Absolution (The Protectors 1)

Do you even know what he was, Mace? What he was forced to do to survive?

With those words, everything fell into place for me. There was no affair between Jonas and Devlin Prescott, and Jonas hadn’t been anywhere near Boston when the sexual assaults had started. Jonas was an innocent victim in a game where I’d been carefully chosen to be his executioner. And I’d been so blinded by my hatred of the monster that someone had worked very hard to make Jonas out to be, that I’d refused to heed what had been staring me in the face the whole time – that Jonas wasn’t capable of hurting anyone.

I had no memory of the trip back to the apartment after the party and once I was there, I’d leaned back against the front door and slid down it until my ass hit the grimy carpet. I’d sat there for hours as Cole’s words went through me again and again. I already had an idea of what Cole meant but I’d needed to hear the words from Jonas’s lips. I’d needed to know exactly what he’d suffered because I didn’t deserve to hide from the truth anymore.

I hadn’t meant to kiss Jonas but I didn’t regret it for a second because as I now stared at Cole, I knew I was about to lose any trust Jonas might have had in me…and I fucking deserved it.

“Cole, what’s happening?” Jonas whispered, the confusion in his voice clear. It was the only time I saw Cole flinch.

“Jonas, I need you to check him for weapons,” Cole said firmly. “Then I’ll explain everything.”

Since my eyes were on Cole, I had no idea if Jonas responded in any way.

“Check his back first,” Cole said and I saw the warning in his eyes…the one aimed directly at me. A moment later I felt Jonas’s hands lifting my jacket. A gasp escaped his lips before he carefully pulled my Ruger from my waistband. He gave me a wide berth as he walked the gun over to Cole, who tucked it into his waistband, and I felt a stab of loss that Jonas already instinctively knew to trust Cole instead of me.

“Now his ankle,” Cole said. To me, “You fucking move…”

The threat was unnecessary since I was no longer a danger to Jonas in any kind of way but Cole wouldn’t have known that.

Jonas hesitated before kneeling in front of me. “My right leg,” I said gently and I saw Jonas’s eyes flash up to meet mine briefly before he started working my pants up to reveal my ankle holster. Once he had the gun, he stepped back to stand next to Cole and I felt a wave of pain wrench through me when I saw the betrayal in his gaze. Cole took the gun from him and dropped it into the open bag at his feet. I could see my laptop sticking out of the bag as well as the manila folder where I’d kept all of the paperwork I had on Jonas.

“Talk,” Cole barked even as he kept the rifle trained on me. Jonas was standing several feet from Cole and slightly in front of him so I saw every emotion go through him as he started to realize what was going on.

I struggled to figured out where to even begin but I realized that there was nothing I could say to soften the blow.

“Jonas-”

Before I could say anything else, I saw a red spot bouncing around on Jonas’s chest. I was already moving when Cole also noticed the laser sight from a gun. I screamed Jonas’s name as Cole yelled at him to get down. Pain seared across my upper left arm as I slammed into Jonas and knocked him to the ground. Fear tore through me as Jonas lay unmoving beneath me but I couldn’t check on him because Cole was kneeling above us and firing at someone who was using one of the gallery walls near the front door for cover.

“Jonas,” I shouted as I shifted off of him enough to roll him over and felt a rush of relief when I saw him open his eyes. But when I saw the blood staining his shirt, I began searching for the wound.

“I’m okay,” Jonas managed to say, his voice barely audible above the bullets flying above us.

“Mace!” Cole shouted and then he was tossing the rifle to me. I covered him while he pulled my Ruger from the waistband of his pants, and reached for Jonas and hauled him to his feet. They ran towards the studio as I held back to engage the shooter but when I heard shots coming from the back of the building, I turned and ran towards them, grabbing the rifle bag as I went.

I found Cole and Jonas taking cover behind the wooden table that Cole had turned over to shield them, and saw there was at least one more shooter firing at them from the back hallway that led to the alley behind the building.