“You could have talked to me about it.” My feelings were hurt that he hadn’t discussed it with me; he and I always shared everything.
“I know, I should’ve, and I’m sorry I didn’t. But I’m talking to you now, right?” He grinned at me.
“Then you better take my advice, Mr. Dimples,” I said with a narrowed stare. “Don’t let this guy get away from you out of fear of what other people will think.”
Zach grinned and gave me a salute. “Yes, sir.” Stepping away from the doorframe, he approached the bed and ruffled my hair. “Get to feeling better, drunky. I’ll call you tomorrow to tell you how tonight goes.” Giving me an anxious smile, he then turned to Michael. “Thanks again for the talk. I’ll see you later, man.” Zach held out a hand for Michael to shake.
Accepting his offered hand, Michael responded. “Anytime. I hope tonight goes well for you.”
“Thanks.” With one last smile, Zach walked out of the room and exited my apartment.
Michael looked down at me and quirked his eyebrow. “I don’t think you should go to work, Princess. You won’t be much good if you’re barfing all over the customers.”
“Whatevs. I’ll be fine.” I snuggled into the pillow. “I just need to rest for a few minutes and then I’ll get up.”
I heard a heavy sigh come from him. “Well, you’re at least going to eat something substantial for breakfast before you go. You need your energy.”
“Yes, sir,” I said in a sarcastic tone and closed my eyes. I felt soft lips press against my forehead and then Michael’s weight was lifted from the bed.
***
“Angel? Wake up,” Michael said, caressing a hand down my face.
Groggily, I opened my eyes and squint them against the light streaming in through the window. “What time is it?” My voice croaked. I noticed the throbbing pain in my head had subsided and I no longer felt nauseous.
“You have about an hour and a half before you have to be at work,” he answered. “I know how long it takes you to do your beauty ritual before you leave the house, so you should have enough time to get all fabulous.” He emphasized the last word, making me grin.
“I have converted you to the sparkly side. You’ve just used the word ‘fabulous’.” I yawned and slowly sat up in bed.
After I ate breakfast, which Michael practically shoved down my throat because I wasn’t hungry, I took a shower and started getting ready for work. That had probably been the worst hangover of my life, almost bad enough to make me not ever want to drink again. Almost.
I styled my hair, absolutely loving the way the purple streaks looked against my platinum blond, and walked over to my vanity, setting my makeup out on the surface. Michael walked over and sat down next to me, making me smile. For some reason, he loved watching me put on my makeup. Instead of doing vibrant colors that day, I decided to go with a warmer look, putting a light brown outline on my lids and topping it with black mascara. Penciling in my thick, arched eyebrows, I then leaned back to examine my work, tilting my head from side to side and making sure both sides were even. Adding a dab of pink blush, I glazed my lips with a soft pink lip-gloss for the finishing touch.
“You look sexy, Princess.” Michael smirked.
“Well, that’s true. I do.” I winked at him and stood up from the vanity to pick out an outfit to wear. After getting dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror, turning side-to-side and making sure I looked utterly fabulous.
Walking up behind me, Michael kissed my neck. “Here. You forgot something.”
Looking at him through the mirror, I saw him holding the necklace he gave me for Christmas. He placed it around my neck, and I brought my hand up to play with it. “Perfect,” I said with a grin.
Michael insisted on driving me to work that day, so I gave in and let him. Whatever made him happy and appeased his protectiveness was fine by me. You love it, my inner sassy bitch said with a roll of his eyes. Which was true, I loved everything about Michael, including his overprotectiveness. After giving my knight in rustic armor a goodbye kiss, I got out of his car and walked in to work.
Chapter Thirty
My grip tightened on the steering wheel as I watched the blond fairy get out of his butt buddy’s fancy black car and walk into the beauty salon. Pink jacket, high heel shoes, and holding a damn purse. It just wasn’t right. He was a waste of life and didn’t deserve to breathe the air that God had given him.
That was all going to end tonight.
Maybe after tonight, the blond fag would come to his senses, if he didn’t die first. I smiled at the thought. No one would miss him if I put an end to his disgusting life. I’d be doing the world a favor. The only person who would miss him would be his nasty boyfriend, but he would get over it. Maybe I’d be doing the boyfriend a favor as well. If I got rid of the temptation, maybe he would straighten his life out and get back on the right path.
Decisions. Oh, the decisions.
Should I be merciful? Turning my head, I looked at the baseball bat laying in my backseat. Soon that fag’s blood would be coating it. Mercy… did an abomination of God deserve such a thing? Possibilities swirled in my head. I, of course, would have to wait for the blond fairy to be on his own before I acted and carried out his punishment. The only witness to the act I wanted was God.
Tonight. It all ended tonight.
Chapter Thirty-One
Gabriel
I steadied my hand as I applied eyeshadow to the woman’s eyelids with the long, angled brush. One part of being in this profession, I had to get up close and personal with people and be all up in their face. Shyness was not an option. So, it was a great thing that I was the exact opposite of bashful.
“Oh, honey, this color looks fabulous with your skin tone,” I told her as I dabbed a little more pink in the corner of her eye and stepped back to examine. “Here, take a look.” Grabbing a hand mirror, I handed it to her.
“I love it!” She studied herself in the reflection. “How did you get it to look like that?”
“It’s all about the angled brush.” I held up the utensil of power to show her. I spent the next thirty minutes instructing her on correct application practices and appropriate skin care etiquette. The day flew by in a blur, which I always loved. I’d get to see Michael soon.
Smiling, I thought about our plans for that night. Michael loved legal based movies, which wasn’t surprising since that’s what he did for a living. There were a few that I hadn’t watched before, mainly because they bored the hell out of me, but since he was always a great sport and watched my girlie TV shows and movies with me, I thought it was only fair to repay the kindness every now and then. Tonight, we were going to watch a movie called Primal Fear. I’d never heard of it, but the description sounded kind of intriguing.
Glancing at the clock, a smile lit my face as I noticed there were only a few minutes left until I got to close the shop and go home. Home. It was funny how I had begun to consider Michael’s house my home away from home. He mentioned to me that he wanted me to move in with him, and I had playfully brushed it off at the time.
Anxiety washed through me at the thought. Not because I didn’t want to live with Michael, because I did. I loved going to sleep with him every night and waking up to him every morning. There was nowhere I’d rather be than with him. Technically, we kind of already lived together because we were hardly ever separated, but it was just making that huge, final step that made me nervous. I think it was a normal feeling, though, when making life-altering decisions.
Butterflies fluttered erratically in my stomach as images of Michael and I living together shifted through my mind. In my head, I saw us sitting outside on his back porch and looking out over the pasture, cuddling and enjoying life together. I saw us walking hand-in-hand around the countryside, stopping every so often so that our lips could meet once again. We would be in our own little paradise, tucked neatly away from the world. I would still be able to work at my fabulous job that I adored, and he’d still be abl
e to work at his.
So, why was I so hesitant about everything? I blamed my genes. Making big decisions freaked me out. But I knew that Michael was who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Yes, I was young, way younger than him, but age was of no issue between us. The connection and love we shared was undeniable.
When nine-thirty rolled around, I locked the front door and made sure all of the lights were shut off before walking to the back door. Pulling out my phone, I called Michael.
“Hey, Princess. I’m on my way right now to get you.” He sounded happy, and it in turn, made me happy as well. “Stay inside until I get there.”
Rolling my eyes, I laughed into the phone. “You worry too much. I’ll be fine, especially if you’re almost here.” I opened the back door, turning around to lock it once I was outside, the chilly January air biting into me.
“You went outside, didn’t you?” Michael growled.
“Oh, hush it, you. You can—“ I was cut off as a hard blow to my back caused me to plummet toward the cold concrete, the phone flying from my ear and skidding on the ground. Pain shot from my shoulder blade and down my spine as another solid blow crashed into me.
“You damn fag!” A strong southern voice screamed from behind me. Flipping over to my side, I looked up at my attacker. It was too dark to see anything except for his large figure raising a baseball bat, aiming to hit me again.
“Please, don’t!” I put my shaking hands out in front of me and crawled backward, pleading to him. He walked toward me, giving me a better view of him. His face was covered by a thick, scraggly beard and his eyes were consumed with hate as he spit down at me.
“You see this face, boy?” The man snarled. “It will be the last one you ever see.”
And then he kicked me. Hard.
The breath left my lungs as his boot kicked into my ribs and stomach repeatedly. I tried to stand up, but he brought the bat down, smacking into my chest, and knocking me back to the cold pavement. A cry screeched from my throat as his boot found my head and kicked me so hard, my vision blurred and a loud ringing sounded in my ears.
A string of sobs and pleas left my lips, but that only seemed to make my attacker angrier and caused him to hit me harder. I felt blood trickling down my face in an endless stream as the man continued kicking me anywhere his foot could make contact. Turning to my side, I curled into a ball and brought my arms up around my head, trying to block the relentless attack.
Dizziness and nausea hit me at once and I turned my head, vomiting as another kick was placed to my back. I felt myself falling into a dark place. Numbness began creeping along my spine and limbs as the man’s kicks and blows assailed me.
All of a sudden, the blows stopped. With a trembling shake of my head, I tilted my face up to look at the man, my vision blurry and hazy. Breath left my lips sharply, as I stared up at him, the pain in my ribs making it impossible to take deep breaths. An eerie smile crossed the man’s bearded face as he observed me.
The look on his face said it all: I wasn’t going to survive the night.
I could already feel myself slipping into unconsciousness as a cold, merciless numbness snaked through me and wrapped me in its cloak of shadows. In that moment, all I could think of was Michael and how I had failed him. My soul screamed for him and my heart broke as I imagined leaving him behind. I even thought I heard his deep, masculine voice in the distance calling to me.
Michael’s green eyes stared back at me from the depths of my mind as my lids fluttered closed and I drifted into darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Michael
“Baby? Gabriel? Fuck!” I floored the gas pedal as I drove down the busy street, trying to get to him as fast as I could.
Right before the phone went dead, I heard him scream.
Panic gripped my chest as I tossed my phone to the side and drove like a mad man to the shopping pavilion. Please let me get to him in time I pleaded in my head. I couldn’t lose him. Life without him would be meaningless, an empty and cold existence.
He was my everything.
Tears stung my eyes as I raced to him, my chest constricting and twisting as I thought of what was being done to him at that exact moment. Honking my horn, I drove through a red light and almost collided with a truck, not caring about anything except for getting to Gabriel. Sirens sounded from behind me as I drove, but I didn’t stop. Good, let the police follow me there.
Turning sharply into the parking lot behind the beauty salon, I gunned the engine before skidding to a halt, and opened my car door to get out. I saw a man standing over a huddled body on the ground.
Fuck.
Running at full speed, I ran up behind the man and tackled him to the ground before he could lower the bat again to Gabriel. Rearing my arm back, I punched him in the face, and then grabbed his head, bashing it into the concrete as I saw red. My vision blurred as I repeatedly punched the worthless piece of shit that harmed my angel. Sirens blared as the police cruiser pulled into the parking lot, and I stopped hitting the man. Tossing him away from me, I went to Gabriel and what I saw made me fall to my knees.
“Baby?” I sobbed as I pulled him against me. Blood poured from his head, staining his short blond hair, and coated the pink jacket he was wearing. His face was already black and blue and his lip was busted and bleeding. “Baby? Please open your eyes.” I held him against me as tears streamed down my cheeks.
It was the first time I cried since the last beating my mother had given me all those years ago. And this was worse than that… so much worse. It was a pain like I had never felt. Seeing Gabriel broken and bloodied shattered me.
I heard a car door slam, but I didn’t give a damn. The police officer could just kiss my ass. Pulling back from my angel, I looked down at him and gently caressed his swollen face. A soft whimper escaped him and his eyes slowly opened to gaze up at me. One of them was almost swollen shut, but the other one didn’t look to have been damaged that badly.
“Angel, I’m going to pick you up now, okay?” I warned him, knowing that it would hurt for him to move. The police officer approached me, but instead of being a dick and trying to arrest me for the countless laws I had just broken, he knelt down and examined Gabriel.
“I’ll help you lift him and put him in the car. It’ll be faster than trying to call an ambulance since the hospital is only a few blocks away.” He nodded his head at me and then we both put our arms under Gabriel to lift him.
Gabriel shuddered and whimpered against me and I died a little on the inside.
“I can carry him,” I told the officer as I cradled Gabriel against my chest. “Just deal with that piece of shit over there.” I motioned to the unconscious man on the ground. The officer nodded and walked over to the man. I averted my attention from them and focused on getting my angel the help he needed.
Laying him in the back seat, he seemed so fragile in my arms; his delicate frame shuddering as small whimpers escaped his slightly parted lips.
“Just hang on, baby.” I slid into the driver’s seat and drove to the hospital.
***
My leg bounced erratically as I sat in the waiting room of the hospital. Gabriel had been there for a while and I still hadn’t been able to see him. Putting my face in my hands, I rubbed my eyes and took a deep, calming breath. He would be okay; I had to believe that.
Hearing heavy footsteps, I anxiously looked up and shifted in my seat, hoping it was the doctor or a nurse. It was Zach and Jackson was with him. I called him after I arrived at the hospital to let him know what happened to Gabriel. He was on his date when I called and, by the looks of it, the date had been going rather well by how close Jackson was standing next to him.
“Fuck,” Zach said with shakiness in his voice as he stood next to me and ran a hand through his dark-blond hair. “Have you heard anything yet?”
I shook my head. “Not anything recently. They were going to do a CT scan to diagnose any possible injuries.” I winced as an image of Gabriel’s bro
ken body appeared in my head and I pinched the bridge of my nose before continuing to talk. “And they were also going to do a scan of his torso to make sure there weren’t any broken ribs or other complications due to the amount of damage that was inflicted.”
Zach took a seat next to me and Jackson sat next to him. “How bad was it?” Zach asked hesitantly.
“It wasn’t good. Let’s just say that.” I clenched my jaw and looked at the floor, trying to block out the images of Gabriel’s bloodied face. If that police officer hadn’t shown up when he did, I probably would have killed the man who had attacked Gabriel. I saw nothing but red as I had bashed his head against the concrete.
“Do you know who did it?” Zach clenched his fist as he stared at the door that led to the ER. I told him about the attacker and how I stopped him, and then how the police officer took care of the prick after that.
“I believe the officer is going to come here once the man is restrained to take our statements.” In the corner of my eye, I saw Zach reach over and put his hand on Jackson’s knee, as if seeking comfort. Jackson grabbed his hand as they both sat, staring straight ahead, completely oblivious to prying eyes.
Gabriel would be overjoyed to see that. A pain shot through my chest at that thought. Please be okay, Angel.
“Did you tell your father yet?” I asked Zach.
Still holding Jackson’s hand, Zach turned his head and answered. “Yeah, I told ‘em, and I said that I’d let him know what I found out. He’s goin’ to try and leave the factory soon, but his managers are fuckin’ assholes so it might be a little bit before he can get here.”
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