Retribution (The Protectors, Book 3)

by Sloane Kennedy

  After wiping my hand on my pants, I lifted it to join the other one around Tate’s neck and while I didn’t apply anything more than subtle pressure, I could practically feel Tate’s excitement ripple off of him as I took complete control. My cock was so hard that I had no trouble searching out his hole and as I began to push into his tight body, he moaned and whispered my name. I didn’t give him much time to adjust to my shaft and from the way he was begging me to go faster, I knew he was fine with that. Once I was inside of him, I leaned over his back so I could feel his skin against mine and then I began thrusting in long, heavy drags. I fucked him ruthlessly after that and the only time I removed my hand from his neck was when I finally reached down to start jacking him off. I could have made him come without the using my hand, but my own lust had spiraled out of control as soon as Tate’s tight heat had gripped me and I knew I wouldn’t last.

  “Fuck! God, yes, right there!” Tate screamed as I began hitting his prostate. It took just seconds for him to come after that and as soon as his orgasm started to slow, I put both my hands on his shoulders and held him in place as I pounded into him. Less than half a dozen strokes later, I was filling him as my climax tore through me. I dropped my lips to the back of his neck as I cried out his name. When his body had taken everything from me that it could, Tate searched out my lips and I kissed him deeply.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  “Me too,” he managed to say as his body went limp beneath mine.

  After getting us both cleaned up in the shower, we climbed into bed and as soon as Tate snuggled up against me, I said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

  “Okay.”

  I loved that he didn’t tense up against me. It was a testament to how much he trusted me.

  “Daisy found your mom.”

  At that, Tate did tense up and then he turned his head to look at my face before he pulled free of my arms and sat up so he could face me. “She did? How?”

  “She did a search on missing kids named Tate and Dennis and found that a woman named Layla had reported them missing almost twenty years ago. She claimed that her ex-boyfriend kidnapped them. She and Buck were never married and she’d left him shortly after you were born.”

  “Is…is she still alive?” Tate asked shakily.

  “She is. Her name is Layla Hemmings. She lives in Omaha. She’s married with two kids. Both girls. One is thirteen, the other is ten.”

  Tate sat in silence as he tried to take it all in.

  “She has red hair, Tate.”

  His eyes lifted. “The woman from my dream,” he whispered. “It was real?”

  I nodded. I sat up and brushed my fingers over his upper arms. “I called her.”

  “You did?” he asked.

  “I did,” I said, worried that he’d be angry with me. “I wanted to find out what kind of person she was.”

  Tate nodded. “You wanted to know if she still wanted me.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “I wanted to protect you-”

  Tate cut me off with a kiss. “Thank you,” he whispered. He leaned against me and I laid back down, taking him with me. “Does she want to see me?”

  “Yes, she does. She was really upset and crying a lot. I told her I’d talk to you first, but that I couldn’t promise anything.”

  “Did you tell her you were my boyfriend?”

  I tightened my hold on Tate as I guessed his line of thinking. His father and brother had ridiculed him because of his sexuality, so it wasn’t a reach to suspect his mother would do the same thing.

  “I did. She was fine with it, Tate. She asked me all sorts of questions about myself. I didn’t tell her about you and Matty, but I told her a little bit about me. She kind of lost it when I told her how much I loved you.”

  Tate didn’t respond, but I felt his fingers stroking over the tattoo on my chest. His tattoo.

  “There’s no rush, Tate. You can call her whenever you’re ready. And if you’re never ready, that’s okay too.”

  Another round of silence and then Tate lifted up on his elbow and kissed me. “I’m ready,” he whispered. I nodded and reached for my phone. I pulled up the number from my call list, but didn’t hit the dial button. Instead, I handed it to him.

  “I love you, Tate.”

  A broad smile spread across Tate’s mouth and he leaned in to kiss me again. “I love you, Michael. Forever and ever.”

  He glanced down at the phone, took a deep breath and then hit dial. When I shifted so I could see his reactions better, he put his hand on my chest and said, “Stay with me?”

  I ran my fingers through his hair and whispered, “Forever and ever.”

  And when I heard a woman’s voice on the phone answer, I drew Tate against me just as Tate said, “Um, hi, this is Tate.”

  I dropped a kiss to his head when I heard crying on other end of the phone and I held him tight when his own tears started to fall.

  The End

  *Scroll to the next page for a sneak peek of Mav’s story*

  *** Sneak Peek ***

  Forsaken (The Protectors, Book 4)

  Sloane Kennedy

  Copyright © 2016 by Sloane Kennedy

  Prologue

  Mav

  I didn’t see him at first because unlike so many of the other times he’d been walking down the busy hallway towards the hospital room I was guarding, his head was hung and he didn’t speak to any of the various nurses and other staff who greeted him. In fact, he was so distracted that he nearly slammed into me as he turned to enter the door. I managed to grab him by the upper arms just before he walked into me and I didn’t miss his startled gasp right before he lifted his eyes to meet mine.

  The young man was nothing like the men I usually went for. First of all, because he was just way too young. He was in his early twenties at best. Second, I liked them a little on the beefier side. This man was so lean and slight, I would have had to worry about breaking him if I put all of my weight down on his back while I was fucking him from behind. And third, and most importantly, he was skittish. Exceedingly so. I didn’t mind a little shyness here and there, but I wasn’t into fucking guys who were terrified of me. And with the way his whole body seized up when I’d first grabbed his arms, I knew that was exactly what he was.

  “Sorry,” he whispered, though it was hard to hear him over the din of the people coming and going through the hallway.

  “No problem,” I responded, though I had yet to let him go. With it being summer, he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt so my fingers were in contact with his bare skin and that was wreaking havoc on my senses. Not to mention his big, luminous dark brown eyes and his slightly parted lips that looked so full that I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d just been kissing someone or if they were just naturally that plump and supple looking.

  I’d first noticed him a couple of weeks earlier when the young boy I was keeping an eye on, Matty Travers, had been readmitted to the Immunocompromised Services Unit of the children’s hospital. I’d only met the little boy about six weeks earlier when my boss, Ronan Grisham, had asked me to keep an eye on one of my colleagues, Hawke, in case he decided to single-handedly pursue the men who’d murdered his wife. Under normal circumstances, Hawke wasn’t the kind of guy who needed backup, but when Ronan had learned that the murderers had taken up with a Mexican drug lord, all bets were off and he’d ordered me to stick to Hawke like glue.

  Weeks had passed, but Hawke hadn’t gone looking for the men as expected and when the man he’d lost his heart to, Tate Travers, and his five-year-old son had shown up to visit him at his ranch in Wyoming, I’d been there to witness the reunion and I’d known then that Hawke had chosen a future with them rather than seeking vengeance for the rape and murder of his wife and unborn child ten years earlier. I’d ended up sticking around town for a couple days so I could explore the mountain ranges surrounding Rocky Point, but on the day I’d finally gotten on my Harley to head to my next assignment, Ronan had frantically calle
d me and told me to get back to Hawke’s house because the men he’d given up on hunting had found him instead.

  I’d made it back to Hawke’s ranch just in time to save him from the bullet one of the drug lord’s lackey’s had been about to put in his brain, and then he and I had managed to get to Tate and Matty to safety. For someone so young, little Matty had been beyond brave as a gun had been held to his head and I’d felt a kinship with him from the start. So when Ronan had asked me if I’d stay in Seattle for a while to keep an eye on the family, in case the drug lord made a play for them, I’d readily agreed.

  And that was when I’d seen the young man.

  He arrived every day like clockwork to spend time with Matty and I’d learned from Hawke who had given me the okay to let the guy past me, that he was someone who had just started volunteering in the pediatric oncology unit. I hadn’t missed how beautiful he was with his dark skin tone that hinted at Hispanic heritage and pretty, expressive eyes, but I’d dismissed my intense attraction to him because of the way he’d looked at me that very first day when he’d told me his name as he’d sought entry into Matty’s room.

  Eli.

  I’d let the name roll off my tongue as I’d automatically flirted with him, but when he’d looked at me like I was going to jump him, I’d let him pass without further comment and I’d done my best to ignore him all the other days that he’d stopped by. But it had been an almost impossible task because there was always this inevitable moment when Eli stepped past me, that his eyes would lift to look at me for the briefest of moments and I wouldn’t see fear in them…I’d see something different. Something that had my stomach knotting up with anticipation and my fingers itching to reach up and stroke over the smoothness of his cheek.

  But now as I held on to him, he wasn’t only looking terrified, he was practically shaking in my grip. So I quickly released him and murmured, “No problem.”

  I knew I wasn’t the safest looking guy in terms of appearance, especially considering the tattoos that covered my arms, torso and back, my large build, long hair and the leather motorcycle pants I wore, but it wasn’t like I’d overtly come on to the guy or anything that would cause him to be so fearful of me.

  I expected Eli to quickly move away from me and rush into the room, but other than taking a step back, he didn’t do anything else. His eyes held mine as he tried to get control of his breathing and then he shook his head slightly. “I’m sorry,” he said again, a little louder this time, but still very low and quiet.

  I had no doubt the second apology had nothing to do with running into me and I desperately wanted to ask him what he was sorry for. But then I saw it.

  Longing.

  My breath caught in my throat as I realized what the look meant, but before I could question Eli or even respond, he stepped past me and into the room. I heard both Matty and Tate happily greet him and there was no fear or tentativeness as Eli greeted them in return. The idea that Eli might actually be attracted to me was an unexpected distraction and it took everything in my power to keep from looking through the glass walls into Matty’s room to see him and Eli interacting. My job was to focus on my surroundings and keep the little boy inside that room safe.

  It was only about a half an hour later that Eli left the room and I willed myself not to look at him as he passed, but I failed miserably when I sensed his gaze on me. Our eyes met briefly and I felt my cock harden uncomfortably in my pants. Eli was the one to tear his gaze away first, but I kept my eyes on his slim back as he hurried down the hall towards another room and it wasn’t until he disappeared inside of it that I finally managed to snap out of whatever spell I’d fallen under. Irritation flooded my system and I cursed both my own traitorous body, as well as the young man who’d fucked with my head for those few seconds with just one look.

  My shift outside Matty’s door lasted only another hour and when Hawke arrived to relieve me, I said my goodbyes to Matty and Tate and hurried towards the parking garage so I could get my Harley between my legs and use the massive bike to work off some of the tension that was still lingering in my system. It took just a few minutes to get to the garage and I automatically bypassed the elevator for the stairs that would lead to the lowest floor of the garage where I’d left my bike. But the second I opened the door, I went on high alert when I heard someone yelling, “Stay the fuck away from him, do you hear me?”

  The sound of flesh striking flesh had me moving and when I heard someone let out a small cry, I leaned over the stair railing and yelled, “Hey! What’s going on down there?”

  There was another distressed cry and then a door was opening and closing. I knew the assailant would be long gone by the time I reached the bottom landing, but I took the stairs as fast as I could anyway so I could make sure whoever had been struck was okay.

  I saw the young man immediately before I even reached the last step. He was sitting on the concrete floor, his back to the wall and his arms over his head. I could hear him crying softly.

  “Hey, you okay?” I asked as I knelt on the floor in front of him. He flinched when I carefully tried to pull his arms away from his face. “You’re safe now,” I murmured as he finally relaxed his muscles enough to drop his arms. And when I put my fingers under his chin to lift his face, I held my breath as I realized who it was under the bruise that was already forming along one cheek, the blood trickling from the split lip and the tears streaking down his face.

  Eli.

  Connect with Sloane Kennedy

  Thank you for reading Retribution!

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed Hawke and Tate’s story. They will be back in Mav’s story.

  For those of you who have read Logan’s Need which is the last book in my Escort series and the book that introduces characters from my Barretti Security series, you may be wondering if Mav’s Eli is the same Eli from Logan and Dom’s story. The answer is yes. And this won’t be the first time you will be meeting some of the other boys mentioned in the Barretti Security series epilogue at the end of Freeing Zane. In fact, all of the older boys I mentioned in that epilogue will be getting their own stories either as part of the Protectors series or as another book in my Finding series. So be sure to keep checking in with me for more information on that!

  As a new author, I am always grateful for feedback so if you have the time and desire, please leave a review, good or bad, so I can continue to find out what my readers like and don’t like. You can also send me feedback via email at sloane@sloanekennedy.com

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  Other books by Sloane Kennedy

  (Note: Not all titles will be available on all retail sites)

  The Protectors Series

  Absolution (Book 1, The Protectors) (M/M/M)

  After four years abroad, artist Jonas Davenport has come home to start building his dream of owning his own art studio and gallery. But just as he’s ready to put the darkness of his past behind him forever, it comes roaring back with a vengeance.

  The only thing keeping ex-cop Mace Calhoun from eating his own gun after an unthinkable loss is his role in an underground syndicate that seeks to get justice for the innocent by taking the lives of the guilty. Ending the life of the young artist who committed unspeakable crimes against the most vulnerable of victims should have been the easiest thing in the world. So why can’t he bring himself to pull the trigger?

  After years of fighting in an endless, soul-sucking war, Navy SEAL Cole Bridgerton has come home to fight another battle – dealing with the discovery that the younger sister who ran away from home eight years earlier is lost to him forever. He needs answers and the only person who can give them to him is a young man struggling to put his life back together. But he never expected to f
eel something more for the haunted artist.

  Cole and Mace. One lives by the rules, the other makes his own. One seeks justice through the law while the other seeks it with his gun. Two men, one light, one dark, will find themselves and each other when they’re forced to stand side by side to protect Jonas from an unseen evil that will stop at nothing to silence the young artist forever.

  But each man’s scars run deep and even the strength of three may not be enough to save them…

  Salvation (Book 2, The Protectors) (M/M)

  Trauma surgeon Ronan Grisham lost everything the day the man he loved was stolen from him in a brutal attack. Driven by a thirst for vengeance, he turns his hatred into building an underground group that can do what he couldn’t that fateful day…take the lives of the guilty to save the lives of the innocent. But years later, he’s forced to confront the one link to his past that he can’t sever.

  Seven years after the loss of his parents in a violent home invasion that left him permanently scarred both inside and out, 21-year-old Seth Nichols is trying to put his life back together so he can take over the reins of his father’s global shipping empire. But the last person he expects to come back into his life is the man he drove away with one innocent, stolen kiss.

  With one brush of his lips, Seth managed to do to Ronan what no other had since the day Ronan watched the light in his fiancé’s eyes go out forever. He made him need again. But Ronan can’t need anyone, least of all his dead fiancé’s younger brother. Because even one touch from Seth could shatter Ronan’s carefully constructed world and Ronan knows there’s no coming back from that a second time.