The dog followed us, but I was glad when he didn’t jump up to try to reach Matty.
“Is he nice, Daddy?” Matty whispered against my ear.
“I think he is, buddy,” I said.
“His name is Bullet.”
I expected the voice to belong to the intimidating man who’d been watching us just moments before, but it actually came from a young man making his way down the entry way stairs towards us. I saw Hawke and the other man deep in conversation and had to force myself to focus on the younger man. I guessed him to be close to my own age, maybe a little younger. He had thick blond hair and a kind face and he immediately held out his hand to me.
“I’m Seth Nichols.”
“Tate,” I answered and I shook his hand.
“And who’s this?” he asked as his eyes fell on Matty.
Matty’s head was pressed against my shoulder and he turned it so he could see Seth better. “Matthew but my Daddy calls me Matty.”
Seth smiled. “Is it okay if I call you Matty?”
Matty nodded against me. “Is Bullet nice?” he asked timidly.
“Very,” Seth responded. “He knows some tricks. You want to see them?”
Another nod from Matty. As Seth showed Matty the dog’s tricks, I lifted my eyes to watch Hawke as he talked to the other man. His eyes shifted to me and whatever conversation he was having ceased. He held my gaze for a moment and then strode into the house. The other man came down the stairs towards us and I resisted the urge to step back.
He was bigger than Hawke by a couple of inches. His hair was coal black and his gray eyes were studying me. Just like Hawke, I couldn’t get a read on him and I automatically tightened my arms around Matty in response. But as soon as the man’s eyes moved from me to Seth, his entire countenance changed dramatically. Even before Seth put out his hand, I knew what they were to each other.
“Tate, this is my boyfriend, Ronan. Ronan, this is Tate,” Seth said as he motioned to me. “And this is Matty,” he said with a big smile as he put his hand briefly on one of Matty’s legs.
Ronan nodded at me as he pulled Seth against his side. “Hi, Matty.”
I barely noticed Ronan and Seth talking to Matty because I was lost in the way the two men held onto each other. My childhood hadn’t exactly given me a lot of opportunities to see how two people in love behaved with one another, but seeing two men being so openly affectionate was overwhelming and a rush of envy went through me. I’d hidden my sexuality for so long that I’d just assumed it was something other gay men automatically did as well when they were in the presence of other people. But the two men in front of me weren’t hiding anything…not from me, not from my son, not from each other.
“Daddy, can we?”
I realized I’d missed Matty’s question entirely when I noticed him and both men watching me expectantly.
“Can we what?”
“Can we take Bullet for a walk?” Matty asked. His voice had started to lose some of its shyness.
“There’s a nice beach down by the water,” Seth explained.
“You sure you’re not too tired?” I asked.
Matty shook his head.
“Okay,” I said.
“Can Hawke come?”
Ronan answered before I could come up with an excuse because I had no doubt the man had no interest in spending any more time with us if he could avoid it.
“Hawke was pretty tired so he went inside to take a nap,” Ronan said. “You sure you don’t want to take one?”
The man’s question had the desired effect because it took Matty’s focus off of Hawke.
“Noooooo,” Matty said with a laugh.
But as I followed Ronan and Seth around the side of the house towards the backyard, I realized that even though Matty wasn’t thinking about Hawke anymore, I couldn’t say the same thing.
Chapter Seven
Hawke
Despite the sweat that was dripping down my forehead and into my eyes, I saw Ronan the second he walked into the large gym that was located in the lower level of the house. I’d been waiting for him to come find me because I knew he wasn’t going to wait very long to get the information he wanted. But I didn’t let up on the punches I was laying into the heavy weight bag that hung from the ceiling in the corner of the gym. And when Ronan came over to hold the bag steady so I could take out even more of my frustration on it, he didn’t say a word. I lost track of how much time had passed as I pounded on the canvas bag and even when my arms began to burn, I continued. Because it was the only thing that was keeping me from hunting down Tate and dragging him to me so I could finally see if his lips were as soft as they looked. If his taste was sweet or heady or a mixture of both.
I would have had my answer out in the driveway if we hadn’t been interrupted. I knew that without a shadow of a doubt. I could pretend as much as I wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that I was attracted to another man. Or that I felt the same spark of electricity with Tate that I’d only ever felt with my wife. And that in itself was unacceptable to me. Because Revay had no equal…there would never be anyone as good and kind and gentle as she’d been. There’d never be anyone who knew me inside and out like she had, who knew what I needed before I did. And I had absolutely no desire to know someone in the way I’d known her. She had been and still was my other half. No person, man or woman, would ever change that. My body might have some fucked up thoughts about Tate Travers, but my mind was clear. Tate was a means to an end, nothing else.
Liar.
I let out a loud curse and slammed my fist into the bag one last time before I finally gave in to my body’s demand to stop. It took what little energy I had left to stumble to a nearby weight bench and sink down on it. As I used my teeth to loosen one of the boxing gloves on my hands, Ronan moved past me. He was back a moment later with a towel and a bottle of water. I swiped at my drenched hair and face with the towel and then took several pulls on the water. I didn’t look at the other man as I began unwrapping my hands.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Backyard,” was all Ronan said.
“Did you get the appointment with the oncologist?”
“It’s tomorrow morning. They can get him admitted the day after if they get all the test results in time.”
I nodded. “Tate called them from the car. He had them email the release to your email address. He’ll sign it today.”
We both fell silent, but I knew it wasn’t over. My hunch was confirmed when Ronan said, “So that’s it? I don’t hear from you for two weeks and when you do finally call, it’s to ask me to find a place that will treat a kid with leukemia. What the fuck is going on, Hawke?”
I took my time working the first wrap off, but my intent wasn’t to annoy Ronan, though I’m sure it did. No, I did it because I was trying to gather my courage to admit to this man, to my friend, what I’d done. Shame wasn’t something I felt often, but from the moment I’d held my gun on Tate and his son even after I knew that Tate wasn’t one of the men I’d been looking for, it was all I felt. But even now as it coursed through me, the need for vengeance was still stronger.
“His father and brother killed Revay,” I finally spit out.
“Tate’s?”
I nodded, unwilling to share the fact that they were also Matty’s father and brother. In my mind, Matty was Tate’s son and always would be despite what the DNA said.
“Fuck,” I heard Ronan mutter and I looked up to see him turning away from me so he could begin pacing. It was something he’d done in front of me before, but I knew he’d let very few other people see him like this.
The Ronan I knew was very different from the persona Ronan shared with others and that had always been strangely comforting to me. I’d met Ronan ten years earlier when Revay and I had been wheeled into the ER at Brooke Army Medical Center the night she had been attacked. Although I’d been badly burned, I’d still been conscious and the ER had been in such a state of chaos that no one had noticed
when I’d climbed off the gurney I’d been rolled in on and searched out the room Revay had been taken to. A young doctor had been frantically working on her with only a single nurse to help him. He’d spared me only a glance as he’d worked on my wife and he hadn’t tried to make me leave which I wouldn’t have done anyway. I was never sure if he’d let me stay because he’d known it was what I’d needed or because he’d known I wouldn’t have left.
Either way, his eyes had connected with mine for the briefest of moments and then his only focus had been Revay. I hadn’t been able to make sense of any of the words he and another doctor on the other side of the large room had kept yelling to each other, but I had understood exactly what it meant when my wife’s heart monitor had begun screaming and the line on it had gone flat. Everything afterwards had been a blur as the doctor had begun slicing into her body with a scalpel. For all the gruesome things I’d seen and done during my career in the army, I hadn’t been able to bear to watch my wife’s blood pour from her body as the heart monitor reminded me she was already gone, so I’d dropped to the floor and covered my head with my hands and sobbed like a child as I’d tried to come to terms with the fact that my best friend had left me. I’d had no idea how long I’d sat there for, but I’d steeled myself for the words that would confirm my worst fear when I’d felt a hand come to rest gently on my shoulder.
I hadn’t heard the words…I hadn’t heard anything the doctor had said to me. What I had heard was the steady, rhythmic beeping of my wife’s heart monitor and I’d scrambled to my feet to take her burned, bloody hand in mine as she was being moved to another floor. I’d had three days with her after that. Three days to tell her everything I thought I’d have a lifetime to say. And despite the agony my own burns had been causing me, I’d only felt true pain when she’d told me she loved me for the last time, just before a tube was inserted into her throat to help her breathe. Three days and then she was gone.
I hadn’t seen Ronan after that night in the ER, but our paths had crossed again four years later when I’d learned of an attack on Ronan and his lover, Trace, who’d happened to be Seth’s older brother. Ronan and Trace had been ambushed by several soldiers from Trace’s unit while they’d been stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Both men had been brutally beaten and then each had been sodomized with a metal pipe. Ronan had survived the attack. Trace hadn’t. My heart had gone out to the surgeon and his dead partner, but it wasn’t until I’d overheard some soldiers bragging about the attack a month later that I’d seen an opportunity to pay Ronan back for what he’d done for me. I hadn’t even felt a speck of guilt when I’d abducted the man who’d been the ringleader of the attack, and I’d had no issue with helping Ronan seek out his own form of justice when the army refused to acknowledge the brutal crime or punish any of the men involved. After that, I’d watched as Ronan took out every last man who’d tortured him and stolen his future away, and a few months later when Ronan had built an underground organization that could do the same thing for other victims, but on a larger scale, I hadn’t hesitated to sign on.
“Does he know where they are?” Ronan asked.
I shook my head. “They were living in Lulling, Texas, but Tate left two years ago and hasn’t been back. I think he’s been running from them…he and the kid.”
“Any idea why?”
“I think they were abusing him…Tate. Not sure about Matty – it sounds like Tate got him out of there in time,” I responded. “I went to Lulling last week, but didn’t find anything. Daisy can’t find a trace of either of them so I don’t even really know who I’m looking for. I didn’t want to blow my advantage by asking around.”
I reached for the water and took several long drags on it before I began working on the wrap on my other hand. I steeled myself for what was to come because it wouldn’t take Ronan long to figure out the right questions to ask.
“How’d you end up with them again?”
“I put a tracker and bug in the kid’s backpack.”
“Jesus, Hawke,” Ronan muttered. “Was he at least able to give you anything else?”
I shook my head.
Ronan finally stopped pacing. “I can give you some guys…maybe they can help you-”
“No,” I interrupted. “I’ve got a handle on it.”
I didn’t miss the look of disappointment on Ronan’s face, but I didn’t have time to dwell on what it meant because his next question was the one I’d been waiting for.
“What can I do to help?”
I removed the wrap from my hand and dropped it on the bench and then folded my hands together. “I need you and Seth to watch Matty for a while. A few days, maybe a week.”
“You mean watch Matty and Tate,” Ronan said carefully.
“Just Matty.”
“Why?”
I sucked in a breath. “Because Tate is coming with me to Lulling.”
Ronan was quiet for so long that I looked up at him. “What the fuck did you do?” Ronan finally asked angrily.
“Tate agreed to come to Lulling with me to help me find his father and brother-”
“Bullshit!” Ronan yelled. “No father agrees to leave his kid while he’s undergoing chemotherapy! What did you do?”
“What the hell difference does it make?” I asked, unwilling to tell Ronan the truth about the extent of my blackmail.
“Tell me or I’ll ask him!”
My own temper flared to life and I shot to my feet. “I told him if he didn’t come with me, I’d turn his DNA over to the cops.”
Ronan shook his head in disbelief and took several steps away from me. I hated the way he was looking at me…like he didn’t know who I was. He was quiet for an unnaturally long time before he spoke again.
“Is this what she would have wanted, Hawke?” Ronan asked quietly. “Justice at the cost of an innocent man and his child?”
I snapped at the mention of Matty. “What she would have wanted, Ronan?” I shouted. “She would have wanted to raise our son!”
Ronan stilled, but before he could say anything I barreled on. “What about what I want? Huh? A few days, Ronan. A few days away from his kid! A kid he gets to come back to, a kid he gets to watch grow up! What about my kid? My little boy?”
“Revay was pregnant?” Ronan asked gently.
I didn’t bother to answer because a cold, familiar feeling settled over me. I fought the urge to run my fingers over the burns that made my skin tingle uncomfortably.
I barely recognized my own voice when I said, “My kid’s rotting in a grave with his mother. Tate’s kid is safe and happy and God willing, will be healthy someday. I don’t get a someday, Ronan. All I have left to look forward to in this fucking thing I call a life is watching those men die. Tate is my only chance to finally end this!”
I snatched the towel off the bench and didn’t bother looking at Ronan again because I didn’t want to see what I knew would be in his eyes now instead of disappointment.
Pity.
Chapter Eight
Tate
“You heard?”
I looked up at Ronan as he came to a stop in front of me. When I’d heard Hawke striding towards me from the gym, I’d taken a few steps back into a darkened hallway. But as I’d heard Ronan’s footsteps approaching, I’d stepped out of my hiding spot.
I nodded.
“How much?”
“All of it,” I admitted. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” I added. “I wanted to get the release signed.”
“Sure,” Ronan responded, but he didn’t move away from me and at the moment, I didn’t care. Because all I could focus on were Hawke’s final words.
“Where’s Matty?”
“Still in the backyard,” I murmured. “He and Seth are throwing a ball for Bullet.”
I hadn’t been surprised that Matty would warm up to Seth as quickly as he had because there was something so innately kind about the young man, that it would have been impossible for anyone, man or child, not to gravitate towards
him. When I’d asked Matty if he wanted to stay outside with Seth or come inside with me while I got the release form ready to send, he’d barely paid me any attention as he’d waved me off.
“Tate, I’m sorry, Hawke shouldn’t have threatened you.”
I wasn’t sure if I managed to respond in any kind of way because I was still reeling from what Hawke had said. Not only had Buck and Denny murdered Hawke’s wife, they’d stolen the life of his unborn son too. I felt my stomach rolling and I briefly wondered if I would have to ask Ronan where the nearest bathroom was.
“I know Hawke, Tate. It was an empty threat. He never would have gone through with it. But if it makes you feel better, I can make the DNA test and results go away,” Ronan said.
I had no idea how the man could manage something like that and I realized it didn’t really matter. Like with Hawke, I was completely out of my element. “No, he and I…we have a deal. I need to keep up my end.”
“What kind of deal?” Ronan asked.
But instead of answering Ronan, I shook my head and kept my mouth shut, though I had no idea why. I didn’t owe Hawke anything.
“He offered you something, didn’t he?”
“I should get back to Matty,” I whispered, but Ronan gently grabbed my arm before I could get away from him.
“You and Matty are safe now, Tate. Money, protection, support…you have all those things here.”
I looked up at him at that. “Why? You don’t know me.”
Ronan released my arm. “Seth and I both know you. We were you.”
Retribution (The Protectors, Book 3) Page 7