Wrath

by LJ Baker

  “Hey, calm down. It’s Luc.” He spoke into her ear in a melodic tone, holding her arms in place with one hand, and her chin still with the other. “What the hell is going on?”

  Ronnie looked at the heap on the ground at her feet. The asshole was a bloody mess. She wasn’t even sure if she could make out a face under the swelling and blood.

  Was he even alive?

  “I… he was…” She twisted her face to look into Luc’s eyes. “What did I do?”

  Luc pressed his lips together in a tight line and looked over her. “It’s going to be all right. Let’s get you out of here.”

  “No, but I… he’s… he needs—”

  “It’s all right love, you have to come with me. Now.”

  Luc pulled her away from the body on the ground and got her into the bar. She tried to look back several times before they cleared the alley, but he kept her facing forward, until they were in the back office of his bar, where he deposited her into a chair, told her to stay put, and disappeared from the room.

  Ronnie’s hands trembled uncontrollably. What she’d done to the asshole in the alley was all she could see in her mind. She was fucked. This was exactly what Lizzie was always worried about. Even if she’d never said it, she gave her that look that said she knew one day Ronnie would snap and kill someone.

  She was a monster and even her best friend knew it.

  ***

  “What the hell happened to her?” Harley tried to squeeze around Luc and get to the office to see what was going on. Her eyes were wide and scanned from Luc to Ronnie, then back to Luc. “Why is she covered in blood?”

  “It’s not hers. I don’t have the details, but there’s a guy in the alley. I’m not sure if he is even alive at this point, but I need you to take care of it. Clean it up. Get him medical attention if he is still breathing.”

  “Want me to just get rid of him?” The corner of Harley’s mouth curved up and a twinkle lit up her eyes.

  “No,” Luc spoke through gritted teeth. “Do not kill him if he isn’t already dead. If he is, well, then do what you need to do.”

  “Did she do it?”

  “Just go, Harley.” His voice was flat, but serious, and Harley knew better than to question him further. She nodded and disappeared to do as she was told.

  What exactly was he getting himself into? Luc was supposed to punish those who did the kinds of things Ronnie had just done. He doubted very much that she would have gone that overboard without provocation, but that didn’t excuse her behavior. Except that Luc had no intention of punishing her. He wanted to protect her, which was not something he normally felt. In fact, he wasn’t sure he liked that feeling one bit.

  Luc grabbed the first aid kit and went back into the office. He could have used his powers to heal her injuries, but she was fully conscious and would question it. Since he wasn’t supposed to be using any devil magic, as Harley liked to call it, to interfere with the game, or out himself as Satan, he figured he better take care of her injuries the old fashioned way. Besides, if he kept healing her injuries, she was bound to notice something was up, and there was a part of him that thought she deserved just a little of that pain anyway.

  “Is he…” Her eyes came up to Luc’s, all wide brown saucers, and her bottom lip quivered. She was afraid and Luc knew it was a foreign emotion for her. It wasn’t hard to see she favored the tough girl role and when she couldn’t hide behind that, she didn’t know how to handle it.

  “I don’t know. I sent Harley out to see about him.” Luc started cleaning off her shredded knuckles and wiping the splattered blood off her arms. “What happened out there?”

  “He was…” Her face went pale and she stopped speaking. She was in shock. Whether it was because of something that happened, or from what she had done, he wasn’t sure, but she was clearly shaken up.

  Once she was cleaned and bandaged, Luc tried again to talk to her. “Ronnie, you have to tell me what happened. I can’t help if I don’t know the details.”

  She was about to open her mouth, when the office door opened and Harley slipped in.

  “He’s alive. The ambulance just picked him up and the police are already sniffing around. Hopefully he makes it.” Harley glanced down at Ronnie’s torn up fists. “Good thing there was a lot of blood, because yours is probably all over the scene. Hopefully they don’t check too hard.”

  Ronnie gasped. “I’m going to be arrested. What will happen to the kids? What am I supposed to do now?”

  “No one knows you were there. Just calm down for now and tell me what happened.” Luc rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand, cheating just a little, and used his power to bring her anxiety down a notch.

  “He was bothering me, just being a normal jackass, but then he grabbed me, and I don’t know. I snapped.”

  Luc imagined the asshole needed a good beat-down, but nothing like what he got. Or maybe he did. Tired of waiting for the story, Luc used his powers to look into Ronnie’s head and see the replay straight from her own memory. His fists tightened and he closed his eyes to avoid Ronnie seeing any changes in them from his anger.

  She tried to get up, but Luc held her in place. “Oh my God. What did I do?”

  Luc clenched his teeth at the phrase. He couldn’t imagine why humans were so keen on using his father’s name every time they got excited or upset.

  “And I’m supposed to start work. Now you’re going to fire me. I need this job. If the social worker finds out the only job I have is cage fighting, I’ll lose the kids for sure.” Tears streaked down her face before Luc could respond. They came in fast rivulets, burning a path down her cheeks like it was the first time they’d fallen in some time. “What am I saying? I’m going to jail. Of course I’m going to lose them.”

  Unable to keep her in place any longer, Ronnie stood and started pacing the room. Luc wanted to fix things for her, take away her pain and bring her peace. But this was something she was going to have to get through. He might be able to help, but he couldn't erase what happened.

  Her tears continued to fall and Luc led her back to the chair to calm down. It was the only thing he could do for her in that moment.

  If only she would stop crying.

  Luc was used to women crying. Hell, he was used to all sexes crying. In his line of work, punishing the wrongdoers, he had ample opportunities to witness tears. But he got the impression that tears didn’t come easy for her. No, Ronnie Falcon didn’t seem like she was easily upset. And even if she was, she probably kept it buried. Deep. Those were the ones that when the dam did finally break, it broke big time.

  “I’m not going to fire you.” Luc sat next to her and took her hands in his.

  “Why the hell not?” Her eyes shot up and searched his with disbelief.

  “Everyone makes mistakes, sweetheart. I don’t see how what just happened affects you waitressing. But I’m not going to have you start work looking like this.” Luc frowned at her bandaged hands. “Harley is going to take you home. You are going to get some rest, stay home, and I’ll see you back here on Monday for your first shift.”

  Ronnie nodded as Harley led her toward the door and the two disappeared. Luc ran his hands through his hair and let out a long, slow breath. He might need to rethink this whole game thing. While he was no stranger to violence, he might not want out-of-control anger in the woman he chose as a partner.

  “You let her off easy, Lucifer.” Azrael appeared from thin air and leaned against the door frame, with his arms folded over his chest. The smirk on his face told Luc that his brother was more amused than condemning.

  “Would you prefer I throw her into the pits of Hell? Maybe toss her to the hellhounds? It was one fight, one that was instigated by the bloody asshole en route to the hospital.”

  “Come on now, Lucifer. You know that he didn’t deserve what she did to him. The woman is off balance. What she did is exactly the kind of thing that earns punishment from you in hell. I think all this talk of love and soul mates is
making you soft.”

  There was that word again.

  Luc was getting sick of being accused of getting soft.

  “She beat up an asshole, whose intention was to assault her. I don’t see that as a problem.” Luc pulled open a drawer and retrieved a bottle of bourbon with two glasses. He poured each of them half a glass and handed one to Azrael. “His intentions were not gentlemanly.”

  “Brother, she nearly killed the man. He might not make it. Father wouldn’t be happy with that, or with you for allowing her to go unpunished.”

  It was unlike Az to lecture Lucifer about their father, but he wasn’t wrong. Not that Luc cared one bit.

  “People who do much worse than that, go unpunished every day, Az. And last I checked, I was in charge of the punishment department, so I’ll dish it out, or not, as I see fit. If Father doesn’t like it, he can deny her access upstairs. What business is it of yours anyway?”

  Azrael took the drink down in one gulp and motioned for Luc to pour him another. “Just looking out for you, brother. That girl is trouble.”

  Az looked out for himself. Always did, always would. For some reason though, he had an interest in what was going on and Luc wanted to know why.

  “I’m sure that’s all it is. Don’t you have some recently departed to guide into the afterlife, or something?”

  Azrael was the angel of death, which sounded too badass for what he really did. Mostly, he was a tour guide, leading the deceased onto their path. Of course, he had an awful lot of help these days since the population had gotten out of hand, but he still held the hands of a select few when the time was right.

  “Slow week. Anyway, the lower angels have been rallying for more responsibility and who am I to turn them down.” Az shrugged.

  “In other words, you’re lazy and are letting them do all the legwork.”

  “Who is taking care of things in Hell these days, Lucifer? You go back every day to personally dish out the punishment?” Az raised an eyebrow and finished his drink.

  If Luc didn’t cut him off, he’d drink the whole bottle. He enjoyed drinking far too much for an archangel. Now if only Luc could get his brother Michael to throw back a few shots of tequila or vodka, maybe he wouldn’t walk around like he had a stick up his ass all the time.

  “Hell is my domain, Az. It’s none of your concern. You have already made your opinion on what I’m doing clear, so fuck off.” Luc flicked his wrist at Azrael and sent him off into the abyss. Hopefully, he’d end up somewhere in the middle of a volcano, or the bottom of the ocean. Az never did like getting his perfect blond curls wet.

  Regardless of what Az, or their father thought, Luc had no intention of punishing Ronnie for what happened. She most definitely overreacted That asshole didn’t deserve the degree of ass kicking he received, but he was no innocent either.

  For some reason, Luc had a soft spot for Ronnie. He wanted to help her, not punish her. Did that mean he was falling for her? That she could be the one? He didn’t know, but what he did know was that he would do whatever he could to help her out of this mess.

  And he didn’t care who liked it.

  Not one bit.

  Chapter Seven

  “Is the poor bastard going to make it?” Joe Updike looked over the victim photos and cringed. Sometimes being a cop really sucked.

  “I don’t know. The doc said there was a lot of swelling. Even if he does, there may be brain damage. We’ll have to wait and see how he is in twenty-four hours.” Sarah Ward avoided the photos and took a sip off her thick sludge that the department called coffee. It was better than nothing, but Joe knew she wished she worked someplace that had one of those fancy espresso makers, or at least a Starbucks cart nearby.

  Joe shuffled some papers around to look like he was busy with work. For some reason, he just couldn’t get his head in the game. Something was missing, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what it was. Maybe he was just lonely. Guys his age didn’t have a line of ladies beating down their door, but he knew he could find a little company if he’d wanted it. Maybe it was something else.

  “Hey Ward, did you ever check the bodega on the corner before the alley?” He knew she hadn’t. She would have come to him right away with whatever she found, or didn’t find. He just wanted an excuse to talk, break the silence from his thoughts.

  “Not yet, but after the anonymous caller, I won’t be letting that one slip. If there’s footage of who went down that alley with him, we might just see who our attacker is.” Ward shoved her files into her bag and sat on her partner’s desk. “It’s weird that we got a call like that so soon after the attack. Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah. Whoever it was must either know something, or have seen something.” Joe propped his boots up on the desk next to Ward. They’d been partners for over five years and they worked well together. In the beginning, Joe was against having a female partner, but Sarah was the best he could hope for. She really knew her shit and he wouldn’t trade her for the world. He just didn’t need anyone thinking anything was going on between them. It had taken him this long just to be able to walk down the hall with her and not get looks from some of the older guys who’d been around before.

  “Unless they’re in on it too.”

  “Or that.”

  “Why don’t we head down there now?” Sarah hopped off the desk and grabbed her jacket. She was always ready to jump on a new lead. Years of job funk hadn’t worn her down yet. “Then we can stop by the hospital on the way back to see if there’s any news.”

  “Yeah, okay. We’re gonna nail this asshole. One way, or another. I can feel it.” Joe was trying to convince himself just as much as Sarah. He wanted to mean it more for her though. Not that he didn’t want to solve the case. He definitely did. But she wanted it more and he wanted to give her that, at least.

  Ward took one last sip off her coffee, then tossed it in the trash. Joe wanted to be the type of partner that brought in fresh lattes in the morning, saving his partner from lousy java all day, but he was always afraid he’d give her the wrong idea. Not that he had any inappropriate feelings about her. If anything, he thought of her more like a daughter. Maybe that was the whole problem.

  He didn’t need a repeat of the last time.

  Their focus needed to be on the case.

  “Updike, you coming?” Sarah stood in the doorway motioning for Joe to follow.

  “Yeah. Yeah, right on it.” Joe tossed his own coffee into the trash with Ward’s and headed out the door.

  They’d follow the leads, dead or not. Whatever it took to solve this case and keep that excitement in her eyes. His had died a long time ago, but Sarah, she was a different story. He would do what he could to keep her in that place for as long as possible.

  ***

  After the way she’d left things with Lizzie, Ronnie was a little worried that her call would be sent straight to voicemail. Liz never held a grudge for too long, but she usually needed some time to cool off when she was pissed. Proving that she was definitely the better friend, Lizzie answered on the first ring and immediately asked what was wrong.

  There was a lot Ronnie wasn’t sure of, especially these days, but one thing she knew for certain, she didn’t deserve how wonderful of a friend Lizzie was. Although she was more than grateful that she had her anyway.

  Even though Lizzie lived fifteen minutes away, she’d made it to Ronnie’s house in ten. All it took was Ronnie saying she was in trouble and her friend was out the door, phone in hand, getting the details as she drove. Anything bad between them that had been leftover was forgotten.

  “So you really almost killed the guy?” Lizzie’s eyes were wide, but she tried to keep the shock under control.

  “Not intentionally.” Ronnie let out a long slow breath and continued. “At least it didn’t start that way. He was following me, being an asshole, but then he grabbed me and… I snapped.”

  She left out the details about how the guy was groping her, his intent clear, because i
t didn’t matter. She really had almost killed him and that was overkill for what he’d done. Any self-control, or sense of right or wrong, had left her the moment he tried to shove his hand down the front of her pants. If it wasn’t for Luc showing up and physically stopping her, she would have ended him for sure.

  Not even that asshole deserved what she’d done to him.

  There was a long silence that hung in the air like thick smoke. Ronnie was afraid to break it, but more afraid of what her friend was thinking. She kept her head down and her hands in her lap, waiting for Lizzie to gather her thoughts.

  “What is up with you? I’ve never seen you so out of control. And for you, that’s saying a lot.” Lizzie pulled her knees up and faced Ronnie on the couch. The corners of her lips pulled down and Ronnie could physically feel the concern coming off her friend. Even after how she'd treated her the other day. Or maybe that was just disappointment.

  It only made her feel more guilty.

  “I don’t even know. It was like I was completely out of my body, just watching from the outside. But I didn’t want to stop myself either. I wanted to keep going until he was dead, Liz. I wanted him dead.” Her voice trailed off at the end to almost a whisper, but the impact of her realization wasn’t weakened. Knowing she wanted to actually kill that man, hit her like a ton of bricks. What had she become?

  Liz sighed. “Remember that time in like sixth grade, when you got into it with that little bitch. What was her name?”

  “Mary.”

  “Right. Mary. You were like a rabid dog. It took two teachers to pull you off her.”

  Ronnie swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. “She transferred schools after that. I think if she hadn’t been the one to start it, I’d have been in a shit ton more trouble. Maybe even juvie. Not that I didn't deserve it.”

  Liz snorted and poured them both another glass of tequila. “She deserved that eye patch. She was a bully.”