Retribution (The Protectors #3) by Sloane Kennedy

Description

Ex Special Forces soldier Michael “Hawke” Hawkins has spent every day of the last ten years waiting for the moment he would get to watch the life fade from the eyes of the men who brutally murdered his wife, but when he finally gets the break he’s been waiting for, the trail leads him to someone he wasn’t expecting.

After nearly two years of running, 24-year-old Tate Travers has become an expert at hiding…until the day a dangerous stranger shows up looking for vengeance and threatens to destroy the fragile life Tate has managed to build for himself and his five-year-old son. Except the life Tate has been struggling to hold on to started unraveling long before Hawke showed up looking for the same men Tate has been running from…his own father and older brother.

Retribution – it’s all Hawke has wanted since the day he held his wife’s hand as she took her last breath. And he won’t give that up for anything or anyone…not even the tormented young man trying to give his little boy a better life. Because Tate is the only one who can lead Hawke to the men he’s been searching for. And if it means forcing the young man to confront the past that nearly destroyed him, then so be it.

Only the last thing Hawke expects to feel is something besides the hatred that has driven him. And he definitely never expected to feel it for a man.

But when it comes down to choosing between the unwanted feelings Tate stirs in him and the revenge he’s finally close enough to taste, will Hawke be able to give up the one thing that has kept him going for a second chance at a future he gave up on ever having?

My Review

O Holy Night... I cannot even express the range of emotions I felt while reading this book.  The way it begins has you wondering and guessing what could possibly happen next then we get hit with a bombshell that had me in tears. From the first time we met Hawke I knew he was something special and that his story was going to be heartbreaking. Meeting Tate you get almost the same exact feeling with the knowledge that his family is scum, but  their stories combining together and how they are there for each other really shows you how deep their emotions run. I wanted to grab Matty and keep him close because his character amazed me and his strength was overwhelming. High praise to Sloane Kennedy for bringing us these characters and making their stories so real.