Angel (Made Men Book 5)

by Sarah Brianne

  His eyes didn’t waver from the dead ones he would remember for as long as he lived. This was for Drago.

  “I know who you are.” Angel’s low voice came out like a cruel whisper.

  Amo took the smallest step toward him, trying to intimidate him with his height alone. “Is that supposed to scare me?”

  “It should.” Angel stood his ground, unafraid of Amo’s size. Angel was quite a few years older than him. He knew he was merely looking at a boy who had just become a man. The reason he knew that was because he, too, used to have that look in his eyes, back when he didn’t know the type of man he wanted to be or where he belonged. “Do you see Joey here? I’ll save you the time of looking around and tell you that he’s not. I’ve seen many Carusos come in and out of here all night to wish your consigliere a happy birthday, but I haven’t seen him. How about the third guy? Do you see him? I don’t know who he was, but I’m guessing you haven’t seen him in a while either.”

  Amo kept his mouth shut, not saying a word.

  “What do you think Lucca did with them?” As he smiled, an evil twist curved his lips. They both knew the games Lucca liked to play. “How much longer do you think you have before one of them breaks and tells him? What do you think the boogieman will do to you then?”

  Amo squared his jaw; finally, there was a flash of something that wasn’t just dead behind his eyes. “Why don’t you tell him?”

  “I wanted you for myself.” Angel looked him straight in the eyes, seeing the thin strand of fear he tried to hide. “But I’ve changed my mind. I’ll let Lucca have you.”

  Amo took another step toward him, his chest almost touching Angel’s now as he gave his own threat. “You are and always will be just a pawn in a dangerous game of chess. You’re a piece on a board to Lucca, just like me. And when he’s through with you, he’ll only keep you around for his sick, fucked-up entertainment.”

  “He did something to you, didn’t he, Amo?” Angel maintained the evil smile, knowing that whatever punishment Lucca had brought him was better than anything he himself could do, and the longer Angel waited for Lucca to come for Amo, the better. “Know that when the boogieman finally does come for you, it wasn’t me who told him he lost control of one his youngest, weakest men.” As he walked away, an evil laugh escaped. “He’ll find that out for himself.”

  “You’re doing exactly what he wants,” Amo warned.

  Angel stopped, turning back around to face him. “What did you just say?”

  “He’s always five steps ahead of you, and he knows every move you’re going to make before you even make them, because it’s exactly the move he wanted you to make. He wants you here, and he wants you with her.” Amo’s gaze moved over to Adalyn, who was across the room. “She’s a distraction to keep you here willingly.” His dead eyes moved back to him. “You didn’t think he’d actually let you go, did you?”

  Angel looked at Adalyn, then at the demon who was more capable and clever than anyone he knew.

  “You’re slowly becoming less of a Luciano every day that you’re here, but I promise you this … you will never become a Caruso. You’ll just be nothing.”

  “Nothing? Like you?” he asked, seeing the empty shell of a man. “You’re lost, Amo. You lost to him. But there’s a difference between us. I. Don’t. Lose.” Ever.

  Those dead eyes gave him one final promise from experience. “Lucca always wins.”

  Twenty-Nine

  A Match Made from Heaven and Hell

  Taking an empty seat beside Chloe, Adalyn didn’t move her chocolate eyes away from Angel, watching their quiet exchange from afar. When their exchange ended with Amo finally leaving out the front door he had just come in, she took a deep breath and turned to the scarred beauty.

  Chloe had followed her eyes, seeing Angel for the first time tonight. Goose bumps visibly rose on her pale skin.

  “He scares you …” Adalyn whispered unknowingly. Never had she been able to talk to Chloe about the horrible things that had happened to her at the hands of Lucifer, and never had it been any of her business. Seeing her look that way at Angel, completely terrified, it did start to involve her.

  I need to know if I’m making a mistake.

  Pale, haunted gray eyes looked away from the fallen Angel to her.

  “D-did he do something to you?” Adalyn asked nervously.

  Chloe started to wring her hands.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you that.” She bit her lip, regret settling in. Taking another deep breath, she admitted something that frightened her. “I only asked because … I think I like him … a lot.”

  Chloe stopped fidgeting, now only lightly squeezing her hands together. She could see it, the truth about how Adalyn felt about Angel.

  Taking her own deep breath, she focused on her words. “When L-Lu …” Pausing, she couldn’t get the devil’s name passed her lips. “When h-he took me, Angel and his twin circled me the entire time.” Chloe’s voice dropped to an almost whisper, like she was fully realizing something for the very first time. “I-I think they were protecting me.”

  Adalyn looked at the tatted bad boy, a smile forming at her lips. Knowing about Matthias and thinking about how each brother had circled her as well, she fully believed they had been protecting Chloe that night.

  “It’s just …” Gray eyes looked back at Angel, the fear still apparent. “They look just like him.”

  Goose bumps now trickled on Adalyn’s tanned skin.

  “I-if they didn’t look so much younger, didn’t have all those tattoos … I would th-think I was looking right at the devil.”

  Adalyn’s eyes travelled down the length of Chloe’s scar, sending a shiver so deep it rattled her bones. I’m so sorry, Chloe.

  “Come outside with me, darlin’,” a low voice appeared with an outstretched hand.

  Watching the broken girl take the demon’s hand sent a pain to her heart and continued to do so as she they walked out the back door and into the gazebo, where they sat. Without thought, Adalyn had gotten up from the couch, finding herself staring out one of the many windows, just to gaze at them a little longer.

  Too enthralled, she hadn’t even noticed Angel standing beside her until his voice haunted her. “You really love him, don’t you?”

  Her instinct was to lie, but she couldn’t find it in herself to do so. “Is it bad that I want to be her? That I want a love like that?”

  “Yes, it is.” The response was harsh and took her off guard. “Their love is twisted, almost sick.” Putting a finger on the glass, he pointed at the couple. “I want you to look at them, Adalyn. Really look at them. Individually, they are fucked up in their own ways and need the other to survive. They are doomed apart. God help them if one were to endure life longer than the other. Their love is the rarest of all. A sick one that’s only made beautiful by those two souls and those two souls alone.”

  The scarred beauty and the boogieman, a match made from heaven and hell.

  “Is that really the love you want? Is he really the man you want?” Angel took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him. “I know things about the boogieman that wouldn’t only give you nightmares in your sleep, Adalyn, but every time you opened your eyes.”

  Looking into the eyes of the son of Lucifer, she could feel her heart splitting in two. “I don’t know what I want anymore.”

  Angel dropped his cold, tatted fingers from her face. “I can tell you now, sweetness, it’s not going to be me.”

  Her vision blurred.

  “Goodbye, Adalyn.”

  Thirty

  My Weakest Creation

  “You wanted to speak to me?” Lucca asked, sitting back in his chair.

  Angel looked at the city that was backdropped behind him, not speaking for several minutes, letting everything that had happened since coming here sink in. When he finally spoke, he looked the demon right in the eyes.

  “How long are you going to keep me here, Lucca?”

  �
��When I no longer have to worry about your family coming after mine, I will let you go, and not a moment sooner.”

  Shaking his head, realization settled in. “As long as both our families exist, there will always be that possibility, Lucca.”

  The underboss put a cigarette to his lips and lit the end with a quick flick of his wrist. “Then you better get comfortable.”

  You didn’t think he’d actually let you go, did you?

  That mocking voice rang through his ear as his blood began to boil. He could see it. The cage he was trapped in was being locked and the key was being thrown away … and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Getting up, he needed to get away from him before he did something he would undoubtedly regret.

  When he placed his hand on the doorknob, the voice came back. He wants you here, and he wants you with her.

  Angel had already made the decision where she was concerned, but it was time to write it in stone.

  Turning around, his low voice echoed in the room. “I am no longer capable of watching Adalyn. I want a different position. It doesn’t matter to me what it is as long as I never have to see her again.”

  “Is that really what you want?” Smoke blew from his mouth with each word he spoke.

  Nodding, he knew it was time for him to stay a step ahead of the boogieman.

  “Fine.” Lucca got up, coming to stand in front of him. His blue-green eyes narrowed on him as he inhaled deeply on the stick. “Do you know why I picked you, Angel? Why, out of all the Lucianos, I picked you?”

  It was a question he had asked himself every day. A question he was finally about to get the answer to.

  “I thought you were different, smarter, stronger. I thought you brought more to the table than the rest of them. I knew you were the only one who could handle it, and now”—Lucca narrowed his eyes on him even more—“I’m not so sure if you’re going to make it.”

  Angel could only stand there, watching him retake his seat behind the desk.

  “I wanted the kid I saw that day at the train tracks, but I don’t see him anymore when I look at you. Prove me wrong, Angel, or you might as well jump out of your bedroom window.”

  Opening the door, Angel had heard enough.

  As he headed back to his hotel room, it seemed like every wall started to close in around him. Therefore, when he made it to the safety of his room, he went straight to the dark closet, closing the door on himself.

  The dark, small space surrounded him as he placed his hands on the closet wall, closing his eyes…

  …As the sound of the train in the distance got closer, he looked down at his feet. They were inside the metal train track.

  He looked over at his sixteen-year-old twin brother, who stood right beside him.

  “If you fucking move before I tell you to, you get the closet for five days,” Lucifer yelled at them from a few feet away. “But if you’re the first to move, you get it for four.”

  The light of the train could now be seen as it barreled closer and closer, brightening the night sky surrounding them.

  Angel looked over to see Matthias close, his eyes to the light.

  “A Luciano fears nothing!” Lucifer’s corrupt voice matched the ferocity of the train heading toward them.

  The light from the train now touched their skins, as the train’s horn began blaring for them to move out of the way.

  “Not a train, not a bullet, not a man, not the darkness. We fear nothing!” the devil continued to yell, not giving the command to move.

  Sliding his feet into position, he was ready to run first, not from fear, but from the thought of his brother not lasting four days in the closet alone.

  The evil voice boomed the word, “Go!”

  Angel took off, moving from the train tracks, only hoping he was the one to run first, but when he looked behind him, Matthias was still standing there with his eyes closed as the horn blared in their ears even louder.

  It didn’t even take him a second to see that peaceful look on his brother’s face to know his brother had no plans of leaving that train track. The sweet release of death was the only thing that could save them from their father, and Matthias wanted it.

  The power in which Angel took off, running toward his brother, shook the ground. Fear was something his father had made sure he didn’t have, but it wasn’t until he thought of his life without his brother that he realized he was capable of it.

  The train speeding right at Matthias wasn’t going to reach him first, because that wasn’t an option. He was either going to save his brother, or they both were going to die the same way they had come into this world. Together.

  As he ran straight into him, their whole lives flashed before his eyes in a single moment as he wrapped his arms around his brother and jumped.

  When the force of the rushing wind passed them, he almost thought Matthias had gotten what he wanted, until he realized no pain or suffering had greeted them. Still, he held on to his brother tightly, not letting him go for several minutes while the long train passed.

  The look on his brother’s face before he had saved him, a look he hadn’t seen on him for years, finally thinking he had found peace … But Angel had taken it away from him; therefore not saving him after all.

  A hand on the back of his shirt pulled Angel off Matthias, and then he was forced to face his father.

  Lucifer’s fist met his face with such a force that it sent Angel flying to the ground. Spitting on his fallen body, he then lifted his foot, bringing it down on his neck to choke his son. “You don’t deserve to bear the family name.”

  Angel brought his hands to his father’s shoe, trying to release some pressure to breathe.

  “Unlike you, Matthias is strong … waiting to jump until the very last second.” He dug his shoe in a little deeper. “You’re my weakest creation yet.”

  Choking, he felt his life force begin to leave him.

  “I’ll make a man out of you, or you’ll die trying.” Releasing his foot off his neck after digging harder, he spat on him one last time. “Seven days you get in the closet when you make it home.”

  Angel breathed heavily, letting the air fill his lungs once again while he lay there on the gravel, watching his brother being helped up by their father before they walked away.

  The blood that trickled into his eye blurred his vision as darkness started to sweep him away after losing too much air. It was only right before it claimed him that he heard footsteps come toward him and a pair of blue-green eyes stared down at him when everything … just … disappeared …

  Thirty-One

  The First Four Stages of Goodbye

  Walking outside into the cold air the next day, Adalyn felt sick. Not until the Escalade pulled up and no Angel could be found did she realize her fear had come true.

  All night she had been in denial, crying and promising herself that not until he didn’t show the next morning would she believe that Angel had said his final goodbye.

  Goodbye, Adalyn.

  Now she knew with finality he had.

  Before Adalyn’s knuckles could meet the door, it was flung open and Lucca appeared, letting her inside his office.

  As he took a seat behind the desk, she decided to stand, too anxious to sit. It had been a week since Angel had told her goodbye and disappeared. Even the hotel room he had stayed in was empty of him.

  “Where is he?” she asked, getting right to it. She was angry at herself for asking, but even angrier that he would disappear the way he had without even giving her a chance to speak.

  Lucca leaned back in his chair. “I can’t tell you that, Adalyn.”

  “Why?” She almost screamed the word, knowing it was wrong to be so angry, but it was inexplicable.

  He was silent for a few moments before he told her the truth. “He told me he doesn’t want to see or speak to you.”

  When the tears finally fell, they changed her vision. For the first time, she saw the man she had been in love with, wit
h different eyes, realizing she hadn’t actually been in love with him at all. She had been infatuated with him, with the idea of him, of loving the underboss, of loving the boogieman.

  How did she finally know that after all this time? Because right up to this moment, she hadn’t felt what it felt like to really, truly love someone.

  This time when Lucca spoke, there was a slight tenderness to his voice. “I’m sorry, Adalyn.”

  Wiping away her tears, she looked at him, not knowing if he was sorry for Angel disappearing out of her life or for making me fall in love with Angel.

  Sitting on her bed, she couldn’t keep from looking out of the corner of her eye at the ring that sat on her nightstand. It had haunted her every day for a month now, as it was the only thing she had left of him. The only thing that let her know it had all been real and not just a dream.

  Adalyn picked up the horse shoe ring, twirling it between her fingers. She had hoped, even expected, that he would come back into her life, even for just a moment, to get the ring back. She had been keeping it, planning on using it to bargain with him when he did, but he hadn’t. And that only made the hurt so much worse, considering it was so important to him. It showed her that he would rather she keep it until the end of time than to see her again.

  It was so cruel and so hurtful that it shattered every part of her to the point where she didn’t know if she could ever trust herself to love again.

  There were some wounds that cut deep, but others just killed you.

  “How much do you love me?” Adalyn gripped the ring that she had hidden in her jacket pocket.

  Lake eyed her warily as they sat at the counter, pretending to be interested in their homework. “Depends on what you want me to do. If you want to copy my homework, I love you enough to share it. But if you want me to do something that’s going to get me in trouble with Vincent, it’s debatable.”