by Dale Cadeau
James grabbed the glasses from Angel “I see movement at the gate. Grant is now speaking to the guy. That’s our cue. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Angel and James hurried out of the apartment and to the elevator that was now working. In a few minutes they were in front of the apartment building and hurrying toward the commune a few blocks down.
Reaching the gate, they were just in time to see Grant take the guy out with a left hook and lay him out on the ground. Lance and Chase were starting through the gate. Angel ran and caught up with them. “What’s going on?” he asked Grant.
“They have moved outside of the hut and are making their way to the back of the commune. Brad and Clay are shadowing them. That’s all I know.”
Inside the gate, they were surprised that there was no one milling around. It seemed too quiet. Skirting around the huts, they hurriedly made it to the last one where they found Clay looking around the back corner of it toward the back property line of the commune.
“How’s Cyn?” Angel asked as he sidled up to Clay.
“Cyn looks like she’s crying. Howard shook her up a bit.” Clay reached out and grabbed Angel by the back of his T-shirt as he started to go around him and held him back. “Wait just a damn minute. He just shook her, nothing too physical. We have to give them time. Brad has a bead on him in his gun’s scope. Nothing will happen or Brad will take him out.”
Angel shrugged Clay’s hand off. “OK, but let me look. I have to see for myself.”
Angel watched as Howard pulled a now sobbing Cyn behind him to the very edge of the commune. Two other men were walking behind them. Angel could tell these men were not into whatever Howard was up to as they had their guns pointed at the ground and seem to be too calm to be any kind of hired henchmen. Finally, Howard and Cyn reached the back fence. There just inside the fence was a small tool shed. Howard roughly pushed Cyn to the ground in front of it and seemed to be screaming something at her, waving his hands wildly.
He started walking around her as she sobbed on the ground at his feet. His frustration was obvious as they watched.
Howard suddenly came to a stop in front of Cyn and raising his foot he pulled it back and went to kick her.
His foot suddenly stopped in mid action, not moving forward as his ranting stopped and he fell backward on the ground. The other two men raised their guns and both gasped and dropped their guns, one after the other grabbing their hands that had been holding them.
Angel had seen enough. He raced toward Cyn, who had stopped sobbing and was now looking around her in a daze at the men. Reaching her, Angel slid to his knees and enveloped her in a tight hug. “God, are you OK?” Angel just hugged her tighter and breathed in the scent of his Cinnamon.
Cinnamon squealed as Angel continued to squeeze her. “I’m OK, Angel. I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.”
Angel loosened up his hold and brushed her hair gently back from her face and kissed her forehead. “I was so scared that I would lose you.”
James walked up to them sitting on the ground. He squeezed Angel’s shoulder. “Everything is OK. We have it covered. But before we call the Feds or police in, I would like to ask Cyn one question.”
“It’s not the time, James. Can’t you see that? It can wait until later.” Angel got to his feet and was helping Cyn to hers. Now that Cyn was safe, that’s all that mattered to Angel. He didn’t care about anything else and was annoyed that James would bother her right now.
Cyn laid a hand on his chest when he would have hurried her away. “Just a minute, Angel. I think I know what Howard was after. I don’t know why it just came to me now. But let me talk to James.”
Turning to James, she continued. “He kept ranting on about my special garden. I was in such a daze that I couldn’t think with all his yelling. When he went to kick me, but landed on the ground instead, it stunned me. I remember my special garden that I kept just for Ward. It wasn’t anything special and the seeds he supplied me with didn’t grow. The normal ones I purchased at the market did a lot better. Howard just kept on ranting about the garden and Ward’s seeds. Let’s go see what was so important about my garden.” A determined Cyn stepped away from Angel and went to the shed and opened the door and grabbed a shovel.
* * * *
Angel took it out of her hand and grabbed hold of her other one. Holding his hand tightly, Cyn led Angel to the left edge of the property. Chase and Lance both followed, with James walking behind them. Reaching the small overgrown plot, Cyn stopped and spread her hands toward the ground. “This is it. Nothing great to look at now, is it? But back then it was my pride and joy, even if I couldn’t get Ward’s seeds to grow. He never seemed to mind, though.”
James came to her side and took her elbow. “Where did you plant the special seeds? Can you tell us?”
Cyn pointed to the overgrown patch. “The left part of the garden was where I planted them. I kept them separate from the other vegetables that would go to the market. I think you need to dig in that area.” Cyn led them to the left side of the patch. “There wasn’t many seed so I just planted two rows. Right here.” She pointed at the ground at her feet.
Angel pulled her back and took the shovel and started to dig. Nothing turned up but chunks of clay from the ground. After he had turned over the ground of the first row, he turned to James. “I don’t think there is anything here.”
Cyn dropped to her knees. “No, here they are. They still didn’t grow after all this time.” Grabbing a clump of black dirt, Cyn crumpled it with her hands. From the dirt came a gray glassy stone. “See here’s one.” She held it up.
James took it from her outstretched hand. Taking the hem of his T-shirt, he polished the stone. As he continued rubbing, a more clearer stone emerged. Smiling, he held it up so everyone could see. “This is what Howard was after.”
Angel reached out and took the stone from James’s hand. “Is this what I think it is?”
Angel looked over the stone carefully. In his hand was a nice chunk of raw diamond, almost as big as his thumbnail. He looked at Cyn. “You really did have special seeds.”
James turned to the others. “Let’s grab some more shovels and see what we can find? Cyn, do you remember how many seeds you planted?”
“Ward gave me two bags, but they didn’t look like that when he gave them to me. They were just black hard seeds mixed in dirt. Ward told me that they were just big black bean seeds already starting to spout. So I just planted them, ground and all,” Cinnamon told them.
Lance and Chase walked back to the shed where Clay and Brad were tying up the two men. Howard was still lying on the ground where he had dropped, staring sightless at the sky. There was no hope for him as Brad’s aim had been true and he had a hole right in the middle of his forehead.
Grapping more shovels out of the shed, Clay told them to hurry up with the digging. “People are starting to come out of their huts with all the noise. So we can’t wait too long to call the Feds in.”
Chase, at the lead with his shovel, watched as Clay made sure the man he was holding was tied tight and replied, “Will do, but you could come and dig in the mud with us.”
Pushing the tied-up guy to the ground, Clay told him, “No, you and James can have the fun. Brad and I will stay here and deflect questions from the people I see coming up the path.”
James was already digging and Lance and Chase joined him, being careful to turn over the earth and put aside any large chunks of clay. Angel, with his arms around Cyn, watched them.
Cyn pulled herself out of Angel’s arms with a bit of a struggle. “Let me go. I’ll just go get some water from the hut,” she told Angel as he reached to take her back in him arms.
Angel grabbed her hand and walked to the hut with her. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight for a minute now he had her back.
Bringing a basin of water to the edge of the plot, Cyn knelt down and took the larger chunks and dipped them in the water as Angel gathered t
hem for her.
After a half hour’s work, the basin was half-full of cloudy diamonds.
Clay walked up and looked over her shoulder. “Quite the haul you have there. I called the Feds before the people could call the police. I think you just uncovered the missing millions that the Feds couldn’t account for when they arrested Ward. You got to give him credit. No one would have thought to look in a vegetable garden growing in the back of a commune. He had this stash waiting for him when he got out. He must have trusted Howard with some of the information in case something happen to him. Don’t look now but we are going to be surrounded by the men in black.” Clay turned and raised his hands in the air.
“Hold it. Stop what you are doing and drop the shovels. Hands in the air.” The Feds were now on the scene.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It took a few frustrating and tiring days before they were all gathered back together at the small apartment. It had been a long couple of days spent at the Feds’ headquarters. The Feds had been ruthless in their questioning about their knowledge of the stash of diamonds found at the compound. Questions that had run long into the night.
James walked to the fridge and took out cold beers and passed them around. Even Cyn took one. She joined the guys in celebrating that the worse was over. There would be a trial, but that wouldn’t be for months.
Cyn was sitting beside a quiet Angel on the couch. She could tell something was bothering him, had felt it for days, ever since he had found her. With their busy days with the Feds, she hadn’t had time to ask him what was bothering him. Reaching a hand over, she waited until the guys were all engrossed in a game on the TV and put her hand on his thigh. “What’s wrong, Angel? I’m OK and everything turned out OK. No one is hurt, well, except for Howard. So what’s bothering you?”
Angel put both of their bottles on the table in front of the couch and turned Cyn toward him. “I just feel that I let you down. In the army, and now working in the firm, I can usually sense if something is wrong. But I didn’t have a clue anything was wrong when I left you that morning to go to the club. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me most. Can you forgive me?” Angel wrapped his arms around Cry and pleaded with his eyes.
Cyn just raised both of her hands and wrapped them around his jaw, making him look into her eyes. “You silly, silly man. You were there when I needed you. You arrived when Howard was just starting to go off the deep end. And you had no way of knowing what was in my mind after the last phone call from Howard I received that night. I don’t know how they do it, but my mind seemed to blank out and I just did what they wanted. I thought that would never happen again, so this is all my fault for not going through the full course of therapy.” Angel was just about to speak, when James, who had been watching the game with only half his mind on it, spoke up.
“Angel, when we get so close to a person that we become almost one, we sometimes can’t sense things happening to them, like you can with others you’re not so close to. You always knew when something was going to happen to the unit, but you could never tell if you were in danger. Remember when you got shot? You didn’t see it coming. So give yourself a break and just look after your lady from now on.” James turned back to the game.
“I agree with James.” Cyn pulled Angel’s head down and her lips met his. She tried to put everything she felt for this man behind her kiss. He would always be her own personal hero, her Angel.
Angel devoured her lips like he couldn’t get enough of her. Letting them go, he buried his face in her hair and breathed in the scent of Cinnamon. She wore a scent like her namesake but, to Angel, it just smelt like home. He would always be grateful to Brad. Turning his face toward the guys watching TV, but still holding onto Cyn, he thanked Brad. He hadn’t had time in the days past to thank him for Cyn not being hurt.
“No problem, Angel, anytime,” Brad answered back around a mouthful of chips as he lazed back in his chair.
“Well, you could have just nicked him and we would have been out of here soon,” James spoke up after taking a sip of his beer.
Brad stopped munching and looked at James in disbelief. “What if it had been Avery? Would you have wanted him just nicked and still walking around, never knowing if he would have come after her again?”
James rested his bottle on his jean leg and seemed to ponder Brad’s reply. “No, good shooting. One less to worry about. I don’t know why I even questioned you. I trusted your judgment in the army and you’re still coming through for us.” James raised his bottle and saluted Brad. The rest of the guys joined in. The good guys had won this round.
Angel just squeezed Cyn tighter. “It was a great shot.”
* * * *
Angel untangled his arms from around Cyn and rose from the couch. Reaching down, he took her hand and raised her to stand beside him. “Come with me.” Angel led Cyn out onto the balcony and closed the door on the noise of the guys watching the game. Putting an arm around her, he led her to the edge of the balcony and told her to look at the stars. It was a clear night and the stars were so brilliant.
“The stars above are what my grandmother named me after. She named me Ahtahkakoop. My mother died in childbirth and my grandmother took me in. My father disappeared that same night. She told me that the stars that night were shining more brilliantly than she had ever seen and just knew that I was going to be special, like the blanket of stars above. Well I don’t know about that part of it, but I would like to blanket you with my stars for the rest of your life. When you went missing, I felt like part of my soul had departed with you. I never want to have that feeling again. With you I feel whole. So, what I’m trying to ask you is if you will stay with me. Join your soul with mine for the rest of our lives.”
“Angel, are you asking, what I think you’re asking?” Cry looked up into Angel’s eyes that were black and as serious as she had ever seen them.
Angel gently cupped her face in both of his hands. He gave her a small kiss and stepped back from her. “I know this is sudden, but I love you. You are the soul mate my grandmother told me I would find one day, if I was lucky. So yes, I would like our souls to be joined. If that is marriage, then that’s what I want. I hope you feel the same way?”
Cyn was so surprised she didn’t know what to say. This man had become her whole world in the few short days since they met. She knew that they really hadn’t spent enough time together. But she couldn’t resist the pull this man had on her every time he was around. On some level she knew that what he spoke of was true. She felt safe and whole when he was around. “Yes, Angel, I feel the same way.”
Angel didn’t give her time to finish when he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her into his arms and swung her around and soundly kissed her. Still holding her high in his arms, Angel opened the sliding glass door and gave a war yell that stopped all conversation. Clay turned down the TV and they all looked at Angel with Cyn held in his arms.
“This woman has just agreed to join her soul with mine for life. As a big part of my life and family, I wanted you all to be the first to know.” Angel had a wide happy grin on his face as he told the stunned guys in the living room. All the guys jumped to their feet and approached the couple, thumping Angel on his back as they all gave him enthusiastic good wishes.
The only one that didn’t rise was Lance, who still sat in his chair with a stunned look on his face. Cyn noticed after all the guys had hugged her. Leaving the group around Angel, she made her way to his chair and knelt down beside it. “Aren’t you happy for me?”
“Don’t you think it’s a little sudden? I like Angel, what I know of him, don’t get me wrong. But this just seems to be too quick.” Lance had sat forward in his chair as he looked at Cyn kneeling before him. “I want you to be happy.”
Cyn took both of Lance’s hands in hers and gave them a squeeze. “I am happy, Lance. Just be my friend and wish me luck. With Angel, I have a man that is everything I wanted.”
“OK, but I will be around if you ever
need me.” Lance returned the squeeze with a slight grin on his face.
“Oh, Lance, don’t worry. We will be together as always, that’s not going to change. We have the club and a friendship that will continue. Please just be happy for me.”
James cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Well this calls
for a drink.” Walking over to the fridge, he pulled out a bottle of
champagne.
“Where did that come from?” Angel asked as James pulled the cork out of the bottle and Clay gathered glasses out of the cupboard.
“I bought this to celebrate with Avery when I got back and we could continue our honeymoon, but I think this news is worthy of my champagne.”
Pouring out the champagne, James filled the glasses that Clay was holding and every one soon had a glass full. Lance rose from his chair and Cyn got up and moved over to Angel’s side.
Clay spoke up and raised his glass. “This is for a great guy, who saved our butts numerous times. Our best friend and for the woman that is his soul mate. If anyone would know, it would be Angel. So let’s drink to their health and a long life.”
James looked at Clay. “That was my line.”
“Well, I’m the oldest. So in our little family of ours, I get to make the toast.” Clay just gave James a sly glance, took a long sip of his champagne, and smacked his lips.
After the drinks had been drunk and the guys were just sitting around talking, Lance walked up to Angel.
“I only know you through Clay and the few days at the Club. So I am going to be blunt. Cyn has been a part of my life since we were young. I have always looked out for her and I want you to know that while I trust Clay’s judgment on the people he hangs around with, I will be watching. Just think of me as Cyn’s guardian angel.”
“I respect your feelings and am glad that Cyn has a friend like you that will look after her. But let me reassure you. Cyn is the other half of my soul. I would never hurt her and will protect her with my life until the end of my days.”
