by B. B. Reid
She gasped and pulled away. “Why would Angel let me go?”
“Because I asked him to,” I answered truthfully. I left out the part where I had to hold a gun to his head for him to agree. I didn’t need Anna more freaked out than she already was.
“But what about you and Caylen?”
“We have to stay here. For now,” I clarified when horror filled her eyes. “It was my choice,” I lied. The truth was I didn’t have a choice. Our death certificates would be written the moment we leave.
Doubt replaced fear in her gaze. She pulled me away and just as I expected Angel, Lucas, and Z’s attention shifted our way. Anna hadn’t noticed, but thankfully, she lowered her voice when she spoke again. “What aren’t you telling me, Mian?” Her stern tone let me know I wouldn’t be able to just blow her off, but I couldn’t tell her the truth either.
“It’s not safe for me to leave.”
Her gaze narrowed. “But you’re innocent. He said so himself.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“How so?”
“It’s not safe for me to tell you everything yet. It doesn’t matter anyway because you shouldn’t be here. School’s starting soon and your mother will be worried.”
“That’s a bullshit answer, Mian and you know it. My mother probably didn’t notice I was even gone until she ran out of cigarettes.” I didn’t have a response because it was sadly true. Brandi had even gone as far as to get Anna a fake ID so she can fetch her booze and cigarettes whenever she needed which was often. “How am I supposed to just go home and act normal knowing my best friend and nephew are in trouble? I was worried sick about you when you disappeared. I didn’t know what to do or think. I even started to think you just left.” Her voice teetered between anger and sadness as she broke my heart in two.
“I’m sorry I worried you, Anna, but I didn’t have a choice. He took my son and then he kept us.”
“I don’t blame you.” Her voice was thick from the tears she didn’t shed. “I blame him. He’ll never break you from your chains… and you don’t even see it.”
“Anna—” I was so focused on her that I hadn’t noticed Angel until he was pulling me away. “What are you doing?” I hissed. “I’m not done!”
“The time to say goodbye is over.” He paused from dragging me away, gripped my arms, and leaned low. For a moment, I thought he would kiss me. “You and I have business to finish.” The promise was there, and for once, I wished it weren’t a promise he kept.
“Mian!” I turned to see Lucas hauling Anna to the door over his shoulder. Anna fought harder when he opened the door. I couldn’t just let him take her away. Not like this. As if reading my mind, Angel pulled me into his body with a death grip around my waist that I fought as hard as I could. Just then, a feral growl ripped through the air, shifting my attention back to the door. I realized it had come from Anna when she savagely sunk her teeth into his shoulder. I heard him grunt just before he slapped her ass. Hard. Even I flinched.
Anna’s scream of outrage was cut off by the door slamming closed.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Sooner or later trouble knocks.
ANGEL
I held the ice pack to Mian’s jaw, and pretended I didn’t feel like an asshole for what I did to her as soon as Lucas carried Anna out the door.
“I want your mouth.”
“Wel,l you’re not going to get it.” It was amusing to watch her backing away at the same time trying to sound in control.
“All right, I feel like playing. This one is a classic. You’re going to hide. If I don’t find you in five minutes, I’ll consider the consequence of last night paid.”
She didn’t look like she was buying it. “What’s the catch?”
My smile disarmed her completely. “If I do find you, I get your mouth… and the rest of you.”
“What if I don’t want to play?” she challenged.
I shook my head because she knew better. “Time’s already ticking, Sprite.”
When I woke up this morning and felt her ass nuzzled against my cock, I couldn’t help wanting to do things to her that would make a God fearing lady clutch her pearls. But then I remembered what had happened hours before, and I couldn’t stop my hand from flying. I slapped her ass hard enough to wake her and then put her on her knees.
Now that I wasn’t thinking with my dick and controlled by my need to dominate her, I needed answers. Starting with where she’d gotten my mother’s gun. The doorbell rang while I switched the ice pack to her other jaw. I peppered kisses down her available neck and ignored the doorbell when it rang again. “We need to talk.”
“Aren’t you going to get that?” She sounded horny and nervous at the same time, and I resisted the urge to smile.
“No.”
“I think my jaw is fine now. I’m moving my mouth, and words are coming out.” I leaned down to kiss her when I felt movement on my right. Lucas stood in the doorway watching us. He’d been quiet since I told him we were freeing Anna. I expected him to fight me on it, but he didn’t. He even volunteered to take her. His eyes have been vacant ever since, and at the same time, I think he was relieved she wasn’t around to tempt him anymore.
“What’s up, man?”
“Cops.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
Everyone dies.
MIAN
Angel’s look of betrayal before I was sent to my room like a child was all I could think about. That had been two days ago.
I was back to being locked in my room, but lucky for Angel, he didn’t try to keep me from my son. He had Lucas and Z bring the crib and his supplies to my room. They also took turns checking on us while he stayed away.
When the police showed up, and Angel turned cold, I knew it was because he thought I tipped the police somehow. I would have, but I was never able to find a working phone. Besides, it wasn’t as if the police didn’t have more than enough reason to show on his doorstep.
Caylen tugged at my hair, stealing my attention. He stared up at me with his bright blue eyes. “We’ve got to get out of here, baby boy. We’re not safe.” I’d been kidding myself because of all the sex he used to cloud my judgment.
His answer was to stick my hair in his mouth. Clearly, he wasn’t going to contribute to the plan to bust out of here.
The door opened while I tried to wrangle my hair from his fist and mouth. He had such a strong grip for a baby. I didn’t look up to see who graced my doorway this time because the odds it was someone I didn’t care to see were too high for me to bother.
“How are you?”
Ok, I wasn’t expecting him.
I finally dislodged my hair from Caylen’s mouth and looked up. I expected him to look as formidable as always but the jeans and shirt he wore two days ago were wrinkled, his eyes were weary, and his hair was beyond his normal bed hair. His left hand was also bandaged.
“What happened to you?”
“My grandfather died.”
Suddenly, the burning anger I held over my two-day stint went up in smoke. I didn’t say anything as I placed Caylen carefully in his crib. Angel continued to stand unmoving just inside the door. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I’m sorry.” He buried his face in my neck, and I felt him nod. When he didn’t respond, I pulled back and stared until he lifted his eyes from the floor. “How did he die?”
“A gunshot to the heart.” I gasped and grabbed him again so I wouldn’t collapse.
Alon had died the same way his son had, and once again, Angel was left without a father.
Chapter Fifty-Five
When it rains, it pours.
ANGEL
I don’t know how I ended up here, but when she pressed her body against me and wrapped me in her arms, I knew there was nowhere else I would rather be.
/> I missed her, but I would never tell her.
When the police showed up at my door, I thought Anna ignored my threats and went to the police. Mian may have got to me through my dick, but I wasn’t stupid enough to set Anna free without putting the fear of God in her first.
As it turned out, my grandfather was murdered that morning, and the shooter fled. I spent the last forty-eight hours searching for him nonstop.
Until this morning.
Lucas received a phone call from Anna to warn him that some Joey kid had gone to the police when Mian disappeared. The police wrote her off when the landlord reported that she skipped rent. She had so little, leaving her apartment bare, that it was easy for them to deduce she took what she could and move. When Anna disappeared almost two weeks later and her mother showed no concern about her daughter’s disappearance, this Joey kid reported it to the police. Fortunately for me, her mother’s shitty parenting made her a primary suspect in her underage daughter’s disappearance. Anna, it seems, showed up just in time to offer the same story Brandi gave them about running away to spite her.
It was the phone call that reminded me that I had more than one problem. I promised to keep Mian and Caylen safe from the senator, but I left them alone for two days.
“Angel.” I didn’t realize I was hiding my gaze from her again until she lifted my chin. I didn’t want her to see my pain. When my father died, I broke down, and the only thing that pieced me back together was punishing Theo. I wanted to kill Theo for what he took from me, and because I spent the time sulking, I missed my opportunity. It was a mistake I wouldn’t make again, but it seemed all I did was make new ones.
“I’m sorry,” I found myself saying.
I was more surprised when I felt her press a gentle kiss to my lips as she whispered, “Me, too.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
It wasn’t lost. Only forgotten.
MIAN
I had no idea how large the Knight family was. Every member, no matter how far down the line, were spread out over the estate.
And Angel was the head of them all.
I also learned that day that the Knights had their own personal graveyard.
At the estate.
And now that Alon was dead, Angel inherited the estate and was expected to live with a bunch of dead people in his backyard. The estate was vast, I was told, which allowed them to keep the graveyard out of sight but definitely not out of mind.
I brushed my feelings about it aside since I wasn’t the one who had to live there. I’d definitely be afraid of waking up and finding one of Angel’s dead relatives watching me from the foot of my bed.
The funeral had been sad, even for me when my sole memory of Alon was him trying to kill me. That certainly had been memorable. Especially, the part when Angel stood up to his grandfather for me.
My gaze was drawn to him against my will. He stood across the room talking with two men. I noticed how he was never far away even though he never got too close either. He had been distant since he came to my room and announced his grandfather was killed.
“Mian?”
I turned at the sound of the familiar voice and was shocked to come face to face with a blast from the past. “Bea?” I asked with surprise blatant in my tone. There were too many emotions involved with seeing Bea again.
“Yes, dear. How are you? I didn’t expect to see you here. I didn’t even know you knew Alon.”
“Oh, um… I didn’t really. I only met him once.”
She stared, and I had the feeling Angel’s mother was reading me like a book. Someone should have warned her my ending was tragic.
“Recently?”
“Mian,” Lucas interrupted before I could answer. He was staring at Bea as he said, “Caylen’s awake.”
“Caylen?” Bea questioned.
“My son,” I simply said. I stuck around only long enough to see her surprise and hurried upstairs. I entered the room where he had been sleeping and found him still soundly sleeping.
“I want you to stay here.” I turned and found Angel in the doorway watching me from under his shell.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
I stiffened as irritation took over. “Try again.”
He moved inside and threw the door closed as he kept coming for me. “Because people are asking questions I don’t care to answer.”
“You could tell them the truth. This is a crime family, is it not?”
He laughed. “Most of my family turn the other cheek and pretend the money they enjoy spending is not ill-gotten.”
“Which means they’re using you.”
“No, baby. It means I don’t owe them an explanation.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Call you what?” His voice didn’t hold any confusion. Only challenge.
“Baby. You and I both know I’m still around because I don’t have a choice.”
“You’re no longer my hostage. You’re my guest.”
“And without you, I’m dead.” My laugh was dry. “I bet that makes your dick hard.”
“There are many things you do that make my dick hard. Being dead isn’t one of them. Well… not anymore.”
He grinned and it was such a sexy look on him. It was too bad his smile wasn’t enough to thaw the cold reminder of death that he once planned for me. I shoved him, but he caught my waist and threw me on the bed before climbing on top of me.
“You’re upset.” He didn’t appear the least bit apologetic.
“What was your first clue?”
“The frown on your face. It’s sexy, don’t get me wrong, but you’re beautiful when you smile.”
“You running games on me, Knight?”
“Yes,” he growled. “My dick made plans with your pussy tonight, and I screwed it up by being an ass.”
I patted his cheek. “No, sweetie.” My voice dripped sweet sugary venom. “You screwed it up when you opened your mouth.” He looked confused so I threw him a bone. “You’re grieving. I got that.”
“But?”
“But you reminded me of everything you did to my son and me when you admitted you wanted me dead once upon a time.”
“So what are you saying?”
The promise of sex evaporated from his eyes. Instead, he stared down at me as if I just kicked his puppy. It still didn’t compare to all he’d done to me. He’d somehow made me admit I still wanted him, but that didn’t mean he could make me forgive him. My heart and body wanted different things from him.
“I’m saying, I can’t forgive you.”
His eyes moved over my face, and I had the feeling he was searching for a way in. My heart? My soul? He didn’t know that he already found his way into both. The path he used, though, was too ugly and broken to makeover with pretty words.
“Ever?”
I answered only when I was sure my voice was strong. “Ever.”
* * *
A knock on the door came a few minutes after Angel stormed out. “Come in.”
The door opened, and Bea slipped inside. I had the feeling she didn’t want her son to know she was with me.
“Hi, honey.” Her smile was warm, but I could see the sadness she attempted to hide within her eyes.
“Hey.” She glanced toward the crib where Caylen played with his toes. He was ten months in a few days and getting more limber by the day. Pretty soon, he’d be walking, talking, and running. I only hoped I could keep up. Bea walked over to the crib and cooed when she got a better look at him. “He’s so handsome. Maybe even more so than Angel when he was his age.”
My blood ran cold.
She thought Caylen was Angel’s.
“Unfortunately, I think he looks more like his father every day.” When she turned to regard me, her frown was deep. “He’s not Angel’s son.”
She didn’t bother to deny what I had picked up from her comment and looked back down at Caylen. “Nevertheless. He is a handsome one.” She smiled, and it seemed genuine. “The girls won’t stand a chance.”
“Thank you,” I forced out, not feeling as genuine.
“So, how have you been? It’s been a while.”
“More than just a while, Bea.” Try five years.
She had the decency to look contrite. “It seems I have a lot to apologize for.”
Don’t bother . “Don’t worry about it.” I tried to remind myself that her husband was murdered, which meant she wasn’t obligated to reach out to the daughter of his killer. Even if my mother had been her best friend, and I was just a kid left with no one.
“I care about you, Mian. I know I haven’t shown it well, but I do.” I nodded since I had nothing to say. “I have something for you,” she said when the silence became awkward. I watched her reach into her purse and felt uneasy. She had no idea she’d be seeing me. How could she know to bring something?
I thought I was hallucinating when she pulled out a doll I hadn’t seen in three years and haven’t played with even longer. “When Angel sold the brownstone, he put your things in storage.” He did what? “Anyway, I couldn’t bear to see this locked away to collect dust. My husband gave this to you as a gift, didn’t he?”
My lungs felt like a boa constrictor was wrapped around it while my heart threatened to burst. I couldn’t breathe.
Once upon a time this doll lost her head.
And I lost a memory…
Chapter Fifty-Seven
One dangerous secret.
MIAN
Thirteen Years Ago
Stupid tears.
They were always around when I broke the head off my dolls. I sniffled and wiped my face and then got up to find my mommy. She always knew how to fix Suzy. Uncle Art came over to visit again. He mostly came over when Daddy was around, but he came over a lot when he wasn’t, too. I liked his visits since he always bought me new toys, even though Mommy would send me to my room right after. When she’d finally come to get me, he was already gone.