Angel

by Victoria Johns

  “I took some money from the Carnals.”

  “You fucking idiot!”

  “I didn’t have any choice. They weren’t protecting my father like Wolf promised, and now he’s been murdered.”

  “Well, you think you know someone,” I mumbled. “Everyone’s been looking for you. Why are you here? If the Sentinels were protecting you, the restraints and horror make up don’t make sense.”

  “I’m not being protected. I’ve been fucking kidnapped and beat up. Just like you, although not the beat up bit.”

  “Wait, what did you say?”

  “This would be a whole lot easier if I wasn’t tied to a fucking chair. We need to make a move.”

  “You said ‘beat up and kidnapped just like me’.”

  “Well clearly they haven’t kicked your ass across a warehouse,” he snarked, telling me the obvious.

  “Davis, focus! I haven’t been kidnapped. I’m here for my protection. Throttle is looking after me until the trouble dies down.”

  Davis started to bob up and down in his seat, laughing in a very unstable kind of way. “You’re the cleverest bitch I know. This is why I never try to fuck you. You’d kill me. But darling, you’re very much a prisoner here. The Carnals didn’t even have to drag you away. From what I hear, you walked away with them.”

  “The Carnals wouldn’t do that. Declan wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “No not that Carnal. The real fucking evil one, Razor, and his young apprentice. Both are twisted motherfuckers.”

  I bent down to look at him. I was a bit worried his beating had affected his brain and he was delusional.

  “Davis, you need to tell me what’s going on right now. This is Throttle’s family place. It’s Sentinels territory. We’re at war with the Carnals and this is a safe house.”

  “No, it really isn’t. I don’t know what bullshit you’ve been fed, but we need to get out of here.”

  “I’m confused,” I mumbled.

  Davis once again started to struggle against his tied wrists. “What’s not to understand? We were kidnapped the same day. I got taken to a warehouse and threatened heavily before being made to look like Frankenstein’s younger brother, while you’ve been here clearly having more fucking fun than me.”

  “Stop. I wasn’t kidnapped. I left with Throttle. I asked him to take me away and get me some space. My Sentinel brother kindly obliged and I’m here gaining some perspective on my fucked up life.”

  “Clever bastards, aren’t they? I disappeared three days before you. Snatched in the car park at the Palms. Caught with my fucking pants down, literally. You, you climbed on the back of Throttle’s motorcycle and let him take you. Easiest fucking kidnapping ever! Razor’s been making a play for Wolf’s presidency for years. He used me, you, and his psycho baby brother to do it.”

  “Brother?”

  “Keep up! Throttle! He was put in the Sentinels to keep tabs on you. They want the Sentinels club, too, and you were always the Prez’s weakest link. They realized their luck was in when they found out about you and Declan. Two birds and one stone! Now, can we go?”

  “Throttle’s a fucking Carnal?”

  “For fuck's sake! Yes. Connor Foster is out for revenge over the death of his father. There’s a family link with Razor, but we don’t have time for genealogy.”

  As the pieces began to slot together, I knew what he was saying was true. The puzzle was taking shape and I’d been an unwitting part, a crafted piece that had handed herself over without any fuss.

  My mind was spinning at a million miles an hour. “Sorry, Davis.”

  “No! No! No!”

  I quickly got the gag back into place. I couldn’t risk us moving right now. I had to plan.

  “I’ll get you out of this.” Davis fought against his wrists, his eyes pleading with him and his muffled noises telling me the same. “I need some time to come up with a plan. I won’t let them hurt you.”

  Looking at him and really hating myself in that moment, I grabbed the hood off the floor and pulled it over his head. I could hear him sniffing, trying to take in more oxygen, while I was trying not to cry.

  “I promise I won’t leave you here long. Trust me.” I squeezed his hand and when I went to pull away he did his best to keep a hold of me.

  Praying that I had enough time to figure out a way for us to make a run for it, I left.

  When I was ten years old I used to hear my fucked up momma say, ‘Men are either full of shit or a piece of shit.’ It was the one consistent thing she’d swear by as she hit the bottle, usually after she’d been used and abused by some lowlife.

  As I lay in bed thinking through everything Davis had told me and unable to sleep, I realized she was right and those were wise words. The true meaning was happening in my life right now in startling technicolor. In my heart, I knew Davis was telling the truth and that was that Throttle was a low down, deep seated, motherfucking piece of shit.

  How the fuck could he do that to my family?

  If I’d climbed out of bed last night, I would have found them hauling Davis out of a car and into the bunker, and this could have played out very differently. I could have ended up a prisoner in that place with him. Davis was also yet more proof that you never really knew someone. All these years he’d lied to me and duped me. I’d never known he had a connection to the Carnals.

  My night of planning boiled down to one simple thing: get some help here quickly, but doing it when Throttle had the only cell phone was going to be a challenge. I had to somehow separate him from it and try to make a call. I had to err on the side of caution now they had a hostage, and I didn’t mean me. Davis was a real life, barely breathing and bleeding one, which would no doubt have Throttle on his guard. I knew it was going to take some serious feminine skills to get the cell and the thought of how I had to do it made my skin crawl. I was going to have to make out with the man who’d been holding me prisoner. I couldn’t imagine what my mom and dad were going through. If I got Davis and me out of this I was going to make sure Throttle paid for that.

  I played it safe during the day and Throttle stuck around. I made nice with him and he seemed reluctant to leave me when I was in such a good mood. When dinnertime came, I had to get moving. Davis has been alone for another day without water and would be worsening.

  “Fancy a drink?” I asked him, already grabbing beers from the fridge before he could decline.

  “Sure, Angel.” His smile turned to surprise when I sat my ass down on the seat next to him. Being close to him made me want to vomit, but I had to do this. If he discovered my treachery, then I was done for.

  Acting coy—which was insane, I was never coy—I went for it. “I was thinking that tonight we could share the bed.”

  The spark of hope in his eyes was not to be missed. “Only if you’re ready.”

  I twirled a strand of hair around my finger and reached for his. I must have looked pathetic. “I can’t promise anything. I’d rather just get cozy and take it slow, rather than screw things up for good.”

  “It’ll be nice to just be near you. Whatever it takes for us to be together.” I couldn’t believe he was falling for this. Had he ever really seen the real me or was he just really desperate to get in my panties? “Slow it is.”

  I was so relieved he agreed. The thought having to do more to convince him was not a pleasant one. “That sounds perfect… Connor.” My use of his given name made him smile. He wanted me to want the real him, the real guy under the cut, not the biker. “I feel like a good spooning,” I joked.

  “I guess we can always work up to… forking then.” I sniggered and he burst out laughing. “I can’t believe I just came up with something so goddamn cheesy.”

  “Me neither. Hand over your man card. I deserve it more for my manly prowess.”

  “If I showed you my manly prowess it would knock you off your feet, literally.” Throttle wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  “Oh, the boy is bringing out his A game.” It was nice t
o be back to our jokey selves and for just a second I forgot that I was somewhere I shouldn’t be all because of him and what I was doing right now had an end game.

  “I sure am. You tired?”

  I started to worry that I’d taken things a little too far. “Yeah, but I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

  “I’ll cope. Anyway, there’s no saying you won’t take one look at what I’m packing and rethink your snail pace option.” Irritatingly, he waggled his brows again and it made me want to scream out that the only thing he was packing I was interested in was his cell.

  “I’m prepared to test your theory. However, you do realize my stubborn female gene has just kicked in.”

  “Challenge accepted.”

  When we’d finished our beers, he took my hand and led me to the bedroom like I was some virginal sacrifice.

  I undressed.

  He undressed.

  And when we were both down to nothing and we’d taken turns using the bathroom, we climbed into bed.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful, Angel,” he whispered as his fingers found my breast. “I could almost believe I had died and gone to heaven.”

  “You still could when my dad finds out what we’re doing,” I giggled. I couldn’t help reminding him of what he was doing, even if he didn’t know that I understood the real situation.

  “You’re right. I promised you we’d take this slow.”

  Throttle turned me over and wrapped himself around me, gently running a finger pad over my rib cage and then up to my breast. My heart hammered dangerously close to giving me away because I knew it was wrong. Wrong because he’d tricked me, wrong because I didn’t care for him and wrong because he wasn’t Declan. There was no shortness of breath because I was so excited; I just felt dirty. The more my brain wandered through what we were doing, the more I began to solidify in his arms.

  “Ssh, it’s okay. This is as far as we go tonight, I promise.”

  My exhale of relief was real. I wasn’t going to have to fake anything else tonight, but I also knew I couldn’t do this again. Tomorrow, I had to get out of here.

  I waited ages for him to fall asleep, forcing myself to recount lists of engine parts in my head over and over again so I didn’t crash before him. Thankfully, his nights of sleeping on the lumpy couch meant that when he did go, he was out like a light.

  After a bit of maneuvering, I managed to swap positions and end up on the right side of the bed, right next to his clothes. Thankfully, we were both slobs and had dumped our clothes on the floor in our ‘get naked’ challenge. I stretched out and dragged his heavy denim jeans to me, so I could reach the right pocket. My first attempt to get it out came with a load of loose change that I nearly dumped all over the floor, and after feeling my heart seize and stop, I carried on. After a few seconds, I palmed the beautiful item and climbed out of bed.

  “Baby?” he mumbled.

  “Go back to sleep. Just using the bathroom.”

  I waited until he turned away from me, unconcerned, and made a quick dash to the bathroom.

  After I’d closed the door and sat on the toilet, I pressed the screen and was thwarted by a request for a pin number. Not knowing how many attempts I had, I went with Throttle’s birthday first, then one, two, three, four, and then finally, tried my own birthday to be greeted with a bright light and a screen full of icons. As my heart raced, I wanted to sit and search through the phone and its messages just to see if Davis was wrong, but I knew I didn’t have the luxury of time.

  I quickly dialed some numbers and waited.

  “Unless you’re calling to tell me where she is—”

  “Dad, it’s me,” I whispered.

  “Oh, Angel. Thank fucking Christ. You okay? He hurt you?”

  “No, but I don’t have long.” I knew from his voice that everything Davis had told me was true. I honestly felt like crying in relief.

  “Tell me where you are.”

  “I can’t. I don’t know. They’ve brought Davis here. He’s in a bad way.”

  I heard my dad shushing a few voices in the background and confirming I was in one piece. “Okay, talk to Wolf for me. We’re gonna get you out of there.”

  “Fuck, Rosie.” He sounded hoarse with relief. “You doing okay?”

  Now the tears started to flow. I’d tried to block him out and hate him for what happened, but I couldn’t. He was locked deep in my heart. “I’m sorry I left with him. I was so mad at you.”

  “Stop crying, that’s old news. I need you to stay strong. Now, can you find the phone’s GPS settings? I want you to find them and read the numbers out to me.” Fumbling around with teary eyes and a snotty nose, I did what he asked and read a series of numbers and dots. “Good girl, you’re doing great. I need you to sit tight and wait for me. I’m coming to get you. And him.” His voice was ice laced with venom, and Declan and I knew he wasn’t referring to rescuing Davis. When he got his hands on Throttle, the result wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Dec,” I whimpered. “I don’t wanna hang up and go back to bed with him.” I jumped when I heard him roar down the phone, I’d said the wrong thing and the next thing I heard was sound of something breaking in the background.

  “Angel, Dec just needs a minute.” My dad was back on the phone. I knew I’d made things worse. “You need to delete this phone call from his call history and do your best to keep him there tomorrow. We’re coming to get you.”

  “I love you, Dad. I’m sorry about all this.”

  “Angel, stop talking. No time. Hang up, delete call and we’ll see you soon.”

  I went to confirm I would do all of that, but he’d already gone. My dad knew I’d stay on the line with him until the last possible second and that he’d have to be the one to pull the plug on our call. Sensibly, I knew it was better that he got the troops sorted and rallied rather than chatting with me.

  After deleting the call, I tiptoed back to the bedroom.

  “Hey, you okay?” Throttle was awake and sitting up in the darkness of the room. He was just visible in a beam of moonlight. I had the phone plastered between my palm and thigh as I climbed into bed and quickly shoved it under the mattress as I turned into the hug he was waiting for. I was so nervous I could feel a vein throbbing in my head.

  “I’m okay, just a bit… I don’t know.”

  “I know you’re missing the others, but if everything clicks into place, you’ll be home soon.”

  “We’ll be home soon.” I corrected.

  But Throttle didn’t answer, and as I waited for him to go back to sleep, I prayed he hadn’t heard me or noticed I’d been crying. As soon as he was out again, I replaced the cell in his jeans pocket.

  “Hey, Sleepyhead, wake up.” I was zonked flat-out, catching z’s when his voice penetrated my senses. “Last night was nice,” he whispered, moving the hair away from my face and onto the pile already all over the pillow.

  “Nice?” I stretched and yawned. “Nice describes kittens and bunnies, and little girls in pig tails.”

  “Hmmm, sounds like the stuff of dreams. A pretty little girl of ours, with curly pigtails, playing with a bunny rabbit.”

  His wishful thinking shocked me. “You’re kidding, right? We’ve only spooned. I could be a terrible lay. You could be a terrible lay. We could be completely incompatible.”

  “I doubt that. You’re hot. I’m gifted in the bedroom department and there’s no way that leads to incompatibility. But now you’re up, it’s breakfast time. Fancy going out for breakfast?”

  I watched as he pulled his jeans on and then patted his pockets. He acted like something was missing and for a minute and I panicked inside until I remembered that I did replace his phone, but then he relaxed when his palm felt the imprint of it.

  “Out? Like out?” I hadn’t expected this, but then he had Davis in a bunker. I wasn’t supposed to know about that. How else were he and Razor going to see to their prisoner if I was around? Suddenly, I felt like being difficult. “I dunno. The sun
is shining. It feels like a great lake kind of day.”

  “But you’ve been itching to go and explore the town.” Throttle was definitely surprised, if not a little bit stressed that I wasn’t playing along. The other reason I couldn’t leave was the call to my dad and Declan. If they came to rescue me, I needed to be here. I’d need to help them find Davis.

  “So, it’s safe now? I can go home?”

  “Uh… no… For fuck's sake, I’m trying to do something nice.” As with all our discussions, this one was headed in the same direction. I pushed a little and his temper came raging forward. It seemed to be his go-to method of dealing with me.

  “So, it’s not safe but you want me to leave. I’m confused.” My goal in spiking this argument was clear—make him lose it, get him to leave then so I would be clear to get Davis out, and wait. The problem was, the more his temper failed, the more the hellcat I really was enjoyed pushing him.

  “Give the bitch inside you a fucking rest for once, Angel.”

  There was no way I was standing for that. I hadn’t been that much of a bitch. I was asking reasonable questions.

  “You’re right. I think I will give it a rest.” I stomped out of bed and got dressed in a huffy mood.

  “What are you doing?” I ignored him. “Angel, don’t fucking ignore me.” I still ignored him. When I put my first foot in a sneaker, he knew. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “I am. I’m leaving. Fuck you and fuck your protection. I’ll be fine on my own.” My joy at pushing his buttons had firmly tripped into ‘getting out of hand’ territory, and admittedly, I didn’t mean to push him this much.

  “You aren’t leaving.”

  “I am not your fucking prisoner. I can go where the fuck I like and right now that is away from you. Go fuck yourself, Throttle.”

  I tried to push past him and he stopped me. I moved to try again and he pushed me back this time. Like the snarky bitch he said I was, I shoved him back. In fairness, Throttle didn’t start it or retaliate until I started to get pushy and aggressive. But with one swift slap to the cheek, he absolutely put an end to it. I was shocked at first, but that evaporated quickly and I was out of control when I swung a punch back at him. In my head, it was epic, Rocky Balboa style, but in reality, it was like a wasp had buzzed off his cheek and I knew my sprained wrist would hurt me more.