Absolution (The Protectors 1)

I beat Mav to the nearest motel in the cheap hotel chain we typically used for debriefs, and got a room. I didn’t bother texting him which room it was because he knew which one I’d go for. The one farthest from the street and on the corner. I left the door slightly ajar and paced back and forth as I waited. My mind was racing as I tried to finish piecing together what I knew and what I didn’t. By the time the door swung open, I was in a complete fury and I didn’t even slow down as I strode up to Mav, grabbed him by the shirt collar and slammed him against the back of the door, effectively closing it.

“Tell me what you know right fucking now!” I snarled.

“I swear, Mace, I don’t have a clue what’s going on,” he said as he held his hands up in supplication.

Of all the men in the group that I’d worked with, Mav had been the easiest to read. And the fact that he wasn’t fighting back told me he knew we’d fucked up.

I shoved away from him and began pacing again. “How the hell did we miss this?” I asked.

“The mark’s-”

“Jonas!” I yelled. “His fucking name is Jonas!”

Mav nodded. “Jonas’s name never showed up in either investigation but there was a reference to a witness to Carrie’s murder. But because they were underage, there wasn’t any specific information about them…name, age, gender.”

“And Casey Prescott’s case?”

“Jonas isn’t mentioned at all. Nothing to indicate they even knew each other.”

“They’ve known each other for eight years!” I snapped. “The only way he could have known both girls was if he was in Chicago. And if he went with Casey to Wisconsin after Carrie’s death, he wouldn’t have been in Boston when those sexual assaults were committed.”

“Maybe he wasn’t with her in Wisconsin.”

I shook my head. “He said she saved his life. He had to have meant from Santero. They were just kids – I can’t imagine they would have split up and gone their separate ways.”

“What if he went home?” Mav offered. “His parents live in Boston. He could have reconnected with Casey after she got to New York.”

I shook my head but didn’t say anything because it was a slim possibility.

“I saw the emails Benny found. Jonas’s parents would have run in the same social circles as Devlin Prescott. They could have met that way after Jonas got back from Chicago,” Mav said softly.

“So Jonas runs away to Chicago as a kid, meets and befriends Casey after Carrie is killed, then goes back home to Boston and starts fucking the same guy who goes looking for Casey three years later to help him get custody of her niece? Jesus, Mav, you can’t even call that a fucking coincidence! It’s such a fucking stretch…”

“Then tell me how he ended up a suspect in not one but four sexual assaults in Boston? I checked, Mace – he wasn’t in Paris when that nine-year-old boy disappeared! Customs has him arriving at Logan airport in Boston three days before the kid was snatched.”

Fuck! An hour ago I’d been so sure this was all some monumental mistake but I didn’t have the answers to Mav’s questions. Tomorrow night - Jonas’s party at the Prescotts. I’d get my fucking answers then, even if I had to drag them from Jonas himself. Because I was done with this.

“This conversation doesn’t leave this room,” I snapped at Mav as I stormed past him and out of the motel room.

Chapter Ten

Cole

I questioned what the hell I was thinking for the hundredth time as I rolled through the large iron security gate that opened after I announced my name in the small speaker box, and began the long drive up the perfectly manicured driveway that wound through a grove of trees before giving way to acres and acres of freshly cut lawn. I’d told myself to call Jonas and tell him I couldn’t make it to his party but every time I picked up my phone, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not because I thought Jonas would be overly disappointed if I wasn’t there but because I wanted to see him again. Even though I’d spent the better part of the day with him only twenty-four hours ago, I needed to hear his voice again, see his infectious smile.

When I’d seen his sketchpad lying on the bathroom floor next to the tub the night of Carrie’s funeral, I’d been strangely glad to have the excuse to see Jonas again, even though I’d spent the rest of the day after he’d patched me up trying to sort through the strange feelings both he and Mace brought out in me. An unexpected mix of excitement and peace went through me whenever I was around them and I couldn’t make sense of either of those things. I’d spent all night lying in bed repeating my mantra that it was just the stress, but as random images of Mace and Jonas filtered through my head, I’d found myself reaching for my cock before I even realized what I was doing. Even as I’d stroked myself, I’d tried to call up some of the faces of the women I’d been with in recent years, but I always came back to Mace’s fingers gripping my arms, his eyes on my mouth and the feel of Jonas’s body flush with mine. And just as Jonas’s mouth had closed over mine while Mace’s hands traveled down the length of my body, I’d come in a rush of pleasure so intense that I was whispering both their names as they murmured praise in my ear, before turning their attentions to each other.