Absolution (The Protectors, Book 1) (24 page)

Salvation (The Protectors, Book 2)

Sloane Kennedy

Copyright © 2016 by Sloane Kennedy

Prologue

Ronan

I ignored the sleek German Shepherd that was running towards me and kept my eyes on the house that sat up the slight hill several hundred yards away. I’d thought the grove of trees would hide my presence but I’d been wrong because I’d seen the shadow of the man staring in my direction from his bedroom window just minutes before the back door of the house had opened and the dog had darted through it.

I’d been wrong a lot lately.

Wrong in trusting a man who’d sworn his loyalty to my cause only to throw it away for a lucrative payout that would have taken an innocent man’s life.

Wrong to think my efforts to save a man I’d come to think of as a friend had done anything other than lead him farther into the pit of despair he’d so desperately been trying to escape from after suffering an insurmountable loss.

Wrong to think that I could stay away from the young man who was forever tied to my past…a past I wanted nothing more than to forget.

Did it work for you, Ronan?

A simple question from someone who’d reminded me a lot of the man in the house. It had come in response to my insistence that my choice to pursue justice outside the limits of the law had provided me with an alternative outlet for the hatred that consumed me. I hadn’t answered Jonas Davenport when he’d asked me that. It was a question that, even now, I still refused to answer. Because it didn’t matter. It had stopped being about me the first time I ended one life to save another.

I could hear the dog snarling as it neared me but as soon as it crossed into the trees, the growling ceased and I put out my hand in greeting as it began whining excitedly. It sniffed and licked my hand repeatedly before settling down next to me and leaning against my leg. I let my hand stroke over the dog’s lush coat. I hadn’t seen the animal in several years but I wasn’t surprised that it remembered me since I’d been the one who’d picked him out of the litter of eight well-bred puppies and watched him grow up alongside the teenage boy I’d gifted him to.

I looked back up at the house and felt my gut clench at the sight of the open door leading from the expansive patio into what I knew was the kitchen. The invitation was clear.

It wasn’t the first time I’d watched the young man from a distance; it wasn’t even the first time I’d stood in these very woods waiting to see a glimpse of him as he passed by a window. Some days I never even saw him.

Being near him was a need I couldn’t explain but one I’d given up trying to deny. My only consolation was that I’d been strong enough not to act on the desire that had consumed me on that fateful day when I’d stopped seeing him as a boy and started wanting him as a man. One feather light brush of his mouth over mine and he’d become so much more than the little brother of the man I had been planning to spend the rest of my life with.

My only saving grace, the only reason I hadn’t taken what he was offering, was the promise I’d made to protect him. But I’d known as soon as he kissed me that what he needed protection most from was me.

Until now.

I gave the dog a final pat and began walking up the hill. Because it was time to keep my promise…no matter what it cost me.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed Mace, Cole and Jonas’s story. I’m so excited to be starting a new M/M series called The Protectors. Book 2 will be Ronan’s story.

As a new author, I am always grateful for feedback so if you have the time and desire, please leave a review, good or bad, so I can continue to find out what my readers like and don’t like. You can also send me feedback via email at
[email protected]

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(Note: Not all titles will be available on all retail sites)

The Escort Series

Gabriel’s Rule (Book 1, The Escort Series) (M/F)

After nearly ten years of moonlighting as a professional escort, Gabriel Maddox is good at giving women the forbidden pleasures they crave. They don’t need to know that something inside of him dies a little each time he does it or that his desperate need for cash is the only reason he can’t walk away. They just need to know that to get what they want, they have to play by his rules.

Riley Sinclair is starting over. She’s left dry, dusty Texas and her ultra conservative, fanatically religious parents and cheating, mean-spirited fiancé behind for a new life in Seattle. But one look at her stunningly gorgeous new neighbor Gabe brings back all the insecurities she’s trying to escape.

Gabe can only offer Riley pleasure, but when she discovers that his perfect outside hides something terribly broken on the inside, will she risk her heart to give him what he needs?

Shane’s Fall (Book 2, The Escort Series) (M/F)

Shane Matthews loves women, sex and money and as a professional escort, he gets to have all three whenever he wants. So what if he’s not the same, naive person he was when he started – it’s what he’s good at. But life is catching up with Shane and he’s losing the battle against an addiction that has haunted him for years. He’s managed to keep the truth from his friends and family, but the pressure of pretending to be perfect may just be too much.
Savannah Bradshaw needs to get her life back under control before the fear and pain consume her. A brutal assault from someone she trusted has left her fearing sex and men and the dangerous method she uses to cope is stealing her life. She needs Shane to show her how to escape the pain, but as his best friend’s little sister, he’s keeping her at arm’s length.
Savannah’s desperate plan to bring them together for one night has Shane agreeing to show her the pleasure her body can experience, but she has to agree to his terms. Giving her what she needs should be easy, as long as he doesn’t do something stupid like fall in love with her…

Logan’s Need (Book 3, The Escort Series) (M/M)

After Logan Bradshaw's dreams go up in smoke, he's left broken and haunted by a cruel betrayal from his former business partner, a man he once thought of as a friend. His life as a professional escort helped pay for his future once, so maybe a few more jobs can give him back what he's lost. And if that means being a third for one night for a wealthy couple living out a ménage fantasy, then so be it. It might just be the final payout he needs to get his life back on track.

Dominic Barretti has everything money can buy, but it can't save his beautiful young wife as cancer steals her away from him. He also can't deny her one last request - a ménage encounter with another man. It's the perfect excuse to meet the man who's been haunting his dreams. On paper, Logan is the perfect choice to give his wife what she needs, but he doesn't expect his own fierce desires to flare up when the young man enters their lives.
 

Dom and Logan don't know it, but Sylvie Barretti has decided to play matchmaker from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, getting two broken men to find each other makes dying seem like the easy part.
 

Logan can't deny his attraction to Dom, but the surprise desire for another man has left him reeling and questioning everything he's ever known about himself. But when a threat from the past surfaces, will Logan be able to let go of the life he knew and embrace the one he needs?

Barretti Security Series

Loving Vin (Book 1, Barretti Security Series) (M/F)

She was the daughter of a serial killer and she was living in his house...
After years of searching war torn Afghanistan for his MIA brother, Vincenzo Barretti has finally come home and now he's ready to settle back into life as co-founder of Barretti Security Group. But his home is no longer cold and empty the way he likes it.
Mia Hamilton needs a quiet place to hide from the press to try to rebuild her life. Being the daughter of a notorious serial killer is bad enough, but being the one who killed him has made her a target for every news agency in the world. She wants nothing more than to be left alone, but the reporters are relentless and will stop at nothing to get their story. With no place to go, she accepts an offer from Dominic Barretti to stay at his older brother's home until she can figure out what to do next. But she didn't expect the homeowner to return so soon or to feel something she's never felt when he's around.
Vin doesn't need or want a woman in his life and certainly not one that comes with so much baggage. So what if Mia evokes feelings in him he thought were long dead? She's a liability and he wants her gone. But forcing the quiet, strong-willed young woman from his life turns out to be a lot harder than he thought...
 

Redeeming Rafe (Book 2, Barretti Security Series) (M/M)

He wants revenge against the brothers who betrayed him but first he has to get past the one man he can't resist...
At the tender age of eight, Rafe Barretti lost everything. His parents, his childhood, his innocence. And the brothers who were supposed to protect him let him go instead. Twenty years later and he's finally ready to exact his revenge by taking away everything they hold dear - their company, their reputations, their futures. But even that isn't enough - their loved ones will have to pay too and all their precious secrets are fair game.
Former mercenary Cade Gamble's only job is to take down the hacker stealing sensitive, private information from Barretti Security Group and Cade is damn good at his job. But there's more at stake because the co-founders of BSG, Dom and Vin Barretti, are like family and no one touches Cade's family. The fact that the vengeful young man turns out to be the youngest of the Barretti clan doesn't matter. But when their tumultuous encounters turn into something more, Cade will have to decide between protecting the only family he has and giving in to his need to save Rafe from himself.
Can Cade help Rafe find redemption so he can forgive the sins of the past or will Rafe's quest for vengeance destroy them both?

Saving Ren (Book 3, Barretti Security Series) (M/M/M)

Three men brought together by circumstance who found something none of them knew they needed…

Ren Barretti has finally come home after a year of being held captive by the terrorists who slaughtered his entire Special Forces team. But he can’t escape the nightmares that torment him or the guilt that he was the only one to walk away. The life his older brothers have brought him home to doesn’t exist for him anymore and to keep them and their loved ones safe from the rage and pain that consume him, Ren needs to disappear.

Police Detective Declan Hale has felt an undeniable pull towards the very straight Ren Barretti since the day Ren’s brother married Declan’s younger sister almost a dozen years earlier. But even though the Ren who has come home isn’t the one who left, all of Declan’s feelings come rushing back to the surface and he steps in to help the only man he’s ever truly wanted. And even though there’s no future for them, keeping Ren safe is all that matters and Declan will risk anything to make that happen.

Tough as nails former soldier and mercenary Jagger Varos has returned to Seattle after years of running from his past and he’s hoping that joining Barretti Security Group will help him finally call the city he left behind home. But within weeks, his new beginning is tested after multiple run-ins with the gruff, infuriating Detective Hale. When he inadvertently discovers that Declan is hiding Ren from the very brothers offering Jagger a new start, Jagger finds himself torn between his newfound loyalty to Vin and Dom Barretti and the need to protect the young man he himself helped rescue from his captors.

For Declan and Jagger, it’s hate at first sight but they soon realize that they will need each other if they have any hope of saving Ren from himself. And neither of them expects their mutual distrust in one another to grow into something else entirely or that Ren himself will find in both of them what he needs to rebuild his life and come to terms with who he really is.

Can the fierce attraction between three men become something more or will the demands of the real world tear them apart?

Freeing Zane (Book 4, Barretti Security Series) (M/M)

Zane doesn't do relationships and Connor is definitely the kind of guy who does...
Criminal defense attorney Zane Devereaux is on the verge of having everything he's worked his entire life for. He's on track to become his firm's youngest managing partner and he has enough money in the bank to ensure he'll never have to be at the mercy of anyone ever again. He's left his past exactly where it belongs and refuses to look back. And he sure as hell isn't going to risk a repeat of his former mistakes by letting someone as sweet, sexy and endearingly vulnerable as Connor Talbot into his life. His bed maybe, but not his life.
Connor Talbot has no regrets about serving his country, even if it did cost him more then he'd imagined. Two years after an IED took his leg and left him with permanent brain damage, Connor is still struggling to put his life back together, but he's managed to find a makeshift family in Seattle that helps ease the pain of losing his own at a young age. Unfortunately, a string of bad relationships and an abusive ex have taken their toll on Connor and he's given up on finding the lifelong partner he'd always envisioned he'd have. But a chance encounter with a man he has absolutely nothing in common with except for an intense, white-hot chemistry has him thinking that maybe a no strings, physical relationship is exactly what's called for.
What begins as two men meeting each other's needs between the sheets turns into something neither one was prepared for but the wounds of the past run deep and both men will have to decide if a future together will cost them too much or if what they could have together is worth fighting for.

Finding Series

Finding Home (Finding Series, Book 1) (M/M/M)

Vengeance
. It’s the one thing on ex-cop Rhys Tellar’s mind and he’s spent every day of his two year prison sentence planning how he’ll bring down the former lover and partner who sold him out and cost four people their lives. A six month parole stint working at the CB Bar Ranch in Southwestern Montana should be the easiest thing he’s ever done. But the last thing he expects is to feel something for both the charismatic ranch hand who befriends him and the enigmatic foreman who’s pretending to be something he’s not.

A future
. That’s what Finn Stewart wants, but to have it he must leave behind the man he wants above all others, his very straight boss and best friend, Callan Bale. As the only openly gay man in a small, homophobic community, Finn has to fight every day to be who he is and walking away is starting to seem like the easier path. Until Rhys Tellar shows up and changes everything.

A Lie
. Callan Bale’s entire life has been about hiding the man he really is and it’s about to cost him the one person who’s managed to worm his way past the walls he’s spent years putting up. But choosing Finn would mean giving up everything he’s worked for and breaking the promises he’s made. At least losing the younger man to Rhys means Finn can have the life he deserves.

Three men. Three choices. One chance at finding home.

Finding Trust (Finding Series, Book 2) (M/M)

He wanted a new beginning. What he got was a glimpse of a life he could never have...

Widower Dane Winters just wanted a new beginning for himself and his six month old daughter after his estranged husband's cold-blooded murder and moving to a small town in Southwest Montana seemed like a good place to start. But he never expected a favor for a friend to turn into a deadly encounter that puts him on a collision course with a mysterious stranger passing through town.

Former FBI agent Jaxon Reid stopped in Dare, Montana to right a wrong, not get caught up in the life of an uptight, country vet with a holier-than-thou attitude. But he soon finds himself drawn to the quiet, insecure single father who's trying to leave behind a life of pain and heartbreak.

Dane can't deny his attraction to Jax, but he knows that pursuing a relationship with the gorgeous, younger man will only end in heartbreak and turn him into someone he swore he would never be again. But when danger looms, he's forced to accept Jax into his life and home, along with the emotional vulnerability that being around Jax brings to the surface.

As their connection deepens, can Dane find the trust Jax needs from him in order to build a life together or will he let his past destroy his one chance at a real future?