Atonement (The Protectors 6)

Chapter Eleven

Dante

It was hard to be pissed at the man considering the condition he was in. He wasn’t falling down drunk, but he was definitely feeling the half bottle of scotch he’d presumably consumed sometime in the few hours he’d been gone. I’d seen the bottle myself when I’d been cleaning the kitchen the night before and knew it had been full at that time.

I couldn’t really blame him for his need to escape after the ugly scene during his daughter’s wake. His ex was a complete and utter bitch and I’d desperately wanted to clock her myself after I’d escorted her off the property. She’d continued her mournful act the whole time, clinging to me like I was her goddamn savior and ranting on and on about what a terrible husband Magnus had been and how he was keeping her from the only link to her daughter she had left.

I hadn’t bought any of it. I’d known something was off about her from the moment she’d walked into the house and introduced herself. I’d been talking to Rachel near the hallway that led to my room when Mel had approached us. Rachel had clearly been surprised to see Magnus’s ex, but she’d been polite enough to extend her condolences to Mel. In turn, Mel had dismissed the young woman with nothing but a slight nod before she’d pushed her way between us. The fact that she’d been flirting with me at the same time that she’d been asking me how I had known Jenna hadn’t been lost on me. She was a stunning woman, but nothing about her had stirred my interest. I’d been in the process of telling her I needed to go check on Magnus when she’d spied something over my shoulder. She’d been on Magnus so quick that I hadn’t been able to react fast enough to stop her from physically lashing out at him.

Part of me hadn’t wanted to stop Magnus from going after her after she’d accused him of being the reason their daughter was dead. Hell, I’d wanted to deck her myself. But I’d been more worried about Magnus’s reputation and that had made it easier to intervene. I’d grabbed him by the wrist in the hopes of discreetly getting his attention when his rage had started to spiral out of control. It had worked, but I’d been caught off guard when he’d linked his fingers with mine and held my hand for the briefest of moments. It had felt so good that it had taken a considerable amount of effort not to reach for him again after that.

After getting rid of Mel, I’d waited for Magnus to come back downstairs. Almost half an hour had passed before I’d gone to check on him and I’d been frantic when I’d discovered him missing. At first, I thought he’d taken the car and just driven off, but his SUV had been parked in the same spot and the rental car had been picked up a few days earlier by the rental agency. That had led me to check the barn only to find that both horses were missing. I’d ignored the fact that the service was still going on and grabbed the keys to the SUV. I’d spent the first hour searching all the roads that surrounded the property in case I could see Magnus riding in one of the fields. I’d stopped by Colton’s ranch even though the man had been one of the guests at the wake. He’d ended up leaving early due to an emergency with one of his cows, so he’d missed the altercation with Mel. I’d found him in the barn dealing with a very pregnant cow. He hadn’t seen Magnus, but had promised to call me if he heard from him and as soon as the vet arrived, he’d planned on helping me search for him.

I’d driven through the small town of Blakely, but hadn’t seen any sign of him there either. When I’d finally realized his likely destination, I’d wanted to kick myself. And sure enough, as I’d driven past the gates of the cemetery a few miles outside town, I’d seen both of Magnus’s horses standing near the site Magnus had picked for his daughter’s grave. And sitting right in front of the headstone, bottle of scotch in hand, had been my quarry. The relief I’d felt had been so overwhelming that I’d had to sit in the car for a couple of minutes to let the adrenaline rush wear off. My first instinct had been to yell at the man for being such a fucking asshole and scaring the ever-loving shit out of me. My second instinct had been to kiss him until all the ugliness of the day was left far behind us and the only thing he saw was me.