Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3) (25 page)

Joshua nodded his agreement. “Asmodeus
might not know we’re on to him, but Valac has gone missing, according to the
police reports, and Valac’s son has been murdered. At the very least, this
means his defenses will be up, and he might be trying to move up his timeline.”

“Why are there two humans here?” Garret
asked, impatiently. “How do they seem to know more about what’s going on than
we do?”

“Because Asmodeus is our lieutenant and we
work under him,” Joshua shot back at him.

“Which is even more reason why you two
shouldn’t be involved,” Garret retorted.

There was no way on this planet I would
admit it aloud, but I agreed with Garret. Another thing I wasn’t going to admit
aloud was that I had every intention of making sure Joshua wasn’t going to be
there either.

“Well we are, and we’re going to be
whether you like it or not,” Joshua continued, oblivious to my thoughts. “We
have access to things that you don’t.”

“I need for you guys,” I said, addressing
the cherubim. “I need for you to do some sneaking around the shipping yard. We
need to know how many of the Fallen are involved, and how many men they have
dragged into this – voluntarily, or otherwise. We need to know how many people
are on lookout, how many are helping by other means, and if they’re armed. If
you can work out what it is Asmodeus is up to, that’s an advantage. You are not
to engage in any fighting until we know what’s happening.”

“This is why you wanted us in threes,”
Veronica said.

I nodded. “Three is a small group, but I
don’t know what you’re walking into.”

“If Asmodeus is there and I have the
chance to take him, or any of the other Fallen, out, I will,” Garret declared.

I narrowed my eyes. “If Asmodeus is there,
I hope you try,” I ground out. “However, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt,
so I’d rather no one else tried.”

“Angel!” Cupid admonished.

I sucked in a deep breath, puffed out my
cheeks, and exhaled slowly. “Okay, that was unfair. I don’t want anyone to get
hurt, including you,” I told Garret. “But it’s not just injury I’m concerned
about. Asmodeus is doing something at one of the biggest ports in the country.
Either something is coming in, or something is going out. If we move too soon,
we could spook him and whoever’s working with him. Whatever it is he’s going to
use to hurt people, that could disappear before we can stop it.”

“What are you going to be doing?” Veronica
asked.

“Leon and Joshua,” I turned to the
detectives. “I need you to continue investigating both of the Ramsey’s, and if
it’s not too dangerous, see if Asmodeus has anything in his office which might
give us a clue as to what is happening. I’ll be with you as much as I can.”

“I have an idea,” Leon said, while Joshua
nodded.

“What about us?” Paddy gestured to herself
and Cupid.

“For now, I need you talking to everyone
you can think of about those traps,” I said.

“I’ll take us to Sydney to see Raguel,”
Cupid told Paddy. “He mentioned something a long time ago.”

“Wait, what traps?” Paddy asked, frowning.
“I thought all this was to ensure we didn’t walk into a trap?”

“Michael couldn’t escape from a trap,” I
said. “Valac knocked him into it, and he couldn’t get out. I thought it sounded
like a dark sigil, but that’s not what Michael called it. I think it was
something similar. He couldn’t escape from an area only about a meter square in
size, and it stopped him from using his connection to get help.”

“There’s no such thing,” Paddy said.

“Are you telling me that the Fallen have
managed to work out a way to trap us?” Garret asked. For the first time since I
had met him, he looked too worried to glower at me.

“I think so,” I nodded, slowly.

Garret pursed his lips as he stared at me.
There was, for once, no malice there. He looked to the other cherubim seated
around the table. “I think that some of us should reach out to our brothers and
sisters and see if we can find out any more information too. The more people
helping Cupid and Paddy, the better.”

I blinked in surprise but I didn’t object.
I just held my breath as the cherubim seemed to take an unannounced vote,
slowly nodding their agreement.

“We don’t have much time,” Veronica
declared. “We shall return to our base and work out who is going where. We’ll
report in regularly.”

Just like that, the cherubim vanished from
the conservatory, one by one. “Is there any chance we could get Raphael back to
help us?” I asked, turning to Paddy.

“He’s checking in with me, but he’s… he
won’t be back for some time,” Paddy responded, vaguely. “I think that went
rather well,” she said, abruptly changing the subject. “Though might I suggest
one small tweak to that plan? Let Cupid drop me off with Raguel, but he should
stay here. We need someone to be here if this is the base of operations.
Someone needs to gather all the information together when it comes in.”

“I can help with that,” Leon offered.
“Joshua and Angel can handle the Ramsey cases.”

It wasn’t the Ramsey’s which had my
stomach tying itself up in knots. “What about Asmodeus?” I asked, trying to
keep my voice casual. Cupid, Paddy and Leon didn’t seem to catch on, but
Joshua’s eyes narrowed.

“He will have left the office by now,”
Leon responded. “A Friday night? Black Friday? The last place he will be is
work, but maybe we could get one of those teenagers to keep a tail on him to
make sure.”

Well hell, my secret plan to keep Joshua
safe had just hit its first hurdle.

“I know what you’re trying to do,
darlin’,” Joshua informed me.

We were in his car, driving back to the
precinct. Considering what I was trying to do was conjure up another plan to
get Joshua away from this, I sincerely hoped he didn’t know what I was up to.
“I was thinking how surprising it was that I managed to get the cherubim to
agree.”

“There was nothing surprising about that.
There are times when I wonder why I’ve got a guardian angel, but I’ve never
doubted you being one.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Never?”

Joshua’s lips twitched. “Maybe in the
beginning, but only because you looked too hot to be dangerous: I completely
underestimated you. I think others do too, especially that idiot, Garret. He
would have been surprised, hell, I know he was. I was watching him the whole
time,” he added, darkly. “He is the only reason I don’t like the fact you
angels heal so quickly, because I would love nothing more than to watch you
kick his ass.”

“Joshua,” I sighed, trying to sound like I
was disappointed with what he was saying, but knowing the smirk on my face
would do little to confirm it.

“Getting back on topic, I call bullshit.
What you are really thinking about is how you could get me wrapped in bubble
wrap and locked in a room on the other side of the world,” he said. We pulled
up outside of the precinct, taking advantage of the countless spaces the late
evening provided us with. Joshua turned to me. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“My plan didn’t involve bubble wrap,” I
muttered. “And I’m not sure I like these newfound mindreading abilities.”

“There’s no mindreading involved,” Joshua
laughed. “You’ve got this one written all over your face.” He grew serious as
he turned and killed the engine. “I thought we’d had this conversation.”

“I have no objection to you working on the
Ramsey case. I don’t even mind that you help out with the reconnaissance,” I
shrugged. “It’s the other part I have trouble with: the ‘letting you come along
when we try to stop whatever criminal activities a Prince of Darkness’ is up
to. It’s not exactly model behavior for a guardian angel.”

“Your clue was in ‘criminal activities’,”
he pointed out.

I pouted. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

“Nope,” he agreed, leaning over to kiss
me.

My scheming went on the backburner when we
entered the precinct. The waiting area was chaotic. “Maybe we should come back
tomorrow,” I suggested, narrowly missing an arm as one woman argued very
animatedly with the guy on the front desk. “Black Friday really does bring out
the crazies.”

“It’s perfect,” Joshua corrected me as we
went into the back, towards the homicide area. “They’ll be too busy to notice
what we’re doing back here.”

I followed him back to his desk and rolled
my eyes. “Glad to see you’ve done some tidying since the last time I was here.”
The sarcasm was heavy: the city dump was cleaner than his desk.

“It’s really not that bad,” Joshua
disagreed, pulling out the visitor’s pass I had been issued months ago and handing
it over.

I took it and attached it to my jeans.
“Are you sure I shouldn’t send this off to the CDC first?”

“I’ll make a deal with you, darlin’,”
Joshua reached for a folder. Given that he barely looked at it, his desk really
was organized chaos, or, the more likely option, he wasn’t paying much attention
to what he was grabbing. “We get out of here and later, you can have a shower.
I’ll even scrub your back,” he offered, his eyes molten.

“You can have your own cold shower?” I
returned.

Joshua just laughed as he brushed past me
and led me upstairs to a part of the building I’d never been in before. As soon
as we entered the fourth floor hallway, automatic lights started to flick on.
The effect was creepy yet the fact no one had been up here for some time was
somewhat reassuring.

We’d taken Leon’s advice and gotten a
cherub posted on Asmodeus’ apartment in the Central Business District and Leon
had called to confirm he had been spotted in it, as we had driven over. That
didn’t mean I was any less nervous about going into his office though. “You
should stay in the hallway,” Joshua suggested as we came to a stop outside an
office, Asmodeus’ name printed in gold ink on the frosted glass.

“Like hell that’s going to happen,” I
snorted.

“Angel, we’re in a police precinct.
There’s not much he can do to stop an officer going in and leaving something on
his desk, but there’s nothing to say he’s not got those angel traps littered
around. Then what are we going to do?”

Begrudgingly, I stepped back. It really
wasn’t because I thought Joshua was going to come to any harm – I agreed with
what Joshua had said about him being able to walk in there. I just wanted to
have a nosy around the office of a Prince of Darkness. “Fine, I’ll keep watch.”

Joshua stepped inside, but kept the door
open. It was a pretty big office, with large windows that overlooked the back
of a local Court. It wasn’t a spectacular view by any means, but it was better
than the view offered in the homicide department. Joshua hurried over to the
desk and pulled open the drawers. “What are your hacking skills like?” I called
over, as Joshua ignored the computer which sat on top.

“Irrelevant,” Joshua replied. “Despite
working for the police department, Asmodeus likes to write his passwords down,”
he pointed to something in the desk drawer. The next thing I knew the computer
had bleeped.

I couldn’t see the screen from this angle,
so I focused my attention down the hallway. Down at the far end from where we’d
come, the lights were starting to flick off, one by one.

“I’ve got something,” Joshua hissed.

“So hurry up and print it out,” I
demanded. I pulled my phone out, ready to take a call from Leon. If Asmodeus
started moving, I expected Cupid to get in touch first, but my fight or flight
mode was kicking in and I wanted to get out of there.

When Joshua finally left the room, the
folder in his hands was considerably thicker than when he had entered. An hour
had passed, but it had felt like an eternity. All the lights which had turned
off flicked back on as we hurried back downstairs.

It wasn’t until we had gotten safely back
in the car that I allowed the relief to flood me. The adrenaline was shooting
through me and suddenly I felt like I either needed to throw up or run a
marathon. I didn’t realize that the same applied to Joshua until I realized he
was speeding. “You need to slow down or pull over,” I told him firmly.

Joshua glanced down, caught his speed, and
then slowed the car down. He didn’t pull over so I figured he had calmed down
enough. By the time we walked into the convent, I was about to ask him how he
managed to do that, what tips he’d learned being a cop, because I was still
hopping about like a child on a sugar rush.

Before I could, Leon had stepped out of
the conservatory. “I was just going to call home before Felicia put Regan to
bed.”

“You go do that. We can wait.” I frowned,
realizing the time. “You know, you don’t have to stay? We can catch up
tomorrow. Go and spend some time with your family.”

“I’ll be right back,” Leon said, shaking
his head. “Felicia knows I’m going to be working late.”

We stepped back to let Leon pass and then
entered the conservatory. At some point, the long table had been removed and
replaced with a smaller, round one. It was piled high with books and notepads,
and I could see from the way Cupid was eyeing it up, he was regretting not
having the larger one to spread out on. “What’s all this?” I asked, picking up
one of the older looking books.

“While waiting for the cherubim to report
in, I decided to see if there was anything in our library which might have a
reference to these dark traps.” Cupid raked a hand through his already
disheveled hair. “I’ve read them all before, and I don’t remember anything, but
maybe I just missed the reference.”

“What language is that written in?” Joshua
asked, glancing over my shoulder.

I was ready to respond with
English
,
but Cupid beat me to it. “That one is Persian.”

“You speak Persian?” Joshua asked me.

“Apparently I do.” I set the book down.

“You speak the language of mankind,” Cupid
said. “Until mankind speaks one language, we speak them all.”

Well that would have been handy when I was
at high school. As it was, it suddenly explained a lot of things. I mean, I
knew I spoke a few languages, even if I didn’t know I knew them – Croatian and
one of the Chinese languages. I didn’t realize I understood
every
language, but I could see why it would be needed.

“What did you find?” Cupid asked, spotting
the thick manila folder in Joshua’s hand.

“Hopefully an answer to the many questions
we have,” Joshua said as he set the folder down. He and I both joined Cupid at
the table, moving some books to one side so we could make space for our own
research.

Joshua handed me half the pile, an inch
thick of paper. I’d thought that was a lot, and then I realized he’d handed me
the equivalent of four inches of printing. Not only was everything double
sided, he’d only gone and printed two pages to each sheet. “Did you print
everything off his computer?” I asked in amazement. No wonder it had taken so
long.

“I didn’t want us to have to return later,
so I printed every diary entry and every email for the last six months.”

“I’ll get Eugene to bring us some more
coffee,” Cupid said, sympathetically.

It was nearly midnight before I thought
about the time again. Leon had returned and, with an amused smile, taken some
of Asmodeus’ emails from us. Eugene had refilled the coffee twice over before
digging out the two large coffee urns we used at breakfast. Veronica and then Noelle
had appeared over the course of the night to report that Asmodeus hadn’t left
his apartment, and the cherubim at the port were taking six hour shifts. They
were safe, but stationary and hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary so
far.

It was Leon yawning that made me consider
the time. “You two should probably go home,” Cupid announced.

Leon sat back and finished off his mug.
“Sorry, it’s been a long day.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Cupid
assured him. “You also said you have work tomorrow.”

“I just feel like we’ve missed something
in the print outs,” Leon sighed in disappointment.

I knew how he felt. “We’ve been through
them twice, but I don’t see anything either.”

“Except for his love life,” Joshua
cringed.

The thought sent a shiver through me too,
and it wasn’t at the thought of old people dating. It was the thought of a
fallen angel taking advantage of a human. I wanted to believe that there was
some part of any fallen angel that could experience love, but the guy had nineteen
girl’s names in his calendar over the last six months. Madeleine Sophie was his
next ‘date’.

“At least that gives us a timeline,”
Joshua said, yawning, as he gathered all the paperwork back together.

That was true: between the hours of eight
and midnight tomorrow evening, we knew Asmodeus would be on a date and not at
the Port – which would be the perfect time to make our move. “I’ll see you
out.”

* * *

The following morning, I was sitting in
Joshua’s car, working my way through an enormous coffee from Café du Monde.
Joshua was inside the precinct with Leon. Despite my visit last night, we had
collectively agreed that I shouldn’t be in there when Asmodeus was. Which was
why I was impatiently waiting for Joshua to do whatever he needed to and come
back outside so we could head back to A. R. International. I had thought it was
a bit pointless heading there on a Saturday, but as Joshua had pointed out,
shipping was a year-round activity and there
had
been someone there
yesterday.

My attention was so focused on the main
entrance to the precinct, watching for Joshua’s return, that when Veronica
suddenly appeared in the car with me, I only just managed to stop myself from
jerking my arm – and sending the coffee flying everywhere (I wasn’t sure Joshua
could forgive me if I got coffee over his car’s interior). “What the hell,
Veronica!” I yelled.

“I was bored, and you looked bored,” she
grinned from the driver’s seat.

“Are you following me?” I asked.

Veronica pointed to the building in front
of us. “One of four covering the precinct. I’m following Asmodeus.”

“There’s four of you on him?” I repeated,
dubiously.

“We were going to take your advice and do
three, but last night we realized it would leave one corner of a building
uncovered. We upped it to four.”

“Makes sense,” I grumbled, setting the
coffee into a cup holder. “Only I’m not Asmodeus.”

“True,” she agreed. “But you’re on the
same corner as me and I thought I would take this opportunity to apologize.”