Page 43 of Justice For Me

“Don’t kill him, M. He’s mine and I love him,” Dante pleaded in a teasing voice. “Travis, where is Justice?”

A feline smile was his only answer…until Dante took a step in his direction. “That way! Geez, calm down! Can’t you hear the ungodly ruckus coming from down the hall?”

Actually, Malachi could hear the odd sounds coming from somewhere down the hall, so he headed in that direction, leaving Travis to gloat. He heard the slimy bastard say ‘He’s gonna shit over this one’ before he got completely out of earshot. Well, hell.

The sounds led Malachi to the laundry room, where he found Justice giving a giant dog a bath in the huge farmhouse sink. He had his iPod cranked up loud enough that Malachi could hear it from the ear buds stuck in the kid’s ears. A very gorgeous ass was dipping and grinding to the music while his hands scrubbed away at the poor dog. Correction – forget poor dog…it looked like it had died and gone straight to Heaven. Ears were laid back and it had a goofy dog grin on its face. Kind of like the idiotic grin he’d just seen on Travis.

Fuck. Could this kid cause him anymore trouble? Could he be any fucking cuter grinding his ass to the music? He absolutely hated it when Travis pulled this same shit, but there was nothing to hate about watching Justice shake and grind to a naughty rhythm.

He tapped him on shoulder and schooled his features into a harsh frown.

“Shit! Don’t sneak up on a dude like that!” Justice glared over his shoulder at Malachi and yanked his ear buds out. “Fuck. I seriously thought I could sense evil better than that. The hair on the back of my neck should have at least been standing up with you that close.”

“Ha. Ha. What are you doing Justice?” Malachi chose to ignore Travis burst of laughter when he’d heard Justice make the sensing evil remark.

Uh oh. Calling him Justice instead of pet might not be a good sign as to where this confrontation was headed.

“Uh, giving our dog a bath,” he answered with an eye roll.

“Oh, okay. Strange though, I wasn’t aware we had a dog.” Malachi silently cursed himself. He should have seen this coming a mile away. He knew the kid had a huge heart and he knew that damned dog was mistreated. Yep, should have seen it coming.

“It’s a stray. He needs a home, Sir.” Justice made a fool of himself by rubbing noses with the pooch. “Such a pretty boy,” he cooed. “Stinky, but pretty.”

“That’s the neighbor’s dog, Justice. I’ve seen it in their yard…every morning when we go for our run.” Malachi crossed his arms over his chest and cursed as he counted every single rib the dog had. Fuckers! What kind of fuck-ups starved a dog? They lived in a fucking mansion on the lake and they couldn’t afford some Alpo?

Justice played with the dog’s ears, flopping them around until suds flew through the air and landed on Malachi’s cheek. “Don’t pay him any attention, fella. His bark’s a lot worse than his bite. Anyway, I’ve got this. He’s ass-whipped, he’ll do anything for me.”

That comment would have pissed Malachi off if it hadn’t been so damned true. “You can’t go around stealing the neighbor’s dog, Justice. It’s not right.”

“True, but it’s also not right to chain a dog up and not feed it. I swear I’ve watched him since we’ve been here. They nevertouchhim, feed him twice a week if he’s lucky, and don’t give a flying fuck when he’s tangled up in the chain, unable to get into his house…in a storm. I’ve had to go out and untangle him at least twice a day and feed and water him. They don’t deserve this beauty.”

Malachi narrowed his eyes. “You aren’t supposed to be out of the house without me.” He’d known every damned time the kid had snuck out to rescue the mangy mutt.

Justice huffed and puffed and then finally said, “You’re missing the point, Malachi. He’s abused.”

“That doesn’t make it okay to steal, Justice.” No fucking way he was giving that dog back to those fuckers. Seriously, he could count every fucking rib. Maybe he should just kill the neighbors?

“Duh. My dad runs the FBI, I know stealing is wrong. I just don’t care.” Blue eyes turned pleading. “You’ve got to let me do this, Malachi. Nobodytoucheshim!”

And there it was…right in front of Malachi, taking his breath away with the desperation and pleading in the kid’s face and voice. The way he had saidtouchhad spoken volumes to some of the pain Justice had survived in his life. Malachi was immediately drawn back to his story about how Conners had found him…hidden in a closet, addicted to drugs. Nobody had touched his boy, nobody had loved his boy when he’d needed the love. Fuck. If he had to kill the neighbors, he guessed he would have to kill them.

“Pack your shit. We’re leaving in thirty minutes.” He ordered before stomping back down the hall. He glanced in the direction where Travis had last been sitting and found Dante had his sub in a headlock, hands wrapped tightly across his mouth to keep the prick from saying something that might get him beaten. He flipped them both off and kept walking, straight out the front door and across the fucking yard…

Chapter 13

Four hours later, they were all, including the bloodhound Malachi had been forced to pay the ungodly sum of one thousand dollars for, on Dante’s private jet headed back to Texas…and reality. The mood felt odd to Justice. Malachi and Dante were seated together going over more security plans for when they landed and how they would proceed until the courthouse visits were over and O’Hara was locked away. Travis was texting away on his phone while listening to ridiculous 80’s music loud enough on his ear buds that Justice could hear each and every beat. The dog, minus a name, looked happier than a pig in slop. Its lanky body stayed plastered against Justice’s leg and its big brown eyes gazed up adoringly at him.

Justice felt troubled, he should be feeling excitement about going home, getting the O’Hara shit finished once and for all, seeing and touching Megan for the first time…but instead of excitement, he was fucking terrified. He’d fucked up, seriously fucked up. His mind replayed the dog incident over and over in a stupid loop, mocking him. He’d heard the stupid desperation in his own voice and then saw the naked pity in Malachi’s eyes when he’d looked at him. Malachi, all power and strength, saw his weakness for what it was and it had to disgust him.

He’d fought so hard to fight it…to stay focused on keeping his emotions in check, never letting his guard down but somehow, he’d fucked it all up. His fingers traced the letters on his right wrist while he fought to try to keep his breathing smooth and steady. Breathing in and out, slow and steady…

One deep breath followed right after another. His eyes stayed clenched tightly together. Focus. He had to focus on the reality of what was happening. He wasn’t in that damned closet and he wasn’t so fuckingly desperate for someone to touch him that he’d doanything…any damned thing they wanted him to do if they would just touch him…

He was a submissive for Malachi and Megan, a toy to share between them. He was not falling in love and they did not love him. A toy. Something to play with. Something to touch. He wanted them to touch.

He’d looked and sounded so pathetically weak. Malachi liked him because he was strong, he could handle whatever he dished out in the playroom…

His eyes cracked open long enough to look down and see the dog’s giant brown eyes still focused solely on him, unquestionable love plainly visible as the pup gazed up at his new master. His fingers left his wrist long enough to caress the soft fur. Pets were on his ‘safe list’. He couldn’t love this guy too much. This dog would love him back no matter what he did. This was something he couldn’t fuck up.

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