Chapter 22
ANGEL
Two days later, our jet wheels touched down on the tarmac at LAX.
The engine roar died down as white heat radiated off the black asphalt outside.
I grabbed our duffel bags and my guitar case from the overhead rack, slinging them over one shoulder while keeping one arm locked around Roxy’s waist.
The air in Nashville hit us through the open cabin door, thick with exhaust fumes and summer smog.
It felt good to be back home, but for some reason my instincts were on high alert.
On our first night back, after a takeaway dinner, we went to bed early.
However, I refused to let Roxy sleep in the guest suite.
‘Tonight you’re with me in the primary, wifey,’ I growled as we made our way upstairs, lips already on each other.
She paused at the door to my room, placing a finger on my mouth.
‘Really? Wifey? Are you throwing that around or do you mean it?’
I huffed.
‘I adore you, Rox; hell, I’m getting freakin’ obsessed with you, so yes, I’m fuckin’ serious about it.’
Her mouth quirked, and I caught the joy in her eyes, which gave me a jolt.
Fuck, she was freakin’ stunning.
My cock jolted, and my body flooded with energy, wiping out any jet lag or lethargy from our flight back.
‘Come here, wifey, let me show you how much I cherish you.’
I cupped her jaw and slid my other hand to bring her close to me.
‘Thing is Rox, am I your husband?’
‘None else, sweet cheeks,’ she whispered, her palm cupping and squeezing my ass.
I laughed into her nape, wanting to meld into her.
‘Damn, you make my soul fly, woman,’ I growled. ‘You keep pulling me out of the dumpster fire of feelings and driving me wild. You’re so thoughtful, so kind to me, so beautiful.’
‘You going to carry on or are you going to make me scream, lyrical god?’
‘Damn, darlin’.
‘Make love to me Angel. Know what? Fuck me.’
Her eyes glistened, her mouth so wet and soft that my cock lurched.
‘Why the hell didn’t you lead with that?’ I growled, lifting her in my hold and striding into my room.
I threw her on the bed and without wasting a second, I reached for her jeans and tugged them down.
Chest heaving with need, I pulled back and undid my belt. Seconds later my clothes were flying, and I was back knee deep on the mattress, hands on her inner thighs.
My hand went to clit, twisting and rubbing, as she gushed on my palm.
‘Ready?’
‘Hurry up already, honey.’
Gliding over her, I slid into her heated, scorching pussy.
She moaned and threw her head back.
I lost all control, hips grinding, soul soaring as we both hit our bliss so fast, with her heels digging into my ass.
I continued pounding, and she kept shuddering until I collapsed into her nape, chest heaving, breath in harsh gasps, brimful with emotion for her.
She cupped the back of my head as I drew back, and we kissed for long and hard after.
In time, I shifted, sliding out of her and tracking to the bathroom to clean her up.
Before I eased back in to gather her close under the covers, as she nestled into me.
Ecstasy had nothing on this moment.
I woke with a start.
A thunderstorm battered the cedar trees outside my window, throwing dark, jagged shadows across the bedroom ceiling.
My arm rested on Roxy’s waist, her soft breaths warming my collarbone.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand.
I blinked at the clock on my bedside table.
4 a.m.
Who the hell was calling me now?
I moved with care, staring with deep suspicion at the screen flashing with an unknown number before sliding away from Roxy and heading out of the primary.
I slid the call on in the hallway.
‘Angel, thank God,’ a familiar voice whimpered over a background of static.
‘Eva?’ I rasped, my timbre laced with sleep as I headed downstairs. ‘The fuck? Where the hell are you?’
‘I’m in the lobby of a garbage motel near the airport. My credit cards won’t work and I can’t use the cash I have to pay; they want a card on record. The clerk’s threatening to kick me out onto the street.’
I took an inhale to collect myself, my mind racing.
‘So get an Uber and go to your dad’s,’ I ordered, my jaw clenching as my protective instincts locked down the room. ‘Why are you calling me?’
‘Because I’m fleeing a psycho, Angel!’ she panicked, her breathing ragged. ‘The guy I left with on our wedding day, the one with the red Mustang, is called Maurice. He’s a major player in New York’s party scene, and I saw him commit a brutal murder.’
‘The hell?’
‘He throws these crazy parties,’ she recounted. ‘Two nights ago, he shot one of his street dealers who came up short with their weekly takings. Right in front of me, Angel. The guy just dropped to the floor.’
‘So he’s a drug lord, great. Go on.’
‘Maurice ordered me to bed, and I pretended to be asleep when he stumbled in hours later,’ she whimpered. ‘The second he started snoring, I crept out, hightailed it out of there with my bags and took a late flight to get here.’
‘If you’ve witnessed a homicide, you dial 911,’ I grated in anger. ‘Don’t make your poor choices my problem.’
‘Maurice is blowing up my phone with messages. He’s saying that if I go to the police, he’d hunt me down and kill me,’ she sobbed. ‘He’s told me he’s hunting me down.’
‘Then don’t answer him, Evangeline. Block him.’
‘It won’t stop him coming after me,’ she whispered. ‘I need you, my angel. Please come get me.’
My brain rejected the manipulation.
Not a chance in hell.
‘Why can’t you call your dad?’ I growled, repeating my earlier question.
‘I can’t,’ she cried. ‘Maurice says he has men watching Rosedale Manor. As soon as I show my face there, they’ll collect me. Papa’s place is a trap.’
Damn.
She sobbed, her panic escalating, but I was immune to her now.
‘So go to your townhouse,’ I said, slumping onto my headrest and pushing a hand through my hair.
‘I can’t.’
‘Why, Evangeline? Give me a straight answer.’
‘I sold it.’
What in the actual?
‘Why? To do what?’
‘I needed the cash.’
‘For drugs,’ I growled in disgust.
‘Well, yes, for food too and to pay off my debts. I owed a lot on the business, Angel, and I’ve had no income since I left Nashville.
I won’t ask my dad because he cut off my allowance.
All he wants me to do is come home and entertain his creepy Saudi clients.
Mama’s broke because Reese never gives her a single dime. ’
‘So what do you need from me?’ I asked, my voice dropping to a hard, icy register.
‘Can I come stay with you? Just for a few days?’
I jolted, in shock at her audacity.
‘Oh, hell no.’
There was zero chance she was bringing her toxic, criminal mess into the life Roxy and I were building.
We’d just managed to find stability.
There was no way Evangeline would spoil our lives again.
My primary duty was protecting my wife from this dumpster fire.
‘Angel, I’m begging you,’ she began sobbing, the sound grating on my nerves. ‘I’ve nothing. No one but you. Please, baby.’
More chaotic jags of crying followed, and I let out a string of silent curses.
I sighed, realizing my fuckin’ obligation as a decent human being overrode my disgust. I could not leave a woman stranded with a target on her back.
I had to help her, but only this once.
‘Fine. I’m coming to get you. Where exactly are you?’
‘Holiday Inn, Nashville airport, not the other one, the Express Suites.’
‘Got it. Stay inside the lobby,’ I said, hanging up on her repeated whispers of gratitude.
I was done with the lying, the manipulating, and the using.
This was the last time I went to her rescue.
In the primary, I slipped into the walk-in wardrobe and, in silence, pulled on sweats, a jacket, and sneakers.
I moved to the gun safe, retrieved my Glock, and checked the magazine. I needed serious protection given the description of this Maurice guy.
Stepping quietly out of the room, I paused at the door to gaze at Roxy.
She was fast asleep, arm flung out on the bed, nude, lush and enticing with a sheet over her, her skin gleaming in the moonlight.
I wanted to slide back in beside her, but I’d an ex to rescue.
With a sigh, I prowled to the garage, mind racing.
I owned a development downtown of short-stay executive townhouses.
Checking the exclusive leasing app my realtor used to book guests in, I found two of them empty.
I picked one, and locked it in.
It would suffice; I could stash Evangeline in it while she worked out what to do with her miserable life.
I started my Defender and backed down the driveway as a late-night storm was lashing the trees.
The storm transformed the Forest Hills neighborhood into a murky vista, the ancient oaks thrashing against a charcoal sky.
A sickening knot formed in my gut.
Why did heading into the dark feel like I was cheating on my wife?
Still, I’d made my promise to Evangeline, so I made my way toward the address she’d given me.
The highway was a desolate, slick ribbon of black asphalt, with empty semi-trucks spraying walls of dirty water onto my windshield.
I exited onto a gritty commercial strip near the airport, where neon signs buzzed and flickered through the downpour.
The motel was a depressing two-story concrete block, its parking lot marred by deep potholes and overgrown weeds flattening under the rain.
I strode inside a tiny lobby reeking of stale cigarettes and urine.
A pale-faced, spotty-skinned man sat behind the counter smoking.
He knifed up on my approach, eyeing me with wariness.
I was about to ask him about my ex when a voice sounded out to my rear.
‘Angel?’
I swiveled and got hit with a gut punch.
‘Eva?’
I raked her from head to toe, shocked at how much she’d deteriorated in just a few weeks.
Her hair hung in oily, stringy clumps about her shoulders.
Her face appeared blotchy under the harsh fluorescent ceiling lights, and her frame was skinnier than before, in a lopsided jacket, torn tee, distressed jeans, and high heels.
She resembled a textbook junkie.
The second she spotted me, she launched forward and hugged me, taking a little jump to wrap her legs around my waist the way she always used to do.
Years ago, that move used to fire me up.
Tonight, it filled me with pure disgust.