Page 7 of Forsaken

Tears stung my eyes as I said, “It’s good to be home.” Because it was yet another lie in a long line of lies I couldn’t seem to escape.

“I’ll catch you later,” Brennan said as he released me and turned to go. “Go easy on the stairs, man,” he added with a chuckle and then he left, giving Baby a quick pat before closing the door behind him.

The second the door clicked into place, the tears fell without warning and I covered my mouth with my uninjured hand to stifle the sobs in case Brennan was still within hearing range. I sank down into one of the kitchen chairs and tried to get control of myself, but when Baby bumped my good arm, I lost it and reached down to wrap my arm around the big dog who’d been the only certainty in my life from the moment Dom had given him to me. By the time all my tears had been spent, I was physically exhausted and every part of my body hurt. I got up and started to go to my bedroom, but stopped when my eyes caught on the picture frame Brennan had righted. I used my arm to wipe away the tears on my face as I went to the bookshelf. I stared at the eyes in the picture that were staring back at me and I wondered how I hadn’t seen it. Of all the things I’d seen in the eyes of the men who’d used me when I was a kid, how could I have missed what I so clearly saw now?

I bit back another sob and quickly turned the picture over before heading to my room. I just needed to forget for a little while. Tomorrow would be here soon enough and I’d have to figure out where to go from there. An unbidden image of forest green eyes jumped into my head as I crawled under the covers of my bed.

You know where to find me.

Yes, I did. And that was part of the problem.

Chapter 3

Mav

“Thor would so kick Hawkeye’s butt,” I declared as I shot the man across from me a challenging smile.

“Nuh-uh,” Matty interjected as he sat up in his hospital bed and searched out the Hawkeye doll that he always had close by along with the well-used Spiderman doll. “Hawkeye has a bow and arrows,” he said quickly as he pointed to the quiver of arrows on the Hawkeye doll’s back. “He could shoot Thor before Thor even knew what hit him,” Matty insisted. “Isn’t that right, Papa?” Matty asked as he turned his attention on the man sitting on the other side of the bed.

I didn’t miss the way Hawke’s whole body drew up tight when Matty referred to him that way and I suspected it was a relatively new thing. I also suspected Hawke loved every second of it. “That’s right,” Hawke managed to get out, though his voice was heavy with emotion.

Matty looked at me triumphantly and I put up my hands. “Okay, you got me Professor X.”

I felt my own chest constrict painfully as I took in Matty’s small body and bald head. Logically I knew the little boy’s treatment was progressing exactly as it should and he was responding well, but for all the good days he had, there were plenty of bad ones too where he was too sick to do anything but lay quietly in bed, sometimes in the arms of one of his fathers as they told him the superhero stories that he so loved.

I felt Hawke’s eyes on me as I studied Matty, but I forced myself not to look at him. Taking this job had been the epitome of stupid. Because what had started out as the simple need to protect a little boy from an unseen threat had morphed into something so much more. I had stopped looking at Matty as just a little boy fighting for his life. And the men in his life…the men who’d banded together to become the family he needed…

I shook myself free of the path my brain was going down. Thoughts like that were exactly why I’d told Ronan I needed a break. A week to just get on my Harley and disappear.

I held out my fist and said to Matty, “Professor X, I’ll see you next week.” Matty smiled and bumped his small fist against mine.

I flashed Hawke a glance as I headed for the door and didn’t miss the way he was watching me with a mix of curiosity and pity. Fucker was just too damn perceptive.

“Take care of yourself, Mav,” Hawke said.

I ignored the uncomfortable sensation in my chest as I gave him a quick nod and left the room. I hated the anxiety that overcame me as I stopped next to Dante Thorne, the man who would be guarding Matty in my absence. I needed to get the fuck away from this place so I could regroup. But I couldn’t make sense of the feeling that I was already exactly where I was supposed to be and that walking away wouldn’t solve anything.

“Keep them safe,” I murmured to Dante.

I’d never worked with the young man who was leaning casually against the wall next to the door, one leg raised so that his foot was resting flat against the wall. He was a relatively new addition to Ronan’s team and while he’d already garnered a reputation for his cocksure attitude, he’d impressed more than a couple members of the team with his ability to sense when things were off. And while he looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, I knew he was aware of every single thing that was going on around us.

“Yep,” was all he said.

I started to walk past him, but thought better of it and turned to face him. “The volunteer who visits the kids every day…”

“You mean the guy with the tight ass?” Dante drawled.

I ground my teeth together in irritation, but didn’t take the bait. Besides being an arrogant son of a bitch, Dante Thorne was also a horny one and he’d fuck anyone and everyone, regardless of whether they had a dick or pussy between their legs. “You seen him today?”

“No. Shame too, ‘cause he’s the highlight of my day.” Dante flashed me a wide smile, but his eyes quickly shifted back to scanning the hallway. I ignored the urge to punch him and made my way towards the hallway that would ultimately get me to the parking garage.

In the week since Eli had been attacked, I’d seen him every day, but he hadn’t spoken a word to me, nor I to him. We’d gone back to the roles we’d had before I’d found him that day in the stairwell. It was the fact that he hadn’t tried to interact with me even once in the days following the attack that had kept me from calling our tech guy, or girl rather, to get some more information on Eli in the hopes that I could figure out who had assaulted him. Just like with Matty, I’d realized that I’d started to get too caught up in the young man’s life. Because instead of going home every night after my shift at the hospital ended, I found myself driving past the young man’s apartment. What the hell I expected to see, I had no idea.

That was how I’d known I was getting in way too deep.

Eli Galvez wasn’t my problem. Matty Travers wasn’t my problem. One was a former distraction, the other was my job.

Simple.

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