Wanted Angel - Sadie Moss Page 0,60
shift out of the way as they flap gently.
She looks like an avenging angel in this moment, like she might be capable of taking down Salinas and Anderson and their entire army with just her rage and her sword. Like she might take us out afterward.
“You’re wrong! You’re lying!” Her eyes flash, her hands shaking as she points a finger at Beck. “It’s not that you can’t. You won’t.” Her wings droop, and her voice drops to a whisper—a broken, pained sound. “You won’t.”
With a soft sob, she turns and shoves her way between Nix and Sawyer, darting toward the stairs that lead up to the second floor. Her wings, which a moment ago flared so majestically behind her, droop like broken butterflies as she disappears up the stairs.
A sudden silence fills the room. The atmosphere seems to have thinned. It’s as if the angel is oxygen, and her absence has left us with nothing to breathe.
I glance around at my brothers, who all look stunned.
“She loves us,” Nix murmurs, reaching up to rub at his chest. I don’t think he even knows he’s doing it. “She fucking loves us.”
He sounds surprised by that, but I’m not. I’ve seen it happening, observed each small step in her journey as she’s gotten to know and care for my brothers. Maybe even for me.
What I didn’t see happening, what I couldn’t admit to myself until this moment, is how deeply I’ve come to care for her too. I pride myself in controlling my emotions, and I thought I had managed to do it. But I didn’t realize that although I maintained my mask of control and cool power, things were shifting inside me.
That night when I told Beckett to fuck her, when I watched, burning with need but refusing to give in to it—I thought that meant the walls around my heart were still intact.
But in that moment, whether I touched her or not, Trinity got under my skin just as much as she did with my brothers.
What do we do now? Knight glances around at the rest of us, his face creased with concern.
I know what I need to do.
And it won’t be fucking easy.
There’s a temptation to just forge ahead despite Trinity’s desperate pleas. She can’t stop us, after all. There are seven of us and only one of her. But I pride myself in learning from my mistakes, and I can tell in this moment that I’m standing at a crossroads. Two different possible futures stretch out before me, and it’s my choice whether I take the path that severs the bonds between us and Trinity or the path that at least attempts to preserve them.
It’s hardly a choice at all, really.
Catching Beckett’s gaze, I jerk my head toward the staircase where Trinity fled.
He nods, then flicks a glance at the others. “We’ll go talk to her. Do what you can to dig up a clue about the ‘nuclear option’ Salinas talked about. We need to know what he’s planning if we want to stop him.”
Everyone nods, although I have a feeling little will be accomplished. They all look dazed and shell-shocked, as if their entire world has been rocked to its core.
Beckett and I step away from them, heading up the stairs together. His mouth is a thin, straight line, his expression serious and determined when I stop at the second-floor landing and turn to him. Pride tightens my throat for a moment. I’ve spent years resenting Beckett, blaming him, and refusing to budge or let go of old anger.
To let go of it now feels like a defeat, and everything in me rebels at that.
But there are other ways for pride to manifest beyond stubbornness and refusal to bend. In this moment, becoming a man I can be proud of requires me to do something that’s never come naturally to me.
It requires me to admit I was wrong.
“I won’t lose her, Beck,” I say quietly, holding his gaze. “Not like we lost Scarlett. I won’t make the same mistakes.”
His eyebrows twitch, the only indication of his surprise. Then he nods slowly. “I won’t lose her either. And I won’t repeat my mistakes.”
It’s not exactly an apology from either one of us, but it feels like an understanding. And with Pride and Greed, that’s about as good as it gets.
“Good.” One corner of my lip lifts slightly as I incline my chin down the hallway on the second floor. “Then let’s go get our girl.”
Chapter Nineteen
Trinity
I just choose