“Watch your step.” He took her by the hand, ignoring the warning bells screaming in his head to put some distance between them.
Her hand appeared so small resting in his much larger one.
“I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as this,” Niki breathed, pulling X out of his musing.
She released his hand and hurried forward to the cliff’s edge. “What is this place? Is it yours?”
X found himself smiling, something he seemed to do a lot of in her presence. Her expressive way of speaking and guileless eyes effortlessly drew him in. In all the years he’d been on Earth, he’d never met anyone as innocent and forthright as Niki.
He moved up next to her to stare out at the expanse of his property. Down in the valley below were dozens of horses. They grazed on green grass amidst giant live oak trees. A stream ran through the center of the valley, sparkling beneath the rays of sunlight that found its way through the trees. “It belongs to me, yes.”
“If there were a heaven,” Niki whispered, “this is what I would imagine it to be like.”
It bothered X that she didn’t believe in God. He opened his mouth to question her on it, but the presence of evil in the area stopped him.
Delia was near. He could sense her as surely as he could feel his shoulders heating up beneath his shirt.
“We should probably get back. A storm is about to blow in.” He glanced up at the sky, willing the clouds to darken.
Thunder boomed, and a few droplets of rain sprinkled down upon them.
Niki turned and hurried back toward the Jeep. “Those clouds came out of nowhere. I hadn’t noticed the weather change.”
Exodus followed close behind her, his gaze scanning the surrounding area.
Helping her back into the Jeep, he climbed behind the wheel and drove them back down the mountain.
Chapter Eight
Niki sat in silence, her mind whirling with thoughts of X’s hands on her waist. She’d never been so attracted to anyone in her life.
She swallowed with difficulty and turned to stare out the window. It wouldn’t do for her to develop feelings for Exodus Brooks. Not unless she wanted to have her heart broken. And it was broken enough already.
“Are you okay?”
“I was just thinking about those invoices waiting for me back at the diner,” she lied without taking her gaze from that window. “I’m hoping I can make some sense out of the loss of profit in the past two years.”
“Perhaps it’s not in the invoices.”
That brought her head around. “Why would you say that?”
He made an expert turn at the fork in the road. “I don’t know. Seems to me that an establishment that stays as busy as Hazel’s does should be showing a profit. Unless someone’s skimming.”
Niki’s breath caught. “You think someone’s stealing from the diner?”
“Could be. It’s the only logical explanation.”
“If that’s true, and someone is taking money, how am I supposed to prove it?”
X slowed to a stop at the four-way. “Install cameras.”
“I can’t afford to have cameras installed.”
“Then I’ll install them for you.”
Niki shook her head. “I can’t let you do that. I’m already indebted to you for the refrigerator, and I’m not even comfortable with that.”
“I really wish you would reconsider.”
“And I really wish you would watch the road,” Niki tossed back. “Look. I appreciate the offer, X. Truly, I do. But I’m going to have to decline.”
Exodus shifted his gaze back to the road. “Okay, then. I’ll let it drop. For now.”
Niki relaxed back against the seat, fighting a smile. “You’re a bossy thing, aren’t you?”
“Only when I need to be.”
He turned into the parking lot of the diner a moment later. “I’m sorry the weather turned bad on us. I had intended to take you horseback riding.”
Niki glanced up at the sunny sky above. “Weird that the storm dissipated right after we got back on the road. I’ve never seen one do that before.”
X didn’t comment. Instead, he said, “Perhaps some other time.”
“I’ve never been on a horse before. I’m terrified of them. But thank you for getting me out of the diner for a time. I really enjoyed it.” With that, she opened the door and got out without another word.
She could feel X’s gaze boring into her back as she made her way up the walkway in front of the diner and opened the door.
The place was buzzing with the lunch crowd when Niki stepped inside.
Voices mingled with the sounds of utensils clinking against plates to provide a near thunderous noise that would rival any storm.
Faye and Ellen bustled around the room in an attempt to keep up with the orders.
Niki hurried into the kitchen to find Randal handling the grill like a pro.
“Do you need any help?” Niki stepped back to keep from being burned as Randal spun toward the sink with a hot skillet.
He shook his head, dropped the hot pan in the sink, and returned to the grill. “I got it, ma’am.”
Niki waited for him to begin flipping the burgers in front of him before squeezing past him on her way to the small office in back.
She switched on her laptop and leaned back in her chair to wait for it to boot up.
Her mind immediately drifted to Exodus and the feel of his hands on her body.
She was treading on dangerous ground, and she knew it. There was no way in hell a man like Exodus Brooks would be interested in her.
He had everything. Looks, money, charm. Yeah, the man was the whole package.
While she, Niki, was thin as a rail, had very little money, and lived with a heart condition that could take her life at any given moment.
No, he wouldn’t be interested in someone like her.
Then why was he spending time with her? she wondered, studying the stack of invoices in front of her.
Pity, plain and simple. He feels sorry for me.
Once the laptop finished booting up, Niki signed into her banking account.
“What in the world?” she murmured aloud.
Someone had deposited a thousand dollars into her account.
Clicking on the deposited amount, Niki noticed her father’s name on the transaction.
She blew out a defeated breath, pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her jeans, and dialed her father’s number.
He answered on the second ring. “Hello, honey.”
“Hi, Dad. How are you?”
“I’m good. Your mom says hi, and she sends her love.”
“I love her too, Dad. The reason I’m calling is—”
“Now before you say anything,” her dad interrupted, “the money is an early birthday present.”
Her father knew her so well.
“Thank you, Dad. But a thousand dollars is a lot of money. A hundred would have sufficed.”
“Nothing is too much for my baby girl.”
Niki knew her parents didn’t have much. It hurt her heart to think they might do without since making that deposit.
“I appreciate the gift, Dad. But the diner is doing really well. I honestly don’t need that much.”
“That’s wonderful about the diner, honey! Start saving as much as you can. One day when you have kids of your own, you can give them more than we were able to give you.”
Niki’s heart shattered at her father’s words. Not only had he been the best father she could have asked for, but she would never be able to give him the grandchildren he so desperately wanted.
Her doctors had warned her at an early age about having children. With her heart in the shape it was, she likely wouldn’t survive a pregnancy.
“Please don’t say that, Dad. You gave me everything I ever wanted or needed. I never went without. Ever.”
Her father cleared his throat. “Well, all the same, we would give you the world if we could.”
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you too, buttercup. Now, your mom wants to talk with you.”
Niki spent the next twenty minutes listening to all the gossip her mother could think up. Everything from the Miller kid up the road being caught stealing to the local high school teacher’s arrest for growing marijuana in a field behind her house.
After the call ended, Niki began sifting through the invoices, one by one, but everything seemed to add up.
Perhaps Exodus was right. Maybe she did need to invest in security cameras.
Closing out the current screen she was on, Niki did a search for surveillance equipment.
The cheapest she could find included one operating camera with DVR capability and two days’ worth of recoded footage before it started anew.
She thought about the money her dad had deposited in her account. She would use two hundred of it to purchase the camera and give Exodus the rest to go toward paying him back.
With her mind made up, Niki clicked Purchase on the video equipment, paid the extra money to have it overnighted to her, and then opened her checkbook and made out a check to Exodus Brooks for eight hundred dollars.
Removing her glasses, Niki rubbed at her eyes, rested her arms on the desk, and lowered her head. She would just rest for minute before getting back to the search for missing money.
* * *
A knock sounded somewhere in the distance. It took Niki a moment to realize it came from her office door and another for her to admit she’d fallen asleep.
She quickly sat up and slipped her glasses on. “Come in.”
“Excuse me, ma’am?” Randal poked his head inside. “I’m gettin’ ready to go home for the night. Just checkin’ to see if you wanted me to walk you to your apartment door before I lock up the place.”
Niki jerked her gaze to the clock on her desk. She’d been asleep for hours. “I must have dozed off.”
“It happens, ma’am. You musta needed it.”
Thank you, Randal. You can go ahead and lock up. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure, ma’am? I sure don’t mind waitin’”
Niki sent him a reassuring smile. “I’m positive. Have a good night, Randal.”
“You too, ma’am.”
Chapter Nine
Exodus stood outside Niki’s apartment, watching her shadow move past the curtain-covered windows.
He’d been standing out in the dark like a damn Peeping Tom for the past hour, waiting on her to leave the diner and make it safely upstairs.
Then why was he still here? he wondered, fading back into the tree line when the door opened to her apartment. She’d made it safely inside more than thirty minutes ago.
Niki stepped out onto the deck with a leashed Lucky in tow and made her way down the stairs.
X grinned at her attire. She had to be the only female in the county to wear an ankle-length nightgown, an oversized robe, giant gray elephant slippers, and wire-rimmed glasses.
Damn, but he liked her. He appreciated her realness, her lack of candor, and her complete inability to flirt.
Niki Stanton was wholesome—someone he would definitely befriend if not for the fact he’d be leaving in less than a month.
Again. Why am I here?
X had been looking forward to ending his thousand-year sentence since day one of being on Earth. Yet, here he stood, with less than three weeks left to remain here, and he suddenly wished he had a little more time.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t really had a friend since before his death in 400 AD. He couldn’t afford friends. Not mortal ones at any rate.
He tilted his head to the side, watching Niki laugh at Lucky’s canine antics.
Maybe she reminded him of someone from his past, a life he’d had before he’d died and gained his wings.
He thought about her defective heart and wondered how long she had left on this earth. It would be a shame if she died before she even lived.
She deserved a good life with a husband to love her and children of her own.
A foreign feeling overtook him at the thought of Niki married, a babe in her arms.
Why would her happiness cause him to feel such a thing? It wasn’t as if he wanted her in a romantic way. Did he?
“Come on, boy. Do your business. It’s late, and I have to be up early in the morning.”
Her voice brought him out of his temporary insanity.
He watched her from the trees as she led Lucky back up the stairs and closed the door behind her.
“Really, Exodus,” Delia scoffed, suddenly appearing next to him. “That little thing? Surely to Lucifer, you haven’t stooped that low. She’s a child. And a homely looking child at that.”
His wings ripped through his shoulders, burning the shirt from his immortal flesh in their wake.
“You stay away from her,” he snarled, lifting the sword that appeared in his hands.
Delia vanished, reappearing several feet from him. “Tsk, tsk, my love. Is that any way to treat an old friend?”
“We were never friends, Delia. Had I known what you were from the beginning, I would never have allowed you inside my head.”
“You mean your bed. You allowed me into your bed,” she purred, reaching up and pulling the string that held her top together.
Her incredible breasts spilled free. “You do remember that, don’t you?”
Exodus hardened his mind, refusing to entertain the memories of his time with Delia. But try as he might, they filtered in, one by one.
He recognized it for what it was. Delia’s demonic influence.
Images of her mouth on his body overtook him. The unimaginable pleasure she’d brought him again and again. The way her long silky hair felt in his hands, her diamond-colored eyes sparkling from above him as she rode him to completion.
Grinding his teeth in disgust, X forced her from his mind and swung his blade wide.
It connected with her arm.
Delia roared in agony, the beautiful mask of a face she normally wore slipping into its naturally hideous form.
Exodus took advantage of her pain. He raised his sword once more, every muscle in his body vibrating with power.
The sound of Niki’s door opening brought him up short.
X slammed into Delia’s body, wrapped his fiery wings around her, and vanished, taking her with him.
If X had hesitated for even a second, Niki would have seen him in his true form. Worse still, she would have witnessed Delia’s evil in all its glory.
Exodus could hear Delia’s agonizing screams echoing from the cocoon of his fiery embrace. He would hold her there until she returned to Hell from whence she came.
The fight finally left her, and the stench of burning flesh disappeared along with her evil form.
X appeared at the edge of his yard. He staggered around momentarily, trying to regain his bearings, and then he violently retched.
He couldn’t seem to get Delia’s odor from his nose and throat.
Dropping to his knees, he shuddered, heaving repeatedly near the pebbles of his driveway.
A white handkerchief was abruptly thrust under his nose. “Something you ate?”
Leviticus, X thought, clenching his jaw. He always seemed to show up at the most inopportune times.
X shook his head, accepting the pristine cloth, and proceeded to wipe his mouth with it.
“It was oysters, wasn’t it?” Leviticus continued as if he hadn’t noticed X’s ill demeanor. “You know better than to eat them in months that do not end in the letter R. Those things are the nastiest shell dwellers on the face of the earth. I hear they cause liver disease and —”
“It wasn’t oysters,” Exodus bit out, rising to his full height of six-foot-six. “And you know I can’t get liver disease.”
Levi grinned. “I do know, but it sounded good. I wonder what that would feel like…”
“What?”
“Liver disease,” Levi drawled in a dry tone. “You really should pay better attenti
on.”
Exodus handed him back his handkerchief. “Are you here for a reason other than to annoy me?”
Levi held the hankie up by the corner, his nose wrinkling in displeasure. “I was actually following Delia before I was summoned elsewhere.”
“Yeah, well, I found her,” X muttered, striding toward his cabin. “Or rather, she found me.”
Leviticus fell into step beside him. “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that it didn’t turn out well.”
“Ya think?”
“From the looks of you and the boiled-egg smell you reek of, yep.”
X marched up the steps and opened the door to his home.
He strode off down the hall, toeing off his boots and peeling out of his jeans as he went. He didn’t wait to see if Leviticus followed, nor did he care. The only thing X cared about in that moment was removing any and all evidence that Delia ever existed.
Once in the shower, he scrubbed feverishly at his skin and hair before snagging his toothbrush and punishing his teeth in the same manner. Once he finished, he repeated the process.
“She really gets under your angelic skin, doesn’t she?”
Exodus opened his eyes to find Leviticus standing at the entrance of the massive shower, holding the glass door open.
“Do you mind?” X drawled, cocking an eyebrow.
“Not at all.”
Shutting off the water, X caught the towel Levi tossed him, wrapped it around his waist, and shouldered past the other angel on his way out of the shower. “She doesn’t get under my skin, Levi. She just sickens me, is all.”
“She only has power over you if you allow it, X. She can’t kill you or take away your birthday for that matter. The only tool she has in her arsenal is lust. And surely to God, you don’t feel lust for her? Especially after everything you’ve been through. I mean, that’s the reason you are here to begin with. Not to mention, she smells like an unused fireplace from 1920.”
“Of course I don’t feel lust for her. The only emotion I feel when it comes to Delia is contempt.”
Levi lifted an eyebrow. “Then why go all Die Hard on her if she doesn’t get to you?”
“She showed up at Niki’s.”
Heroes Among Us: A Paranormal Romance Collection Page 4
