Chapter Forty-Two #7
“You were sitting with what’s her name, Elizabeth?” Shelby said to me.
“Emma,” I said.
“That’s right, her and her new boyfriend.”
I nodded, still smiling. “That’s right.”
She glanced behind at the boyfriend, who was standing with his back to us. It was an important call for him; his whole future was on the line, and if they married, Shelby’s future, too.
The saleslady hesitated with a tray of rings in her hands. They were princess cuts, and I shook my head. “They’ll stick out too much at work, she’ll hate that. Do you have anything that is more flush to the ring mounting?”
“What’s her job?” the saleslady asked.
“She’s a teacher,” I said.
“Was she the lady I saw you with at the coffee shop?” Shelby asked.
I hadn’t even known she’d noticed me with Miranda.
I’d thought Shelby was totally into her boyfriend as she left the café.
It meant she was a far better actor than I thought and that she noticed men even when she was on the arm of her soon-to-be fiancé.
It was none of my business, but if I had been dating her it would have given me pause; lucky for all of us I was just there to keep her from getting killed by her stalker.
The boyfriend came back pumped and over the moon, listing teams that would be scouting him tomorrow.
He actually did a little bounce on his toes like he was a little boy, too excited to hide it.
I liked him better for it, but Shelby got that disdainful crook to her upper lip, and the eyes said clearly that he was behaving like a child and she did not approve.
Reggie had a similar look; so had my first wife. Most women had it.
Boyfriend didn’t notice; he was too busy bouncing.
Shelby saw me notice. She gave me the full force of that disdain and then her mouth softened into a smile, but her eyes didn’t go softer.
No, the look in her eyes was hard and sharp as if her eyes were blue glass with edges hard enough to cut yourself on, but it just might be worth it.
She was too harsh for me, reminded me too much of my first wife, and she had been a woman who used men until either she used them up or they wised up and moved on to someone safer to love.
The saleslady said, “How about these rings?”
I turned to look at the new tray of rings and took the chance to look at the window.
Mark Cookson was still there but he wasn’t looking at Shelby, he was looking at the boyfriend and me.
The boyfriend I understood; hadn’t Charleston said that one of the boyfriends had been killed along with the woman?
I wasn’t sure why he was noticing me, but in case he was about to make a connection to me from the hospital I looked back at the rings as if I was serious about them.
Before Cookson or the demon inside him recognized me as a cop, I needed backup.
The rings were pretty enough, but none of them were right, because the right one was on Reggie’s finger along with the wedding band that matched mine. I was suddenly homesick for her, for us. I shook my head at the rings.
Mark Cookson reached for the door. The homesickness vanished in a spurt of adrenaline.
“I want that one,” Shelby said.
“Babe, that’s got to be one of the most expensive rings in the store, I can’t afford that.”
Cookson walked into the store smiling and looking normal. If I hadn’t known what his angel looked like, or remembered his eyes from the hospital, I wouldn’t have given him a second look, but Shelby did. Maybe she was just one of those women who notice men?
“You have excellent taste in jewelry. This ring is one of my best,” the older salesperson said.
“Don’t I deserve the best?” she asked, gazing up at her boyfriend.
“Of course you do, and in a few years maybe we can do what this guy’s doing and buy you the biggest, most perfect diamond, but I can’t do it right now, babe, I’m sorry.”
“I can,” Mark Cookson said.
“You can what?” the boyfriend asked.
“I can buy her the ring she wants.”
“Why would you buy her a ring?”
“Because a woman as beautiful as Shelby deserves a ring like that.”
“How did you know my name?” Shelby asked.
“You went to school with my brother Mark, I’m Sam Cookson.”
“You mean Mark Cookson? I didn’t even know he had a brother.”
“We only became close recently,” he said with a smile that managed to be both charming and unsettling. Though that might have been me projecting.
“I can see the family resemblance, but you’re definitely the cute brother,” Shelby said with a smile that she shouldn’t have been flashing at other men, especially in front of her almost-fiancé.
“I don’t care who you are, offering to buy Shelby a ring is inappropriate,” her boyfriend said.
“Inappropriate . . . well, I lost my bet,” Mark, alias Sam, Cookson said.
“What bet?” the boyfriend asked.
“That you’d know any five-syllable words and how to use them appropriately.”
It took Boyfriend a second or two to catch on and then his face flushed. “Are you making fun of me?”
“Would I do that?”
Boyfriend frowned at him.
Cookson ignored him and turned to Shelby. “Let me buy you the ring or anything else you desire.”
“Back off,” the boyfriend said.
Cookson kept staring at Shelby, as if the boyfriend hadn’t said anything. “Anything that money can buy, name it, and it will be yours.”
“Anything?” she asked.
“Shelby!” her boyfriend said.
She smiled up at him. “Come on, sweetheart, you know I’m your girl. I’m just curious what he means when he says anything .”
“I mean anything, Shelby. Pick any piece of jewelry in the shop and it’s yours.”
She looked around the store like she was thinking about it.
Boyfriend grabbed her shoulder and moved her to look at him.
He stood between her and Cookson, blocking their view of each other and giving the other man his back.
That let me know that her boyfriend was an athlete but not a fighter, or maybe he’d just been bigger and stronger all his life, so he felt secure.
I knew size and strength weren’t everything in a fight, but then I’d fought it for real.
“I thought you wanted me to buy you an engagement ring today,” he asked her.
“I do,” she said.
“Then stop screwing around and let’s pick out a ring.”
“The lady deserves the best, and you can’t give her that,” Cookson said, his voice calm and very certain.
The boyfriend whirled and yelled, “I can give her plenty!”
Cookson laughed, and he was definitely laughing at the boyfriend.
Apparently that open mocking laugh crossed a line for Shelby, because she stood up, wrapping her arms around the boyfriend’s waist from behind. “Don’t get mad, honey, it’s you I want to spend the rest of my life with, not him, no matter how cute he is.”
Boyfriend smiled and turned in her arms so they could kiss. “I love you, babe.”
“I love you, too,” she said, and seemed to mean it.
“Are you sure that’s your choice?” Cookson asked.
I almost wished I could have told Shelby to lie and choose Cookson until my backup arrived, but I couldn’t think of a way to tell her, or to keep her boyfriend from losing his temper if she did.
At least the uniforms should have been here by now. I prayed for help to save everyone in the shop and to make sure that demon or human, Cookson never hurt anyone else again. Warmth breathed through me and voices like an unfelt wind whispered, “ Angelus Lucis .”
I almost said yes out loud, then realized the angels weren’t calling me by my title, they were reminding me what I was, and what that could mean, if I would allow myself to embrace my truth instead of hiding from it.
Cookson sniffed the air like a dog on a scent. “Better get busy before the other side gets their wings under them.” He didn’t know it was me that smelled of angels, he just thought the angels were coming for him. Good.
The saleswoman said, “What’s happening?”
I focused and I could see everyone’s Guardian Angels at their backs. They were all soft shining light except for Cookson’s. It hurt me to see his angel tortured and dimmed at his back. I’d never seen a Guardian Angel that needed its own rescue more than it needed to rescue its person.
For the first time in years, I broke the rule that the Angeli Lucis are forbidden to break: I didn’t just give the Guardians permission to help their people—I told the elder salesman’s angel to take him and the saleswoman to the back room.
We weren’t allowed to dictate to people’s angels, because that interfered with the human’s free will.
Most, even among the Angeli Lucis , couldn’t command an angel to do anything, but I could.
“Come, daughter, let us give them room to decide these things.” I was betting if anyone had asked the elderly jeweler what things they were leaving their customers to decide, he wouldn’t have been able to answer the question, but I didn’t care, I just wanted them safe.
He held out his hand and his daughter went to him, looking at us as if she knew something was wrong, but she wasn’t sure what.
“Angels, angels, why do you care about the jeweler and his daughter?” Cookson asked, watching them go toward the back door. He still wasn’t talking to me, but to the air, to the listening angels.
“Let’s go, babe, we can pick the ring another day,” the boyfriend said, trying to lead her toward the front door.
“Oh no, boyfriend, you don’t get to take Shelby away from me.”
“What do you mean, take her away from you?” He looked at Shelby. “You didn’t fuck him, please tell me you didn’t.”
“No, I promised you I wouldn’t sleep around, and I haven’t. I don’t even know this guy,” Shelby said.
“Get the hell out of our way,” the boyfriend said.
“No,” Cookson said. The angel trapped at his back opened its misshapen mouth and wailed soundlessly to the other people in the room, but the sound stabbed through me like a spear to my heart.
I put a hand out and caught myself on the glass display cabinets.
If Cookson’s human body died, the angel would be free to go back to the light of God.
He would cleanse it and make it whole again, but first Cookson had to die.
“I won’t leave you,” I said to the angel. I didn’t realize I’d said it out loud until Cookson spoke.
“Shelby, you must be even more special than Mark told me for a stranger to stay and risk his life for you.”
“I wasn’t talking to Shelby,” I said, and drew my gun underneath the oversized tank top.