mouth at the exact moment that Jonas released my legs and dropped all his weight down on me as he began to hammer into me uncontrollably. Mace’s hand was still stuck between us and he was jerking me off at the same frenetic pace that Jonas had set. Jonas’s mouth seized mine as his orgasm hit him and I went over at nearly the exact same time. Jonas swallowed my shout of pleasure and he continued to hump into me as aftershocks hammered us both. I heard Mace let out a groan and felt his come splash against my ass cheek.

As we each came down, we ended up in a tangle of limbs and touches and kiss after kiss was speared across my mouth and I had no idea whose were whose and I didn’t really care, because each and every kiss was perfect.

Fucking perfect.

But less than eight hours later, my perfect world shattered.

Because Jonas was gone.

Jonas

I couldn’t help but keep looking over my shoulder to see if the two burly men that the District Attorney had assigned to protect me were still standing outside the office door. Seeing their outlines through the glass of the upper half of the door made me feel marginally better, but I knew I wouldn’t feel a hundred percent safe again until I was with Mace and Cole.

Since I couldn’t bear to think of the way I’d left Cole and Mace in the pre-dawn hours two days earlier, I turned my attention back to the well-dressed man on the other side of the desk. Kyle Ridgefield was a good looking guy who had an air of confidence about him that said he knew his job and he knew it well. There’d been a brief moment when I’d first met him that I’d actually been reminded of the dream man I’d always pictured myself with when I was a kid, but as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it disappeared again because I already had my dream men. I just needed to hope that they would still want me after all this was over.

“So do you have any questions about tomorrow?” Kyle asked as he closed the file in front of him and clasped his hands over it.

I shook my head. Testifying in front of the Grand Jury about Carrie’s murder would be easy compared to the day I would have to face Mateo in court and tell the world what he’d done. I’d just been relieved to learn that as soon as Mateo’s plea deal had been tossed out, he’d been re-arrested for Carrie’s murder before he could even walk out of the courtroom. But if the Grand Jury failed to hand down an indictment tomorrow, Mateo would be a free man.

“Well, if there’s nothing else…”

“What about Eduardo?” I asked.

Kyle shook his head. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough to file charges against Eduardo and since the statute of limitations for what he did to you ran out several years ago, I’m afraid there’s not much we can do at this point.”

I shook my head. “It’s not right,” I said. “He shouldn’t get to keep profiting from what he did to me.”

Frustration went through me as I stood but the attorney put up his hand. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘keep profiting’”?

“He showed me once how much money he made in just one day from one of the videos he made of me. Those plus the pictures…those aren’t ever going to go away.”

“Jonas, did he post the videos and pictures on the Internet?”

I nodded. The knowledge that even now there were men out there getting off on watching me being raped over and over again made me feel ill. I expected Kyle to tell me how sorry he was that that had happened to me but to my surprise, he actually smiled and then reached for his phone.

“Distribution and possession of child pornography is a federal crime. There’s no statute of limitations,” he said excitedly.

“But I don’t have proof.”

“Your affidavit would be enough to get us a warrant. We can check his computers, his financials.”

I only half listened as he made a call to someone to discuss the next steps. My thoughts drifted back to where they’d been in the two days since I’d left Mace and Cole wrapped in each other’s arms in the old farmhouse. Mace had actually woken up as I’d crawled over his big body and I’d been forced to make up a lie about needing to take a shower and then starting breakfast. He’d looked at me with such contentment in his eyes that I’d leaned down and kissed him and told him to go back to sleep before I could change my mind. I’d gone into the bathroom long enough to turn the shower on while I tugged on my clothes.

By the time I’d come back out, Mace had rolled against Cole’s chest and had wrapped his arm around Cole’s waist. I’d wanted nothing more than to crawl back in between them and go back to sleep.
Almost
nothing. And it was that one thing that I did want more that had had me hurrying down the stairs, taking Mace’s car keys as well as all the cell phones and climbing into his car. The only thing I’d left behind were the guns and my sketchbook. I’d also left my watch behind since Cole had told me it was how Ronan had found us.

I’d known it wouldn’t take long for Mace and Cole to make it to the nearest town or even to a neighboring property, but I’d hoped the few hours lead I had on them would be enough time for me to connect with the District Attorney in Chicago who was handling Mateo’s case. Kyle had been thrilled to hear from me since he’d been looking for me for nearly a week. He’d taken care of the arrangements to fly me to Chicago and as soon as I’d arrived, I’d been swept off to a nondescript hotel on the outskirts of the city.

I’d half expected Mace and Cole to arrive at some point to try and drag me back out of harm’s way but when they hadn’t shown up last night, the self-doubt had started to trickle in and wreak havoc with my head. Maybe they hadn’t really meant what they’d said when they’d whispered their words of love to me. Maybe I was just too damaged and not worth the effort of having to deal with my hang-ups. Maybe they just needed each other…

Asking Cole to let me make love to him had been an impulse and as soon as I’d done it, I’d feared that I wouldn’t be able to make it perfect for him. When Mace had come into the room, I’d been torn between wanting him with us and wanting to force him to promise that he wouldn’t go after Mateo and Eduardo. But then I’d seen the loss in his eyes and I’d known that I’d take any moment I could have with him and Cole, because I’d already known at that point it could very well be my last. Because I’d already decided what I would have to do to make sure Mace didn’t lose any more of himself to the brutal world he’d relied on to stem the pain of losing his son.

“Okay, let’s go ahead and get your statement written up,” Kyle said, snapping me out of my reverie.

It took another hour to get everything down on paper and I struggled to keep my emotions in check as I described the sordid details of the many times Eduardo had committed my torment to film. When we were done, all I wanted to do was take a shower and try to rid myself of the filth the memories had left behind.

Kyle shook my hand and then escorted me back to the guys who’d been assigned to keep me safe. I couldn’t remember their names and they didn’t speak to me other than to tell me what to do as they escorted me from place to place. Both men flanked me as we walked towards the elevator.

“Jonas!”

At the sound of my name, I felt my heart soar at the same time that my stomach crashed. They’d come.

My bodyguards immediately shoved me behind them as we all turned and I could only get glimpses of Mace and Cole striding towards us. I saw Ronan at the end of the hallway but he stayed where he was.

A mix of emotions went through me at the sight of my men. I was thrilled that they’d come for me after all, but I knew they wouldn’t understand why I’d done what I’d done, and we’d be back where we’d been two days earlier.

“Sir, I’m going to need you to stop right there,” I heard one of the bodyguards say as he reached for his gun.

“No, no,” I said quickly. “They’re with me, they’re friends,” I said. “I want to talk to them.”

The bodyguard didn’t remove his hand from his gun but he kept it holstered. But neither man moved as Cole and Mace reached us.

“Get the fuck out of our way,” I heard Mace growl.

“Sir, if you want to speak with Mr. Davenport, you’ll need to arrange it with Mr. Ridgefield.”

Shit, this was bad. No way Mace and Cole were going to let me go without talking to me. At least a dozen people were milling about in the hallway and many of them were stopping to watch the confrontation.

“Please,” I said, grabbing one of the bodyguard’s arms. “Just a couple minutes.”

The man glanced down at me and then finally relented with a nod. He moved enough to let me pass by him but when he and the other bodyguard only took a few steps back, I knew my men and I were going to have an audience whether we liked it or not.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Mace bit out as he dragged me into his arms. Since my answer would take a lot longer than the few minutes I’d been granted, I remained silent and just held on to him. His hold bordered on painful but I loved it. And then Cole was wrapped around me and while the hug wasn’t as tight, his lips settled against my neck and I heard a long rush of air brush over my skin, like he’d been holding his breath in for a really long time. Guilt went through me as I realized how much my disappearance hadn’t just hurt them…it had scared the hell out of them.

“Sorry,” I murmured against Cole.

I felt Cole nod and then he was kissing me, not caring who watched. “Don’t ever do that to us again.”

I nodded. I turned my attention to Mace and grabbed his hand. “Please, please don’t go after him,” I whispered so my bodyguards wouldn’t overhear. “The D.A. thinks he has enough for a warrant.”

“Mr. Davenport,” I heard one of my bodyguards call.

I gave him a quick nod and then turned back to Mace. “Promise me,” I said harshly, desperately. I knew it was unfair to ask him to make that kind of promise but I didn’t care.

“I promise,” Mace finally said.

I could only hope he was telling me the truth because his eyes were hooded. I reached up to pull him down for a kiss. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I said against his lips.

Mace gave me a nod but I was the one who had to tug my hand free of his as I turned to go because he refused to release me. I’d gone a few steps when I turned to give Mace and Cole another quick look and I saw both of them turn their attention on a young, well dressed woman walking past us. Then everything was a blur.

One of them shouted my name as the woman turned towards me and then a hard body slammed into me as a gunshot rang out. I managed to see Mace wrestling with the woman who was holding a gun. He hit her hard enough to knock her down.

I knew it was Cole on top of me but I was having trouble getting my bearings since I’d hit my head on the floor. But that only lasted for a few seconds because I knew instantly something was wrong when Cole didn’t move. And then I felt it – something warm and wet seeping into my shirt.

“Cole!” I shouted and gently pushed him off of me. “Oh my God,” I whispered when I saw that the entire right side of his shirt was covered in blood. I sat there in stunned silence for a split second and then my instincts kicked in and I leaned over him and jammed my hands down on the hole that the blood was seeping from.

“Cole,” I said desperately as I tried to get him to focus on me. His eyes were open but he was staring straight up at the ceiling so I didn’t know if he was aware of me. “You’re going to be okay,” I said frantically. “Just stay with me, okay?” Cole finally looked at me and his lips parted like he wanted to say something but nothing came out.

“Mace!” I screamed. And then I just kept screaming Mace’s name as I watched Cole’s glassy eyes close.