Absolution (The Protectors 1)

“About a month after she moved out, she showed up at my door. She was pretty messed up and I could tell she was on something. It took me a while to get it out of her but she finally admitted that Mateo had made her make a video with a few guys and another girl.”

Bile crept up the back of my throat and I couldn’t stop myself from covering my eyes with my hand. Not only had my sister been brutalized in every conceivable manner, her torment had been captured on tape and even now was likely being watched by all manner of men who were getting off on what had been done to her. Tears stung my eyes and my skin felt too tight for my body. Even breathing suddenly seemed to take too much effort.

“Do you want me to stop?” Jonas asked softly, his voice uneven.

Yes.

“No,” I said as I took another moment to get myself under control. “Finish it,” I ordered more harshly than I intended. “Please,” I added, softening my tone as I dropped my hand. Jonas was watching me with concern and I didn’t miss the sheen of moisture in his eyes.

“Once whatever Mateo had given her wore off, she started talking about wanting to go home. I told her she should call her parents but she was scared about what Mateo would do to her for leaving him, so she said she needed to leave that night.” Jonas’s voice dropped as tears began to slip down his cheeks. “She wanted me to go with her. She said your parents…she said they’d accept me.”

“They would have,” I said automatically. Although my parents and Carrie had butted heads on more than one occasion, they would have welcomed Jonas with open arms. They were just those kind of people.

The spark of hope I saw in Jonas’s eyes was devastating. It was almost as if he was back in that moment – a scared, traumatized fourteen-year-old kid who was being given a second chance to be what he was supposed to be…a kid. The light in his eyes quickly died out as he snapped out of his reverie and remembered where he was and why he was there.

“We stopped at her place on the way to the bus station so she could pack. I was in the bathroom getting some of her stuff together when I heard someone knocking at the front door. She answered it before I could stop her.” A harsh sob suddenly tore from Jonas’s throat. “I’m sorry Cole, I couldn’t stop him. I swear I tried…”

Despite Jonas’s distress, I needed him to finish it so I said, “What happened?”

Jonas used his sleeves to wipe at his face. “He hit her. When I went after him, he punched me and then started kicking me when I fell. I saw the knife but I was so dizzy that I couldn’t get up fast enough.” Jonas’s voice grew higher and higher in pitch as he spoke. “I could see him stabbing her over and over but by the time I got to him, she’d gone quiet.”

“How did you get away?” I asked. I knew the question sounded accusatory but I was so raw inside that I couldn’t temper my tone.

Jonas’s voice quieted. “Another girl who worked for Mateo saved my life. She’d been waiting in Mateo’s car. She followed him up to the apartment and saw him knock me down. As he was coming after me with the knife, she hit him over the head with a lamp and she got me out of there. We…we checked Carrie before we left but she was already gone…”

There was a moment of silence before Jonas whispered, “I’m so sorry, Cole,” as one of his hands closed over mine. His touch nearly sent me over the edge so I yanked my hand away. My vision was already blurring with tears and I climbed to my feet, ignoring Jonas’s stricken features. My only thought was that I’d gotten exactly what I asked for and I suddenly wished I’d never heard Jonas’s name. I let my gaze briefly roam over the young man who’d just made my sister’s death very real and then I did something I’d never done in my entire life.

I ran.

Chapter Six

Mace

“Jonas, I’m heading out,” I said to the closed door after my knock went unanswered. I waited for several moments but then turned and hurried back down the stairs since I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hear much through the heavy door leading to Jonas’s apartment. There was no doubt in my mind that Jonas was still in there, since I’d seen him rush past me an hour earlier. He’d done his best to hide his face from me but it would have been nearly impossible to miss the tears streaking down his flushed cheeks. My gut instinct had been to grab him and demand he tell me what the fucker he’d walked out of the studio twenty minutes earlier with had done to him, but I’d managed to pretend that I hadn’t noticed how upset he was as I murmured a bland greeting. That same instinct was compelling me to turn around and order Jonas to open the door and tell me what had happened, but I managed to quell it.