Graham, Jan - Finding Angel [Wylde Shore] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)

by Graham, Jan

  As he got level with the outside laundry wall, Steve’s hope of a best-case scenario was dashed. There was the clatter of something falling, and Steve heard a female voice say “shit.”

  So much for a few cold beers and a laugh tonight. He stood silently, waiting to hear what Angel’s next movements would be.

  Angel eventually came out of the house and into the backyard to get washing off the line. Steve took it as the perfect opportunity to slip along the back of the house and duck inside.

  Who needs a key when the Angel of the house is surrounded by a wall of sheets hanging on the line? He chuckled quietly as he entered the house and planned his next move.

  Steve decided it was more likely that Angel would put the basket down on the dining table when she walked inside, so he leant against the end of the kitchen island and waited. Angel would have to walk to the end of the table in the dining alcove before she spotted him. She would be clear of the door, and Steve would have plenty of time to catch her if she tried to run. Hopefully, the fact he was in the house would be enough of a shock to freeze her in place for a while so he could calmly convince her to sit down and talk with him.

  As Angel placed the basket down on the table, the phone rang, making her quickly turn and run toward it. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as Angel plunged straight into Steve’s arms. Steve nearly let her go when he heard the same scream of terror that had haunted his dreams. Despite his best efforts to calm her, she continued to fight him. She stopped moving briefly as Christian’s voice sounded over the answering machine.

  “Hi, Angel, I’m coming home early. We’re going to have a guest for a few days…”

  Steve didn’t hear the rest of the message. It faded abruptly as he felt Angel’s knee slam up into his groin. As he slumped to his knees, Angel dived over him, heading to the phone. He grabbed her leg, and she stopped momentarily to shake free of his grip. Even though Angel was free, she had fallen onto one knee as she reached for the phone. Steve took her distraction with the phone as his opportunity to move. He dived against her, tackling her to the ground, his body completely covering hers. Once the phone was in her hand, Angel started screaming Christian’s name as she swung the phone at Steve’s head. It slammed into Steve’s face with enough force to make his eyes water while she continued to scream.

  The fact that he kept saying, “It’s okay. It’s only me. It’s Steve,” didn’t seem to register as Angel fought him. He hoped she couldn’t feel the gun he wore because if she got hold of that Steve would probably be a dead man.

  “Jesus Christ, Angel. Stop fighting me,” Steve yelled

  Steve managed to grab Angel’s hands and held them over her head. His body pressed against her, holding her still.

  “Angel, look at me. Look at me. It’s Steve.” All Steve could think about was getting Angel to stop screaming. He knew holding her still was probably making it worse, but he didn’t want her to run.

  “Please don’t kill me. Adrian said he’d tell you not to. Please call Adrian.”

  Angel’s voice was hoarse from screaming. Tears were flowing down her face as she pleaded for her life and continued to struggle underneath him. Steve doubted if it had even registered who she was struggling with as blinding fear consumed her face. At least he knew now why she was so scared, she had obviously heard about the bounty, why else would she mention Hastings?

  “I’m not here to kill you, Angel. It’s Steve.” He tried to speak calmly, but with aching balls and his eye swelling shut by the second, it was hard to maintain his cool.

  The phone rang again, and Steve saw the handset sitting just above Angel’s head. He quickly secured both of Angel’s wrists in one hand before reaching over her head to grab the phone. He nearly dropped it as he felt Angel’s teeth sink into the underside of his arm.

  “Son of a bitch,” Steve cursed as he broke free of her bite and brought the phone to his ear.

  “Steve, what the fuck are you doing to my woman?” Christian screamed into the phone.

  “She seems to think I’m here to kill her, and by the way, Christian, your woman is the one I’ve been searching for over the last few weeks. Talk to her.” Steve held the phone up near Angel so she could hear Christian’s voice. She had stopped struggling as much, and her screams had lessened to make room for her consistent sobbing.

  “Angel, it’s Christian. It’s all right, and Steve is a friend. Angel, it’s okay. You’re safe. He’s not there to hurt you.” Steve hoped Christian could calm Angel down. What he was saying appeared to be working as Angel slowly stopped struggling beneath him. “Angel, please tell the man who has hold of you to let you go. Say, ‘Christian said let me go please.’”

  “He’s going to kill me. He has a gun to kill me,” Angel sobbed.

  “He’s not going to kill you. Now just say, ‘Christian said let me go please’.”

  “Christian said to let me go please,” Angel said quietly as she tried to stop crying.

  Steve release his grip on her wrists slowly and gently eased back from her. Angel managed to twist out from under him. She grabbed the phone and began to crawl away, clunking the handset on the floor as she did before ending huddled against the kitchen wall.

  “Angel, has he let you go?” Christian asked.

  “Whatever you said, she’s nodding,” Steve yelled

  Steve kept a close eye on Angel as she huddled against the wall. He was shocked to see a small cut on Angel’s cheek and a red mark surrounding it that was rapidly turning into a deep, dark, purple bruise. Steve saw a smear of blood on one handle of the kitchen cabinet.

  I’m dead. He looked over at Angel, who was still nodding and crying softly. As Angel held out the phone, Steve carefully took it from her hand.

  “It’s Steve. Are you still there?”

  “Yeah, just sit with her and try to keep her calm. I’ll be home soon. I’ll call Daniel as well. I don’t know who will make it first, but I’ll fill him in.”

  “Tell Daniel to bring medical supplies. We’re looking at a black eye, maybe a fractured cheek bone, bruising on the face, a cut on the cheek, crushed balls, probably fractured cock, and a pretty severe bite where blood was drawn.”

  “Jesus, Steve, what did you do to her?” Christian did not sound happy.

  “Don’t worry, buddy, they are all my injuries barring the cut on the cheek and bruise. I’m the one who needs the TLC here.” Steve tried to sound nonchalant, but he couldn’t stop staring at Angel’s cheek.

  “You have a snowball’s chance in hell of any TLC if she is hurt, man.” Steve heard the phone disconnect.

  Angel looked over at Steve as he leant against the kitchen island, holding the phone in his hand. He wondered what she was thinking as her gaze flicked over the phone still in his hand, then his face. There was a crack along the back of the handset from where Angel had hit him with it. He could feel his eye was swelling and it was partially closed. Steve imagined there probably was bruising as well. Angel sat biting her lip nervously and looking at the mess that he used to call a face.

  “Can I get you an ice pack for your face?” Steve finally broke the silence.

  “For your eye, yes, I think there’s one in the freezer,” Angel replied.

  Angel stood up and walked around to the freezer. Steve stood up cautiously. He hadn’t been in this much pain for a long while. Once Angel had an ice pack wrapped in a towel, she handed it to Steve. Shortly after, she passed Steve a fairly large bag of frozen peas and a few ice cubes wrapped in a paper towel.

  “The ice cubes are to put under your arm for the bite. I don’t know if you need to ice in between your legs. But that bag of peas should be all right, shouldn’t it?” Angel blushed.

  “What about you?” Steve asked. “Your cheek.” Steve realised that Angel didn’t seem aware that she had hurt herself. A puzzled expression filled her face and she raised her hand to feel the moisture on the side of her cheek.

  “Oh, I didn’t feel it.” Angel casually tore off a pie
ce of paper towel and wiped at the blood.

  “May I?” Steve moved toward her slowly. He moistened the paper towel Angel had in her hand, folded it, and gently dabbed away the blood.

  “I’m sorry for hurting you, but I didn’t know it was you. And then you jumped on top of me, and I was too scared to even look at you.” Angel looked embarrassed.

  “Don’t apologise. You know me, I act before I think sometimes. Today is a perfect example. Will we sit on the sofa?”

  Steve grabbed another handful of ice cubes from the freezer and wrapped them in more towelling before he followed Angel to the sofa. Once she was seated, he placed the pack of ice cubes on her cheek. Steve sat in the corner of the sofa and draped his various injuries with the remaining ice. He probably looked comical, a large pack of peas nestled in his groin and his head resting on the back of the sofa with an ice pack covering one side of his face and the other ice cubes wedged between his underarm and the side of his chest.

  “Will those peas freeze your sperm?” Angel asked causing Steve to laugh loudly.

  “Well, if they do freeze, I’m sure they’ll survive. After all, isn’t that what they do with IVF programs, frozen sperm in test tubes?” Steve continued to chuckle as he answered. “Anyway, the freezing will hopefully ease the concussion you inflicted on the little buggers.”

  Angel offered to make Steve a drink, but he insisted that they both just sit on the sofa and nurse their respective injuries. As well as nursing his injuries, Steve also contemplated what would happen when his two friends arrived home. The scenarios that raced through Steve’s mind were definitely not pleasant.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  As Daniel rushed to the house, he had no idea what he would find. All he really knew was there were injuries. Knowing Steve as he did, he was sure any damage to Angel would have been unintentional, but the thought of her being hurt didn’t sit well with him. When he entered the living room, he came to an abrupt halt. Steve and Angel were lazing on the lounge, covered in ice packs.

  “If I weren’t so worried about the two of you, I’d laugh.” Angel and Steve both jumped as Daniel spoke.

  “Fuck, man, doctors aren’t meant to scare people to death.” Steve winced as he tried to sit up.

  “Neither are cops.” Daniel glared at Steve. Steve look suitably shamed as Daniel turned to attend to Angel’s injuries.

  “Steve is worse than me. Look at him first,” Angel protested as Daniel took the ice pack away from her face.

  “Baby, you will always come first with me. I’m not in love with Steve, so that makes you my major concern.” Daniel leant forward and kissed her.

  “Besides that”—Christian glared at Steve as he entered the living room—“Daniel needs to know how bad your injuries are, so he knows how much pain to inflict on Steve when he examines him.”

  Angel smiled at Christian, who walked up to her and seated himself on the edge of the sofa. Daniel washed the cut on her cheek with saline and applied two small butterfly stitch strips to the wound. She looked like someone had drawn a big, purple circle on her cheek. Once she was patched up, Christian sat next to her and pulled Angel onto his lap, holding the ice pack back onto her cheek as Daniel turned his attention to Steve.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you so bad, Steve. I mean, you’re not my favourite cop in the world but…” Angel shrugged without finishing.

  “Yeah, I can see I’m no longer your favourite cop.” Steve grimaced as Daniel pressed around his eye.

  Angel smiled and snuggled against Christian chest.

  Daniel didn’t think that Angel had managed to break anything in Steve’s cheek or eye area, and the ice treatment had already started to minimise the swelling. The bruise sat in a crescent shape around the side of his eye socket, close to his temple. Steve let Daniel wash the bite with saline before dressing it. Angel had indeed broken the skin. Daniel commented on the depth of the injury indicating that he thought Steve may even be left with a scar.

  “So how is the crotch feeling? Do you want to drop them and give me a look?” Daniel chuckled as he looked at Steve.

  “Eww, I don’t want to look at Steve’s penis,” Angel stated.

  “Then don’t look.” Steve groaned as he stood up and undid his pants.

  Angel let out a scream and turned her face into Christian’s chest. Daniel wondered what Angel was thinking as she avoided looking at what was going on. He assumed she would realise the injury to Steve was fairly serious with comments that indicated the wound was not just nasty but fucking nasty. Steve described the pain as excruciating, even after the area had already been iced for a considerable period.

  “I’ve never seen balls that black. How hard did Angel knee you, man? That’s just vicious,” Christian commented.

  “Well, put it this way, if I’d had an X-ray straight after she impacted, the doc here would have thought I had four kidneys.” Steve motioned to Daniel as he replied.

  “Ouch.” Christian laughed.

  “Well, all you can do is to continue to ice the area and rest, not a lot of moving around for the next few days. I’ll have another look as the swelling starts to subside in a few days,” Daniel stated.

  “Yeah, but no permanent damage, right, Dan? I mean, my guys are still going to work like a charm once they go back to normal colour?”

  “We should be able to tell in a few days if there’s been any bleeding in your testicles. Bleeding can lead to an infection of the testicular tube, called epididymis. So let me know if you develop a temperature or if you feel any lumps down there. You’re going to be in pain for a while though.” Daniel slapped Steve on the shoulder as he stood up.

  “Remind me never to make you mad enough to knee me in the nuts, baby,” Daniel commented casually.

  Angel began to cry.

  “She wasn’t mad, Daniel. She was terrified,” Steve snapped. “Angel, you did good, darling. You did what you had to do so you could get away from someone you assumed was here to hurt you. I’m proud of you.”

  “But I didn’t get away. I never could get away.” Angel sniffed as she tried to control her tears.

  Steve knew exactly what Angel was talking about, and it wasn’t what had happened this afternoon. Steve felt a chill run down his spine. Angel used to scream and fight every time Samuel hurt her. She never gave in without a struggle. A few times Steve thought Angel would have received fewer injuries if she had just let Samuel have his way. He finally decided, each time Angel fought Barnard, she was saving her soul and possibly her sanity. Resistance meant denial of Samuel. Angel guaranteed that Samuel took from her by force. She gave him nothing freely, and by doing that, Steve believed Angel was at least maintaining hope that one day she would win. There is never victory without a fight. Steve lowered himself onto the sofa.

  “So, let’s get talking about what we need to do to keep Angel safe.” Christian finally broke the silence that had descended over them all.

  “I don’t want to,” Angel stated defiantly, pushing away from Christian and climbing off his lap.

  Angel walked over to the kitchen and began filling the coffee machine. She didn’t look back at the three men sitting in the lounge room with confused expressions on their faces.

  “Don’t we need to fill Dan in on what’s been going on first?” Steve directed his question to Christian.

  “Christian did that over the phone this afternoon while we were driving home,” Daniel stated quietly “I’m up to speed on most of it.”

  “So you guys are okay about it all? You’re going to stick with Angel through this?” Steve asked.

  “Of course,” Christian and Daniel answered in unison, the emphatic statement ringing loudly through the room.

  “They love me, and I love them as well,” Angel stated as she placed a tray with four coffees and a plate of biscuits onto the coffee table. “But we don’t need to talk about anything. I’ll be fine.”

  Angel sat on the floor at the far side of the coffee table. She sugared and stirred t
he men’s coffees, placing each mug in the closest position of the coffee table to each of them. Angel then made her own coffee and sat facing them all silently.

  “Angel, you have a bounty on your head. If Steve could find you, then eventually other people will find you. We need to talk about what is the best way to keep you safe and alive until we can sort out what sort of testimony is applicable for you to give against Hastings.” Christian’s tone was stern.

  “No to all of it,” Angel said as she picked up a biscuit and dunked it in her coffee. “And Steve didn’t find me. He came across me by chance while visiting two friends.”

  “That’s not true, Angel. Before I even pieced together stuff Daniel and Christian had told me about meeting a new woman, I already had your general location. I know the bus route you travel on. I know the shops you go into at the mall. I even know what you ate for lunch yesterday, little lady, so don’t sit there smugly and believe you’re safe,” Steve snapped at her.

  “You don’t know what I ate for lunch yesterday. And I am not smug,” Angel bit back angrily.

  “Chicken schnitzel and salad, no chips thank you…Oh, and by the way, next time you go to Eat This Café and Meg or Barry asks if your brother found you…they’re referring to me.”

  “Bastard.” Angel glared at him.

  “For God’s sake, Angel, you’ve been wandering around like you don’t have a care in the world, not like a woman that could be killed at any second. I mean, Jesus, you didn’t even try to change your appearance,” Steve said angrily.