Page 50 of Justice For Me

“Ha! Good one, new guy!” Travis bellowed with one of his ridiculously cute laughs. There was no doubting that Travis was gay…not bisexual…pure, undiluted gay. You also couldn’t question his love and devotion toward Dante and Susannah. Justice found it somewhat comical, but the guy had also appointed himself Jasper’s body guard. He rarely left the kid’s side unless Susannah was with the blonde boy. He’d watched Jasper and Dante in the gym this morning…Jasper didn’t need anybody to protect him. The boy fought with an intensity and fierceness that screamed he’d been through hell and viewed his training as though he might need to use it to survive one day.

Goldilocks was cordial to Malachi, but Justice could pick up a few ticks he demonstrated whenever they were close to one another. He supposed the boy was still struggling with the fact that Nicholas was Malachi’s father and Nicholas, from what Malachi had told him, had done horrendous things to Jasper. Because he belonged to Malachi, the boy just watched him and Justice had the feeling he was being studied like a science project. It gave him the willies. He feared the super smart kid could see straight into his soul…see his ugly weaknesses…expose them to everybody.

“Sub club, that’s a good one,” Travis muttered, completely oblivious to the way Jasper was making Justice uncomfortable with his quiet, intense gaze. “Well, except for Jasper. He thinks himself to be a switch!”

Justice frowned. “What’s a switch?”

“Are you kidding me?” Travis’ mouth popped wide open in disbelief. “You don’t know what a switch is? You really are a virgin, aren’t you?” He snorted. It wasn’t a mean snort…just disbelief and laughter at Malachi’s choice of a third. “I bet you keep him all twisted up on the inside! He’s always been such a ‘my sub will do this’ Hitler. I love that you’re keeping him on his toes.”

Justice wasn’t sure if he needed to be insulted or…well, just insulted, he guessed.

“Don’t pay him any attention,” Jasper said in a voice that was laced with affection for his friend…and wariness of the new kid. “He doesn’t get on well with Malachi, so he won’t miss any opportunity to torment him. You may think some of it is at your expense, but he won’t mean it that way. He’s all about jerking Malachi’s chain.” He shrugged and offered Justice one his rare smiles. Shit, the kid was even more beautiful when he smiled. Angels were probably singing somewhere…

“Yea, they seem to get along really great,” Justice laughed. Travis stuck his tongue out at both of them, proving it would take much more than that to get his colorful feathers ruffled.

“I saw you in the gym this morning. You totally kick ass, dude. No way Malachi taught you all that in three weeks.” Travis smirked in Jasper’s direction. “He can already kick your pretty boy ass.”

Justice grunted out a laugh. “I didn’t see you working out. Where in the hell were you?” He usually didn’t miss much about his surroundings. Hell, was he so focused on watching Malachi’s muscles ripple that he didn’t see an entire person? Fuck, but he had it bad.

“Travis working out? Pleeeaaassseee,” Jasper mocked. “The only way this guy is going to break a sweat is when Dante is working him over in the bedroom or playroom. The gym is a spectator sport for Travis, he comes to watch Dante work me over.”

“He looks so fucking hot…muscles rippling and dancing, just begging me to touch him. There’s absolutely no way I’m missing the opportunity to see that erotic show, but I’m not learning all that shit myself. Nosiree, I’ve got me a man and an entire security team to take care of protecting my ass.” His eyes glittered toward Justice as he continued, “But, seriously, you can already kick Jasper’s ass. How did you get so skilled, so fast? We all know Malachi’s a bad ass, but he isn’t a miracle-worker.”

Jasper turned in his direction and Justice was thankful that Goldilocks wasn’t letting Travis’ continuous goading get to him. A soft nonthreatening smile was still on his face, so Justice answered. “My dad is FBI, naturally he promotes that kind of skill as being almost as important as knowing when to say ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘no, sir’. He’s had me in classes ever since I could walk. Dad taught me to fight, Malachi is teaching me to fight dirty.”

“That’s sounds just like our Malachi. I bet he was pissed that you were already so cool. I’d venture a guess that he wouldn’t like anybody to challenge him.”

Justice knew he was being played. Travis, innocently enough, was trying his best to get him to say something…anything he could use to torment Malachi. He wasn’t falling for it, though. It was comical to watch the smaller twink challenge alpha Malachi, but he wasn’t going to be the one to give him any ammunition. He had a feeling his ass would be the one to pay for a slip of the tongue and he damned well knew how well Malachi could punish an ass. He opted for a change of subject. “Shit, look at that,” Justice grumbled as he nodded toward no name, which was busy crawling on his belly in front of tiny Wallace. The big bloodhound didn’t have a clue he had the body to be alpha. “I’ve checked…he’s got balls.” He shrugged. “He just isn’t interested in using them, I guess.”

Travis burst out laughing and even Jasper, who rarely laughed out loud unless Susannah was with him, barked out a laugh.

“Yea, your dog is totally submissive…like the three of us,” Travis said. “What’s his name, anyway? I haven’t heard anybody call him by anything other than no name. You’ve got to name him, he’s a beauty.”

“Sal,” Justice answered. He’d been tossing it around in his head for the last twenty four hours and had finally settled on Sal…short for Salvation. Christopher Conners had been his salvation, rescuing him from a harsh life of no love and no touching. Malachi had rescued Sal from that same fate. Salvation. Nobody else needed to know what Sal stood for. That belonged to him.

He looked up to find Jasper watching him closely…again, a strange expression on the face that was way-too-pretty. Goldilocks belonged on a runway in a swanky European country. He had decided…the kid creeped him out. He was too quiet…saw too much. He had a feeling Jasper Madewell, given just a wee bit of time, would be able to see clear into his soul.

“Sal?” Goldilocks asked with an arched brow and, just like that, Justice knew the sneaky bastard was on to him. He might not know exactly what he was hiding about the dog, but he knew there was something there. The voice, naturally husky and fucking sexy, sounded relaxed and friendly. Ah, one nut job reaching out to another! Nope, wasn’t going to happen. Jasper might be able to pick up on his I-see-a-psychiatrist vibe, but nobody else needed to know.

“Yep,” he popped out the p with a smack. “Just Sal.”

Travis’ eyes darted between the two of them as he appeared to be trying to figure out where the fog of tension had suddenly come from. Both he and Jasper remained relaxed, a friendly smile on both of their faces…just like they both used to trick their ‘nut’ doctors. After a few seconds, he dropped down a Defcon level. He turned to Justice, a twinkle in his green eyes.

“I’m dying to know. Whatever did you think about our Malachi when you first met him? Asshole? Fucktard? Neandethral? Devil’s servant?” He grinned even bigger. “The Devil, himself?”

Justice laughed. Travis wanted so badly to make everybody think he disliked Malachi, but the cute little twink wasn’t pulling it off. His love for Dante wouldn’t allow him that luxury.

“Eh…Stranger Danger?” He joked, referring to all the classes his father taught children, dragging him along to every one of them when he was a rebellious, trouble-making tyke. “Then he started touching my private places inappropriately…”

He shrugged like the rest of the story was history.

Travis, the consummate gossip, rubbed his hands together in glee and his eyes darkened with pure excitement. “Do tell, pretty boy. Did he fuck you that first night? On the plane? Tie you up in the playroom and introduce your straight body to all the wicked delights of what another man can do to light your bod up?” He waggled his brows like a total idiot.

“Why call me straight? You walked in on Malachi and me in bed together.” He was interested in how Travis had managed to read him so easily. Not at all concerned with the fact that he now found men attractive, he still wondered if he looked different…acted different. Did he have an ‘I-love-cock-in-my-ass’ look on his face? He frowned. To be completely honest, he only found Malachi attractivethatway. Travis was fun and Jasper was pretty, but he didn’t want to climb into the sack with either one of them.

Jasper’s eyes had drifted away when they’d started down the man-on-man discussion and Justice felt bad. He didn’t know everything that had happened to the boy, but he knew he had been raped…violently raped by Malachi’s father and his friend, Victor. The conversation didn’t feel appropriate and he tried to eye-signal Travis.

“Nah…we’re good,” Travis said when he caught the look on Justice’s face. “We don’t baby Jasper, he doesn’t want us to. If he isn’t comfortable with our conversation, he will leave. Right, kiddo?”

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