Page 63 of Justice For Me

His world swirled black in front of him. Suicidal? What the hell? His boy was perfect. The list of symptoms kept circling around in his head…fuck, what if none of it was real? What if he’d done something to hurt Justice…made him do something he didn’t really want to do? He nearly doubled over when a wave of panic washed over him. “Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Dante, what have I done? Suicidal? The kid could hurt himself because of me?”

“Not because of you, Malachi, because of things that he misinterprets…triggers.”

“He would have told me. He wouldn’t have kept this from me.” Malachi started pacing. “Oh, fuck, I could have hurt him. Shit! He would let me hurt him, wouldn’t he? He would let me do whatever the fuck I want because he wants topleaseme.” Bile came up in his throat. The things he’d done to the kid…thinking he was enjoying it. Fuck, he’d probably raped him.

“Calm down, Malachi. We don’t know if that is true or not. His father says he’s led a normal life for the past six years. He believes he has complete control of the situation and Christopher should know what’s best for him. He’s been there with him when it was bad, really, really bad. Fuck, he loves that kid to death.”

“I love that kid to death!” Malachi bellowed. He picked up the chaise lounge and threw it across the patio, sending it slamming into the glass doors, shattering them into a million pieces. “Ihurthim.”

He saw Megan running for the doors, desperately trying to reach him. Jasper caught her just in time, sweeping her up and in his arms, carrying her over the broken glass and not setting her down until she was standing in front of Malachi.

“Do you need me for anything?” Jasper asked, his eyes haunted even more than usual as he watched the people he loved suffer. Fuck, but Jasper knew a thing or two about suffering.

Dante shook his head and motioned for Jasper to go back inside.

“I hurt him, babe. I hurt him really bad. I…I thought he liked it.” Malachi was closer to tears than he’d been in a very long time. He was just like his fucking father, he raped and took what he wanted just because he fucking could.

Megan grasped his face tight between her palms. “You did no such of a thing, Malachi. I don’t doubt what Dante is saying, but what that boy feels for you and me…it is real! I swear to you it is real.”

“You knew?” Malachi hissed. “You knew and you let me…”

“Stop it, Malachi! Megan only knows what I told her when I came to your room looking for you. Get a grip. We’ve got to get this shit together and find out what trigger hit him last night. Once we know that, we can help him work through it.”

“What do you mean? Something happened last night?”Shit, yea, something happened last night! He had known the kid was upset, had let him just walk out of the room…following that earth-shattering kiss.

“I found him in the gym this morning. He’d been there all night and had damn near killed himself. According to Christopher, exercising is one of his coping mechanisms, works himself to death to try and clear his head. It helps him focus.”

Focus. Oh, shit. The tattoo. He’d tied the boy up and toyed with him, demanded he tell him what they meant…fucked with his head.Let Go. Oh, fuck, no! Please no. Don’t let him have done something stupid.

“Where is he?” Desperation laced his voice.Let Go. What did that even mean? What all could it mean? Leave him? Suicide?

“He said he was going to shower. He knows I’m telling you. He’s ashamed, Malachi. I don’t know the fuck why, but he’s ashamed.”

“He wasn’t in his room. I checked,” Megan answered. “Where the fuck is he? Find him for me, Malachi,” she pleaded. This was going to end badly, she just knew it was. She’d seen the hurt in his eyes last night. She suspected she knew exactly what his trigger was.Her. Throwing her into their mix had messed with his head. She had caught him watching her and Malachi interacting together, a haunted look on his face. Why the fuck hadn’t she said something about it?

Malachi was torn between being furious with Dante for saying shit about his boy and being furious with himself for not recognizing any dangerous factors that might have been at play with Justice. He could fix this, he had to fix this. Justice was worth it, he meant the world to him and Megan. Fuck, they both loved the kid. Right now, he just needed to touch him again, had to see with his own eyes that he was safe, to tell him how he felt.

His desperate thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone starting to ring. Glancing down, he got even more pissed when the cell indicated the call was coming from ADX, otherwise known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies…otherwise known as the hell hole where Nicholas was serving out his life sentence for his role in one of the largest human trafficking networks in the United States. He’d hoped the plague to society would just ride off into the sunset and die a horrible death in a federal prison without bothering him again…but he’d known the bastard wouldn’t be able to grant him even that small token of fatherly affection. It had taken over a year before the first attempted contact was made, so Malachi guessed he should appreciate that fact.

He would contact the prison tomorrow and have it fixed where Nicholas couldn’t try to contact him again. How in the world that son of a bitch got his number, he’d hate to know. “Malachi.”

“Mr. Kurzenkova? There’s been an…incident,” he man stuttered into the phone.

“Please tell me he’s dead,” Malachi grit out. He didn’t have a second to waste of his sorry excuse of a father. He needed all his energy focused on Justice…focused on what he needed to do to make things right again. “If he’s not dead, there isn’t another damned thing about him that interests me.”

“He’s escaped, sir. Director Conners wanted me to contact you immediately. He’s handling things on this end, but insisted that you were in possession of…precious cargo that he wants protected.” The man coughed nervously into the phone and added, “He told me to stress to you that you’d better protect him with your life, sir.”

“Fuck,” he mumbled, disconnecting the phone without another thought for the man on the other end. Malachi felt the ground drop out from under him in a split second. This couldn’t be happening, not again. Nicholas was supposed to be safely tucked away behind federal bars…unable to fucking hurt them anymore. The people he loved should be safe, no longer suffering just because of their connection with him.

He felt Dante’s frown on him, wondering what the hell was going on. He suspected he had a terrified look on his face. Hell, he was fucking terrified.

“Nicholas has escaped.”

Megan gasped in terror and Dante let out a string of curse words. Both of their faces were a mask of total shock, disbelief, and fear. There was no way this should be happening, they all worked too hard to ensure Nicholas or Victor ever had the power to hurt any of them again.

“How the fuck did that happen?” Dante screamed in outrage.

Before he could answer, his phone started ringing again. He glanced down, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt who it would be on the other end of the line. The bastard wouldn’t be able to wait a second longer than what was absolutely necessary to rub it in his face…to threaten him and the ones he loved. He pushed the button, but didn’t say a word…wasn’t sure he could even speak at the moment.

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