“Dad,” she said. “Here.”
“What’s going on?” Brent asked.
“Call for help, but don’t tell them about Kane or… or my baby.”
Brent’s face shifted into a mask of concern as she bit her lip and wiped the blood from his face.
“Angie?”
“You need to go to the hospital,” she continued. “But just say that we’re out and on our way to you.”
“Is Theo ok?”
“I know how to keep them both safe.”
Hugging her father, she kissed his bruised cheek and ran out of the room. Kane already had her keys in his hand, and he spoke without looking at her.
“I’m taking your car,” he started. “He said that the boys will bring Theo home.”
“And you really believe that?” Angeline asked, as she took his hand.
“I have to,” Kane sighed. “Only way I’m going to get through this.”
He was nearly out the door when she followed after him. “I’m coming with you,” she said.
“No, you’re not!” Kane said, as he took her face in his hands. Their eyes locked, and Kane kissed her passionately, his mouth claiming hers with so much longing that it could only mean the last time. And maybe it was. But she was still going with him.
“He’s my son, and I say how he comes home,” Angeline said.
Kane still seemed reluctant, but when she held his gaze, he stretched up and touched her face.
“You stay close to me,” he ordered. “He doesn’t get to touch you again.”
She nodded, and they hopped into her car.
Kane started to hit the brake as they neared a quiet patch of woods. Noel had been truthful about one thing; he wasn’t too far. Peering through the windshield, she saw three bikes, and she recognized Ben and Waldo as they awaited Kane’s approach. In that moment, her rage was for Ben. Maybe he hadn’t tricked Kane into running away, but he had to have a hand in bringing Noel to her door before they had a real chance.
“I… I don’t see Theo,” she whispered.
Parking the car, Kane told her that she need to stay behind him as he stepped from behind the wheel.
“What the fuck?” Kane said, as he lifted his hands in the air. Angeline stayed at his back as Ben lowered his gun and slowly shook his head.
“Not my call, man,” he muttered. “But he beat Gina bad. So I talked.” Ben stepped forward and hung his head and said, “I’m sorry.”
Angeline knew bits and pieces of Gina’s story, and she disobeyed Kane’s order and stepped forward even as he tried to hold her back.
“But she’s alright?” Angeline asked.
Ben cast Waldo a quick glance before turning his eyes back to her.
“She’ll live,” Ben said, and Angeline was grateful.
More so when Noel appeared from the shadows of the trees, and Theo was only whimpering quietly as he moved towards them.
“You know, in another life, I could have made a real Blood Brother out of this little shit,” he said.
No. Not my son. Not under your watch.
“That is not happening,” Kane said, as Angeline wished that she could have Theo and make all of it a bad dream.
“Cute little bugger though,” Noel laughed.
Angeline’s had to choke back the bile building in her throat when Noel curled his finger across Theo’s cheek. She had never seen her child glare, but he knew enough to be angry now.
Just like his mother.
“Angel! I said—”
She got right up in Noel’s face, as Kane gripped her shoulders.
“Give me my baby, you fucking asshole!” she said.
He seemed amused, high off of their sorrow.
“Boss,” Ben started, “come on.”
Noel spit at him and leered at Angeline. Her plan was already in place. But could she? Could she really do it?
“And what do I get in return?” Noel asked.
Before she could speak, Kane intervened and said, “Give the boy back, and I swear to you that I’ll fall in line.”
“I wonder…”
Noel kept the boy in his arms for as long as possible, but finally he smirked as he handed the boy off. As soon as she felt his body melting into hers, Angeline rejoiced at the feel of him safe, and as Noel listed off the ways in which Kane would have to pay for his transgression, she looked into Theo’s eyes and kissed his cheeks.
“I’m doing this for you,” she whispered. “I started this, now I finish it.”
Just before Kane was led away, Angeline rallied to his side and placed Theo in his confused arms. Then, she grabbed Noel by his collar and stared at him hard. “Take me,” she said.
Every man was confused as Angeline held her ground, and Noel cruelly smirked under his scar as he touched her face.
“Get your fucking hands off of her!”
“Let the bitch speak,” Noel ordered.
Angeline swallowed and glanced over her shoulder. Seeing Theo in Kane’s arms brought her some peace, and she knew that if she could take Kane’s sentence on her shoulders and become Noel’s toy, there was a real chance that he would never come back to Colorado or wherever Kane was able to hide him. However, the thought of what Noel would do with her caused her body to shudder.
But Kane had done his time for her. And now it was her turn.
“If you leave Kane and Theo alone, I’ll be whatever you want.”
Kane handed the boy off to Waldo and charged forward.
“She’s not going with you!” Kane yelled. “I won’t let you!”
Noel hit the back of his head with the butt of his gun. Angeline’s first instinct was to fall and tend to his wounds, but she had to see her plan through. His moans told her that he was still alive, and as she looked back, she saw Theo calming under Waldo’s arms despite the chaos all around him.
She was the chaos, and she needed to go.
“Theo, always remember that I love—”
Noel doubled her over with a swift punch to the stomach, and before she knew what was happening, her body was on the back of his bike and speeding off into the unknown.
CHAPTER FORTY
Riding with him was hell. The wind wasn’t gentle as it brushed against her cheeks, and she had no choice but to cling to his waist to keep from making Kane’s bid for freedom a reality and falling off the side of the road. But it wasn’t any fear of death that kept her at his back. It was the knowledge that if he lost his chance to torture her, he would head right back to Kane and Theo. So, she was going to take her poison and deal with the pain.
“That’s right, Angel,” he said. “You’re gonna hold onto whatever I say.”
Her body was awash in fresh trembles as he parked in the lot of a sleazy motel and pulled her off his bike. Noel hurt her arm as he dragged her through the main doorway, and Angeline saw a disinterested desk clerk. His ears seemed to perk to a kind of attention when she couldn’t help but quiver, but Noel just tossed him a wad of bills and demanded a key. The clerk did not argue, and Noel saluted the guy as he hauled Angeline to the room that would become a prison once he locked the door.
“You know,” Noel said, as he lit a cigarette and blew the smoke in her face, causing her to blink through the haze, “I could have used him—like he was—before you got your hooks into him.”
Wanting only to keep Kane safe, she asked him if he would leave him alone now, now that she had surrendered herself to him.
Noel lifted her chin to his eyes and gagged her with a harsh kiss, as he said, “You perform. Keep me interested. And maybe I’ll have all that I need to keep me happy.”
He slammed her into the wall, his hands everywhere as his tobacco-laced teeth bit her buttons away and started to nip at her breasts. She whimpered as he kissed her, but she kept close to the wall. The last thing that she wanted was to make him angry, and she tried to go dead as he kept mauling her. She thought of Kane and hoped that Ben and Waldo had talked some sense into him, making him see that she was a lost c
ause. Would he get that and focus on Theo? What would her father say when she failed to come back?
Could this really work? Or should she have stayed?
“Keep me happy now!” Noel cried, slapping her face until she fell to the floor and hid behind her curls. Then, Noel kicked her back to attention, pulled her off the ground, and said, “Strip. Lose it all.”
Noel settled on the edge of the bed. Scared but feeling that she needed to go through the motions to keep her boys safe, Angeline did as she was told and removed what was left of her blouse. Sliding her skirt down her thighs, she kicked off her shoes and stood in nothing but her panties as Noel drooled.
I can’t… I can’t do this. I can’t let him have me like that again. I—
“This was your idea!” Noel bellowed, as he flicked his cigarette at her legs, and even as she drew back, she caught some of the burn and felt her eyes filling with tears.
“You doing this or what, bitch?” Noel asked.
She lowered her panties and blushed when she felt her body completely exposed to his eyes. Noel licked his lips, and as soon as he seemed sure that her body was his for the taking, he pounced.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”
He forced her to the bed, his hands working their way between her legs as he curled his fingers around her shaking ass. Angeline hated the feel of his hands, but she sank into his touch. She would stop being a woman, a person, for the duration of her sentence. She would just lay back and take it and think of Kane with Theo. Just the thought of them safe was enough to make her sure that her sacrifice was worth it, and Noel…
“Aren’t you going to at least put up a fight?” he sneered, as he started to push his fingers inside her. Her entire body groaned around his point of impact, but she stayed still. “No difference,” Noel said. “I can make you scream in other ways.”
Pushing her off the bed, Angeline peered up and saw him removed his belt. Before she could tell him that they could go back to the bed, that she would do whatever he wanted, Noel slammed the buckle against her bare back. She yelled as she finally understood Kane’s anguish and why he had to try to get away.
However, as the brass cut into her skin, she knew that she had no such choice. She couldn’t run; she could only take her punishment and hope for moments of reprieve between his assaults. A part of her wished that Kane would appear and save her from this monster, but he had to be keeping Theo safe. He had…
She curled into a ball as the door was pushed open, and as she looked through her fingers, she saw Kane there, nearly frothing at the mouth with Ben as his side. Their guns were drawn, and when Angeline found his eyes, she cried out for Kane. However, he kept his gaze on Noel who stepped back, used her bare body like a shield, and said, “You can’t even listen to her! You are one dumb fuck.”
Kane clicked the trigger and appeared ready to shoot when Noel reached into his back pocket and held a knife to her throat. Angeline closed her eyes so as to not see the blade even as she felt it poking into her skin.
“She tried to give you a way out,” Noel said. “All you had to do was hang back with the brat.” He pressed the blade closer as he leaned forward and spat at Kane. “All you had to do was forget her.”
Again, he pressed his fingers between her legs. When she couldn’t stop from groaning, Kane swore that he would shoot him where he stood if he didn’t release her.
Noel seemed to grow reflective as he left her cunt and started to stroke her thighs. She hoped he would release her now. She longed to know where Theo was. And Kane…she had to have the chance to soothe her own blows to his face.
“But enough, Noel said. “So let’s say I just cut her and we call it a day?”
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
Kane watched the blade as it grazed her neck. He wanted to hold her, to cover her up in the face of Noel’s smirk, but first things first. He had to end this. Finally. “Just because you helped me once,” Kane said. “It doesn’t give you the right to take everything from me.”
Noel laughed loudly, as he pushed the blade deeper into her neck. Angeline seemed to hold her breath, as Kane groaned at the sight of her naked and enslaved, but he knew that he had to keep his rage in check if Angeline was going to make her way back into his arms and hold Theo again.
“This is done.” Ben aimed his gun, and Noel smirked, as he pressed Angeline’s body closer to his.
“What skin do you have in the game besides Gina’s?” Noel asked.
Kane watched carefully, as Ben pointed his gun to Noel’s eyes. He wasn’t sure what had gone down after he left, but Ben was here now, and he was trying to make something right.
“You’re out of control,” Ben said. “Too hopped up on the product to see the harm. But I see you for what you are.” Ben took another step closer and managed to get the butt of is gun close to Noel’s temple.
Kane saw her eyes full of questions as death surrounded her. “Theo?” Angeline asked.
Kane nodded. Once he was fully recovered, he took the boy from Waldo’s arms and said that he would bring him back to his mother. Riding with such a little guy at Ben’s back should have been plagued with problems, but Theo was calm as they followed Noel’s trail. They disembarked as soon as they saw Noel’s chopper in the lot. Kane wanted to kill Noel, and Ben wanted a piece of the action. So, it fell to Waldo to guard the boy as they stepped into the breach.
“You’re just leaving me here with this?” Waldo had asked.
“You look good,” Kane had said. “Just hold him tight. No matter what happens.”
Waldo had obliged, and now Kane’s eyes rested on Angeline’s as he nodded. “He’s fine,” Kane said. “It’s all about you now.”
Noel dragged her closer to his body and pushed the blade deeper.
“It is all about her,” Noel said, as he licked her ear and glared at Kane.
“You were supposed to stay loyal to me!” Noel said. “Do what I want! Why do you think I picked you out of the trash in the first place?”
Kane was ready to kill him when Angeline seemed to summon an unseen strength. Reaching behind her back, she grabbed his at his crotch and tugged. Noel was in enough pain to fall, and as soon as the edge of his knife left her flesh, Kane started to take her back into arms, but even as her arms shook, Angeline held him back and said softly, “Stop this. Make it so he won’t come back anymore.”
Kane pushed her aside and went in for the kill as his hands surrounded his throat. He was no longer the little boy searching for scraps. He was his own man with a family, and no one was going to hurt them.
“I only answer to her,” Kane said, as he pressed his fingers closer to Noel’s skin.
Angeline cowered in a corner as Kane’s hold tightened. Kane felt that he had paid his debt and then some. This was not his friend. This was the man who had taken every chance to rape his girl. He had taken her child, their child, and for all of that, he deserved to die.
“Not so fast,” Noel said, as he recovered enough of his senses to fight. He smashed his fist into Kane’s enraged face and jumped up, bringing Kane to his back. He smiled, as though he had the upper hand. Kane saw nothing but Noel’s glare until Angeline started to crawl forward to help him again. He saw her bare body shaking with each move, and as Ben tried to pull her back, Noel caught a hunk of her hair in his hand and forced her close for an unwanted kiss.
“Get the fuck way from her!” Kane screamed.
Ben struggled to help her as Kane writhed beneath his enemy. She was nearly gone when Noel pulled the soft flesh of her breast. In response, she kicked him hard, as Ben finally dragged her back to the corner and assumed a protective pose before her fallen body, his gun aimed at Noel’s head.
“You gonna do it?” Noel hissed. Then, he turned his head back to Kane and asked, “Or you, kid? Think you do me and it ends?”
Angeline’s wish for him to be torn from their lives, forever, echoed in his ears. And it would end. No more lies or threats. And he wouldn’t touch her…
Now, he had seen it with his own eyes. How he could make her quiver and shake with his touch and turn her from his bright Angel into a mass of tears. She wasn’t’ supposed to cry—not while he had life in his body.
Only while there was life in Noel’s.
Kane bolted forward and drove Noel’s body into the far wall. Wrapping his hands around his throat, Noel kept laughing, even as he fought for what Kane hoped would be his last breath.
“My debt is paid!” Kane said. “You will never put your hands on me or one of mine ever!”
“You don’t have the stones,” Noel sputtered. “You’re my bitch. You’re hers. You worthless piece of—”
This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set Page 143
