Wounded Angel (The Earth Angels) - By Stacy Gail Page 0,35
no matter how well-trained a person was, no mere human could touch Nate if he didn’t want them to. It took less than a second for the two men to find themselves on either side of the weight bench, with Jacob empty-handed and looking surprised while Nate lightly touched the heavy dumbbell to the other man’s vulnerable temple. The rush of air behind the movement of his arm was still making Jacob’s eyes blink, and the message was received loud and clear. Had Nate not stopped his punch, Jacob would have been dead without even knowing what hit him.
“Listen up, because I’m only going to say this once.” Nate kept his tone calm as he nonchalantly dropped his arm to his side before anyone noticed their almost deadly exchange. “I’m an ex-cop who now works in the private sector. I was hired by a law firm to find the unfindable—Gabriella Littlefield—who has come into an inheritance. Unfortunately, of the three people I uncovered as possibly being Gabriella Littlefield, one is dead and the other is missing. I can’t do anything about that, other than tell the authorities all that I know. The one thing I can do is sit on Ella to make sure she stays safe until I get to the bottom of this. I can’t watch her all the time, though, so it would be helpful if you could give me a hand in making sure she keeps breathing.”
“You brought this to her.” The words pushed through the sieve of Jacob’s gritted teeth, and it mirrored the fury Nate directed at himself. “She was done with that life. Done. You should hang your head in shame.”
“I’ll be sure to do that when I have the time.” Little did the other man know he was already there, but pity parties were about as useless as the hole he’d almost put in Jacob’s head. “Will you talk to her?”
“You move...differently.”
Seriously, did this man ever give a straight fucking answer? “That’s probably because I’m different from just about everyone you know. That still doesn’t answer my question.”
“I will speak to her, of course, but this is a superfluous action.” Jacob glanced to where Ella was now helping her client off the elliptical, and to Nate’s amazement the older man’s usually psychotic expression turned downright fatherly. “I may not have taught her all there is to know in spotting an enemy—” he bestowed a poisonous look on Nate, “—but life itself has taught her to live moment to moment with her guard up. She is stronger than you know.”
“Being strong doesn’t mean anything if someone’s decided to target you.”
Jacob harrumphed. Nate had no clue if that meant agreement or if he was about to launch another assault for back-talking. “You know Gabriella Littlefield’s story?”
“I was the one who found her coming out of that godforsaken hellhole.”
He’d thought he couldn’t surprise the likes of Jacob, but the other man’s expression proved him wrong. “Then you know she found the strength to do what others only think they can do—survive at any cost. This is something that doesn’t just go away, boy. Once realized, this ability becomes a part of your soul. Believe me, I know this all too well.”
Nate didn’t doubt it for a second. “So you’ll help me keep an eye on her?”
“Don’t be stupid. I always watch over her.”
“I could be wrong, though my gut tells me I’m not,” Nate felt compelled to add. If anyone would understand his paranoia, the sadist would. “When Briella Fields went under a train last evening, that could have been just an accident, maybe even a suicide. But the other woman I marked, Gabrielle Litte, didn’t show up for work this morning. That’s a big red flag for me.”
“Gabrielle Litte... Did this woman work at the Wrigley Building?”
Nate’s stomach clenched into an acid-filled knot as his attention snapped back to Jacob. “How did you know that?”
“It was on the news. I heard it before I came in here. It caught my attention because the woman’s name was so close to what Ella’s used to—”
“Heard what on the news?”
“This woman, this Gabrielle Litte, was found dead at the bottom of a malfunctioning elevator shaft in the Wrigley Building about an hour ago. They said she worked there, that it was some sort of freak accident—”
“That’s no accident,” Nate growled. Dropping the weight onto its rightful place on a nearby rack, he made a beeline for Ella.