Page 64 of Justice For Me

“Son, I’ve missed you so much.”

The voice was the same as he remembered, the same that had haunted him as a child and still haunted him as a man. It made his blood turn ice cold and his heart constrict so tight that he feared it would never beat again. Everybody was safe. Everybody he loved was right here with him at the castle. Nicholas could never get to them. He didn’t have anything to worry about. Why, he wondered, was he suddenly terrified? Megan was in his arms and Justice was safe, this was just another sick game of his fathers’. Nicholas didn’t even know about Justice. It was impossible for him to know.

“What the fuck do you want?”

Nicholas laughed and the sound of it made Malachi realize his father felt like he was once again calling the shots. That could only mean one thing…

“I want to see you again, Malachi. I’ve missed you terribly. We’ve much to talk about, you and I.”

“I don’t have a damned thing to say to you.”

“Imagine my surprise, son. I was simply being a good little prisoner, sitting in the cozy rec hall with all my wonderful new friends and who do I see on the television set? My son, that’s who,” he answers his own question. “For four days I see the reruns of him on the screen making love-sick faces at the pretty blonde witness in Marcus O’Hara’s trial.”

What a fucking fool he’d been to let himself be filmed while in that courtroom. He’d wanted to be with him to ensure his safety and it could end up costing Justice everything. This was why he shouldn’t allow himself to fall in love…he was a danger to everyone around him!

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Shouldn’t you be trying to get your sorry ass out of the country instead of wasting time chatting with me? You won’t have a chance in the United States,dad. You’d best make a run for it while you still can.”

Nicholas laughed into the phone. “No, no, son. It’s no longer about my freedom or trying to form a relationship with my son. No, now it’s only about revenge. I only need to avoid the FBI long enough to destroy every single person you love…starting with the pretty blonde boy that has you acting so pathetically foolish and weak.”

“Don’t come anywhere near me or mine, Nicholas,” Malachi hissed into the phone. “I promise you this…it will be a battle you won’t survive.”

“Tsk. Tsk. I’m not at all worried. You didn’t have the balls to kill me before and from what I saw on the television, you still haven’t grown any.” He laughed into the phone. “No, Malachi. I’m not afraid of you but you need to be very afraid of me. You see, I have nothing to lose.”

Malachi opened his mouth to argue, but slammed it shut before any words came out. Arguing with the bastard was a waste of time and energy. “Your threats are beginning to bore me. Are w finished?”

“He’s such a pretty thing.”

Malachi felt his teeth grit so hard he feared they might shatter. “Thanks for stating the obvious. I don’t normally play with ugly subs. That’s what he is, you know, my sub. Nothing more, nothing less.”

His father wasn’t buying it. “I’m going to have so much fun playing with him. With Jasper it was different, you know,” he said slowly. “You only had to pull out a man’s cock and Victor’s angel would start whimpering and crying like the pussy he was and, I’m sure, still is. Your boy, Justice, I’d say it’s much different with him. If he’s with you, he must be quite the pain whore. Breaking him, it won’t be nearly as easy as breaking someone like Jasper.” He made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Breaking him will take work…hard work and devious implements of torture.”

Malachi felt his control slip away. “If you fucking try to touch him, I’ll kill you,” he swore. His voice was deadly calm but his heart felt like it could explode at any second. Just the thoughts of Nicholas getting his hands on Justice caused him to want to die.

“No, you won’t, son. We’ve already established your weakness in that area. You were too big of a pussy to finish the job the first time around. You surround yourself with weakness and it will eventually make you weak as well. You won’t kill me, you won’t lay a finger on me,” Nicholas promised.

“I hate you.”

“I don’t care. Now, keep him close, son. Don’t make this too easy on me.” He laughed again. “Wait a minute, do you even know where he is right now?”

The line went dead.

Malachi’s eyes snapped to Dante. “Where is Justice?”

Chapter 18

It had taken two hours…two of the longest hours of Malachi’s life to find Justice. He’d wrecked his motorcycle and was walking back in the direction of the castle when they’d found him. Cuts and scrapes covered nearly every inch of his body. Malachi knew bruises would be marring his perfect skin within hours. He wanted to grab him up and crush him tightly against him, tell him how much he loved him…but he also wanted to spank his ass for running away. He settled for a stupidly, ridiculous cold kiss to the forehead the second he was within reach. Justice had answered with a snarl and a quick jerk away.

Malachi had felt his heart rip in two.

With a warning glare from Megan and a pleading look from Dante, he’d finally agreed to allow them, along with a rather embarrassingly large security detail, take him to the hospital for a quick check over to ensure he hadn’t done any serious damage while he stayed at home, pacing like a mother fucking helpless imbecile. While he waited, he tossed every horrible scenario around in his head until he had his stomach twisted into knots. What if Nicholas had gotten to him? His boy…his lover would have been tortured and used in every way imaginable…and then they would have killed him. Another thought had been the argument that the motorcycle accident hadn’t really been an accident. Justice had tried to kill himself because of the things he’d let Malachi do to him. He’d tried to commit suicide because Malachi hadn’t been enough…hadn’t loved him enough…hadn’t given him enough.

He was sick and getting sicker with each passing second. They really needed to get Justice home. He needed to hold him in his arms, tell him how much he loved him, swear that they would work through all this shit together…

The slamming of car doors snapped him back to reality. Shit, a cold and clammy sweat coated his body in an instant. He didn’t know what to say, what to do to try and make things right. Justice had looked at him with nothing but anger and contempt when they’d found him. Had his lover finally realized his feelings weren’t real…just something fake caused by his disorder?

He wanted to run outside, gather Justice and Megan into his arms and lock the three of them in their bedroom until all their issues were resolved. He knew he wasn’t much of a communicator but, hell, he’d try harder than he’s ever tried in his life if they’d just give him one more chance. Instead of following his heart, he stood in the foyer, waiting, like a fucking coward. “Try to be patient with him, baby,” Megan whispered softly in Justice’s ear as they slowly made their way toward the house. She held him tightly, protecting him from anybody that tried to come near him. He would have found it endearingly comical if he wasn’t so damned pissed off. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew what they were all thinking. He knew they thought he was a broken bag of nutsville. Hell, he was.

They’d made him call his dad at the hospital. Yea, that had been fun. He’d had to listen to rants about Malachi being incapable of taking care of him, shit about Nicholas escaping from prison, and then the threat of sending Justice’s psychiatrist in to meet with him again. Claiming he was fine didn’t do much good since he’d pulled the vanishing act earlier in the day at, as his dad had screamed, ‘the worst fucking time possible’! In his defense, how the hell was he supposed to know Nicholas would pick today of all days to escape from a maximum security prison like it had been a fucking cake-walk! If he’d talked to his dad much longer, that would have probably ended up being his fault too.

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