The Ring of Fire: The Dragon Dream: Book Two

by Robin Janney

  Angela rolled her teary eyeballs. “Just what I need. Daddy, I don’t want Craig staying with me out of fear of Everett any more than I want him staying with me out of pity.”

  “I know. And I’ve told him that, but it’s Everett. I think it’s the only way he knows to express his love for you.”

  There was a tap at the door and it opened again. Angela moved enough to look. A nurse carrying an older backpack was coming into the room. What had happened to the one she’d taken into the woods with her yesterday morning?

  “Mrs. Moore, here are the clothes your housekeeper brought you,” the nurse said, placing the bag on the chair against the wall. “Dr. Ryan said you can go as soon as you’re dressed, and you’ve signed the discharge papers.”

  “Thank you,” replied Angela, sitting up on the bed only vaguely aware of her father’s helping hand. “Daddy?”

  “I’ll wait outside with Everett.” He gave her a gentle hug.

  Once alone, Angela shuddered. She had been desperate to be alone, running away into the woods so no one could follow her. And now? Would she ever be comfortable being alone again? Would she ever be comfortable being alive?

  S itting in the back of the black SUV between Philip and Everett, Angela looked out the darkened window. Her left hand was warmed by Philip’s gentle grasp. It was late afternoon, but the tinted windows gave the impression it was even later. The numbness inside hadn’t lessened any, and it was hard to even answer the few questions her father put to her.

  Her fathers.

  Both men had come to her aid, alerted by her husband. How had her husband known she was in danger? One of her father’s had pulled her away from Nikki while the other had been waiting to take the kill shot. Her mind couldn’t wrap around it. How long had they been there? Had they seen her humiliation? They had to have. But neither mentioned it, not even to comfort her.

  Relief filled Angela at the sight of the entrance to her ranch come into view. She smiled at the metal arch gracing the entrance of the driveway, with all the scroll work and the shooting star emblem that was also their brand. It had been Craig’s idea to use the birth name her biological mother had given her as their ranch name.

  Her smile faded. She didn’t have a lot of time left to say and ask what she needed to.

  “Everett,” she said, looking to the man sitting on her right.

  “Yes, Angela?” His voice was somber as he looked over to her.

  “Don’t threaten my husband. I need to know he’s not staying out of fear.” Her hand in Philip’s shook a little and his other hand covered hers as well. It was the warmest part of her.

  Everett drew a deep breath. “Alright. I won’t.”

  “Do you still have the trust fund you mentioned to me?”

  Her birth father hesitated again. “Yes. It’s yours if you want it.”

  “I might. I’ll let you know.” She drew a deep breath. How would this next be received? “And…if I wanted someone killed, would you do it for me?”

  “Angela, no!” Philip’s hands jerked around hers. “Everett, tell her no.”

  Angela looked over at the man who’d raised her. “Daddy, you were there. You know what happened to me. I’m pretty sure you both know what I told the police. Nikki…” Her voice choked, but she forced herself to continue. She couldn’t avoid saying the names of people who had hurt her for the rest of her life. “Nikki said my so-called mother-in-law was involved in this somehow. That she was planning on hurting my husband again, may have already hurt him again if what Nikki said is true. And now she’s hurt me. Maybe I’m foolish for believing what Nikki said…but I do. I feel the truth of it. So, I think I have a right to at least think about killing Veronica.”

  Philip sighed, his tortured eyes looking over her head to the other man in the back seat of the SUV. They both looked tortured, though she could tell they were trying to hide it.

  “I can make no promises, Angela,” Everett said, and she turned her gaze back to him. “Veronica Moore has more powerful connections than you know. She would be difficult to take care of.”

  Angela nodded as the SUV came to a stop. “Fair enough.”

  As both men exited the vehicle, she took a deep breath at the sight of the ranch hands walking towards them. Did she really flirt with them like her husband claimed? She followed Philip out his side, allowing him to help her down to the ground.

  Before she knew it, she was being passed from one ranch hand to the other like she was a rag doll. She didn’t know if anyone had told them the details of her experience in the woods, or the miscarriage, but not even one of them was rough in their embraces.

  “I’m so glad you’re safe,” young Jack was saying.

  “We wanted to search all night, Mrs. Moore,” came from Old Ben. He was such a gentle bear. “Rick wouldn’t let us though.”

  “I’m glad you’re home, ma’am,” said Becca, the one woman present.

  “We were scared for you, ma’am,” whispered Brent, the newest of their employees.

  Every one of them had a similar comment.

  “Alright, you dusty cowpokes!” chided Rick gruffly. The foreman was smiling from ear to ear despite his tone of voice. “Let’s leave Mrs. Moore alone now. She’s home, and she’s safe. Now back to work!”

  Everyone laughed, Angela included. But they all dispersed, even as Jared came running down the steps of the ranch house.

  He slowed just before he could ram into his sister, no doubt having been warned by his father to be gentle. “Angie!” cried Jared, throwing his arms around her as gently as he knew how.

  “Jared…” She clung to her taller brother.

  “Are you hungry? Nan’s managed to put something together. She’s only been home about fifteen minutes before you got here, but damn she’s pulled off a miracle in the kitchen!”

  “I’m not really hungry, but I’ll eat something. I should be hungry.” Angela linked an arm with her brother and looked back at her fathers. How they could look so sad even while they were grinning, she didn’t know. They weren’t pretending very well, but she’d let them think they were. “Everett. You’ll come in too, won’t you?”

  Everett’s smile softened. “Of course, Angela.”

  Angela managed a smile in return. “Well, come on then. Nan’s a good cook.”

  45

  “D ad?” Angela asked as the door shut behind them all. “You have my medicines, right?”

  Philip raised the bag in his hand for her to see, and Jared narrowed his eyes. His sister had come home with medicine? What had happened to her that she would need medicine?

  “Okay, uhm, I have to go upstairs and change again. Can you please see that Nan gets them?” Angela was already moving in the direction of the curving staircase. “She’ll know where to put them.”

  “I will, honey,” their father called behind her as she disappeared.

  Was she hiding again? Jared wondered. Already? What the fuck was going on? He turned towards his father, who held the bag at his side again. Both men looked like death warmed over, and his stomach sank.

  “Is she really alright?” the young man demanded angrily. How much worse was it than what his father had already told him? “She doesn’t look it, not with those bruises on her face.”

  “No,” his father replied, sharing a glance with Everett. “She’s far from alright, Jared.”

  Jared frowned. “Then why are we pretending?”

  “Because it’s what she needs right now,” answered Everett.

  Philip nodded. “A lot happened out there, Jared. Things that’ll probably take a long time for her to heal from. Things I can’t tell you, other than what I already have.”

  “A lot happened last time too,” Jared muttered almost under his breath. He scowled at his father. How could it be any worse than what happened last time? “She’s not going to be like that again, is she? She’s not going to be a freaking zombie? And Craig?”

  Again, the two fathers looked at each other.

&nbs
p; “I’ll do everything I can to make sure Craig doesn’t withdraw like he did last time,” Philip said softly, hearing Angela returning from upstairs. “But there are some things he’ll need to learn from her on his own. Agreed?” His look took in both Jared and Everett.

  “Agreed,” said Everett with a ready nod.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Jared said grudgingly.

  “So, for now, we pretend for her sake,” Philip said in a whisper.

  Angela rejoined the men in the living room. Her hair was wet, and she’d changed into a light, loose skirt with a matching blue turtleneck tank top. She tried smiling, but it didn’t take. “Jared, do you have my iPhone?”

  “Yeah, yeah I do.” Jared pulled it out of his back pocket. With a solemn look, he handed it to her. He dreaded her reaction to some of the pictures she was going to see. “Uhm, just to let you know, I kind of looked at the text messages. I haven’t listened to any of the voicemails though.”

  Uncharacteristically, Angela just nodded. “Did you delete anything I wouldn’t want to see?”

  “I thought about it,” admitted the younger brother. “But I figured you were probably still pissed at me for pretending to slip you a sleeping pill, so I left it all there. I will say, don’t let the crap from the New York City number get to you.”

  “How do you know it’s a city number?” asked Angela, unlocking the screen. Her blue eyes barely glanced at him. “All I could figure out was the New York part.”

  “I ran a trace program on it. As best I could without anyone picking up. Just kept hitting redial and letting it go to voicemail.”

  Three sets of eyes looked at Jared in astonishment.

  “Hey,” he said with a shrug and a cheeky grin. “I’m good with a computer.”

  Angela looked back at her phone. Whatever she was looking at, caused tears to streak down her cheeks unheeded. They watched in silence as her fingers moved across the screen, now seeing something that caused her to scowl. “These texts say one thing, you say another Dad. I don’t know.”

  She did some more things they couldn’t see and put the phone to her ear to listen. They could see her struggle to refrain from outright crying. She shut the phone down and shoved it into a pocket near the waistband of her skirt, wiping away the falling tears.

  “Let’s get something to eat.” Angela paused as her father’s cellphone rang.

  Philip pulled the cellphone out of his shirt pocket and smiled at the number on the display. “Here, Angela. You answer it.”

  With a shaking hand, Angela took her father’s flip phone. Without looking at the number, she flipped it open and answered it. “Craig?”

  They could all hear his reply through the phone’s earpiece she had to hold away from her ear to save her eardrum.

  “Angela! Oh my God! You’re safe.” He sounded so relieved. “You have no idea how scared I’ve been. Are you okay? What happened? Where are you?”

  “I’m home now. Where…where are you?” Angela asked quietly, her voice laden with pain. Tears leaked out of her eyes again, and she wiped at them furiously.

  “I’m still at the airport. I’ll be home in about an hour.” His tone had changed to gentle worry at her answer.

  “It’s an hour and a half drive! Don’t break any…”

  “Fuck that Angela, I plan on breaking whatever laws I have to. I’ll break the freaking sound barrier if I have to.”

  The three men chuckled in amusement at Craig’s answer to her, even as she blushed at it.

  “You’re the one who’ll be paying the ticket, so okay.”

  “I’ll be home soon, honey, and we’ll talk all this out. I promise.”

  “Okay,” said Angela again. There was a drawn-out silence, and the three men managed to hide their continued amusement when Angela remarked, “Do…do you want to hang up on our three-count?”

  “I don’t want to hang up at all,” the man on the other end admitted. “But I know we have to. So, yes, Angel. One…”

  “Two…” said Angela, with the faintest of smiles.

  A heartbeat of hesitation.

  “Three,” they said together and hung up.

  Angela deliberately didn’t meet any of their eyes as she handed the phone back to Philip. “Not a word,” she said tightly as she turned on her heal and moved towards the kitchen.

  The men all grinned as soon as her back was to them.

  “I can’t believe they still do that,” Jared whispered to his father as they followed Angela. And yet, it had felt good to hear it.

  “T rust me, it’s a good sign,” said Philip just as softly. He recalled another overheard phone conversation ending much differently. “A really good sign.”

  Angela spent most of her meal looking at the clock on her phone. She had taken the time to listen to her other voicemail messages and had not seemed surprised to learn Katie had been murdered. Other than that, she managed to answer questions, and more or less carry on a conversation. But all three men, along with Nan, who sat at the dining room table with them, could see her preoccupation. It hadn’t been quite an hour yet since Craig’s call when a vehicle could be heard coming up the long driveway, obviously speeding.

  Angela hopped to her bare feet and took off running, those with her following at a distance. From the front porch, they watched Angela crash into her husband’s embrace next to his haphazardly parked truck.

  And Philip sighed in relief as he watched his son-in-law hang onto Angela as fiercely as she held onto him. Their soft words didn’t carry beyond the relieved tones, but from the little Philip could read on their lips, most of their words amounted to ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I’m glad you’re home.’ When Craig asked her if she was okay, Angela just shook her head and buried her face in his shoulder. Philip smiled as Craig’s head came down over hers, the embrace turning tender.

  “This is how they said goodbye. They’re going to be alright,” voiced Jared, his young voice confident. Nan made a quiet sound of agreement.

  “Yes, they will,” remarked Philip, glad to see Angela was being honest with her husband in a way she couldn’t be with them.

  “They’d better be,” Everett said with a soft growl.

  Philip clasped the other man’s shoulder. “Some things you have to take on faith, Rhett. Trust me, whatever future mistakes Craig makes, this won’t be one of them. Our daughter chose a man with the best of both of us, not the worst.”

  Everett favored Philip with a small smile. “I hope you’re right, Phil.”

  “I don’t take my daughter’s safety or her happiness lightly. You know better.”

  The older man nodded. “In that case, I think we should leave soon. Our job here is done.”

  “That would probably be a good idea,” agreed Philip as the couple began moving towards the house, the husband holding his wife close to his side. He smiled as Craig commented to his wife about her bare feet. “She’s safe, he’s home, and they have things they need to talk about. Alone.”

  H alf an hour later, Angela sighed when she saw her brother coming down the stairs with his belongings and placed them with their father’s bag on the couch. “You’re leaving too?”

  “Yes,” Philip answered. He was glad to see regret on her face, hoping it meant she had enjoyed spending time with her brother again. “I know Jared had planned on working all summer, but I think it’s time for him to come home.”

  She nodded. “I understand.” Throwing her arms around him, his daughter lingered in his embrace. Who knew when they’d have this chance again? “Thank you, Daddy. For everything. Tell Mom and Cassie I’m alright and give them my love.”

  “I will. You take it easy, understand? Dr. Ryan’s orders.”

  “I will, Daddy.” Angela nodded and moved to hug her brother. It drove home to Philip just how tall the boy had grown over the past few years. “You were right, Jared, and I was wrong. I’m glad you were able to stay here. You helped more than you know. I enjoyed it.”

  “It was a blast,” Jared admit
ted. He managed a small smile for his sister. “I’ll have to come out again on a college break.”

  “You’re more than welcome to,” Craig commented, following his wife like a shadow. Concern was clear on his face, and Philip wondered when his daughter would be able to tell her husband everything. Her face was turning a rainbow of ugly colors on the left side, but amazingly she hadn’t been hit hard enough to cause another concussion. Thank God for small miracles.

  Angela stood before Everett, clearly unsure of what to do and say. His face was stony, clearly as uncertain as she was. In the end, she gave her birth father a quick hug, not lingering like she had with Philip and her brother. “Thank you, Everett. For whatever strings you pulled.”

  His face had altered little, though Philip knew the quick hug was the first they’d shared since Angela had been an infant. For the first time, he felt empathy for the older man who had given his daughter away out of necessity for her safety. “Angela, I will do whatever I have to for your safety. I hope you know that.”

  “I do. And thank you.” Her look took them all in. “Forgive me for not watching you leave. I just can’t bear it.”

  “We understand, honey.” Philip gave his daughter one last quick squeeze and pressed a kiss to her temple. He could feel her struggle not to tremble. It was in his mind to stay longer but knew they couldn’t. “We love you.”

  Angela nodded. Looking at her husband, she said, “I’m…I’m going to go lay down.”

  Her husband nodded. “I’ll see them off and be up to check on you.”

  “Okay.”

  C raig watched her turn and leave, his heart heavy at her slumped shoulders. Her emotions were swinging back and forth rapidly, understandably so. He didn’t have all the details of what had happened, but he didn’t need them. Not yet. It was enough for him that she was alive.

  “Craig, walk out with me, would you?” requested Everett, already moving towards the front door of the ranch house.

  He nodded, having caught the looks passing between the other three men. Realizing he was about to be lectured by all three men, and too somber to feel any amusement at it, he fell into step next to Everett. He wouldn’t even be surprised if they had a preordained order of who spoke to him first.