by Layna Snow
But of course Cay didn’t piss himself, that’d be gross and unmanly. He didn’t want to seem like a pussy in front of Mel. It’s bad enough that she thought that he was an idiot.
“You won’t make it into your pocket, Caleb Price. Besides, you already talked to the police enough. You shouldn’t have. Now, how will you help Melody? What was your strategy, Mr. Price? How do you plan to help her and keep her safe when you can’t take care of yourself? Mr. de Cruce was smart enough to follow my instructions.” The man intoned, his voice sounding awfully condemning to Cay. The fucker was arrogant as well. And how did he know what he’d told the police?
And fuck! He was talking about that damn email! Somehow this motherfucking ogre knew what he told those officers, and what Seth didn’t.
And he knew that he couldn’t answer the questions.
He didn’t have a damn plan! He didn’t think it through. Of course he had made a bad decision. He knew it the moment the police refused to do a damn thing. But that didn’t mean that he had to sit and take this.
Cay took a step further only to stop when the man clicked the safety off the damn gun.
It was intimidating as hell standing here with a gun pointed at your chest, knowing that you could die any moment and not be able to do a fucking thing about it!
The asshole had them cornered. Herded like little pigs by the door. They couldn’t escape without being shot in the damn back and they couldn’t attack without that same risk. They were stuck and he had no fucking answers!
“Fuck you.”
Okay, so that wasn’t the smartest thing to say to someone who is holding a gun on you, but what the hell did he have to lose?
He was already the reason that they were in this mess. Might as well take the attention and give Seth and Mel a chance to get away.
With him out of the way, it apparently, gave Mel a visual of the man for the first time, for she leaned over to peek around Cay. Fucking stupid move if he had a say, but Mel always did what she wanted.
“Axel?” She asked, her voice thin and strained. She sounded scared and Cay would do anything to pull her into his arms and make her feel better, but he didn’t want to make a move and get himself killed. And he sure as shit didn’t want to get Mel killed—it had nothing to do with his aching ribs, really!
The man nodded slightly, his eyes coming to rest beside Cay, on the spot he assumed Mel occupied. He’d turn his head to see for sure, but he didn’t want to take his eyes off the creep.
So this ass was a Fallen Angel. Fucking great! This was a man that healed quicker, and had combat training. If he remembered correctly, this man was also the one who decided to leave Heaven by himself. The hippy.
Sure, a giant pile of muscles with a crew cut and combat outfit sure looked like a peace-and-love type. Not! Another thing to be wrong about. Oh, fuck you conscience. I have enough problems, thanks! But of course, the voice in his head was right. Things were just piling up. He thought that he could handle a disembodied voice that emailed them. But the reality sucked. This was not a man that they wanted to piss off, but they had apparently done just that.
“I thought that you were watching when I left. Curious little Angel. I won’t hold their choices against you. Come here and we will leave. There is a place you can go to be with others of our kind. A place where people aren’t trying to kill you.” The ass said. “Or take advantage of you,” he finished, his eyes focusing on Cay. And damn, if he could kill with a look, Cay would have been dead. He knew it.
Had he thought that those eyes didn’t convey emotions? He was dead wrong. They were dark, stormy and deadly. Hell, the guy thought to take Melody from them? He thought that they had wronged her somehow? That motherfucker was going to die!
“You stupid asshole! I’ll kill you!” He said, launching himself into an attack. Fortunately for that creep with the gun, Seth held him back. Which was unfortunate for his ribs! He wanted to howl in pain, but managed a manly groan instead. Okay, so when he calmed down he would see that attacking a colossal military man with a gun was dumb, but he was tired of people taking over his life, dammit!
And then Mel moved in front of him, as if to protect him. As if he’d let her take a bullet meant for him. As if Seth would let her do it.
“Please Axel. They didn’t do anything. I want to stay with them. Don’t hurt Caleb.” She said, her voice shaking, as if she’d cry.
Oh please don’t let her cry! He’d rather be shot than see her tears. He wouldn’t be able to take it.
“Mel, get behind Seth.” He ordered, glaring at this Axel guy. “And you, don’t touch one hair on her head. I swear if you do, you will never find a place safe enough.”
31
The man studied them for a moment, just fucking looking. And then he nodded and stood, putting his gun away. Oh, and damn was he ever tall. Cay was right. He was at least a few inches taller than Seth.
He could probably kick them in the head, if he could get his muscled leg up that high.
“That is interesting. You think that you can kill a battle-ready Fallen Warrior when you could not take one Human male? You believe that you could even find me when you cannot come up with a way to deal with your little friend? I seriously doubt that.”
Well, when he put it that way, Caleb doubted it too. But damn. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt Melody, not again.
Mel didn’t have the self-preservation instincts that God gave a gnat. She should be scurrying behind them, not standing boldly in front as if she could do something to stop this man.
Cay reached out with his uninjured hand and caught her arm. He tried to be gentle as he dragged her back to them. He’d have tried to step around her but Seth was smart enough to manoeuver her. Yeah, that way they wouldn’t take a step forward to meet that big gun again.
And dammit! Why didn’t they have weapons? Cay knew that Seth didn’t like them. He knew that he didn’t know how to use them. He even knew that he had never needed one before, and probably wouldn’t again, but fuck, he needed a gun now.
A bullet would take that tank of a man down, at least for a moment while they did something else. Hell, weren’t you supposed to cut off bad guys’ heads or something?
And how the hell would he explain that. Sorry officer, I’ve just seen too many movies. I wasn’t taking any chances. They’d lock him up for sure.
And then Seth would have to take care of her from then on. Because he’d be in fucking jail getting beat up by men who probably killed hundreds of people.
Sounds fair to me! Fuck!
And damn! That guy just stood there. He wasn’t moving at all. He didn’t come closer or back off, he just watched them as if waiting for something. And hell if Cay knew what it was.
“What do you want? Yeah, I talked to the police. I told them about Nate and I tried to get them to do something. I don’t want Mel hurt again. What the fuck did you want me to do? You just emailed us. Hell, it could have been them. How was I supposed to know you were on the up and up? Hell! How do I know that now? All I know for sure is that you are in our house and have a gun.”
While he angrily ranted, Seth just stood there. Hell, he had stood there silently for the whole damn conversation. What was he waiting for? An engraved invitation to join in? Surely he knew what do to. He was the smart one after all.
But no, he just watched and plotted. Or at least watched.
Axel finally moved, sweeping his hand towards the kitchen, as if he expected them to do whatever he said. And as Seth and Mel moved forward, he realized that he had expected it, and rightly so. Apparently they just followed orders from whoever walked into the house. Great, they were acting like children now. Very obedient children.
But, on the other hand, the guy did have a gun. And what was he supposed to do? Stand here stubbornly? Sure, that would go over well.
Fuck this was all just messed up! He was so screwed up he was even swearing more, at least in his thoughts. He felt angry, surly and out of control. Was it just the pain? The fru
stration of the situation? The fact that he hadn’t fucked Mel more than once, and it had been a long time ago? Hell, he didn’t know. But he knew that he had to reign himself in a little. He already pissed Mel off once today, no point in adding to that.
And he wouldn’t have if this fucker had left him and his family alone!
The others were moving into the kitchen when Cay decided to join them. There was no point standing here. It’s not like he could protect them from in the other room.
So he moved into the kitchen with them, and saw them standing over the counter. Mel looked so tiny next to Axel. She didn’t even reach his shoulder, and her body was likely the size of his thigh. She was perfect for him, for Seth, but he bet that the Fallen Warrior Angel would have crushed her if he decided to hug her. And it would be over his dead body if the man tried!
“I will not use your actions against Melody. She does not deserve to be punished because you did not follow my instructions. You will, however, be penalized.” The large jerkface said, turning his head to look Cay directly in the eye. And shit, he didn’t want to be punished, but he was glad that Mel wouldn’t be. She really didn’t deserve this heartache. She deserved to be pampered and treasured. But not by that assface.
“So, you’re going to give her an I.D. then?” Cay asked, knowing that his voice sounded snarky, but whatever. At least he hadn’t sworn at him.
Axel turned his head to look at him, raising his eyebrow. What, did all arrogant motherfuckers do that? Did Seth go to the Arrogance Academy with this guy and no one told him?
“What? It’s just a question. I want to know what’s happening so that we can come up with a plan to fix things. You said you wouldn’t take it out on her, well then give her what she needs.” He said, hoping to satisfy whatever requirements this guy needed in order to calm the hell down. It felt like Axel wanted him to jump through hoops, or some shit.
Axel nodded and picked up the envelope that was near him. A mysterious thing that Cay hadn’t noticed before. “I should’ve let Jai deal with this,” he mumbled. Who the fuck was Jai? “She doesn’t just need a birth certificate. She needs a foolproof identity that will never be doubted. This is all her paperwork and some background. I had to find someone who was deceased. Melody, you are now Lidia Melody Atkins. There was no middle name on file so we added one.”
Mel nodded, looking concerned. “Who was this woman?”
The mountain handed her the information, so she could go through it, he supposed. “She was in a cult that was ambushed fairly recently. Most of the people who lived there are dead. Only the children escaped alive, and very few at that. She was presumed dead, and in fact, she did die in a hospital two weeks ago. There was no photographs taken of her, however we watch for things like this and we had the body taken, and cremated. No one will know that you aren’t her. Just read the information and make sure that you stick to it.”
“You realize that this means you’re going to have to lie,” Seth pointed out. It was a smart thing too. Cay knew how much Mel hated to lie.
But she just nodded. “I’ve been lying this whole time. I just hope that God forgives me for it.” She said, sounding sad. Cay hoped the big man upstairs did too. He didn’t want her to suffer.
And then Cay noticed the light in her eye. It was the one that accompanied a series of questions. He knew it well. It was the same twinkle she got before asking about trees, TV, his sex life. Hell, it was the same look as when she asked why she had to wear underwear. Now that was an interesting argument that he happily lost. She didn’t need anything else between him and her sweet pussy.
This time, the look wasn’t directed at him or Seth. It was directed at Axel. And he hoped it wasn’t anything sexual.
“Why did you leave Heaven?” she finally asked, relieving him. Thank God it wasn’t about his sexual prowess or something like that. He’d hate to have to try to go up against him. He’d also hate to have to have a conversation with her about how there wasn’t anyone else in their relationship. Ever.
The question didn’t seem to relieve Axel, however, not judging by his pissed off look, and silence. No, his face hardened, and then turned blank as if he refused to give them any hint on what was going through that brain of his. “That is none of your affair. I’m not going to answer any personal questions. Suffice to say that I didn’t like it there and so decided to leave.”
As she started to open her mouth again, probably to issue another fucking question, the tall man shook his head, his eyes hard. “No more questions.” He told her, his voice very low and firm. It was a voice that even Mel would obey. Damn, even he was obeying it when he really wanted to know what else the man planned to do for them.
“Thank you, Axel. We appreciate this.” Seth piped in, sneaking his arm around Mel and dragging her to his side. Caleb wanted to do that but no, his hand had to be broken, his ribs had to be bruised to hell.
And it was probably time for his first pain pill. Not that he needed to take it.
“I didn’t do this for you. I did it for her. It is not her fault that she was expelled from Heaven.” Axel said, pulling out a phone. From where, Cay didn’t know. Did the man have invisible pockets or what?
“But I sinned.” Mel said, as if her explanation was necessary. Cay was sure that Axel knew that. Hell, the man knew everything.
“If you believe that God made you how you are for a reason, then he made you to eventually sin. He gave you that little bit of pride, lust, wrath, or whatever else you did to sin. We aren’t Human; we aren’t influenced by others, since we don’t have emotion. That means he made us sin. It is not your fault.”
It was something that Cay hadn’t thought about before. It was true that emotions led people to do sinful things, surely something else must have lead Melody to it. But that just made him angrier at whoever was pulling the strings. Someone picked an innocent woman and purposely pushed her to something, purposely did something to hurt her, to rip off her wings and send her to a place that could have easily killed her.
It took a sadistic freak to do something that bad. It took someone evil.
“Oh. I guess you are right. I must have a purpose here, a reason for Falling. Thank you for letting me know.”
Axel seemed uncomfortable with Mel’s gratitude. He didn’t seem to know how to look her in the eye when she had that adoring, appreciative look on her face. The man must not be used to gratitude.
It made Cayleb wonder about the man in front of him. Not that he intended to find out too much about him, but just enough to get power over him.
“I don’t need your thanks. But you do owe me a favour, which I will collect at any time. You have to promise, to swear to God, that you will pay up when I ask, and do anything that I ask.”
Oh, hell no. That wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t going to let this fucker come back and ask anything of Mel. What if it’s something that she couldn’t give, or didn’t want to give? What if it was her life, her body, their child?
A child? Since when did he think about her having children? Sure, he wanted to marry her but damn, this was going too fast. One thing at a time Cay.
“No.” he answered, just as she was nodding. Was she really that naïve to grant him anything? But he knew she was. It was one of the things he loved about her. She was innocent, nice, unsuspecting and unpracticed. She was genuine and lived in a world where people were good. It wasn’t a bubble he wanted to pop, but one he might have to pop to save her.
“She gave me her word. It is not up to you. I did not expect the same from you, which is why you do not get my help. You cannot follow direction. You think you have everything figured out, but you don’t know how to catch this person, these people. I could have done it for you, I could have fixed it, but you betrayed our agreement. So you will have to deal with this yourselves.”
Really? Why was the bastard being so ominous? Surely there was an easy way to go about this. They had to get those police officers to see Nate doing something firsthand. They di
dn’t need Rambo here to butt in.
Seth was good at plans. He could handle that. And they’d figure out some way to keep Mel safe in the meantime.
“Fine. You don’t want to help us, then we don’t need your help. I appreciate what you’ve done for Mel, but you can go now. And take your gun with you.”
Cay turned to Seth, expecting him to agree. Expecting some type of response, but he didn’t get that. No, Seth just eyed him and Axel speculatively.
Axel didn’t seem to mind the analyzing stare, he looked right back. And finally he nodded.
Thank God the man was going to leave. It felt eerie having him in the house. It was like he just walked in and took over. He put off enough tension and testosterone to choke a rhino. That man could probably go against a rhino and win. He seemed like he fought dinosaurs for fun.
Surely he harassed people for fun. He didn’t need to talk about what he would have done, how he would have helped. He could have just left the stuff and gone. But no, the man needed to be all dramatic.
“I’ll be in touch.” He said, as if that was important and walked away. He didn’t disappear into thin air, or walk through walls, though Cay wouldn’t have been surprised if that had happened. But no, he just went to the back door and through the French doors installed there. He must have hidden his transportation because they sure as hell hadn’t seen any batmobile in the driveway. And surely this guy drove something just as weird as he was.
Overcompensating. No one needed to be that macho.
“Alright, so now that we have an identity for you, Mel, we need to figure out what our plan is going to be. How do we capture whose doing this? How do we punish them without using the police? I agree with Axel. If anyone finds out about the existence of the Fallen, people would be in danger.” Seth said, holding something for Cay to look at.
It was a phone. A fucking phone. Axel had left a cell for them to have. Probably so that they could be at his every beck and call. So that’s what he took out of his pocket. Well, they would have another plan. Cay was already working on it.