Independence: #2 Angel

by Karen Nichols

  “If you hurt him, I’ll never stop fighting you.”

  “If he’s dead, I’ll break you in a week,” he promised with a hard pull, their bodies moving as one down the damp sand.

  “Let me go,” she repeated with another thrust of the gun, the sound of the trigger clicking making him stop moving. She saw his hand lift, the gun in his fingers aiming and she knew without looking at what.

  “You don’t have the guts. You’re just what your step-mother claimed you to be. Weak and pliable,” he sneered, his eyes on her as his hand lifted. “You’ll be easier to deal with if he’s dead anyway.”

  “No!” Angel pushed the gun harder and closed her eyes. “Let me go.”

  “Stupid bitch…” he laughed at the same time the gun in her hand kicked hard, the explosion muffled by their jackets and the various sounds around them. People were shouting. She knows she heard the police lieutenant somewhere behind her. Colin’s voice was echoing inside her mind. Her name, over and over. It was like he was calling to her from the end of a very long tunnel.

  She’d find him.

  She’d find him, she ordered herself. She’d hit her head on something. How could she hit her head on something when she was being held against that pig, Leonard? Her head hurt and she really didn’t want to open her eyes.

  “Angel…look at me.”

  “No.”

  Laughter filtered down her tunnel.

  “I have the rest of his people rounded up. Not sure of the charges.” The Lieutenant’s voice. “But I know there will be a lot of them.”

  “Leonard?” Colin spoke quietly, softly, but she could hear him clearly.

  “Oh, god! I killed him! I…I…”

  “You did not kill him,” the Lieutenant said sternly. “You defended yourself. Period. Is that clear, Angel?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Damn Dom training,” Natalie Templeton mumbled testily. More laughter sifted through to her.

  “My head hurts.”

  “You managed to find the only large stone on the beach for a mile or so,” Colin answered. She sighed when his fingers stroked gently over her forehead. “Open your eyes, Angel.”

  “The EMT’s are on their way,” Crystal spoke from nearby. “I’m sorry, Angel. I don’t know how they snuck up on us. I was trying to keep you in front of me.”

  “Not your fault,” Angel answered, wincing and listening to the voice clear some in her ears. “I’m okay. He said he was going to kill you…”

  “He didn’t. I’m fine,” Colin assured her.

  “He had a gun…it was pointed at you…he said…said I’d be easier to deal with if you were gone,” she whispered painfully. Then everything seemed to finally crash back to the present and her arms flew up and around Colin’s neck in a tight hug.

  “I’m okay, honey. I’m okay now,” Colin assured her. His arms had answered hers immediately, trapping her close with his face buried in her throat. “We’re both okay.”

  “But…but…”

  “This one’s dead, LT,” a strange voice intoned with indifference.

  “Oh, god! I killed him!”

  “Shut up, you idiot,” Natalie growled. Angel almost jumped out of her skin when her voice came right next to Angel’s ear. “You did not kill anyone. There are half a dozen cops and civilians as witness that know beyond a doubt that you defended yourself against an armed man intent upon doing you harm. Do you understand me, Angel?” Silence filled the long moment on the beach. “I want a response, Angel.”

  “Yes. Yes…I understand. He was going to kill Colin. He…he would have hurt all of you…”

  “She’s shocky,” said the strange voice. “Let me give her a once over…”

  “I’m okay.”

  “She might need the hospital,” said a voice close to her wrist, a strong set of fingers surrounding it.

  “No. No…I don’t want a hospital. I want to go home,” she whispered through newly falling tears. “I just want to go home. Please. Please don’t leave me alone, Colin.”

  “Shh…no one is leaving you alone, Angel. I promise. Just let the man make sure you’re okay.” His hands moved gently to her shoulders and set her back on the hard packed sand, holding her in place until their gaze met. “I won’t let anyone take you off somewhere without me. Now…let the EMT check you over. You hit your head on the rock, Angel.”

  “It hurts,” she admitted, blinking at him and gazing through the fog of tears. “Are we safe?”

  Colin felt his heart shred at the shaking, fearful little voice.

  “We’re safe.”

  “I’ve arrested Elizabeth Morehouse, Angel,” Natalie Templeton paced the hard packed sand, her gaze on the screen of her phone in her hands. “As far as we can tell, neither your father or brothers were involved in this mess tonight. Our information says they had honestly written off Leonard once they were told the truth about him in Vianne’s report.”

  “You shouldn’t have gone off with her, Angel.”

  “She said she had people watching you. And my grandparents. I had to,” she whispered. “I can’t let anything happen to you or them. I can’t.”

  “It’s alright,” Colin soothed, his palm stroking over her head as she leaned into his arms. The EMT was behind her, gently prodding her scalp and dabbing at the blood.

  “She’s coherent and never lost consciousness,” the EMT said, sitting on his heels behind her. “I don’t think there’s a problem with her just going home. Ice might help and some over the counter pain killers. If the headache continues, take her to your doctor.”

  “Thanks,” Colin stood up and carefully helped her to her feet. “Angel…”

  “I’m okay. I can walk,” she said, blinking and looking around at the bright lights and collection of people who had come from the direction of the yacht. “The boat is sinking.”

  Crystal offered a little shrug from her side. “Yeah…well…I’m sure there was hull rot or…something…”

  “Thanks,” Angel said with the first hint of a grin. “Thank you for being there. Come over to the shop sometime for coffee and food.”

  “We can give you a lift back to the parking lot,” Crystal suggested.

  “I’d like to walk,” Angel answered but glanced up at Colin. “If it’s okay.”

  He continued to watch her, tightening his arm on her waist when she saw the black bag and the people collecting Leonard from the sand.

  “Walking is fine. I left the SUV in the parking lot of the marina and hitched a lift with Abe when he went to the meet area for his daughter.” He deliberately turned them away from the police and forensic people. “Don’t watch, Angel. He won’t be missed. The lieutenant told me his rats have already disserted the sinking ship. They have all the data of him and your…Elizabeth Morehouse talking to you and threatening you. She won’t be set free, Angel. Conspiracy to abduct along with a page of other charges will have her sent away for a long time.”

  “I used to try so hard to…to get her to like me. When I was little, I’d make things for her,” a soft laugh slipped free. “I knew she hated me, but I kept trying. Silly, huh?”

  “A child wanting a mother’s love. Nothing at all silly about it,” Colin told her softly. He couldn’t begin to put words to the relief inside him at the moment and listening to her helped reinforce the fact that she was with him. That some jealous, crazy woman hadn’t managed to take her away from him.

  “Will I have to see her? I don’t want to. I don’t want to see any of them.” She brought one hand up and swiped at the tears on her face, angry that they were there.

  “I don’t know, Angel,” Colin answered honestly. “There shouldn’t be a reason for you to be subpoenaed. There are more than enough witnesses, but it will depend on her defense attorney. I’ll be there with you.”

  “I try not to…but I can’t help think how much I’ve messed up your life lately.”

  “Go back to trying not to think about that, because it isn’t true,” Colin pulle
d a set of keys from the pocket of his jacket. “You didn’t do anything. All the people intent on involving themselves in your life are responsible for this, not you.”

  “That’s what I keep hearing,” she replied with a little laugh.

  “Then it obviously must be true,” he turned her against the seat, his hands framing her face in the open doorway. “Let’s go home.”

  “I hear there’s a cool tree at your house…and someone promised me a wild night with nothing but lights and us.”

  “And that will wait until you’re better. Tonight nothing more strenuous than something to eat and drink, some pain pills and a long soak in the tub.”

  Angel sighed and let her head fall on his chest, the strong beat of his heart telling her just where home was.

  “I love you. I never thought I’d know what that meant until I met you,” she raised her head and kissed him.

  “I never knew it could mean so many things until I found you.”

  “Wash my back for me?”

  “Hmm…why do I feel like I’m being topped from the bottom again?”

  “Now that would make me a naughty little sub, wouldn’t it?” The soft laughter she offered somehow managed to finish erasing the last of the fear and anger that had been reigning inside him. He lifted her to the seat and kissed her nose.

  Home, he thought, would always have an Angel in it.