Reviewed by Anna Lynn
TITLE: Damaged
SERIES: The Protectors #14
AUTHOR: Sloane Kennedy
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 333 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2024
BLURB:
Dalton
Some scars run deeper than others…
I understood pain and I’d learned to live with it. My little house and my cabin cruiser that faithfully let me explore every part of Chesapeake Bay were enough for me and had been for a long time. I liked being alone and I was good at it. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I should have driven past him like everyone else. It shouldn’t have mattered that there was something familiar about him or that the torrential rain made it incredibly dangerous for him to be walking along the interstate at all. His drenched clothes clinging to his slim body and his slow but determined pace as he put one foot in front of the other called out to me in a way I never would have expected.
The plan was to pick him up and hand him back over to the friend we had in common, nothing more.
That was the plan, but the funny thing about plans is they rarely go the way they’re supposed to…
Silver
Never looking at the past is the key to surviving it…
After a lifetime of captivity with a cruel owner who’d purchased me for a bag of drugs and then stolen everything from me, I was finally free. I didn’t care that I didn’t have a penny to my name. I knew how to earn money. It didn’t matter if I was on my knees or bent over whatever was convenient, I just needed to get enough so I could know what it was like to truly be free.
And then he appeared. A familiar face among the harsh torrents of rain and cruel asphalt beneath my feet. He was the last thing my exhausted, battered body needed, and yet somehow I knew he wasn’t.
The ride was only supposed to get me to the closest bus station so I could start earning some cash, but by the time we’d gotten to his house after he’d purchased my “services” for the entire night, I’d already started to see the man beneath the scars.
Scars like mine.
One night. That was all it should have been before beginning my life of freedom. So then why did I feel like a captive again after just a few hours with him? A very willing captive whose freedom didn’t seem quite as important as before…
REVIEW:
The wait is over and it is totally totally worth it!
This is book 14 in the series of The Protectors by Ms. Sloane Kennedy and this is the story of Dalton and Silver. We both met these beautiful, amazing characters in Shattered which was the story of Jace and Caleb. Dalton is Jace’s best friend from when they were both in the army. Silver is the one who brought Jace his niece, Willa, and the one who contacted him from Germany.
When everything went down in Germany after Silver handed over Willa to Jace and Caleb, Jace, Ronan and their team saved Silver and brought him back to the States. Silver has become withdrawn and kept to himself most of the time, locking himself in the room given to him.
After Jace’s sister’s funeral, Silver just left. He really doesn’t know where he was going but he just wanted to be left alone.
Dalton attended the funeral but immediately left after. He’s had his fill of being sociable. On his way out he saw this young man walking in the rain on the side of the road. When he saw a glimpsed of the face under the hoodie, he stop a few meters ahead and invited the young man to ride with him as it is really pouring now. This was the young man who also was in Maggie’s funeral and he knew that he is the one who saved Maggi’s daughter, Willa. When they reached the bus station, Dalton didn’t know what came over him but he propositioned the young man himself (now it’s not what you think, when Silver mentioned that he will find the money he needed for his expenses, Dalton just saw red and so he did what he did) to come to his house for 24 hours and he will give him money. Although Silver felt betrayed (again) because he thought Dalton was different, he agreed.
Now these two beautiful souls have been through so much. Dalton was abandoned and was in foster homes, bouncing from one to another. He dreamed of having a family, his own family who will love and accept him and never leave him behind. But after a few years of hoping and dreaming, he finally realized that no one wanted him, and he is not family material. He is meant to be alone.
Silver was kidnapped when he was 8 years old and sold to Ivan who for me is the epitome of the
Devil. People like Ivan should never exist, they are pure evil! Through the years Silver became trusted by Ivan and that was how he met Maggie, Jace’s sister. He helped Maggie and Willa escaped but Maggie hurt herself during the escape and Silver saw when Ivan shot Maggie. Silver contacted Jace to meet him and he handed Willa over to Jace and Caleb. I cannot even imagine what Silver went through ever since he was kidnapped. It was a life full of torture and shame.
Dalton and Silver felt they were alone in this life, that no one really cared for them enough to be their family. Cooped up in their own world in Dalton’s house, their true selves revealed themselves. It was difficult for both because their pasts was always there to remind them what they went through and what their lives are now. They are both broken, but Silver is a survivor, while Dalton feels hopeless so he drinks and takes his medication in excess. But amidst all these, they can’t help but learn about each other, get to know each other (albeit reluctantly most of the time).
When Dalton became so drunk and out of it, Silver had no choice but to call Jace. When Dalton came to, he felt ashamed and guilty for what he put Silver through. He realized he wanted to heal, he asked for help from Jace and Ronan. While he was away on rehab, Ronan and his men were with Silver, watching over him.
Dalton and Silver’s story is totally worth the wait and it does not disappoint. Amazing Ms. Sloane Kennedy and after reading this I cannot wait for what comes next in The Protectors and the possible spinoff (?) maybe, please? I really love your stories and how you wove your characters and incorporate them in the lives of each other.
Congratulations Ms. Sloane Kennedy, another bestseller and definitely something that you should all read!
RATING: 
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