Angel Hunter- Redemption Book 2

by LaVerne Thompson

“What? What about him, I thought he was dead? That Adam would have killed him.”

  “No, merely missing.” Nor was she going to explain why Adam would never be able to kill Abel. Which is why he was contained.

  He frowned. “How do you know?”

  “I’m sorry Devlin but there are some things I cannot say. Just know that I believe he’s…missing.”

  “Still doesn’t mean he can’t be behind all of this, including your attack.”

  “Wherever he is… he cannot touch this world.”

  He stared at her for a moment but he asked no more questions. “Fine. Keep your secrets.”

  “These are not mine to divulge.” They weren’t.

  “I think what we need is more information. We don’t have enough.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “I think we need to capture one of the soulless and see if he can be…persuaded to answer a few questions. I’ll go hunting tonight.”

  “You know that’s not a bad idea. But I’ll go with you.”

  “Oh, no you won’t.”

  “I thought we’d been though this.”

  “It’s too dangerous, Eva. Let me and my men capture one of these guys. You can tell me what questions to ask. I’ll ask them and get the answers for you.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m coming with you and I’ll ask the questions myself.”

  “No.”

  She raised one shoulder. “Fine. Then I’ll just have to go out tonight and find my own.”

  He leaned toward her. “Damnit! Fine. But you’ll do exactly as I say.”

  “Of course, as long as when we’re done, we give the soulless the option of changing his ways and opting to find redemption, instead of preying on the human population.”

  His nostrils flared.

  She could see how he tried to rein in his anger. But on this she wouldn’t budge. She refused to be party to any unnecessary killing, nor would she allow him to kill like that on her behalf. Self-defense was one thing, outright murder another. And it would be murder.

  Dev gritted his teeth. “Fine.”

  “Just so we’re clear, whether he answers questions or not, he’s allowed to go free.”

  “Unless the bastard tries to kill us, and you know damn well he will, then yes. Agreed.”

  “That’s all I ask for, that they’re given a chance.”

  “I agreed didn’t I?” he responded gruffly.

  Eva smiled at him. She couldn’t help it. He looked so adorable. His arms were folded across his chest and he looked like a kid who’d been denied his favorite toy.

  “It’s the right thing to do, Devlin, and you know it.”

  “Are you going to eat, or what?”

  She glanced down at her plate. She’d barely touched it. She didn’t have much of an appetite as they talked, but suddenly she felt hungry. They finished eating in companionable silence.

  He’d finished first, of course, and watched her. “We’ll go out tonight,” he said.

  “Ah, tonight. What time?”

  “Yes tonight. The sooner we do this the better. Why? Do you have a date or something?”

  She realized she was silent too long.

  “Shit! You do, don’t you. Who?”

  She sensed menace coming off him in waves. Was he jealous? “That is none of your business.”

  “Well, I’m damn well making it my business.”

  “We’re not going there. Now what time?”

  “I’ll pick you up at nine.”

  Her date was at eight and she’d be damned if she broke it. She was no longer feeling so guilty. She’d just have to make it clear to Michael she’d have to cut the date short. “Make it eleven thirty. You and I both know the later the better.” That would work, a good safety valve in case the date wasn’t going that well anyway, and if it was, they could always make plans for another one.

  Devlin raised his eyebrows at her response. Her answer had surprised him. “Fine. Eleven thirty it is.”

  Well, too damn bad. She was tired of fighting with Devlin, tired of the attraction between them, tired of knowing he wouldn’t change. She had a destiny to fulfill and she’d come to realize months ago, it wouldn’t be with him. No matter what she’d once thought.

  Chapter Six

  Damn it! Devlin couldn’t fucking believe she had a date. He had a suspicion it was with the guy she’d met at the coffee house, had to be. She hadn’t been around any other males for any length of time since she’d been in town.

  He had to find out who the hell this guy really was. If he was the one for her, Devlin needed to know. Ah, hell! He was sorry now he’d promised her he wouldn’t kill the damn soulless they were going to try to catch tonight. He needed a good solid fight. One where blood got spilled—lots of theirs.

  He drove over to his office. More the base of operations where the LA hunters coordinated everything from. The first thing he’d done when he showed up was move them to this new location. Chris was well aware of the old one and managed to get into the place one night just before he’d gotten to town; he’d stolen a lot of files and corrupted some of their drives.

  Where they were now was set up more like the place he ran in Canada. Like a police command center. They were in a shady part of LA in a four story building which Samuel bought. From the outside, the windows on the first two floors were boarded up. The other two floors the windows were dark. The first two floors were actually the garage. Entry required a key fob and an eye scan. They kept a few cars constantly parked there for hunters to use, as well as their regular cars for those who manned the center. There was also an emergency area for any hunters needing medical treatment, so they didn’t have to go to a hospital and get asked questions they couldn’t answer.

  The third floor was a gym, where they all worked out, and a few rooms for martial arts. The top floor was where all the action took place. There were about five guys sitting around computers. In the center of the room was a digital map of the city of LA. Each computer covered information on specific areas of the entire state of California, but one computer focused solely on LA and Hollywood, it made up the center map. There were red dots or yellow in certain areas. Red for confirmed places soulless hunted, yellow were suspected areas.

  Since he’d arrived six months ago, there were more red and yellow dots showing up on the maps all over the state. There was also a green dot for places where Chris and hunters with him had been sighted. Those places matched some of the places where the soulless fed. Chris had been able to convince at least three of the hunters to follow him. Mostly the younger hot heads, but still that wasn’t good. Now they had hunters fighting each other as well as the soulless. Two of them had already gotten killed. Devlin needed to put more resources to finding Chris, but for now, he wasn’t a priority. Keeping Evangeline safe was.

  He’d dated women off and on over the years, but had been unable to make a commitment. None of the women he’d met would be able to handle the life he led. Even Eva knowing what he was, being a part of it herself, couldn’t handle it. The woman made him feel like an unsure and untried fourteen-year-old again. All he wanted to do was protect her. No, he also wanted to get into her pants, and she knew it. But shit, no one who has ever seen her would blame him. Which is why he had to get some information on this man who’d recently entered her life and the other reason why he was back at base. The first was to locate a possible sighting of a soulless.

  He’d taken a picture of the guy on his cell phone and uploaded it to their facial recognition database. If this guy had any kind of government issued ID requiring a photograph Devlin would find him. Usually, it only took about five minutes, but ten minutes later it was still searching. It had even gone through the international databases, then finally came back. No match found.

  That sent up red flares. He tried a couple of other files and every single one came up negative. Jason come over to him, he’d told him he was doing a background check on someone Eva had met. Was it pos
sible the guy was soulless? They didn’t show up in databases. Some of them were strong enough to block his abilities to sense them, although from what he understood, Chroniclers could sense soulless too. But he couldn’t be too careful, especially with Eva. He didn’t like the guy was a blank in the system.

  “Any luck?” Jason asked staring at the screen.

  “No. The guy isn’t in any official database. I’m running through social media and some private databases now and so far, nothing.”

  “That’s extremely rare, and suspicious. He’s either a military spook or a soulless.”

  “I’ve checked the military files too. If he were one of theirs, a red flag would have come up. He wouldn’t be ID’d but it would be clear his info was classified, didn’t happen.”

  “Then you think he’s soulless?”

  “It’s possible. In this day and age, picture IDs are a requirement, not to mention social media. Even if you don’t have a social media account, odds are someone somewhere who does took a picture of you and posted it online. I’m not taking a chance.” Devlin pulled out his phone to call Evangeline to warn her, but he hung it up before he could push the button.

  “What’s wrong?” Jason asked.

  “Just trying to figure out how to tell her I was watching her for the last few weeks without her knowledge. Then did a background check on the guy I saw her meet a couple of days ago.”

  Jason chuckled. “Hmm, that could be a problem. Good luck with that.”

  “Well, shit!”

  “Ah, then you might want to think about talking to her in person as opposed to over the phone. Maybe you can talk to her tonight when we set up our sting.”

  Jason knew about the operation Dev had planned for tonight. He was one of the hunters Chris tried to get to change sides. Jason was good, very good, but Jason told Chris to go to hell. At the time, he hadn’t known that Samuel had named Chris a traitor to them all. Jason would have put Chris out of his misery if he’d known. Too bad.

  “Yeah, I think I might, but I’ll have to do this before the operation. Eva’s got a date with the guy right before we pick her up.”

  Jason whistled. “Like I said, good luck with that.” He patted him on the shoulder and moved off to check on the center map to determine where they should set up an op tonight. He had military training and made an excellent strategist. Unfortunately for the military, he was injured and honorably discharged. A bomb exploded in his ear and his hearing was shot, but a digital hearing aid seemed to work just fine. So the military’s loss was the hunters’ gain.

  Devlin checked his watch and stood up. “I’m going to go see if I can catch Eva at her store before she leaves for the day.” He knew after they parted, she’d been headed there before going on her date.

  “Later,” Jason called.

  “Good luck,” someone else said. There were other words of encouragement from the hunters in the room who’d overheard his dilemma. He’d need it.

  When he got there, only one workman was in the shop, he seemed to be doing some rewiring in the ceiling.

  He nodded at the guy.

  “Can I help you? The store’s not open,” the man said.

  “I’m looking for Evangeline,” Devlin said. “Is she in?”

  “Nah, she left already. She won’t be back until tomorrow. Do you want to leave a message?”

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll just catch her at home.”

  The man grunted and went back to what he’d been doing.

  Devlin left the bookstore and climbed back in his car. He smacked the steering wheel. She either left for her damn date already but it seemed too early for that or she left early to go home and get ready. Was she primping for this bastard? Did she really like this guy? “Oh, hell.”

  He pulled out his phone and called her. He wasn’t sure what he’d say but no way could he let her met this guy without telling her what he’d found out and suspected. She might be pissed at him for butting into her life but she had to know this guy could be soulless. But if he was, why would he be going out with Eva? What the hell was going on?

  The call went directly into voicemail. “Hey Eva, it’s Devlin. Can you give me a call as soon as you get this message? Please. It’s important.”

  He didn’t know what else to do, he headed over to her house to wait. At some point, she had to come home.

  He almost didn’t recognize her. Only the stupid excuse for a car gave her away. The woman who stepped out of that thing no longer had her hair pulled into a ponytail like it had been when he had lunch with her. The way she usually wore it. Instead, her hair was parted in the center and hung in waves just above her chest, framing her face. Even through the car window he could tell, if the way her features crinkled was an indication, she didn’t look happy to see him. She walked around to the rear of her car and opened the door pulling out two bags. Both had names sprawled on them even he recognized.

  “Whatever it is,” she said as she approached him as he sat on her steps. “Will have to wait. I’m running late.”

  He stood up. “Fine, this won’t take long.” He wished. She was gorgeous. Was she wearing makeup too? Fuck! Glamour girl cover model, take his breath away drop dead gorgeous. Not that she wasn’t beautiful before, but now. What the fuck!

  She walked right past him, he caught a whiff of some expensive perfume as she opened her front door while he stood there with his mouth gaping. He stepped inside and shut the door. “What the fuck is this dude to you?”

  She spun around to face him. “You did not just ask me that.”

  “He’s a soulless, Evangeline. He’s a fucking soulless.” Damn, he hadn’t meant to be that blunt. But she seemed to bring out the worst in him. He raked his hands through his hair. He’d never been so worked up over a woman, but she wasn’t just anyone, not to him.

  “Get out!”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. I don’t know what the hell your problem is but get out of my house.”

  He covered his hand with his face and moved it down to his neck. Calming his jealousy because that’s what drove his actions. “Let’s start over.”

  “Nothing to start over with.” She continued into the room and dropped the bags on a chair. “Do you take me for some kind of idiot?” She raised both hands into the air as if in surrender. “What am I saying? Of course you do.”

  “The guy is a soulless, Eva.” He was 95% sure, good enough.

  She tilted her head to the side. “Don’t you think I would know, and if he was, so what? Wait a second. How would you know about him? And how do you know he’s soulless?”

  He was tempted to ask her for a drink, but didn’t think she’d accommodate him. “I think it might be best if we sat down.”

  She crossed her arms under her breasts, pushing them up so they looked fuller than they already were.

  He couldn’t take his gaze off them.

  “Hello, I’m still in the room,” she said, anger laced in her voice.

  He went over to her and took her arm. “Sorry, really sorry.”

  At least, she followed him over to the couch, but she did pull away from his grasp.

  “You make me nuts, do you know that?” he said sitting beside her.

  “The feeling is mutual. Now do you want to tell me what’s going on? What makes you think Michael is soulless?”

  “Michael? That’s his name. Michael what?”

  “None of your business. Now talk.”

  “Your aunt Wilhelmina called me before you came out here.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “She made me promise to take care of you, to watch over you. She was worried about you. Samuel asked me to do the same thing. He didn’t like the way the soulless seemed to be focused on LA right after we got rid of Abel. Chris was from LA, and the LA leadership as you know was in trouble as a result of his treachery. It splintered the group.”

  “I’m listening.”

  He took a deep breath. “I promised both Sam
uel and Willy, I would take care of you. The only problem was I knew you hated my guts.” He paused to give her time to deny it.

  She didn’t, she just continued to watch him with those big eyes.

  Something inside of him ached that it wasn’t true, that she didn’t hate him. He wanted to reach up and rub his chest, but he forced himself to continue. “Anyway, I knew you didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I thought I would respect your wishes and honor my promises by keeping an eye on you from a bit of a distance.”

  She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You were spying on me.”

  He held up his hands toward her in denial. “No, no not exactly.”

  “Oh yes, exactly. Have you been following me around? Is that how you know about Michael?’

  “Yes damnit! And if I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have been in that parking lot to stop you from getting hurt.”

  “We’re not going there. How do you know that Michael is soulless? Even if he were, I know what I’m doing. Don’t you trust I can take care of myself?”

  Shit. Hell no. But he couldn’t tell her that. “Not if he’s an Olden, or at least strong enough to block us. Sun was still up when you guys met.”

  “Do you know what color his eyes are?”

  “No. He was wearing dark glasses when I saw him.”

  “Okay, but then how do you know he’s soulless? You weren’t close enough to him to get a sense of that.”

  “I—I did a background check on him.”

  “You what!” She got up off the couch and paced in front of him. “You are unbelievable.”

  “Aren’t you going to ask me what I found?”

  Eva stopped pacing and stood in front of him, placing her hands defiantly on her slender hips. “Okay, what did you find?”

  “Nothing.”

  She frowned and dropped her arms to the side. “Nothing. What do you mean by nothing?”

  “This guy’s picture isn’t in any known databases, and you know I know how to check. Not even a blip on the military screens. And before you ask, yes, I checked them all. And social media.”

  “So what?” she challenged.

  “That’s impossible. No one his age could get away from having his picture posted online at some time or an ID.”