Salvation (The Protectors 2)

If not for the tension in his jaw and the darkness settling in his eyes, I would have thought him unaffected by the jab.

“You didn’t want me three years ago,” I bit out. “I get that. But not one word – not one fucking word to let me know that you were okay…to ask if I was okay?”

I snatched Ronan’s plate off the island and dropped it into the sink, not caring that it broke. “Watching me from the woods like some stalker-”

I didn’t get any further because Ronan grabbed me and spun me around and pushed me back against the counter. “You’re a smart guy, Seth,” he muttered even as his hands pinned mine next to my body. “You saw me in your bathroom,” he said as he dropped his mouth close to mine. “You felt me,” he nearly whispered against my lips. “Did it feel like I didn’t want you?”

I cursed my body for responding to his nearness, but I cursed the fact that I was so desperate to believe him even more.

“You wouldn’t let me touch you-”

“That’s about me, not you,” he interrupted. His mouth actually grazed the skin next to my lips as he spoke.

I wanted to ask what he meant, but I was too stunned to realize what he was admitting to. But my fledgling hope died a quick death as what he wasn’t saying hit me. He wanted me but he didn’t want to want me.

“I…I think you should go, Ronan,” I managed to say despite the sudden tightness in my throat.

Ronan hung there for a moment and I wished like hell he’d ignore my request and seal his mouth over mine. But then his hands fell from mine and he stepped back.

“Not until I get some answers,” he finally said.

I nodded because at that point, I was willing to do just about anything to get away from him for good.

Chapter Five

Ronan

To keep myself from reaching for Seth again, I went around the island and retrieved the few remaining dishes from the table. Seth had turned his back to me by the time I got back to the sink and I was glad, because I needed both the physical and mental distance. I’d already made myself more vulnerable than I wanted to admit by revealing my aversion to being touched to Seth. It would have been easier to let him believe I didn’t want him but it was one lie I just couldn’t stomach.

“You said you were attacked in your office building’s garage – were you coming or going?” I asked.

“Going. I was on my lunch break.”

“Is the garage secure?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are there security guards or parking attendants?” I clarified.

“Um, there’s an attendant but I guess anyone on foot can technically get into the garage.”

“You’ll want to talk to your boss about adding extra security. If the owner of the building isn’t willing to do it then your boss should foot the bill,” I said. “The other companies in the building might be willing to go in on the cost together.”

“Okay…” Seth responded non-committedly.

“Seth, if you want me to talk to someone for you-”

“No,” he said. “I mean, that’s not necessary. It’s my building. I’ll make the call tomorrow.”

I was caught off guard by his admission. “Your building?”

“Yeah, well, it’s the company’s technically. My dad bought it just before…just before he died. The business was growing so fast that he wanted to make sure he had enough room to keep expanding.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise. “You took over your dad’s shipping company?”

“I’m still learning but yeah, it’s mine. My father’s business partner is teaching me the ropes.”

Seth’s father had started a global shipping business several years before Trace was born and within a matter of years, it had become one of the top companies in the industry, netting millions in profit every year. At the time of their deaths, Trace and Seth’s parents had amassed a personal fortune of nearly a hundred million dollars. Seth and Trace had inherited the bulk of the estate, but Trace had never shown any interest in running the company and Seth had been so young that I hadn’t considered he might one day take it over. God knew he had enough money to do whatever he wanted with the rest of his life. Of course, then again, so did I since Trace had left his entire inheritance to me. At first, I’d been horrified by the prospect of profiting from Trace’s death, but when I’d realized I could use the money to get justice for Trace and so many others like him, I’d been grateful for it.

“I didn’t know that was something you were interested in,” I said to Seth.

He cast me a look that didn’t need words. I didn’t know because I hadn’t made an effort to find out. In the years that I’d been checking on Seth after Trace died, I’d been too lost in my own grief and hate to really focus on what was happening to Seth beyond making sure he had the basics covered. I hadn’t even realized the extent of his grandmother’s declining mental health until one of my last visits just before she died. Seth had only been sixteen at the time and I hadn’t had any idea what to do for a guardian for him after he called me to tell me she’d passed, but by the time I’d arrived for the funeral, he’d taken care of the situation by getting himself emancipated.