Absolution (The Protectors, Book 1) (11 page)

Mace

I ignored Cole’s question and asked one of my own. “How?”

“Frogman,” Cole muttered. “You’ve called me that twice now. Problem is, I never told you I was a SEAL. I never told Jonas either. He only knows I was in the Navy.”

I watched as Cole expertly kept my rifle trained on me as he tossed something to the floor at my feet just beyond my rifle bag. I recognized the tracker I’d put on Jonas’s car.

“I found this on Jonas’s car today.”

“What is that?” Jonas asked.

“It’s a tracking device,” Cole answered.

I heard Jonas suck in a breath behind me.

Cole ignored Jonas and continued. “I followed you after the party.”

Which meant he’d seen me drive the van to the garage and then walk to the apartment building across from Jonas’s gallery. And since he was holding my rifle, he’d clearly been waiting for me to leave so he could search it. How the fuck had I not even noticed him?

Because I was too consumed with the devastating realization that I’d fucked every part of this job up. It was what had driven me across the street to confront Jonas. My plan had been to question Jonas earlier tonight when I’d followed him down to the barn, but I’d arrived just in time to see Cole and Jonas in an intimate embrace. I’d held my breath as I watched them together and I was actually disappointed they’d been interrupted.

Once it was just me and Cole in the barn, I’d felt an insane need to force Cole into admitting he wanted Jonas, but he’d caught me off guard with his accusation that I was fucking with Jonas’s head. And then those devastating words that had been both the answer I was looking for and a truth I couldn’t fathom.

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.

“Roof!” I shouted to Cole as I realized we were boxed in. He nodded and jerked to his feet and began firing as I covered the shooter in the gallery.

“Jonas, go!” Cole yelled. Jonas hesitated but then he was moving as Cole and I held the shooters back. Cole followed quickly and then I threw myself over the table and ran up the stairs after them. Cole had overtaken Jonas on the stairs and led the way up to the roof. Bullets began flying again as both shooters followed us up the stairwell and I knew there would be a point where both Cole and I would be out of ammo.

I followed Cole and Jonas out onto the roof and saw Cole running towards the edge. I held my breath as I watched him jump to the neighboring roof. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he turned and began firing in my direction but I knew he wasn’t aiming at me, he was covering me.

Jonas had slowed when he saw Cole leap to the next building so I grabbed his arm to get him moving again and yelled, “Don’t think about it! Just do it!”

I couldn’t gauge the exact distance between the two buildings but I knew it had to be at least several feet. Add in the height factor and I knew Jonas had to be terrified but he didn’t slow down. Just like with Cole, I felt a surge of fear go through me as Jonas jumped. My feet left the edge of the roof just as Jonas was landing on the other side. He hit the ground hard but scrambled to his feet.

“Fire escape!” I shouted and turned to help Cole hold the shooters off until Jonas reached the fire escape.

“I’m out!” Cole yelled as he fired his last bullet.

I threw the rifle bag at him and said, “Go!”

Once I was sure Cole had made it to the fire escape, I followed so that I could cover them if there was anyone waiting for them in the alley below. My revolver was somewhere at the bottom of the rifle bag but I knew Cole wouldn’t have time to search it out.

A glance over my shoulder showed the shooters hadn’t followed us so I hurried down the fire escape. We’d lucked out because my car was parked at the end of the alley. I tossed Cole the rifle as I pulled the keys from my pocket. I could already hear sirens in the distance so I was hopeful that the shooters had given up and were making their escape.

Once we were inside the car, I tore out into the street as Cole began watching the cars behind us. Traffic was heavy enough that the likelihood that we’d be followed and shot at while on a busy Brooklyn street were slim, and I eased my foot off the gas so I wouldn’t draw any unnecessary attention to us. I glanced at Cole who seemed to be relaxing as well as the immediate danger subsided. When I looked in the rearview mirror to check on Jonas, I saw him sitting frozen in the backseat, his eyes staring at nothing in particular.

“Jonas, are you hurt?” I asked.

Jonas didn’t respond so Cole leaned between the seats and cupped Jonas’s chin in his hand.

“Jonas,” he said gently.

The tone seemed to snap Jonas out of it and his eyes settled on Cole as if seeing him for the first time. “Are you hurt?” Cole asked.

Jonas shook his head.

“There’s blood,” Cole pointed out as his fingers skimmed a large stain on Jonas’s shirt.

“It’s…It’s not mine,” Jonas managed to say. I knew he was in shock but was helpless to do anything about it.

“Were you hit?” Cole asked me.

“Grazed,” I said with a nod. The burning pain in my arm continued to build as I felt blood trickling down my arm. “They could be tracking us,” I murmured. “I’ve got extra ammo in the trunk,” I added.

I felt Cole’s eyes on me and then saw him take his phone out of his pocket and turn it off. “Jonas, I need your phone,” he said softly as he turned his attention to Jonas. Jonas still seemed out of it but he complied and handed his phone to Cole without question. Because he trusted him…

“Now yours,” I heard Cole say.

I had no doubt that he wouldn’t have been okay with me keeping the phone after I turned it off, so I handed it over without argument. After all, I had no plans to call anyone since my trust in my own team had been shot to hell the moment I’d realized I’d been set up to take out an innocent man.

“We need to check the car,” I said. Cole didn’t respond but he didn’t argue when I pulled over at a gas station. I got out and began going over the car looking for any tracking devices. Cole worked the other side and we met up at the front of the car.

“We need some supplies,” I said as I began checking the engine. But when Cole didn’t move, I glanced at him.

“I’m not leaving you here with him,” he said coldly.

I ground my teeth together and then shoved past him and headed into the small store and began grabbing some food and drinks. I kept my eyes on Cole as he checked the car and by the time I got back outside, he was closing the hood.

“We need some place to lay low,” I said as I handed him the bags.

“I know a place,” Cole said and then he shoved the bags back at me and held out his hand expectantly. I forced back the urge to tell him to fuck off and handed him the car keys.

Jonas didn’t say a word as we climbed back in the car and I was seriously starting to worry that the shock was affecting him worse than I’d thought. “Drink this,” I urged as I handed him a can of soda. He didn’t look at me, didn’t even acknowledge that I was speaking to him.

I gave up and remained silent as Cole drove us out of the city and headed north towards the Catskills. It took more than three hours to reach the destination he had in mind and by the time he pulled onto a narrow dirt road that led up to a darkened farmhouse, my arm felt like it was on fire. Motion activated lights on the house went off, flooding the inky blackness with light.

“Whose place is this?”

“It belongs to a guy I served with. We used to come up here a lot between deployments to do some fishing.”

“What if he comes up here?”

“He won’t,” was all Cole said as he got out of the car. As I got out, I saw Cole open the back door to gently pull Jonas from the seat. I went around the car and reached for Jonas in the hopes that I could get him to talk to me but Cole stepped between us and shoved me back against the car.

“Stay the fuck away from him!” he snapped. “The only reason I haven’t put you down yet is because you owe us some fucking answers!”

“I don’t owe you shit!” I snarled.

I wasn’t surprised when Cole took a swing at me. The blow caught my jaw but I managed to stay upright and then I decked him. Cole hit the ground but his recovery was quick and he was on his feet and coming after me within seconds. His arms went around my middle as he tackled me and we landed in a heap on the wet ground.

Cole’s fist felt like a battering ram against my sides but I reveled in the pain. I’d take Cole’s punishing blows over Jonas’s bitter withdrawal any day.

“You think you’re innocent in all this?” I snapped as I shoved Cole away and staggered to my feet. I slammed my fist into his jaw and watched him stumble back. “At least before you came along he could fucking sleep! Did you even stop and think what you were doing to him when you asked him to dredge up that shit with your sister? Were you the one who had to sit by helplessly and listen to him screaming and crying out in his sleep night after night because you needed fucking answers?”