Hello My Angel - Sue Brown Page 0,64

the pulse at her neck. “She’s dead.”

Gil rolled his eyes. “I turned her brains to mush. Of course she’s dead.”

Josh ignored the byplay, needing the feel of Cal’s strong arms around him.

“You didn’t need to kill her,” Cal snapped.

“She made me kill my brother,” Gil said, his tone hard and implacable. “If she’d gotten away, I’d have hunted her to my dying day.”

“But we could have interrogated her,” Cal insisted.

“She’s done what she came here to do,” Josh said. “I don’t think she knows what the bigger picture is.”

“Cal,” Max said. “There’s a helicopter approaching.”

“She was expecting to be evac’d out.”

Cal looked up and his expression changed. “They’re not coming here to rescue her.”

“What?” Gil snapped.

A helicopter overhead disturbed them.

“Run. Take cover. Now,” Cal yelled.

They ran, seeking whatever cover they could find. Cal grabbed Josh’s hand and they ran toward the folly. Cal pushed Josh down behind the statue and flattened him with his body. Bullets raked the path and flowerbeds, sending rose petals flying into the air in a mockery of confetti as the plants were decimated. Chyna’s body jumped in the air as a hail of bullets hit her. There would be little left of her.

Silence.

Cal stayed where he was, pushing Josh into the ground, until it was clear the helicopter wasn’t coming back. Then he hauled Josh to his feet, still holding his upper arms.

“Are you all right?” he demanded, looking down into Josh’s face.

“Bruised all over thanks to you, but still breathing, also thanks to you.”

Cal cupped his face and Josh leaned into the touch. “My angel. If she’d shot you….”

“She didn’t want to shoot me, Charlie. She thought she was gonna be evac’d out of here. End of job, taken home. How did you know they’d kill her?”

“I’ve seen it before,” Cal said, his voice full of pain. “She’d become a liability.”

Josh leaned against Cal who kept his arm around him. “So whoever is pulling the strings wants to get rid of loose ends.”

Cal nodded; pain clearly etched on his face. “She thought she was going home as a hero. Instead they got rid of her.”

“Fuck,” Josh said. “You mean it’s not over yet?”

“This part of it is,” Cal said. “The agency is finished unless someone rebuilds it from the ground up.”

“You?” Josh asked suspiciously.

Cal gave a bark of laughter. “Hell no. I think the Rosses did enough damage.”

It was going to take a long time for Cal to get over his hurt at realizing Gideon hadn’t been the hero he’d always thought. Josh pressed a kiss into his neck.

Dave, Gil, and Rick appeared. Gil held a bloody tissue to his face.

“What happened?” Josh demanded, taking the tissue from him.

“I hit my cheek when I fell over the wall,” Gil admitted sheepishly.

Josh inspected the wound closely, dabbing at it with a clean tissue Dave handed him. He ignored Gil’s protest. “It’s just a graze. I think you’ll live.”

Cal turned to the devastated remains of the rose garden. “It’s more than can be said for Chyna Moles.”

They looked at the remains of her body.

“She got what she deserved,” Gil said.

No one disagreed with him.

Josh stood in the shower. He looked down at the dirty water swirling round his feet. “I don’t want to think what’s in that water.”

“You’ll feel better when you’re clean,” Cal said.

Already showered, he sat on the counter by the sink, watching Josh take his turn.

“How’s Weatherly?” Josh asked.

Cal huffed out a breath. “That woman has balls of steel. She’s already yelled at me for letting Chyna get killed.”

Josh didn’t say anything and when he looked up, Cal was frowning.

“You’re quiet. I don’t like it when you’re quiet,” he said.

“He killed her in cold blood.” Josh turned off the shower and stepped out onto the mat.

“You mean Gil.” Cal picked up a towel. “She was about to shoot you, Josh. He had to make a snap decision. If he hadn’t one of us would.”

“But you didn’t, you listened to her. He just stepped up behind her and killed her.”

Cal wrapped Josh in the towel and started to dry him. “You think it was a revenge kill?”

“Don’t you?”

The silence confirmed Josh’s suspicions.

Finally, Cal said, “Gil found closure.”

Josh scowled at him for his pithy response. “And you? Did you find closure?”

“I think Uncle Gee and Chopper got justice.”

Josh deflated, leaning against the counter. “You’re right.”

“But you still feel Gil’s action was wrong.”

“She didn’t know he was there.”

Cal dropped the towel and tugged Josh against him. “Talk to him about it.”

“Talk to Gil?”

“Yeah.”

Josh sighed and rested