by Dale Cadeau
“I’m fine. I’m just a bit shaky. Angel here is telling me a scary story. I want you to tell me the truth.” Cinnamon leaned back in her chair, loosening Lance’s arms and pleading with him to tell her.
“OK, baby, what do you want to know? Do you want me to tell Angel to leave?” He glanced at Angel, who had followed him from the door and now stood in the middle of the kitchen with his hands on his hips. His stance told Lance that he did not like how familiar he was acting toward her.
Looking at Angel standing in the middle of the kitchen, Cinnamon knew he would not leave even if told to do so. There was enough tension in the kitchen already without adding more. Looking back at Lance, she told him, “Angel can stay. He has to be here to hear the proper story anyway. Would you please get off the floor and sit at the table. I’m fine. Can’t we just talk this over and have coffee? I’m sure both Angel and I overreacted.”
Lances gave her another long look and got up from his knees and walked to the coffee pot. Pouring himself a coffee, he waved the cup at Angel and her, asking them if they wanted a cup. Angel nodded and Lance poured another cup and put it in front of Angel who had already taken his seat at the table. Sitting down, Lance looked back and forth between Angel and Cinnamon. Taking a sip of his coffee, he turned to her and said, “OK, now we are more comfortable. I think you should go first and tell me what you remember about today.”
Cinnamon got up and when to the coffee pot on the counter. “Thanks for getting me some.” She knew she hadn’t said she wanted some when he asked, but this allowed her to stall a few more minutes and think over what she knew about the day.
“It won’t help, Cinnamon. Sit down, stop stalling, and tell me what happened.”
Walking back to her seat without coffee, she finally opened up and told him, “Like I told Angel. After he left this morning, I got ready and just went to get some groceries. When I got back, Brad was here parked on the street beside my house and he helped me bring them in the house. I was just getting ready to go to the club when Angel thought he had to sit on my doorbell and drive me crazy with all the noise. When I let him in, he starts telling me this crazy story about seeing me at the club leaving in a tiff. I told him that was not possible. I haven’t been to the club yet and haven’t talked to you since yesterday. I know more time has passed then I thought originally, but I probably lost track of it in the grocery store. You know I read all the ingredients before I buy anything. Now, tell Angel he’s mistaken and that you and I have not spoken nor have I been to the club today.” Her eyes were pleading with Lance to back up her story.
“Sorry, love, can’t do that.” Lance hesitated a moment and took another sip of his coffee, looking back at her over the rim of his cup. “You were at the club today. And we did talk.”
Sending Lance a disbelieving look, Cinnamon started to rise from her chair. “That can’t be!”
Lance grabbed her hand before Angel could and sat her back in her chair.
“Sit down. Maybe you don’t want to hear it. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. You were at the club today.” Lance then proceeded to tell her about her actions at the office and her decision to quit before driving off.
Cinnamon sat and listened to all that Lance told her. As he finished, she took her hands and started rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache, but Angel could tell she just needed a minute and was trying to get her mind to absorb the facts. Finally she gave a silent scream. Angel could see her month open but no sound came out. Getting her voice back she whimpered. Angel thought she sound like a wounded animal, and it gave him shivers down his back. He started to get up and go to her, but Lance stopped him with a look. “No, Angel, she has to hear this and deal with it. Nothing you can do will help right now. Just let her be for a minute.” They both watched as the tears flowed down her face from unseeing eyes.
Finally looking up at Lance, she said, “It’s happening again isn’t it? Lance, you have to help me. Oh God, Angel, please leave. I don’t want to see the disappointment in your eyes when you look at me. I don’t want to have to air all my dirty little secrets in front of you.”
Angel had had enough of sitting back. He knew Lance knew her better than himself, but he could not sit back and watch his woman in so much pain and not do anything. Skirting the table around to her chair, he scooped her up in his arms. “That’s enough, Lance. I gave you your minute and can’t watch this anymore.” Turning, he carried her into her bedroom. Angel tenderly laid her on the bed like she was precious cargo and told her he would get her something for her headache.
“I don’t have a headache, Angel. I just need time to come to terms with what is happening to me. Can you leave me alone for a minute while I gather my thoughts?” Cinnamon raised her head from the pillow and implored Angel to understand. She couldn’t believe that a man like Angel would even give her the time of day after hearing about her.
“OK, baby, are you hungry?” Angel leaned down and pushed her hair back behind her ears. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her. Her pain was his. He felt it deep in his soul and would do anything to ease her burden.
“Yes, I could eat a little. Just give me time to rest a bit. I think there are a few things we need to talk about when I get up.” Cinnamon reached out and grabbed his hand, also needing his touch to ground her.
Angel had a hard time letting her hand go, but he could see her start to shiver, so he let her go and reached down and covered her up with a blanket that was folded on the end of the bed. Walking to the bedroom door, he pausing with his hand on the door handle. He looked back and told her, “Lance and I will be in the kitchen making supper. Come out when you feel like it. Just try and calm down. Everything will work out OK. I’ll make sure of that.” Angel took one last look at her pale face peeking out of the covers and closed the door.
Angrily striding back into the kitchen, he rounded on Lance. “You were too abrupt. You should have picked your words more carefully when you told her what happened. My lady is suffering in there because of your lack of finesse.”
Lance rose from his chair. He could see that the warrior in Angel was prepared to battle and save his lady. But what Angel didn’t know, and something he had learnt from the shrinks, was that the fastest way to shock her out of musing was a direct hit with the truth. It had worked in the past and should work now. All he had to do was make Angel understand that he wasn’t an unfeeling sot, just one that had helped her deal with her past before. And to his way of thinking, this was all signs of the brainwashing coming back.
“Stop right there, Angel. I know that you want to claim her as your own. But she is my friend and in this case I know what is best for her. You can’t protect her from what happened in the past. You just have to accept it and deal. I told you some about the cult, but what I didn’t completely explain is how the brainwashing affected her. For the first months, all she did was talk about her garden and planting flower seeds. Or about Ward and how great a leader and spiritual guide he was. It made me sick. But I listened. After a while the reference to her other life didn’t come as often, then finally, she stopped talking completely about it. The shrink told me that as long as nothing triggered the teaching she had learnt that she would probably go through life with nothing but a few bad memories. This is the first time in five years that she has lost time. I know she is trying to cover it up by saying it was an accident of staying too long in the store. She acted strange after that phone call. I think this guy, Howard, has the means to trigger the brainwashing and he is doing it through these phone calls. He should be glad he got off instead of starting the whole thing up again. After all, their leader is now dead. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Sorry, I can be overly protective of my woman. And she is mine, I want you to know. I realize I have a lot to learn about what happened to her in the cult. Grant gave me a brief rundown from the Feds’ files, but it didn’t contain any details of what the people went through being part of the cult. Or anything that you both went through in t
he months after. Why don’t we make supper and you can give me the details? I also want you to know that nothing you will tell me will change my feelings about Cinnamon.”
Walking to the fridge, Angel opened it and took out some greens. He didn’t know too much about cooking, but he could make a salad and open a can of something. His lady wouldn’t starve. Lance sat back down on his chair, gulped the rest of the cold coffee in his cup, and refilled it with the Scotch he took from under the kitchen sink. He looked like he was bracing himself up for a task he didn’t want to do. Angel couldn’t blame him. Reliving that time would be just as painful for him as it was to Cinnamon.
Taking the vegetables to the sink, Angel started to wash them as Lance took a sip of the Scotch and started in on their story. He could tell Lance was having a hard time relaying it, so he made an extra effort to make sure the vegetables were spotless and started cutting them up into a bowl, not once looking at Lance. Lance got choked up a few times, but by the end, even Angel’s vision was blurry with unshed tears. He couldn’t believe what his beautiful woman had gone through.
Cinnamon came through the kitchen door just as supper was ready. Lance had pitched in and made pasta. Cinnamon still looked a little pale, but her eyes had lost the hollow look.
Lance opened up a bottle of wine he found in a cupboard as Angel brought the food to the table and they all sat down to eat. The meal was spent on small talk, keeping it light with a little bit of ribbing between Lance and Cinnamon
Lance got up to leave after supper was finished and the bottle of wine was done. Angel didn’t follow him. He just sat on the couch and made himself more comfortable. Cyn walked Lance to the door, asking him, “Don’t you think Angel should leave? I’m OK alone. I’m sure whoever grabbed me will not come here.”
Lance turned at the door, looking at Angel then back at Cinnamon. “I think it’s better if you’re not alone tonight. If you have a problem with Angel staying here, I can stay. I’m sure the club can get along without me for one night.”
Cyn turned to look at Angel also. ”I don’t think he’s leaving any time soon.”
Angel just relaxed more in his seat and said, “I’m not leaving. Get that out of your mind. In fact it might be safer if we went to my house.”
“I’m not leaving my house. No one is going to scare me away from my home,” Cyn argued back.
Lance opened the door. “Well, I’ll leave you two to sort it out.”
Chapter Fifteen
Closing it behind him, Lance left Cyn standing and staring at the door. Lance was no help. He agreed with Angel about her needing protection. While she liked having the big guy around and her body loved it, she felt that she could do it alone. Now she just had to get Angel to agree with her.
Walking back to the couch, she took in the picture he made sprawled on it. He looked like a warrior at rest, but one close look in his eyes told a different story. Cyn knew that she would have a fight on her hands, getting him to agree with her. Sitting beside him, she couldn’t help smelling the scent that she now associated with him. He had a clean outdoor scent that seemed to agree with her perception of a man just putting up with the laws of civilized life, but who could turn and call on his ancestors any time and become the warrior of years ago.
“Angel, I know that you need to be here to protect me. But I’m fine. You were hired to look after the club, not me. Don’t you think you should follow Lance back to the club?”
Angel turned and placed his hand on the back of the couch, close to where her head rested. “First, get it out of your head that I’m leaving. I’m not going anywhere. Grant and Brad have it handled back at the club. I think we can assume that the guy is after you for some reason. At supper we didn’t talk about anything that was going on. Lance did fill me in a little, while we made supper. But I want to hear your side of the story. Maybe it will give us some clues needed to nab this guy.”
Cyn sat forward, away from Angel’s hand that had started to pet her hair. She loved him touching her, but she was not going to let him sway her.
“If Lance told you the story, there is no need to go over what happened years ago again.” Cyn didn’t want this man to think less of her, and telling him about her cult activities in detail would probably destroy any faith he had in her. She knew that this man would never allow anyone to control any part of his life.
“OK, if that’s the way you want it. Let’s just concentrate on this Howard guy from the club parking lot. Tell me about him? Grant found out he was a second-in-command to the Ward guy that ran the cult. But when it was brought to trial, they couldn’t pin anything on him.” Angel knew not to push Cinnamon right now with the mood she was in. It was best just to get her talking and her mind off making him leaving.
“Howard. I don’t know too much about him. He stayed pretty much in the background. He didn’t live with us on the commune. He just came to talk to Ward every once in a while and he attended a few meetings that the group held. Other than that, I don’t know too much about him. Ward was always with me when Howard was around. We never had any conversations just the two of us.” Cinnamon sat back on the couch and looked thoughtful as she remembered.
“Can you think of any reason for this Howard guy to want to grab you after all this time? I know from Grant that Ward recently died in prison, so there must be a connection between his death and Howard trying to get to you. There must be something that he wants from you. Can you think of anything that Ward said or did that he wouldn’t want Howard to know about?” Angel reached back out and started stroking her hair again. When she was near him, he couldn’t seem to stop touching her.
“I can’t think of anything. Everything worth knowing about came out at the trial. We had a very peaceful community. The people that lived at the commune, with the exception of the guns business, basically worked the land and lived off of it. We didn’t even have hydro or any other modern convenience. I can’t believe Howard thinks I know anything worth going after. He and Ward were tight. I can’t believe that they didn’t share everything.” Cyn realized she was enjoying Angel stroking her hair too much and got up from the couch.
“I really don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s a time in my life that I’m not proud of and it’s over. If you are going to stay, the subject is closed. I’m going to watch a movie, and I’m picking a really girlie one, so feel free to leave anytime.” Cyn walked over to her small collection of DVDs and picked out Notting Hill. Turning on the TV, she put the movie in the player and sat back down on the couch, not looking or touching Angel. When he tried to speak, she turned up the volume of the TV and gave him a dirty look.
Angel knew he was beaten in this debate. He would just have to suffer though a girlie movie. Getting comfortable, he looked at Cyn. When she went to turn the volume up again, Angel held up his hand. “I was just going to ask about popcorn. If we are going to watch this movie, I think we need popcorn.”
Cyn laughed at Angel. What a guy. How could he think of eating after he just had supper? “If you want popcorn, there is some microwave stuff in the cupboards. Make yourself at home.”
Angel pushed his big body off the couch and sighed. “I suppose if I make some, you will want some, too?”
“Of course, just make it with extra butter.” Cyn turned back to the start of the movie as Angel walked into the kitchen. As soon as his back was to her, she turned from the movie and watched him walk into the kitchen. She couldn’t help admiring his body. He was solid muscle. His arms bulged, his waist was trim, and he had a rear worth drooling over. Cyn almost gave a sigh, trying to picture what he would look like with no clothes on. Maybe the movie would give him some ideas and she always liked to cuddle when watching a show. She would just have to see what opportunities arose.
Angel came back with two bowls of popcorn. Handing her one, he sat close beside her.
“Why two bowls? I would have shared,” Cinnamon asked as he handed her one of the bowls.
“Well, I don’t share well an
d with all the extra butter on yours. I thought it would be best if I made my own.” Angel put the bowl in his lap, drawing her attention to the bulge resting beside his bowl. She raised her eyes quickly when she caught a glimpse, but not fast enough. Angel had caught her staring. “It just helps keep the bowl in place. Ignore it.”
Cyn felt her face turn red. She knew what the bulge meant and by the size of it, he was packing more than most men. She hadn’t had sex since she had left the commune, and Ward was not even close to the size she knew Angel was, judging by the bulge. The movie played in the background and Angel seemed to be engrossed in the story. But all Cyn could think of now was the man beside her. She could feel her body responding to his nearness.
Popcorn finished, Cyn made her move and laid her head down on Angel’s shoulder. “Thanks for staying here. I know I’ve told everyone that I’m OK, but I really am scared of all the strange things going on.”
Angel looked down at her and, taking her chin in his hand, he very gently rubbed his thumb along her jaw line. “I won’t let anything happen to you. You just have to learn to open up and learn to trust me.”
Cyn looked at his lips as he spoke and all she could think of was what his kiss would feel like, how he would taste. Without realizing it, she leaned toward him. Angel took the hint and captured her lips in a mind-blowing, crushing kiss. He ate at her lips like he couldn’t get close enough, and his arms tightened around her.
He let his arms slip from around her shoulder to her waist and before she knew it he had her on his lap facing him. He did all this without letting the kiss slacken. As soon as he had her on his lap, he raised both of his hands and cupped her cheeks, deepening the kiss even more if that was possible. Cyn was so surprised by the sudden movement that it took her a minute to respond but as her body started to react she reached up and grabbed his long hair on either side of his head, wanting him even closer. He gasped at the feel of her pulling his hair, and his lips left hers for a minute.
