Retribution (The Protectors 3)

But Tate’s words surprised me. “I don’t care,” he said. “I don’t care who you are or why you’re looking for them. I don’t care what you’re going to do when you find them. Tonight never happened.” His eyes held mine as he repeated, “Tonight. Never. Happened.”

The guy had balls, I had to give him that. He had absolutely no power, but he was still trying to stare me down. The show of strength should have pissed me off, or in the least, irritated me. But I found myself actually admiring him. Even if his demeanor was begging for trouble, I couldn’t help but think that I preferred it to the blank look he’d had when I’d first threatened him before his kid had arrived.

“Daddy?”

Tate jumped to his feet at the sound of his son’s voice and he immediately put himself between me and the little boy. “What are you doing up?” Tate asked as he quickly lifted Matty into his arms.

“I forgot Spidey,” he mumbled.

I grabbed the gun off the table and followed Tate to the front door where Matty’s discarded backpack lay. He rifled through the bag and pulled out what looked to be an eighties era version of a Spiderman doll. Matty smiled sleepily as he clutched the doll to his chest. Tate watched me over his shoulder as he began to head towards Matty’s room.

“G’night Captain,” Matty called before dropping his head on Tate’s shoulder. I watched them disappear into the darkened room and then glanced down at Matty’s backpack. I had what I needed.

For now…

Chapter Two

Tate

Matty felt like a dead weight against my shoulder as I lowered myself into the chair across from the stern looking older woman. Although she’d been the one to call me up to her tiny, partitioned desk that didn’t actually offer any privacy from the people sitting on either side of us, the woman didn’t acknowledge me as she continued to punch away on her keyboard. I tried to shift Matty to ease some of the numbness in my arm but when he stirred, I changed my mind and stilled until I felt him settle again. After all, he’d have to be fully awake soon enough.

I let my own eyes drift shut as I felt Matty’s warm breath against my neck. I wouldn’t have thought my life could get any worse after the night the dark, forbidding stranger had knocked me on my ass and pointed his gun at my head.

I’d been very wrong…again.

That day had been like any of the other endless days that I couldn’t seem to escape from. The morning had started off the same with trying to get Matty ready for pre-school. He’d been half-asleep as usual as he’d sat over his bowl of Cheerios and we’d barely caught the 7:35 bus. I’d been fortunate enough to find a small, friendly daycare just a few miles from our apartment that offered pre-school classes to Pre-K kids and then watched the children for the rest of the day. The place was surprisingly clean and well run and I’d considered myself lucky to have found it since many of the other programs I’d looked at cost considerably more than I made bussing tables at a 24-hour diner in a less than perfect neighborhood.

Work had been as grueling and non-eventful as always and I’d only been twenty minutes late in picking Matty up which was significantly better than my normal hour or sometimes even two-hour delay since the prick I worked for had no issue with making me stay well past my regular hours. And I wasn’t in any position to complain since I desperately needed the job. My plan had been to spend the night helping Matty with an art project he’d been working on for school, but the sight of the sleek, red sports car sitting in front of my building had blown that plan to hell. Matty had been upset with me at first when I’d told him that I had to work, but then he’d given me a look that was entirely too understanding for someone so young and I’d been the one fighting back my guilt as I’d handed Matty off to my neighbor, Ms. Parks, to watch for several hours.

My second job wasn’t a steady one, but it did pay well so I never said no when Roger Banks called me with an offer to unload the delivery truck that stocked his upscale night club. I’d suspected the man’s interest in me went beyond cheap labor, but I hadn’t been sure until that day because I doubted any other potential employer would have bothered to drive to my shitty neighborhood to offer me the work when he couldn’t get a hold of me via my defunct cell phone.

I’d met Roger through a co-worker at the diner who’d known about my situation, but I’d been too preoccupied with the never-ending demands of my new life to realize the good looking man was flirting with me at first. I should have been interested in him. He was stunningly gorgeous, successful and clearly had enough money to throw around. And he hadn’t hesitated to drop hints that I too could benefit from his wealth. But it hadn’t been until that same day that he’d shown up that I’d finally figured out what kind of a guy he really was, because as I’d walked hand and hand with Matty towards the red car and watched the man unfold his long, trim body from the obscenely expensive vehicle, Roger hadn’t even spared Matty a passing glance. Not once as he’d spoken to me had his eyes shifted to Matty and even after I had introduced the little boy to him, Roger had refused to acknowledge his presence.