by T S McKinney
Sins of Omission
TS MCKINNEY
Sins of Omission
Copyright © 2019, TS McKinney
Published by Painted Hearts Publishing
Smashwords Edition
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Sins of Omission
Copyright © 2019 TS McKinney
ISBN 13: 978-1-946379-89-4
ISBN 10: 1-946379-89-1
Author: TS McKinney
Editor: Shannon West
Publication Date: January 2019
All cover art and logo copyright © 2019 by Painted Hearts Publishing
Cover design by E Keith
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Chapter One
Ari
I leaned against the doorframe and stared out, in shock and awe, at the sexual acts going on right in front of me. Right there. In front of me. It was like a wonderful, live version of porn. Sure, some men and women were getting their asses spanked and they were tied up in a various assortment of humiliating positions, but it was still porn. I would only have to take two steps forward, and I’d be out of the sanctity of the fairy-tale love story taking place in the room behind me, and into the pits of sinful delights.
My feet remained glued to the floor, though, because no matter how badly I might want the glorious display of wickedness in front of me, I also wanted the love that existed in the room behind me. The sad truth of the matter was that I’d probably never have either one of them. Like a coward, I sat at home every day, working away on my computer and not existing in the real world.
The story of my life—afraid to take a step forward and too much of a coward to take a step back.
Just as I started to turn away and rejoin Seth and Baker’s collaring ceremony after-party, something caught my eye. No, some one. I froze, my feet suddenly unable or unwilling to move. I felt like every person in the club froze and then simply disappeared. Everyone except for me and Eli.
He stood about ten feet away from me, looking sexier than fuck and even more arrogant than I remembered. I hadn’t thought it possible, but his muscles were larger, more defined, and oh-so-perfectly accented by the leather harness thingie that criss-crossed his chest. Black leather pants were molded to his legs.
I literally felt myself gulp. Seriously, like some cartoon character, I gulped.
He smirked and then crooked his finger to gesture for me to come to him. With what could only be described as pure guidance by my cock, my right foot took a step forward. The sounds of the club returned, and all the participants reappeared. That’s when it dawned on me. Eli was not only at a BDSM club, but he was dressed the part.
My feet froze again.
His finger crooked again.
Knowing I needed to face the music sooner or later, I covered the short distance between us and said, “What are you doing in Colorado, Eli? This is my world, with my friends. Not very long ago, you made it perfectly clear that you didn’t belong with me. Why show up now? If you’re hoping for a side order of revenge because of my lie, then you’d best get ready to be disappointed. My friends will kill you if you try to hurt me.” That probably wasn’t true, but maybe Eli wouldn’t know any better.
One corner of his lips tilted upward as he gazed down at me…working some sort of deviltry with the lower portion of my body. Why? Why did he have to smell so fucking good? Look so fucking delicious? Why?
“I’m here because I got tired of waiting, Ari. You’re old enough now…and you’re mine.”
And then I ran…in the opposite direction.
“Love you guys and congratulations!” I yelled as I breezed past Seth and Baker. I didn’t pause long enough to really capture the expressions on their faces. I didn’t want to know if my sudden departure would be considered a friendship violation or not. Not knowing seemed much more pleasurable than facing the harsh reality of the fact I was acting like a total douche by ditching them just as their party was getting into full swing. They were probably my first real friends in years…or ever.
As I headed to the back exit, which I’d already scoped out earlier because being acquainted with each and every exit to a building was what my father had taught me to do my entire life, I waved goodbye to my dad and motioned that I’d call for a car to pick me up. I wasn’t fast enough to dodge the look of dismay on his face, though. I knew him too well to miss it. He knew me too well not to give it.
In an instant, he knew I was running from something. As I yanked open the back door of Seth and Baker’s private room, I let the weight of guilt settle into that spot right between my shoulder blades—the spot no one could ever reach. He worried about me. Constantly. Over the years, he’d been there to witness my struggles of continually living in a world that was always much older, much more worldly and more confident, than I was. He was quite possibly the only person alive that knew how I hid behind my snarky comments and bubbly attitude. He knew it was a mask I used to hide the fact that I didn’t fit in.
Anywhere or with anybody.
The eerie shadows of the empty, unlit hallway forced me to slow my pace, but there wasn’t any amount of darkness that could slow the thundering of my heart—at least not until I was at home and locked away in my lonely, yet safe bedroom. What a pathetic life. Maybe I needed to buy some cats to make me look even worse to anybody that might pause from their busy lives to gaze at my existence.
No worries. Nobody saw the real me, so they believed everything was fine. If my dad, Baker, or Seth knew of my daily battles fighting the menace of depression that threatened to completely trap me within its web forever, they’d cling to me like glue. I didn’t need that, though. Pity was an ugly look on just about anyone as far as I was concerned.
The lighted EXIT sign at the end of the hallway beckoned me, so I hastened my steps. Escape could be mere minutes away.
Damn Eli Wallace with all his muscles, tattoos, and confident smile. Damn him for saying those words to me—pretending he was here to pick up where we’d left off, acting like he’d forgiven me for all the lies I’d told. This was all his fault. I’d nearly chiseled out a nice calm life for myself before he’d waltzed his glorious ass globes back into my life, toppling all my hard work over faster than a cat knocked breakables off tables. Why? Why was he here? His husky response to that very question wasn’t the truth. It couldn’t be. When I’d last seen him, he’d been so angry, so full of hurt and hate. That shit didn’t just disappear. No, he was here to hurt me, to make me pay for hurting him. It had to be a well-planned scheme of revenge against me for trying to lure him into my bed when I’d been underage.
I shoved the door open, silently seething over all the ways his arrival had damaged my life and stepped out into the freezing February temperatures. Dammit! In my stupid run-for-your-life-exit, I’d fo
rgotten to grab my coat and gloves. Perfect. Not only had he made me look like a coward and horrible excuse for a friend, now Eli was going to be responsible for me freezing my ass off before I could get Uber here to save me. Stubborn determination led to me allowing the door to slam shut behind me, locking me out of the warmth of the club and eliminating the choice of me swallowing my pride and returning to the party.
I wrapped my arms snugly around my midsection and started moving as quickly as possible toward the exit of the dark alley. It was fucking creepy, probably dangerous, and there was sticky goop all over the pavement beneath my feet. I suddenly felt thankful for the darkness—it successfully hid the nastiness surrounding me. It wasn’t like I was a germ freak or anything….
Okay, I was a germ freak.
Having said that, it wouldn’t take a germ freak to be disgusted by the ickiness of the environment. It practically screamed perfect setting for a horror flick.
I wanted to reach out and use the brick wall as guidance but didn’t dare let whatever that wall was probably coated with touch my hands. I’d rather fall. Shit, wait. If I fell, I’d be face-first in it. Having calculated the level of grossness in my head, I yanked my sweater sleeve low enough to cover my hand completely and then reached out to use the bricks to steady my escape. The lights of the sidewalk were a short fifteen yards away. How could it be so dark when lighting was that close?
Was I a pussy for running from Eli? Yeah, probably. Would I rather be considered a pussy than face him? No hesitation to answering that question—yes, I would.
Since my eyes were glued to the lights of the sidewalk, I noticed the instant the safe lighting, the pathway to my salvation, was suddenly blocked. My feet froze in mid-step as my eyes focused on the bulky figures that unexpectedly loomed in front of me. Four of them. On top of the fact I was outnumbered and that all of them looked to be candidates for an Incredible Hulk remake, I wasn’t picking up on the usual gay-bashing, bully shit that I would have expected from them. No, these men sent out the all business vibe. I quickly surmised that this encounter had nothing to do with me being gay and everything to do with the company I worked for.
They were moving at a quick pace, so there wasn’t much time to try and come up with a plan of action. A retreat was out of the question—the heavy metal door I’d exited out of locked from the inside. Getting past them looked to be borderline impossible. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Hey, guys,” I said when they stopped moving. Of course, they were only about two feet away at that point. “What’s up?” I knew some tricks and most men underestimated me because of my smaller stature. Having said that, there were still four of them.
“They said you had a smart mouth on you,” the man leading the pack said. “Sounds to me like you’re just too dumb to keep your mouth shut to prevent smart ass words coming from it.”
I shook my head, wanting to tell him what he’d just said didn’t make a fuck’s worth of sense, but figured that wouldn’t win me any brownie points, so I tried for a different angle. “Who’s they?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he answered. “Here’s how this is going to happen, little man. There’s an easy way and a hard way for you to spend the next three minutes of your life. You can either walk out of this alley with us, acting all obedient and quiet, or we can do what it takes to make you quiet…maybe permanently.” He grinned. “What’s it going to be?”
This guy wasn’t going to be a problem—he was all talk and those assholes usually didn’t have the ability to back their shit up. The one to his right looked like there was nothing going on between his two ear holes, so some quick moves would confuse him enough to give me the chance to take him out. The other two? They were going to be a problem. I’d been in enough company training to recognize when a man knew how to fight. Those two knew what they were doing. “Not to be a smart ass about anything, but I seriously doubt you’re here to shut me up, uh, permanently,” I countered. “If you wanted me dead, I’d already be dead, and you’d be long gone from here. That means whoever sent you must want me alive.”
He frowned and snorted at me in disgust. “So? What’s it matter, anyway? You’re coming with us. End of story.”
“It matters because it tells me to make as much noise as possible because you aren’t going to do a damn thing about it. You need me alive and kicking,” I answered. But, before finishing the last of the sentence, I charged the man in front. A kick to his knee followed by a fist to his throat dropped him like a sack of potatoes. After that, everything turned into a blur of fists, kicks, and, of course, me screaming at the top of my lungs. Drawing attention was a good thing, I kept telling myself.
The second man, like I’d expected, didn’t have the finesse required to counter any of the moves I’d spent the biggest portion of my life learning, and he tumbled almost as quickly as the first one. The last two…well, they were a different story. Smarter than the others, they recognized that teaming up might be in their best interest. Not to brag, because I was seriously not in a position to brag about anything, but I put up a really good fight—landed some excellent punches and marked men that were nearly twice my size with some damn good bruises. Other than that, it didn’t take too many seconds to realize I was fucked. Escaping these two was above my pay grade.
Shit; losing me was going to hurt my father really bad.
As a particularly harsh punch to the kidney caused me to drop to my knees, I couldn’t help but wonder if my sudden disappearance would affect Eli at all?
Probably just piss him off because he wasn’t going to be able to seek his revenge against me for my big fat lie.
“Would you look at that? He’s sassy and scrappy,” one of the men remarked. “He’s going to fucking pay for that.”
The fucker tried to disguise his heavy breathing to act like battling with me hadn’t had any affect on him, but it wasn’t something he could hide. From my spot on the disgustingly sticky pavement, I noticed the other man was bent over, hands resting on his knees and struggling for deep, even breaths. It pissed me off that my father, Eli, or the rest of the team probably wouldn’t ever know how valiantly I’d fought them.
“You boys just made the biggest mistake of your lives,” a low, husky voice interrupted. “And you’re going to fucking pay for that.”
Oh, that beautifully familiar voice—the voice I’d spent many nights replaying in my memory as I jacked off to images of him. Eli. I looked up to see him speak into his smart-watch. “Back alley. Now.”
“Who the fuck is—”
The man who’d knocked me flat with the punch to the kidney started to say, but he never had the chance to finish. If I’d thought for one minute that I’d put up a noteworthy defense against the two burly men, it was nothing compared to how quickly Eli rendered the two of them helpless. Even after they were down and completely unconscious, he added a couple of well-placed kicks to their most vulnerable spots.
“Eli?” I whispered, wondering how he’d found me and noting how fucking sexy he looked in his leather gear, muscles flexing and tattoos flowing smoothly with each movement. Was that normal? How could I be thinking about how hot Eli was when I’d been seconds away from being abducted?
“Yeah, babe,” he answered with a soft smile. “It’s me. Give me a second.”
A second for what?
Still unable to make my legs strong enough to hold my weight or make the alley stop spinning wildly, I remained on my hands and knees and watched as Eli pulled two sets of handcuffs from his BDSM outfit. Hell, I’d thought those were just for looks or kink, but apparently, they worked just as well for subduing criminals. Since he only had two pair, he used them to hook all four men together. I supposed he guessed that the chances of them all waking up at the same time and being able to run away while linked together were slim to none.
As soon as he’d finished, he rushed over to my side. From behind me, I heard the heavy metal door slam against the brick wall as someone roughly opened it and then several sets of footstep
s thudded in our direction. Ah…the cavalry. The insecure side of me wanted to immediately chirp that I’d taken out two of those guys but decided against it. What was the point? As badly as I hated to admit it, if Eli hadn’t come along, I would have been chin-deep in shit right about now.
“You okay, babe?” Eli asked as his hands efficiently inspected every inch of me. I felt the remainder of the blood that I hadn’t lost through the cut to my lip and serious nose bleed start rushing toward my cock. Wasn’t that just fucking dandy? Nothing better than everyone seeing you get a hard-on from a clinical welfare check by a fellow team member.
“Tell me where it hurts,” he urged.
“Everywhere you’re touching…so stop,” I demanded, trying to shove his hands away.
“Oh, shit! I’m sorry, Ari,” he countered…without taking his hands away. “Give me a second and I’ll take care of it for you.”
“What the hell happened!” my father demanded, his voice laced with fury and fear.
I glanced in that direction to see my father, Seth, Baker, and Samantha standing there, looking at me with what appeared to be nothing but concern in their eyes, but I knew it had to be something else. I’d ruined Baker and Seth’s evening. Samantha loved Baker, which meant that technically, she had to love Seth, too. My father loved them both. Yeah, evening totally ruined by yours truly.
My father started to kneel next to me, but Eli smoothly blocked him with his overly-sized Greek god body. “I’ve got this,” Eli said as he positioned his body between mine and the rest of the team and miraculously presented a small bottle of germ-killing gel, at the same time. “Give me your coat, Samantha,” he ordered as he started rubbing the gel onto my hands. I would have cried at the sweet gesture if he didn’t have an audience surrounding us.
