Absolution (The Protectors 1)

“Pull the trigger and be done with it, Mace,” Mav said quietly. They were words I’d repeated to myself over and over these past three weeks. But I said the same thing to Mav that my gut had been telling me for just as long.

“Not yet.”

* * *

Just my luck that my first close up view of the guy I was supposed to put a bullet through was his perfectly shaped ass cradled in a tight pair of khaki pants. At least he was wearing a shirt. I cleared my throat to make him aware of my presence but instead of responding, he crawled farther under the table and began fiddling with a screwdriver. The sight of him on his hands and knees did nothing to cool my raging libido and a surge of anger went through me that I was thinking more about how my dick would feel sliding into all that tight heat rather than acknowledging that now would be the perfect time to pull the gun from my ankle holster and finish the job I’d been entrusted with.

“Hey,” I called out again, slightly louder but then nearly swallowed my tongue when the guy stretched his long body in a way that had his white T-shirt riding up to reveal a line of smooth, supple skin at his back. My dick went from semi-hard to hard just like that and I cursed my lack of control. Then I cursed the faceless young man before me and reached out to prod one of his bare feet with my steel toed boot. He let out a ragged shout and then a moan, a second after his head connected with the underside of the table.

I suppose I should have offered him an apology as he crawled out from underneath the table and pulled out the earbuds that were blasting some kind of rock music into his ears, but I was too busy trying to school my reaction when I caught the sight of his profile. The scope on my rifle was good, but by no means had it done the guy justice. Even the pictures had failed to capture his naked beauty. His lips were much fuller than I’d thought and I could see them stained with just a little bit of color like he’d been worrying the sensitive flesh with his teeth. His eyes weren’t the simple blue I’d been expecting – they were so pale that they had an almost eerie, silver look. His spiky brown hair looked like he’d been running his fingers through it and I actually found myself wanting to reach out and smooth a few of the strands to see how they would feel.

“Sorry,” he murmured, breaking me out of my trance. His hand was rubbing a spot on the top of his head and as he climbed to his feet, I actually reached out to help him before I realized what I was doing. It was a monumental mistake because the electricity fired through my blood the second my rough fingertips brushed over the soft skin just above his elbow. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his sharply indrawn breath said he’d felt exactly the same thing.

A mix of rage and disgust went through me at my body’s reaction to the monster standing before me. His charming, lop-sided smile and innocent eyes were exactly what would have drawn a kid like Evan to him. Fuck, this guy probably didn’t even need to use the standard lure of, ‘Hey kid, will you help me find my puppy?’ to entice any little boy his sick mind wanted.

“I’m Mace,” I bit out, my hard-on dying an instant death at the reminder of Evan. “We have an appointment.”

I could tell the guy was put off by my rough manner and I reminded myself that I was here for a reason – to figure out why I couldn’t just pull the fucking trigger and end this scumbag’s life.

“Right,” he said quickly, his smile fading as he took several steps away from me. I didn’t miss the fact that he didn’t extend his hand and I had no doubt it wasn’t just my tone of voice that I couldn’t get a hold of. My entire body felt poised to strike and I actually didn’t realize my hands were fisted, the knuckles white, until I reached out to shake his hand.

He swallowed hard at the sight of my extended hand but then took a deep breath and shook it quickly without moving any closer. “I’m Jonas Davenport. Thanks for coming,” he added as he wiped his hand on his pants.

I glanced at the screwdriver he had clutched in his other hand and when I did, he let out a harsh chuckle and released his death grip on the tool and put it on the table. “Someone bolted it to the floor,” he said a little too loudly.