Page 8 of Avenging Angel

“All right, I’ll go. My bags are packed. But I’m taking these with me,” I say, lifting both cases. “You need this tested in the field, right? Well, I know exactly who to test it on. Since I’m not allowed to kill Angel for being a bonehead, knocking him out with a paralyzing agent at 300 meters is the next best thing.”

I take the case and the box of ammo before heading toward the door. I turn around and give one last parting comment.

“The best part about it is that Angel will never see it coming. And trust me. He has it coming.”

Roger raises his finger in the air. “Not so fast! At no point will you shoot Angel to ‘test’ the prototype weapons.”

I frown. “Why not? It’s harmless.”

Faith bursts out laughing. “While I’d love to be a fly on the wall while you incapacitate my brother, he’s actually a pretty decent guy. A doofus, but a good guy at his core. Would you really subject him to the ridicule of my other brothers, and my parents for that matter, simply because he’s an idiot for not realizing how perfect you are for him?”

I bite my lower lip and pretend to contemplate the question before giving my best friend the answer she least expects. “Yes, I absolutely would.”

“Then so be it,” Faith says. “Promise me one thing first.”

“What’s that?”

She chuckles. “Please get a picture. If there’s no proof, then it never happened.”

Roger slices his hand through the air. “There will be no paralyzing a CIA agent, or taking pictures of him bound, gagged, or whatever else you would do to him while immobilized. We’re Southern Knights. We’re held to a higher standard.”

“Are we really, though?” Jeremy asks. “I’m pretty sure that if we’d gotten a picture of Scott and Grace covered in mud during the last assignment, it would be on the ‘Wall of Shame.’”

Jack nods. “We should continue the tradition that the Shining Knights started. Any proof that you ‘mucked’ up should be memorialized for posterity.”

Roger sighs. “Fine, but not at our hands. Taking out a CIA operative with simunition rounds and then drawing pictures on his face is out of the question. Are we clear?”

“I make no promises,” I say, hating that Roger seems to know me so well.

The truth is, Angel is a good guy. He just might not be the guy for me. I need someone who has a spine and is willing to stand up for himself. He’s tried to apologize, but that doesn’t change things. To him, I was a mistake. To me, he was the promise of a future I’d long since forgotten. He wasn’t just a man I kissed. Angel was… is someone who fights for those he loves and cares about.

I just wasn’t worth the fight.

Chapter three

Angel

“The cameras are up and you shouldn’t have any blind spots around the cabin,” Vinny says as he wipes his boots off on the “Welcome” mat on the front porch. “The trail cameras are up as well.”

I nod and thank him as I set up the hotspot, linking my laptop and two additional screens. “They aren’t nearly as sophisticated as the ones the Southern Knights use, but it will be one less thing Daisy has to do when she gets here.”

Vinny glances around the single-room cabin that has a bed in the corner, a pullout couch, and a small kitchenette with a two-burner hotplate. Thank the Lord there’s a coffee maker as well, and a small fridge that comes up to my chest.

“You couldn’t have sprung for a two-bedroom cabin?” he asks. “I doubt Daisy is going to be keen on sharing a bed with you until you put a ring on her finger.”

The cameras slowly come online and fill up the additional screens that I plugged in, each box showing the geolocation and time in the bottom right corner. Not bothering to look up, I gesture in the direction of the sofa. “I’ll use the pullout couch. However, the studio cabin was a strategic move on my part. There will be no place for Daisy to run to or hide, and no bedroom doors to slam in my face. Daisy will have no choice but to talk to me.”

Laughing and slapping my shoulder much harder than necessary, Vinny says, “Angel, you don’t cage a tiger unless you’re prepared to get mauled. Do you honestly believe that trapping Daisy and forcing her to listen to you is going to go well?”

“Probably as well as a fart in an elevator,” I reply. “But I need to apologize for not standing up to my sister when she confronted me about the kiss. I’m certain that Daisy has blocked my number since she never answers. If she hasn’t, then saying ‘I’m sorry’ via a text message seems like the coward’s way out.”

“Are you sorry for kissing Daisy?” Vinny asks. “Not the kiss itself, but the reason behind it? The truth is that you barely knew her at the time, and it’s not like you to have regrets, Angel. You’ve broken plenty of hearts and have never once looked back. Why are you so hung up on Daisy? Why can’t you let it go?”

He already knows the answer, but he wants me to admit my feelings and is goading me. But how does one explain that instant connection when eyes lock and no words have to be uttered to know that they’re the one? Or at least you hope that they’re the one.

“When I first met Daisy, her beauty didn’t escape me. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely noticed her slender legs and long hair as black as a moonless night, but it was her eyes that captivated me, Vin. I could see past the smile she had in place and beyond the sparkle in them to know that she was hiding pain. Not the kind of pain that’s physical, but the emotional type that takes its toll on the soul. For some unknown reason, I wanted to be the one to help her heal even though I had no idea what had wounded her. Does that make any sense?”

“It does,” he says as he sits down on the sofa, the cushion dipping under his weight. “You want to be her hero. It’s why you have taken such an interest in her case.”