by Jessie Cooke
Angel felt another surge of hope. This was good news. It could give Dan motive for fucking with the club if they had anything to do with his father’s death. But would Dax consider it good news? Did he know about his stepfather? “Dax never mentioned that his stepfather was murdered. I guess he never told me what happened to him. I just assumed his mother was still married to him when she died. They had a son together.”
“Well, really, what was Marshall going to say? Stepdaddy was found naked and with a smile on his face in an alley where he’d been fucking another man just prior to his death?” Kyle said with a cocked eyebrow.
Angel nodded. “That’s true. If Dax does know, I doubt it would be anything he’d want to talk about. But this is exciting news, right? It’s another link to Dan and the MC clubs. I feel so strongly that we’re on the right path here.”
The men all nodded, except Micah. He didn’t look up. He was staring at whatever he was reading with an intense look in his dark eyes. Angel took a second to just watch him. She wondered sometimes what went on in his head that he didn’t talk to her about. He was always kind and gentle with her, but sometimes the look in his eyes was so intense that it was almost frightening.
Micah had been such a big part of her life for so long. She’d met him when she was only fifteen years old. He was a rookie on the force, already twenty-five years old, and her father was his FTO. Sean had invited him to dinner with the family one night because Micah had no family, and Sean couldn’t ever stand for anyone to be alone. Angel could have sworn that the dark-haired, sexy, dark-eyed young cop had a crush on her, but he had the good sense to wait five years before doing anything about it. They started officially dating when she was twenty years old and for a while, she thought that she’d found the perfect man. Even now, Micah hadn’t ever done anything to make her think otherwise. The heart just wants what it wants, and hers wanted Dax.
After the task force meeting as she was gathering her things Micah said, “So lunch today?”
She’d thought a lot over the past week about the talk they were about to have, and she’d decided that having it in public would probably be all bad. “Um, maybe we can go to the apartment today. I think we need to have a private talk today, if that’s okay?”
Micah looked a little too happy about that. It made her feel even worse. She just didn’t understand how he could still be so delusional. “That’s great. You want to ride with me?”
“No. I’ll meet you there. I just have one more thing to take care of here. I’ll see you in a bit.” Micah kissed her cheek and looked at her with absolute love in his brown eyes. Her guts twisted into knots and she had to concentrate on breathing so that she could take her next step. She left the meeting room and went down the hall to the captain’s office. His assistant was at her desk and she smiled when she saw Angel.
“Hello, Officer Brady. How are you?”
“I’m doing well, thank you. I never got a chance to thank you for the nice flowers you sent to my father’s service either. They were beautiful.”
“It was the very least I could do. Sean Brady was a wonderful man and such a loss to us all.”
“Thank you. I was wondering if Captain Banks had any free time this afternoon?”
The older woman looked down at her calendar. “He has a meeting at two but should be finished no later than three…three-thirty. Would that work?”
“Yes, absolutely. Thank you.”
“Sure. Can I give him a heads up as to what it’s about?”
Angel bit her bottom lip. “Can you just tell him it’s a personal matter?”
“Of course.” Angel walked out of the police station that day with the resolve that by the time the sun went down on it, her past would no longer be in control of her future. She was filled with a strange mixture of hope and fear. Anyone that knew how Dax Marshall felt about cops would think she was being foolish…but anyone who had ever been in love would understand.
44
Present Day
“Open your eyes,” Dax said in a strained whisper. Angel had closed them, waiting for the shot that would end everything. She opened them and realized that he had lowered the gun and his blue eyes were filled with tears. “I can’t fucking do it.”
“Dax…”
“Don’t! This doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive you, or that I’m not going to have someone else do it. Fuck, Angel! Fuck you for messing me up like this!”
“Dax, please listen just for a few more seconds and then you can do whatever you think you have to do. Do you have my phone with you?” He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, but he nodded. “Will you show it to me? Can I see the message and the picture from Dan?”
“Why?”
“Because after all of these months I think I just realized something horrible. But I need to see it, to be sure.”
Dax sat the gun down and involuntarily Angel took a shaky breath. He reached down into his pocket and brought out the burner phone she’d used to contact her team and her family. Kyle changed it every week. She’d only had this particular one for four days. There was no way Dan could have gotten that number unless he’d gotten it from one of her family members or someone on her team. Or, God forbid, he was one of them himself. She was shaking all over, inside and out. If she weren’t all tied and taped up, she’d be curled up in a ball on the floor, she was sure. Dax scrolled through the phone messages and then pressed on one of them and held it up in front of her face. Her eyes were watery and the message was blurry. It was from an unknown number and it said:
“Hey, gorgeous, this is Dan. This shit is almost over. I can’t wait to fuck you on a private beach somewhere while that fucker Marshall rots in prison. It was so good seeing you this afternoon. I can still taste you on my lips. See you soon, my love.” Angel felt bile rise to the back of her throat as she picked the message apart. Micah always started his texts with “Hey, gorgeous” and ended them with “See you soon, my love.” Gagging on her own stomach acid she said:
“Now the picture, please.”
Dax looked almost as sick as she felt as he pulled up another message. This time he stared at it for a long time before finally putting it up in front of her. She lost her battle with the vomit and as she did, Dax jumped back and looked completely shocked. “What the fuck?”
She didn’t have anything in her stomach, so it was mostly bile and what little liquid she had left in her. She couldn’t use her hands to wipe it away and it was burning her nostrils. Dax was still just staring at her like she’d lost her mind. She asked, “Can I have a tissue, or something?” He looked around them and finally stuck his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a bandana. He started to hand it to her and realized her hands were tied. Muttering “Fuck” under his breath, he took it and wiped the vomit, snot, and tears off her face. At first it was rough and purposeful, but then his touch turned softer and when he wiped across her lips, it was almost sensual. “Thank you. I’m sorry.” He didn’t say anything. He tossed the handkerchief down to the ground and waited for her to talk. “That’s my fiancé…my ex-fiancé. His name is Micah Ivanov. He’s a detective and I’ve known him since I was a teenager. I don’t know him as Dan. But God…” Her stomach rolled again and she paused. “It makes sense. He’s been setting us all up, all along. He’s sick. He’s been pulling everyone’s strings like some kind of bizarre puppet master. He wants you to kill me…oh, fuck! Does he know where you took me, Dax? He does know! He was in the surveillance van. You have to get out of here!”
Dax was looking at her then as if she’d grown another head. “Surveillance van? What the fuck are you talking about? This is Dan…he sent the photo from the same number he sent the text…he fucking admitted it when I called and confronted him! He said he’s been fucking you all along…”
“Dax, he expected you to kill me and then he was going to kill you and be the hero cop, the wounded fiancé, the good guy. If he’s not here already, he will be. This was just another set-up.”
Dax ope
ned his mouth but the sound of footsteps stopped him from speaking. Dax grabbed for his gun and spun around just as Micah appeared in Angel’s vision. He was wearing full flak gear, including a helmet, and his face was hard to see, but Angel knew it was him. “Dax Marshall, I am with the gang task force and you are under arrest. Throw down your weapon and keep your hands where I can see them.”
“Dax! Don’t put your gun down. He’ll kill us both. It’s him! This is the man you know as Dan. I know him as Micah. He’s a cop, Dax. Obviously, a dirty one.”
“Now, baby, is that any way to talk about your fiancé? I’m just here to wrap this case up, arrest Mr. Marshall, and save my girl so that we can get on with our happy life together. Now, the weapon, Mr. Marshall. Or I will shoot it out of your hand and just hope it doesn’t ricochet off that pretty girl you have tied up there. That’s kind of kinky, by the way. I might use that position…”
“Dax! Don’t put your gun down. He’ll kill us both.”
“Oh no, baby. I’m not going to kill you. At least not today. You and I have a lot of time to make up for first, because while you were fucking this piece-of-shit biker, I’ve been stuck with my own hand and a string of not-so-attractive call girls. Long story short, I’m horny as hell and you’re going to help me with that.”
Dax was looking at the armor Micah was wearing, no doubt trying to figure out where he might even feel a shot. Angel saw that and whispered, “Under the arm that’s holding the gun.” Without so much as a nod or a blink, Dax pulled the trigger of the .44 Mag. Micah’s gun went off as he went down, blowing a hole in the ceiling above him and raining roof down on top of him as he fell. When it stopped, there was nothing but silence in the warehouse again. Dax had his back to Angel and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. She wondered if he was going to turn that gun on her now and just finish it. She waited, and after several long minutes she saw him lay the gun back down and turn to face her.
“I don’t even know what just happened here. Fuck. Did I just kill Dan, or your fiancé the cop, or both?”
“I’m pretty sure he was both,” she said in a shaky voice as silent tears continued to stream down her face.
“What now?”
Angel almost laughed. It seemed like such a simple, silly question to ask in the midst of all of this craziness. But somehow it brought her some relief. It meant that he didn’t plan on killing her, at least not right then. “I’m not sure. I guess that depends on you.”
“I want this shit to be over with.”
She looked at Micah again and said, “I’m guessing that at least it’s headed in that direction. Now that we have Dan, the police and FBI can start putting the pieces together.”
“The police,” he said with a sigh. “If I untie you are you going to try and arrest me?”
She did chuckle at that. “No, Dax. First, I’m not a cop anymore. I did quit today. If I live through the next few months, I think I’d like to go back to school to be an attorney.” She couldn’t believe she was talking to him so casually, as her voice still shook and her body still ached all over. But it beat the hell out of the gun in her face.
“An attorney, huh? You going to defend bad guys?” Dax moved closer to her and lifted her feet. He looked at her face as he began unwinding the tape from her ankles.
“Good guys that made bad decisions, or were falsely accused.”
“Interesting choice,” he said. “Mind if I ask why?” He sat her legs down gently and reached for the tape headdress that was holding her to the crate behind her. He ripped it off and she squealed, but damn, did it feel good to move her neck.
“I still believe in the system and in right and wrong. I am just not as firm in my belief any longer that everything is black or white. I’m going to take a new approach and try to see the gray areas.”
“Like not busting a guy for shooting a guy that hurts kids?”
“Yeah, well…I’m not condoning vigilantism. I mean, look at him.” She motioned her head toward where Micah still lay. “I’m pretty sure that most of what he did was about getting even with your father for his father’s death.”
Dax nodded. “Sick son of a bitch.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
45
Six months later
Angel stood outside of the courthouse. She had sat through the hearing and endured the stares of her former co-workers, but she finally had to get out of there and get some fresh air even before the judge made his ruling. She had just stepped off the wide marble stairs and onto the green grass that led out into the courtyard when she heard Kyle calling out to her. She hadn’t spoken much to Kyle since that first couple of weeks after Micah—or Dan—was killed. He made it clear to her even as they found one piece of evidence after the other that this had been a big game Dan had been playing with everyone’s lives, that he still wasn’t okay with her being with Dax. Unfortunately, he had kind of gotten his way for the past six months since Dax had been sitting in county jail. The FBI had seven felony charges they were trying to make stick. The first one was the death of Mad Max. They had a weapon they believed was used to dismember him, with Dax’s fingerprints on it. When Micah’s things were searched, a key was found to a storage facility. Two bodies were found in vats of acid inside the containers. So far, they have yet to be identified. But the big discovery in Dax’s favor were several hacksaws, just like the one the FBI had, bought at the same place by the same person. Dax couldn’t explain his fingerprints but David seemed to think Micah might have transferred them somehow from computer files the task force already had. Dax’s attorney, Nathan, planned to have an expert testify to the ways that could be done. The platinum coins were found in Micah’s things, so those charges had to be dropped against Dax, and since Hawk had been at the ranch safe and sound the whole time, they of course had to drop any murder charges with regards to him.
The ranch was searched thoroughly and nothing incriminating was found, not even any weapons. The DA tried to charge Dax with kidnapping in Angel’s case, but her testimony was that Dax had shown up just in time to save her. All in all, they didn’t have much of a case and, Angel was praying that she could take him home with her today, to the ranch where they both belonged now. She looked up at her brothers as they got closer—all four of them. “Hey, are you okay?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah. I guess it’s going to take me some time to get used to everyone I used to work with, and those that had respect for me in the past, looking at me like I’m a criminal now. It just got a little bit stifling in there.”
Angel could tell by the look on Kyle’s face that he had something to say, but he was still thinking it through. Mickey, who never thought much of anything through, opened his big arms and she folded herself into them. As Mickey hugged her she felt David’s and Sam’s hands on her shoulders. Dad was right. Agree or disagree, this was what family was about. They were there to support her, no matter what. She looked back up at Kyle and thought, “Three out of four ain’t bad.” That was when her brother surprised her by giving her a big hug of his own and whispering in her ear, “I love you. I want you to be happy. Just please be safe and promise you’ll keep in touch and call me if you need anything at all.”
She had tears in her eyes when she pulled back and looked at his face. Her face. Their faces were so much alike. “I promise. I love you too. Thank you, Kyle.”
He shook his head. “Don’t thank me, Angel. I’ve been such an ass.”
“What changed your mind?”
He shrugged and David said, “Well, unfortunately as usual, I was locked away in the lab when it happened…but I heard that our big brother stood up for you in the station house the other day. He took on three rookies from day shift and did some pretty good damage.”
“Oh no! I’m sorry, Kyle. I don’t want you to have to fight for me.”
Kyle held her back at arm’s length and said, “Are you kidding? Have I been such an ass lately that I’ve given you the impression I wouldn’t fight for you? I�
�ll fight for you until my last breath, little sister. I can say what I want to you, and even about you. But every time one of those sonsabitches opens his mouth about you, he’s going to get my fist in it.”
She was touched. “Thank you, but don’t do it at work.” Kyle rolled his eyes.
“Always nagging.”
Angel got a hug then from Sam, who’d told her before Dax’s hearing started that he would be willing to testify for him about how violent Micah was. Angel was touched, but she didn’t think he was going to need to. She had a good feeling about this evidentiary hearing today. She was sure today would be the day that she’d finally be able to bring him home.
“Hey, look!” Mickey was looking toward the courthouse and they all followed suit. Angel felt a lump rise in her throat as she saw the big man coming down the stairs. Nathan had put him in a suit and tie, and he had the jacket slung over one big arm and was already pulling at the tie around his neck. His hair had gotten super long while he was locked up. It touched his shoulder blades in back and he had it in an elastic band. His long legs ate up half the sidewalk with each step as he walked toward them. She felt Kyle’s hand on her shoulder.
“Call me,” he said. She nodded and blew him a kiss. Sam kissed her cheek and followed Kyle. David winked at her and said:
“I don’t have to tell you to call me, I know you will as soon as you need something.” Angel laughed and punched him in the arm right before Mickey grabbed her up in another crushing hug. When he let go of her he turned toward Dax and said:
“I’m gonna be out on a boat here pretty quick, but if she needs me…”
Dax grinned. “I’ll swim out and find you.” Mickey shook his hand, gave Angel another squeeze, and headed for his car. Finally, Dax and Angel were alone. “They dropped all the charges.”
“All of them?”
“Yeah. The DA told Nathan something about finding journals that psycho kept in a safe deposit box—did you know about that?”