Wounded Angel (The Earth Angels) - By Stacy Gail Page 0,36
his cool-down stretches, Ella watched Jacob and Nate part ways, with Nate heading toward her like a man on a mission. With a quick glance at the wall clock, she handed a towel and water bottle over to her heavily sweating client while trying to warn Nate off with what she hoped was a death-glare.
“You did a great job this time around. Hydrate and stretch for five more minutes, and then you’re done.” With a professional smile, she tilted her head in the direction of a far-off corner. Without missing a step, Nate changed course and headed there, with Ella hot on his heels.
“Look,” she muttered, keeping her voice low the moment they were free of an audience, “I can’t stop you from coming here and staring holes through me while I’m trying to work. I get that you’re worried. I get that you feel you have a job to do and somehow you think I’ve become your responsibility—”
“Gabrielle Litte has been found. She’d dead. On my list of names, you’re the only one left.”
The world seemed to drop out from beneath her feet. She heard a strangled gasp and it took her a second to realize it had come from her. “How? How did she—”
“It doesn’t matter how. Get your stuff and meet me at the front. Jacob and I need to figure out how we’re going to make sure you’re covered until this mess blows over.”
Ella found herself complying without thought, and in less than five minutes she had her warm-up suit on and bug-out duffle bag over her shoulder, and she felt safer with it strapped diagonally over her body. Not that there was any rock-solid proof to Nate’s suspicions. But while one death was an ominous coincidence, two was much more serious. With the Rainier name popping up yet again, she’d be an idiot to simply shrug this off as a mere coincidence.
That thought brought up a question she blurted out the moment she spotted Nate waiting for her in the lobby with Jacob and Phoebe. “Nate, who besides you knew that you’d come up with the names of those two women?”
Nate, who had pulled on dark sweats and had shouldered back into his duster, turned a dangerous scowl her way. “My current employer, Carver Archibald. Before I went to your house this morning I gave his number to the authorities here in Chicago, as well as all the particulars of this case. As far as I know, Archibald was the only person who knew of those three names. They should have remained confidential until I’d had a chance to confirm which one was Gabriella Littlefield. Then Briella Fields winds up under a train.” He glanced at Phoebe. “Ella has the rest of the day off, right?”
Phoebe pursed her lips, the picture of unhappy disapproval. “I don’t think she should leave the gym and wander the streets while this is going on.”
“It’s not like she’s going to be alone. What she shouldn’t do is stick to her normal haunts and a regular routine.”
“I will look after her.” Jacob announced it as if it were settled and done. “No one else can do a better job of it than me.”
“Except me.” Fed up with the rest of them talking about her as if she wasn’t even there, Ella raised her voice until they all looked at her. “Look at all of you. I can’t believe I’m the calm one here.”
Nate cursed. “Look, this is my fault—”
“It is his fault,” Jacob agreed.
“And that’s just about enough of that.” A Southern lilt crept into her tone, but since that cat was well and truly out of the bag she figured she could get away with it. “If someone is going around killing innocent people, taking the blame for it only takes the burden of responsibility off of their shoulders and weighs you down. Does a killer deserve that kind of break?”
Nate frowned as if this was a new concept. “Well, no.”
“I learned the hard way to not take the blame when someone decides to do the unspeakable. You want to make yourself feel victimized, go right ahead,” she invited to Nate, who looked like he wanted to swear at her, before she shot Jacob a furious glance. “And if you want to beat up on the one man who’s on top of things and trying to get answers, be my guest. But neither of those dimwitted actions is going to help.”