Angel of Death

by S. Massery

  Angel of Death

  Broken Mercenaries, #2

  S. Massery

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by S. Massery

  All rights reserved.

  Editing by Studio ENP

  Proofreading by Paige Sayer Proofreading

  Cover Design by S. Massery

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Also by S. Massery

  Fallen Royals Series

  Wicked Dreams

  Wicked Games

  Wicked Promises

  Vicious Desire

  Wild Fury

  Cruel Abandon

  * * *

  Broken Mercenaries Series

  Blood Sky

  Angel of Death

  Morning Star

  * * *

  Contemporary Romance

  Something Special

  Something Sacred

  * * *

  For more information, please visit my website,

  http://www.smassery.com/books

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Part I

  1. HADLEY

  2. GRIFFIN

  3. HADLEY

  4. GRIFFIN

  5. HADLEY

  6. GRIFFIN

  7. HADLEY

  8. GRIFFIN

  9. HADLEY

  10. GRIFFIN

  11. HADLEY

  12. GRIFFIN

  13. HADLEY

  14. GRIFFIN

  15. HADLEY

  16. GRIFFIN

  17. HADLEY

  18. GRIFFIN

  Part II

  19. HADLEY

  20. GRIFFIN

  21. HADLEY

  22. GRIFFIN

  23. HADLEY

  24. GRIFFIN

  25. HADLEY

  26. GRIFFIN

  27. HADLEY

  28. GRIFFIN

  29. HADLEY

  30. GRIFFIN

  Epilogue

  Also by S. Massery

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For Rebecca

  Your perseverance is inspiring.

  Author’s Note

  Suggested Reading Order:

  Blood Sky

  Angel of Death

  Morning Star

  TBA (coming 2021)

  Thanks for reading! If you’d like to stay up to date with my news, please find all that information here!

  xoxo,

  Sara

  Part I

  1

  HADLEY

  My front door is unlocked, which should’ve been an indication that something might be wrong. I push open the door anyway, letting the screen bang behind me, and drop my purse on the counter.

  I walk through the dark apartment, trailing my fingers on the walls, until I get to my bedroom. At this time of night, it’s easier to just let the moonlight guide me. I’m exhausted enough that I could fall straight into bed, and after the day I’ve had, no one would blame me for passing out in my clothes.

  Not that anyone would see. I’ve been living alone since I was eighteen.

  The first thing my attention catches on in my dimly lit room is the feather, perfectly placed on my pillow. The second is the shadow that flies toward me, slamming me against a wall. My body rattles with the impact. A large hand covers my mouth, and I inhale a whiff of nicotine and whiskey.

  The man leans in close to me. I turn my head to the side to avoid looking at him. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? Not look at intruders, attackers—better chance of survival. My gaze pauses on the lamp knocked off my desk. There’s paper scattered across my rug.

  I’m too scared to move as he inspects me, his breath hitting my cheek. The terror is paralyzing.

  My eyes go back to the feather, and hope floods through me. My laugh is unexpected, loud when I should be silent.

  The intruder towers over me. If I were to glimpse his face, it would probably be grizzled. Scarred. Wrinkled. All the things that bad guys are intrinsically wired with to warn the general public away from them. And yet—nope—the fear drains out of me.

  “Stop laughing,” the man says, using his hand on my mouth to bump my head on the wall.

  I finally glance at him, and he drops his hand away from my mouth.

  “You’re so fucking screwed,” I say.

  His eyes widen.

  I focus on the way he glares at me like I’ve done something wrong. I raise my eyebrow. “Best to leave before… Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to find out anyway.”

  I successfully spook my attacker. I don’t even know where this bravado has come from.

  He backs away from me, his shoes crunching over whatever he broke, and shakes his head. “We’ll be back. This isn’t over.”

  It’s almost miraculous that he just... leaves. He walks straight out of my room, down the hall, and through the front door. I contemplate following him and locking it, then decide against it. He broke in when it was locked. What good would relocking it do?

  I pick my way around the room, then sweep my hand across the bedspread. Pieces of glass tinker to the floor, but it’s just another thing I’ll have to clean tomorrow.

  I hesitate, then fold back the blankets. A shiver runs through me. I sit and yank off my shoes, unwilling to turn on a light and survey the damage. I should take care of this before I go to sleep. Sweep the rug free of debris and right the lamp and check to make sure that nothing else is broken or stolen.

  The fact that someone was in my house should unnerve me, but it doesn’t. I’m just so damn tired.

  I lift the feather from my pillow and contemplate the gravity of my situation.

  When I was younger, I had a guardian angel.

  He watched over me, and I… I tried not to fall in love with him. There were countless times he came to my rescue, and even when he moved away, he always came back for me—until he stopped.

  Time roughens memories. The feather is his signal—he’s coming to see me tonight. Part of me wants to bar the doors, and another sick piece of me is eager. A ball of nerves spins in my stomach.

  I stare at the window until exhaustion drags me down, and I set the feather on the edge of my desk. It’s inky black, long and soft, and I keep my gaze trained on it until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

  It feels like only minutes later that a hand sweeps the hair away from my face. Griffin Anders, my guardian angel, kneels next to my bed. His face is level with mine. I slip my hand out of the covers and cup his jaw, just to make sure I’m not asleep. He’s smooth-shaven and completely solid beneath my fingers. Over the last five or so years, I’ve dreamt of this. Of him coming back. Each time I woke up, it broke my heart a little more.

  “Hi,” I whisper. It hurts to look at him and see the changes in his face. His eyes are dark—not just the color, a deep brown I always thought I could fall into—but the way they smolder at me… it’s too familiar after so much time apart.

  I pull my hand away from his face, retracting it back against my chest.

  “Hi.” He offers me a sad smile.

  I scoot backward in the bed until my shoulder blades hit the wall, and he takes the invitation. He kicks off his shoes and crawls in beside me, drawing me closer. His arm sneaks under my pillow. His legs intertwine with mine. His hand traces an invis
ible pattern up and down my arm.

  He sighs, and I close my eyes again. My heart threatens to burst when his lips brush my forehead.

  Over the years, his lips have touched almost every inch of me. My forehead, my cheeks, my nose. My shoulder. My knuckles. My ankle, once, when I sprained it playing soccer. But he’s never kissed my lips, my throat, my breasts. I would have burned up inside if he touched me how I wanted him to.

  “Are you all right?” he asks.

  “I scared him off.” I can’t help myself and wriggle closer. My nose touches the column of his throat, and I feel him swallow. “I figured you might catch him.”

  He always knew how to scare off the bad guys.

  “I did,” he says.

  Any remaining nerves fly away like birds rushing into the night. I can see them go.

  “How long are you back?” That’s always the question, balanced on a razor-wire of hope and caution.

  Over the years, Griffin has danced in and out of my life. He lived with my family when we were children, and then he moved one town over, in with a new family. Our house was a respite for new foster children on my mother’s docket, and once they were ready—and once proper arrangements were made—they went to real foster homes.

  Most of the kids who passed through our house were eager to leave us behind. But Griffin didn’t forget about me, and he certainly never let me forget him.

  “So many questions,” he says, his fingers flexing on my skin.

  I never knew a way to be closer to someone. I never knew there was so much electricity in a single touch. I try not to think about that as a shiver coasts up my spine.

  “Sleep, Hadley.”

  As hard as it is to resist—staying awake with Griffin would be so much more satisfying—sleep drags me under once again.

  When I wake up, he’s gone. I stare at the black feather on my desk, next to the righted, albeit cracked, lamp. The sun streams in through the window, revealing an echo of the wreckage of last night.

  Slowly, I pick myself up and put my feet on the floor. The rug that normally covers most of the hardwood floors has been rolled up and leaned on my closet door. The lamp I was sure was smashed is on the dresser. The papers that were scattered around the floor are in a haphazard pile on my desk chair.

  It brings a smile to my lips. A twisted, sick smile, because it means he cares.

  I run my finger along the feather, careful not to damage it, and my heart beats harder.

  Foolish, I tell myself, as I always do. It’s one thing to let Griffin into my home. Into my bed. It’s another entirely to let him into my heart. It’s a shame that he’s been there all along, and there’s no erasing that.

  In the hall, I’m greeted with the smell of breakfast. Curiosity officially piqued—along with worry—I tiptoe into the kitchen. The sight of Griffin at the stove, flipping an omelet, makes me happier than I care to admit.

  Happy and queasy.

  I back away and rush toward the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before I lose the contents of my stomach into the bowl.

  Hands pull my hair back, and I groan.

  “You weren’t supposed to see that,” I mumble. Once my stomach stops rolling, I straighten and move to the sink.

  Griffin just watches me.

  He’s different in the day. When’s the last time I saw him in the light? His dark eyes threaten to pin me against a wall. He’s muscular. He looks… worried.

  “I’m okay,” I say after I rinse out my mouth and brush my teeth.

  “Okay,” he says.

  “Really.”

  “You weren’t drinking last night.”

  I raise my eyebrow. I should be used to it by now—the way he sees the things I don’t want him to see. I’ve been transparent to him since we were kids, and I hate it as much as I love it. That’s all kids want, after all: to be seen. And to have someone who fully understands you? Who knows your soul? It’s magical—until they crush you. And then it’s just pain.

  He shrugs.

  I go back toward the kitchen.

  “You moved,” he says.

  I grab a mug from the cabinet. He made a full pot of coffee, and I help myself.

  “Why?”

  “You’re full of questions,” I murmur, more accusatory than the same words he told me last night. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you—”

  I promised a long time ago not to ask questions. It was silly of me—just one of many, many foolish choices—because the questions haven’t stopped sprouting in my mind. Questions that Griffin refuses to answer.

  It’s almost like a game at this point. How many questions can Hadley get away with before Griffin shuts her down?

  Today, though, he just exhales. “Europe,” he says. “Then Seattle, then Salt Lake City, then Las Vegas. Now, New York. After this? Back to Europe.”

  I whistle. It’s a soft sound. Full of sarcasm. And maybe a little bit of hurt. He left me behind. When we were younger, we dreamed of faraway places. He moved, but I took him coming back for me as a positive sign. A fucked-up part of me thought he would steal me away from this dreary town. We planned to start our life together as adults.

  And then he disappeared, and he didn’t come back. I can barely recall the last time I saw him, the last time he snuck into my bed and held me close.

  “Aren’t you the world traveler?” I ask. Five years ago, you left me to my own personal hell.

  That’s a lifetime.

  That’s an eternity.

  That’s enough time for a girl to fall out of love with a guy, no matter how many forehead kisses he bestows upon her on his return.

  I, Hadley Quinn Weatherly, have fallen out of love with Griffin Anders.

  I can tell you why, too.

  Because no matter how long he stays…

  He always leaves.

  2

  GRIFFIN

  It was a little twisted that I watched to see what Hadley would do with the man in her apartment. I wasn’t expecting the violence from him, although I should’ve. Usually, I can read men like that.

  I wasn’t expecting her to start laughing, either. But her gaze locked on that feather, and my heart leapt. She knew my signals, even after five years away. And she knew the fate of that man would be far worse if he hurt her.

  I assume she told him as much, because he couldn’t leave fast enough. He looked over his shoulder the whole way to his car, and I had to wonder what sort of story Hadley fed him. My gun in the back of his neck wasn’t what he expected. Then again, he shouldn’t have parked across the street from her house.

  Rookie mistake.

  We drove into the woods, and I made him get out. He didn’t show fear. He barely trembled. But when he turned and got a look at me, he flinched.

  Some demons aren’t easy to hide.

  I got back to her apartment, but she was already sleeping.

  Hadley asleep is my favorite sight. Her face is relaxed, her breathing is even. She seems serene. Awake, she’s still beautiful—I’m not saying she isn’t—but her face is pinched with worry.

  Somewhere between now and the last time I saw her, something crept in and stole a piece of her light.

  It was my responsibility to guard, and the guilt that settles in my bones is ice-cold. Until I climb into bed and wrap myself around her, that is. Then the guilt recedes. Everything else falls away.

  She’s always been my sanctuary. Pieces of time snatched away from the Navy, from Scorpion Industries, from life itself. She’s my harbor in the storm, calling to me no matter how far I drift.

  The breakfast is ready, but the sight of it—or maybe me, in her kitchen—chases her away.

  “Aren’t you the world traveler?” she asks.

  I almost flinch.

  She once told me of her dreams of Paris. The flat overlooking the Seine. The delicious food. The Eiffel Tower. I went and got that dream, and then I got too caught up in my own shit to go get the girl, too.

  “You should come with me
,” I say.

  She raises an eyebrow. “You missed a lot of my life. Huge chunks of it. How do you know you like me enough to take me across the Atlantic?”

  I shake my head. “Our souls know each other. Isn’t that enough?”

  She stares, and it occurs to me that this is the first time I have seen her during the day in almost five years. Somewhere along the way, my visits became nocturnal. She turned into a woman faster than I could blink.

  If I could, I’d go back and spend all of my minutes, all of my seconds, with Hadley. I’d write down every little thing we ever did or said, because when we’re old and gray, memories won’t be enough. Our minds will fray, but I’ll still need to relive the way she makes me feel.

  “I don’t know,” she answers.

  I straighten. Her indecision shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it does.

  “I’m leaving tomorrow morning.” I cross through the living room and lift my bag, hoisting it up on my shoulder.

  “Where are you going?” she calls after me.

  I look back at her. “To see Judge.”

  I was only with Hadley’s family for a short time—four months—while they found me a permanent foster family. Judge was the one who took me in. We never liked the term foster parent, so we came up with our own language for it. He and Hadley are my only connections to this godforsaken town. When I got the call that he had been attacked, I flew straight here. I snuck into the hospital to see him last night—he was asleep—then went straight to Hadley’s. Just in time to catch a robber.