Hearts the Last Beat (Angel Fire #6) - Ellie Masters Page 0,76
she’s with Noodles. Maybe the two of them are out communing with Noodles’ pet shark, Old Joe. Not that it matters to me. It’s been an hour, more than enough time for Angel to make her way home, and there’s still no sign of her.
And hour turns into two. Two turns into three. Three turns into four hours, and I’m in a total panic. My comment to Forest about her getting stuck in a ditch was a melodramatic plea to get him to help, but now it’s all I can think about.
What if she ran off the side of the road? What if she crashed over the cliffs? What if she plunged to her death? What if her car is now teetering on the brink of falling over and nobody can see her?
Over the next hour, I imagine more and more gruesome possibilities while I pace the kitchen. Noise in the hallway catches my attention, and I spin around, hopeful it’s Angel. When Mitzy and Noodles pop into view, I rush Mitzy.
“I need you to find Angel.” I grip her hands tight.
“Hey, that hurts.” She tugs on her hands, and I release them.
“Sorry.” Blowing out a breath, I try to calm myself down. Over the past few hours, I’ve worked myself into a frenzy. “I asked Forest to help, and he wouldn’t.”
“Why are you looking for Angel?” Noodles plops down on one of the kitchen island stools and reaches for a banana. He peels it and takes a bite.
“What did you do?” Mitzy takes one look at me and crosses her arms. It’s exactly what Forest did.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Then why am I chasing down where she is?” Unlike Forest, Mitzy pulls out her phone and starts tapping the screen. “What car is she in?”
“The black SUV.”
“We have five of those.” She gives me a look like I’m an idiot. “Number One, Two, Three, Four, or Five?”
“The one on the left?”
“Number One.” She rolls her eyes at me like I’m an idiot.
“Didn’t know they were numbered.”
“Everything is numbered, tagged, inventoried, and…” Her fingers fly over the screen. “Never mind. Just give me a second…” Her attention turns back to her phone.
I wait, hanging on what she finds, while Noodles munches on his banana. He takes another bite, chews slowly, then even more slowly, places the banana down on the counter.
“Holy shit,” he says.
“What?” My gaze cuts to him, pissed at the distraction.
“You and Angel.” His attention cuts to Mitzy. He raises an accusatory finger. “You knew about them and didn’t tell me.”
“What about Angel?” Bash wanders into the kitchen holding hands with his wife. “What’s up?”
Noodles’ brows practically climb his forehead as his gaze swivels between me, Bash, and Mitzy.
“That’s why your aura smoothed.” He nods as if he solved a great riddle. “But you’re spiking like a motherfucker right now…” He glances at his wife, then back to me. “You fucked it up, didn’t you?”
Mitzy looks up from the phone, but then her gaze cuts over my shoulder. Her eyes grow wide, and she takes a step back.
“You fucking bastard!” An ethereal halo of strawberry-blonde hair with the tortured visage of Angel inside of it launches at me. Fingers scratching, she claws at my face as she spits obscenities at me. “You’re screwing me while you have a bitch on the side, pregnant with your kid? How could you?”
I grab her wrists. Her nails do a number on my face, gouging my eyes and scraping skin. There’s a tug at my brow, then a sharp pinch of pain as she rips out the hoop piercing from the corner of my eyebrow. I cup the side of my face and feel blood.
“Angel, wait. It’s not…”
“What the fuck?” Bash bellows, fury coalesces in his tone and echoes in his expression as he turns on me. “What the fuck did she just say?”
Angel points at me. Blood drips down her pinky finger. As for my piercing, there’s no sign of it. Not that it matters.
“He’s fucking another woman.” Tears pour down Angel’s face. “And she’s pregnant.”
Bash is going to get whiplash from the way he keeps shifting between me and his daughter. “What the fuck does my daughter mean by you’re fucking another woman?” His face darkens with rage. “What are you doing to my daughter?”
Twenty-Eight
Spike
This is totally not how I saw this going down. The back door leading out to the pool opens. Forest’s dominating presence darkens the doorway. He takes in the chaos and plants his feet.