Betrayed

by Carly Fall

  Chapter 34

  Liam flew through the night sky, his eyes cast downward, Adela flying next to him. They had been gliding together in silence, which Liam was grateful for. Usually he was the chatty one, especially compared to Adela.

  Now, he had no words to say, and he had no idea what he was doing. Sure, flying was cool, being invisible was sort of awesome, but he still had no idea how to find Sara. He racked his brain trying to figure it out. The address he had gotten from the divorce papers was her professor’s house, but there was no one home when they arrived. Where else should they look? He wished things had turned out differently. He wished he had . . . well, he wished he had kept his dick in his pants and not alienated Jeff. But really—what were the odds that Jeff would be at the same club on the same night at the exact time to see Liam leave with a woman? As far as he was concerned, zero to none, and the fact that it had happened made him wonder if the trifecta in Heaven was messing around with him. It seemed as though “they” were setting up roadblocks so their assignment became more and more difficult.

  “Perhaps we take a look around the college campus,” Adela suggested. “Maybe she’s there.”

  Liam nodded. He couldn’t think of a better plan.

  They spent the next two hours wandering the campus but found nothing. They met up with another Angel of Death, but he was busy and on a strict timeline and no time to chat.

  As Liam and Adela walked out of the last building, they stopped.

  “What’s that saying . . . like finding something in a haystack?” Adela asked, crossing her arms.

  “A needle in a haystack,” Liam answered.

  “Yes. That’s it.”

  They looked around the alley. “Any ideas of where to go next?”

  Adela shrugged. “Where do people who go to college gather?”

  Liam thought about it. If they were young, most of the time you could find them in bars on the weekends. But this was a weekday. A coffee house?

  “You know, we don’t even know if she’s in this city,” Liam said.

  Adela nodded. “But they said our assignment was supposed to be easy. Therefore, I would think that she is here. In the city.”

  “True.”

  “So try to think like an older college student, Liam. Where would you socialize?”

  Liam thought back to his two years in college where he’d met Annie. If he wasn’t at a bar on the weekend, he was kicking it at his apartment. If he wasn’t there, he went to a coffee shop.

  “Let’s try the coffee shops,” Liam muttered.

  “Very well.”

  An hour later, they came out of the last shop within a two-mile radius of the campus and stood on the sidewalk. The waitress shut the door and locked it, signaling the closing of the store for the night. They walked down the road, both silent.

  As they reached a park, Liam watched the cars go by, then saw a familiar face on the other side of the street.

  “Gunnar?” he said more to himself then to the figure standing there.

  “Do you know him?” Adela asked.

  It was hard to miss the big Viking. He stood on the sidewalk, his large black wings slowly waving and glittering in the night. His blond hair fell to his shoulders, and he was looking down the street then at the device on his wrist.

  “Yeah, I do. Last time I saw him was right before I went to the apartment where we were given the news that we were Angels of Affection.” Liam stepped into the street. “Gunnar!” he called.

  Adela followed.

  Gunnar turned. “Liam! Good to see you, my friend. Hurry up over here. I’ve got a death in just under a minute.”

  Liam and Adela reached the other side of the street.

  “Are you here for a delivery?” Gunnar asked, shaking Liam’s hand.

  “No, we’re not. This is Adela, by the way,” Liam said.

  Gunnar shook her hand. “I think we did a bus crash together a few years ago.”

  Adela smiled. “Perhaps.”

  A car rounded the corner just as a man staggered out of the park. Under the streetlights, he looked to be in his fifties or sixties. He wore an old trench coat, and his bald head shined in the florescent glare. “Here we go!” Gunnar declared.

  The three stood on the sidewalk and watched the events unfold.

  The car picked up speed as it came toward them, and the man in the park came closer to the street. He was mumbling and stumbling, and obviously not sober. He tripped on the sidewalk, caught himself, then staggered into the street. The “thump” as the car hit him was loud, and Liam was certain he heard some bones break. As the man flew through the air, the car stopped. Its driver, a teenage boy, watched in horror as the man landed about ten feet away and didn’t move.

  “Oh my God!” the teen screamed, running to the man. “Oh no. Help! Someone help!” The teen sprinted back to the car and got on the phone.

  “Not over yet?” Liam asked.

  Gunnar shook his head. “Nope. The guy is supposed to bite it right here.”

  It really looked like something out of a bad zombie movie. The man lying on the asphalt stood up slowly, wiping the blood from his eyes. He staggered toward the angels, holding onto his midsection, his right leg dragging behind him. Blood rolled down his forehead as he winced in pain.

  “Dude! You need to sit down! I called 911 and they’re on the way,” the teen shouted. “Why the fuck did you walk out into the street?”

  Liam studied the teen. He was tall and lanky, and brown hair hung to his collar. He wore a uniform from a local restaurant, and Liam guessed the kid had just gotten off work.

  Liam knew this accident would be a life-changing event for the kid. He’d killed someone, but it wasn’t his fault. Liam imagined there were a few years of therapy in the kid’s future, because based on the tears running down his face he was going to have some serious guilt issues.

  Yep, Liam knew all about those.

  The drunk, or druggie, or whatever he was, stumbled toward them and dropped to his knees, placing his forehead on the street. His breathing was ragged, and a moment later he slumped to his side about two feet away from the angels.

  “You can’t die!” the kid yelled, standing over him. “Oh, Jesus!”

  The kid took two steps back, bent over, and threw up.

  “I feel awful for the kid,” Adela murmured. Liam glanced over at her. Concern etched her face, and he remembered the blasé way she had looked at him when a child had been killed in the gang fight they’d worked a mere few days ago. It seemed that being human and being submerged in the world had cracked her hard façade more than he realized.

  “Yeah, it is too bad he has to go through this,” Liam agreed.

  Liam glanced over at Gunnar, who was staring at the device on his wrist. “Three, two, and one.”

  The spirit rose from the body. Before them stood a teenage boy, which would be the man’s favorite age of his life. He smiled at all three of them. Gunnar waved his hand and the brightly lit portal appeared. The spirit hesitated for only a moment, then Gunnar said, “It’s okay, George. You’re headed upstairs.”

  George nodded, stepped in without hesitation, and disappeared.

  Gunnar turned to Liam and Adela. “So where’s your next one?”

  Liam glanced over at Adela. “We don’t have any tonight.”

  “How did you manage that? I’ve been working double time since this whole Angels of Affection B.S. came up.”

  “Well, you’re looking at two of them,” Liam announced.

  Gunnar wrinkled his forehead, then threw his head back and laughed, a deep throaty sound coming from his gut. After a few minutes, he wiped his eyes.

  “Oh, that was a good one, Liam,” he snorted.

  “He’s not kidding,” Adela said.

  Gunnar’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “No shit. Wow. So what are you doing? I thought you were supposed to be making people fall in love, not walking the streets.”

  “Well, we were—”

  “Talk
and fly. I’ve got another death very soon. At least they’re planning better and keeping us in one geographical area instead of having us fly all over the place.”

  The three angels lifted off the ground and took off. Liam told Gunnar about their assignment, and what seemed to be their subsequent failure.

  “It was supposed to be easy,” Liam yelled over the wind. “But how in the hell we are supposed to make a woman who wants to divorce her husband fall in love with him again is beyond me.”

  They landed in the middle of Interstate 10. “Sounds like a mess,” Gunnar said, then looked down at the device on his wrist. “We’re up here.” He walked up the middle of the highway and Liam and Adela followed, cars rushing through all of them.

  “So what’s the deal on this one?” Liam asked.

  “Car crash involving three cars,” Gunnar said. “One fatality.”

  “We should probably get going, Liam,” Adela sighed.

  He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. We need to get moving.”

  “Hang on just a second,” Gunner said. “I want to hear more about your new jobs. Just let me finish this one up.”

  The cars whizzed by, and Liam looked into the oncoming headlights, trying to figure out which cars would be involved.

  “Thirty seconds,” Gunnar announced.

  A car swerved into the lane to its left and kissed the bumper of another car, which began to fishtail and then hit another car. As the whole mess of metal came closer, Liam was able to make out the colors of the cars.

  The white Honda—the one spinning—hit a second car and came to a stop. The red SUV, the one that had started the whole chain of events, plowed into the Honda and sent it into the cement divider. It then came to rest in front of the angels.

  Liam leaned down and looked into the cracked window. The woman was a bloody mess. Her hair matted to her face as rivulets of red cascaded down her cheek from a nasty cut on her forehead.

  She pushed her hair out of the way, and Liam felt a jolt of recognition. Where did he know her?

  Moaning, she grabbed her stomach. Liam noted that the steering wheel was jammed up under her ribcage, and the front of the car looked like an accordion.

  Sirens blared in the distance. Adela bent down next to him and gasped. “Oh my God, Liam! That looks like Sara!”

  “Oh, sweet Jesus,” he whispered. He looked at the woman who was about to die. Her hair was longer than it had been in the picture in Jeff’s apartment, and it was hard to really make out her features with all the blood.

  “Gunnar, what’s her name?” Liam asked, his voice tight.

  “Sara Waters.”