Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Whip was just getting worried that Angel hadn’t arrived yet when his phone rang. He saw her name on the screen and figured she was calling to tell him she’d gotten distracted by the cats or something.
“Hey.”
“Whip.”
Every muscle in his body tensed. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He could tell by just one word that his Angel was in deep trouble. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“He was there. At the house. Drunk. I got away but I didn’t know what to do. He hit my car. Tried to run me off the road. I turned but he didn’t!”
Whip was already on the move. He had no recollection of getting from behind the bar in The Cellar to his truck, but he was climbing inside and starting the engine before she’d finished talking.
“Where are you?” he repeated.
“I d-don’t know.”
As he pulled out of the parking lot of The Cellar, Whip took a deep breath. He needed to keep his shit together if he was going to be of any help. “Breathe, Angel. I’m on my way. I just need to know where to go.”
“I c-called 9-1-1. There’s a big fire. I don’t want it to spread.”
“That’s good. You did good. Are you safe? Where’s Dwayne?”
“I don’t know. I think he’s dead. Should I go check to see if he’s alive?”
“No! Fuck no. Stay away from the truck.” Whip’s heart hurt. He needed to get to her. “Please, Angel. Where did you go when you left the house?”
“I didn’t want to lead him to you. I couldn’t let you spend the rest of your life in prison. I turned right.”
Fuck. This was on him. He shouldn’t have told her that he’d kill her fucking husband if he touched her. He hadn’t lied, but she was in this position because she’d been protecting him.
Had anyone protected him since he was a kid?
No. He didn’t have to think about the answer to that question for long.
The fact that his Angel, at five-foot-nothing, wanted to protect him, the man everyone in town was afraid to cross, floored him.
Guilt hit him hard. She was completely freaked out, and he hated it.
He pressed his foot down on the gas pedal and headed out of town.
The road was curvy, and his stomach cramped thinking about what Angel had been through with her husband trying to run her off the road.
He heard the sirens in front of him and was relieved he was going the right way.
He saw fresh skid marks on the road, and it ramped up his anger all over again.
Her husband better be dead, because if he wasn’t, Whip was going to jail. He’d kill the motherfucker with his bare hands and not care what witnesses were around to see it.
Up ahead, he saw smoke in the air and spotted lights from the fire trucks that had arrived just ahead of him.
He barely slowed down, slamming on his brakes at the last minute behind the trucks and just before the sharp bend in the road.
It was obvious what had happened—Dwayne hadn’t made the turn and slammed into the trees.
Angel was right, Dwayne was most certainly dead. He couldn’t have survived that. No one could’ve. Whip didn’t feel guilty for the relief that swam in his veins at the thought. Her husband was dead. She’d never have to worry about him again. Good riddance.
His next thought was for his Angel. Where was she?
He ignored the firefighters, and they didn’t seem to care about him either. They were too focused on their job, on getting the hoses unrolled so they could pump water onto the truck and the flames attempting to make their way up the trees Dwayne had crashed into.
Looking to his right, he saw Angel standing by her SUV. He noted the dented back bumper; more proof of what her husband had been trying to do, as those dents weren’t there this morning. But he didn’t care about damage to the car…he only cared about his Angel.
She was standing with her arms around her waist, staring without blinking at her husband’s vehicle and the firefighters swarming around it.
He raced toward her, noting more skid marks on the road where she’d obviously slammed on her brakes after realizing Dwayne had crashed behind her. It was a miracle she was alive and unhurt.
His miracle.
Whip slowed as he neared, not wanting to startle her.
“Angel?” he said softly.
She blinked and her gaze focused. She looked at him, and she lost whatever composure she’d been holding onto by a thread, her lip quivering as she burst into heart-wrenching sobs.
Whip caught her as she threw herself at him. Her arms were like steel bands as she squeezed him so hard, he almost couldn’t breathe. Overwhelmed with emotion, Whip suddenly found his legs wouldn’t hold him. He crumpled to the asphalt with Angel in his arms.
She was safe. Breathing. Alive.
Burying his nose in her hair, Whip realized he was shaking almost as much as Angel.
They huddled there on the ground, holding each other as the firefighters put out the blaze. Eventually, they both stopped trembling, quietly reveling in the relief of being alive and together.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone,” Whip told her.
Angel shook her head. “Not your fault.”
It was. Whip knew it.
She lifted her head as if she could hear his thoughts. “It’s not, Whip. This is not on you.” She sounded fierce, and Whip loved her all the more because of it. “He was going to get to me at some point. He was watching me, waiting. If it wasn’t today, it would’ve been some other day.”
Whip sighed and pressed his lips together. He needed an outlet for the anger swirling inside him that anyone had dared try to hurt his woman. She was so…good. How someone could want to hurt her was beyond him.
“It’s over,” she whispered. “He’s gone. He can’t hurt me anymore. And you know what else?”
“What?”
“I’m not married anymore.”
Whip blinked.
“You know what that means, right? We don’t have to wait any longer. For…you know.”
Oh, he knew all right. The fact that her mind had turned to sex at a time like this was…what was it? Surprising, for sure. But also a fucking miracle. Yes, she’d broken down. But she’d already pulled herself together and was thinking about their future.
Their immediate future.
Whip didn’t deserve her, but he wasn’t giving her up. Not now. No fucking way.
He leaned down and kissed her softly. Treasuring the feel of his Angel in his arms, her lips under his.
He wasn’t aroused, not when the adrenaline was still coursing through his veins as much as it was, but he was most definitely pleased.
He looked in her eyes and said, “Tonight. I’m making you mine tonight. I’m not waiting another second.”
“Does that mean I get to make you mine too?” she asked, sounding shy.
“I’m already yours. Was from the very beginning. I wouldn’t have invited you to stay at my place if you didn’t already have me wrapped around your little finger,” he told her honestly.
“Whip,” she said, sounding overwhelmed and emotional.
Looking over her shoulder, he saw Simon Hill approaching.
The police chief would want to know what the hell happened, all the details, and Whip needed to know them as well.
Rehashing what she’d been through would be tough, but his Angel could handle it.
She was one tough cookie. Just another reason to love her.
He stood, taking Angel with him, keeping an arm around her as Simon approached.
“Are you okay?” the police chief asked her.
“Yeah.”
“You up to telling me what happened?”
“Am I in trouble?” she asked with a frown.
“No, you are fucking not,” Whip answered for Simon, in an almost threatening tone.
Instead of being irritated, the police chief smiled. “Of course you aren’t. I just need to know what happened that led to the accident.”
Angel took a deep breath, and with every word out of her mouth, Whip wanted to kill Dwayne all over again.
But he was so proud of his woman. She’d kept her head and hadn’t allowed him to get his hands on her.
He could hear the fear in her tone when she talked about the harrowing moments when her husband hit her car, trying to run her off the road.
When she realized how fast they were going, and it hit home that he was actually trying to kill her.
She began to shake again when she told him and Simon about the curve, and how she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it without Dwayne hitting her again. And finally, how she’d stopped immediately when she heard the crash, witnessing the fireball rising into the sky before dialing 9-1-1.
She took a deep breath and asked quietly, “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt, and even his airbags couldn’t have saved him from a crash at that speed. Not to mention the fire afterward. I’m sorry this happened to you, Angelica,” Simon told her gently. “You didn’t deserve this. No woman does. Are you going to be okay?”
Angel looked up at Whip and gave him a small smile before turning back to the police chief. “Yeah. Whip’s got me.”
He sure as hell did.
Simon nodded at Whip. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Khloe Walker, shouting as she ran down the road toward them.
“Angelica! Oh my God! Are you all right?”
Her husband, Raiden, was right behind her.
Simon wisely took a step back to give Khloe room, and it was a good thing, because the diminutive woman didn’t even slow down as she approached. She threw her arms around Angel and hugged her hard.
Whip didn’t remove his arm from around Angel in the meantime. He couldn’t. He’d almost lost her, and he was still too raw to give her any space. So Khloe ended up half hugging him, as well.
“I’m okay,” Angel said. “Um…what are you doing here?”
“Right after I saw you and Kevin at the clinic, I headed to the library for lunch. Raiden and I saw Whip leave like a bat out of hell, and he heard over the scanner that there’d been a wreck and you were involved. So we headed out to make sure you were okay.”
“Wow, I…yeah. I’m okay.”
“Her husband tried to kill her,” Whip said bluntly.
“Asshole.”
“I hope he’s dead!”
Khloe and Raiden spoke at the same time.