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Authors: Kaye Chambers

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Paranormal

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BOOK: Angelic Avenger
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I glanced over my shoulder to see Andy being followed out by Gray as I followed Honora into the anteroom that Mr. Trumpet and I had walked through and closed the door behind us. Blinking at the thought, I realized that I’d not been introduced to anyone except Gray Devereau, so didn’t even know the man’s name. Mentally shrugging, I figured there would be plenty of time for that, later…after the crisis was dealt with.

Honora sat down heavily and struggled to hold her tears in as I sat beside her, gently pulling her into my arms in one of those motherly hugs that are a woman’s answer to every hurt imaginable. She took the comfort I offered and cried as I sat there. I wanted to say all sorts of nice things, but the only thing that kept popping into my head was what finally popped out of my mouth when her sobs subsided to hiccups.

“You want me to kill him for you?”

She burst out laughing and I grinned. She thought I was joking. I
so
wish she’d say yes. It’d look like a heart attack and if I did it while he was driving, he could drive off the road and crash in glorious style. I really liked that idea. I was contemplating creative ways to make sure he suffered enough to regret his actions when she finally shook her head. Disappointment was dust in my mouth. Would she notice if I did it, anyway?

“No, thank you.” She sighed and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue I supplied from my purse. “I don’t want him dead. I just want him gone. I can’t believe I was so stupid. The boys must think I’m completely hopeless. Why didn’t anyone say anything?”

“They cared too much to hurt you and as long as you didn’t sign the contract, no harm was done, so you don’t have to worry about that. Even if you had signed it, it would have worked out okay. They love you for you and would have backed you regardless. Friends like that are worth far more than something as paltry as money.”

I tried to keep the wistful note out of my voice but knew I’d failed by the way she looked at me. I laughed it off with a smile as I fished out a pack of make-up remover wipes and began to wipe off the smudged mascara.

“You look like a clown,” I teased as I sensed the tension easing out of her. “Do you feel better?”

“Yes, no, I don’t know. I don’t…”

That magic voice caught and I put my hand on her arm.

“It’s okay,” I whispered and let my understanding shine out from my face. “It gets easier once you get over the ‘how could I be so blind and stupid’ self-loathing phase.”

“You sound like you know.” She looked at me curiously. She was too polite to ask, but I could sense the need to know she really wasn’t alone in this. It was always more acceptable to find women who were gold-digging from men instead of the other way around. Men were always excused as being duped. Women were always portrayed as stupid. Talk about the double standards in society.

“I do.” I smiled and realized that I’d not told anyone what had happened to me. The angels knew because it was all written in the big book of everything. I’d not made any true friends since my return so personal baggage had remained locked in the closet. Somehow, I thought Honora knowing would help her resolve her issues with Andy’s betrayal.

“I was engaged once.” I smiled and shrugged, trying to make it casual. “But he was a schmuck who decided two weeks before our wedding that he liked the cocktail waitress he’d been screwing better than me. He moved out saying he wanted a little space before the wedding and into the hotel where she worked. We worked together and he rescheduled his vacation so that he could have those weeks off as well as the ten days we were going to be gone on our honeymoon. I didn’t think anything about it. I was secure in our relationship and the plans we made. A couple of days after he moved out, the cruise line called about my request to reschedule our honeymoon since I’d bought the tickets. The office had lost my new contact information, the agent said, but was very glad that the one on file was still good. I’d paid for everything, you see.”

I sat there and put my hands in my lap to keep them from trembling. I hadn’t realized how hard it was going to be to say the words aloud, but now that I was started, I couldn’t seem to stop it. “I made more money than he did was the excuse he always used when it came to dividing up expenses when I’d make a comment that there was no dividing if I was paying for everything. After the agency called, I called his hotel room and she answered the phone. When I asked to speak to him, her comment was that she was his wife and any business I had with him I could deal through her. When he heard that, he snatched the phone away and said some rather unforgivable things to me about not being the trophy wife he needed now that his career was on the fast track. In short, he didn’t need me any more. A few weeks later, my landlady came by to talk to me about my rent check bouncing and I went to the bank and discovered he’d closed out all the bank accounts that he was on and taken the money with him.”

“What did you do?”

It was some measure of comfort that her voice was as raw as mine was and I was surprised to find tears in my eyes when I looked up at her.

“I got royally drunk, jumped off a bridge, and then rebuilt my life. Luckily, I came into my inheritance after that, so had that to fall back on. You had the sense to look closer when it didn’t feel right so he didn’t catch you in that trap.”

Her laughter sparkled across the room and I smiled sadly. If she only knew how literally I meant the words. Now, my moment of sharing was done, so I changed the subject.

“So, is your Gray a lawyer? He said that you’d brought the contract by for him to look at…”

“He’s the Assistant District Attorney. But I figured for a good once over, he’d do. It didn’t feel right and my mother always said that if you trust your gut, you‘d never make a wrong move. She was a smart lady. I lost her to cancer last year, but she always said that I’d been kissed by an angel for my voice and to follow my heart.”

She blushed and looked away. “Listen to me rattling on.”

I blinked as she hugged me. People didn’t touch me voluntarily often enough for it to be a commonplace occurrence.

“Let’s go back to the party and get you introduced around since you’ve taken such a strong stand on our careers. Did you really hire us an agent and draw up a contract?”

“Well,” I winked cheekily, “no, but he doesn’t know that. By the time he figures it all out, it’ll all be done, anyway, so what’s a little careful fact making?”

“That’s lying,” she accused and laughed as she leaned back in her chair. She laughed until she was crying again, but for an entirely different reason. “I love it. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, Honora.” Standing up, I offered her my hand. “That’s what friends are for, after all, right? I could still kill him for you, just say the word.”

“Right and no, someday, he’ll get what’s coming to him and that’s enough.”

She took my hand and hugged me again, which set me back on my heels. God, what is it with women hugging to hug? Men don’t do it.

“So—” she pulled back slyly as she stepped away, “—what do you think of our Gray?”

“I think he’s got a body to die for, a voice that makes your skin shiver, and far too much sex appeal for a woman like me. What’s wrong with Emily? She’s more his type.”

“She is not.” Honora did a little jig with delight and I eyed her askew. “I
knew
you’d like each other. I could fairly see the sparks flying there. Give him a chance.” She danced to the door as if she’d not been sobbing her heart out moments ago. I love the way buoyant spirits rebounded. “He needs a good woman like you to knock some of the order and perfection out of his little world. The man’s positively anal.”

“I heard that,” Gray commented as she opened the door to find him leaning on the jamb next to it. “I am not anal and Emily is really not my type.”

Busted. So busted.

I felt my face flame. From the look on his, I knew he’d heard everything I’d said. Oh well, time backs up for no man or angel. There’s nowhere to go but forward, so I shrugged even as I purred with false bravado.

“Truth hurts, doesn’t it, baby?”

“I don’t know.” He smiled a little pointedly at me and winked. “I’ve yet to hear any where you’re concerned. I’m a patient guy, though. I’ve got time.”

With that, he hugged Honora and told her that he’d be by to talk to her in the morning. I watched him go and wondered if that was it. He’d not even said good-bye, but he did look back at the door. Our gazes locked for a moment and then he was gone.

I suddenly didn’t like him quite so much, but that was my pride smarting. I was woman enough to admit it as I turned my attention to the rest of the band members. All the hangers-on had been quietly dispatched while we’d had our moment in the anteroom, so it was quickly turned into a business meeting.

By the time I made it home, I knew exactly what course Angelic Melodies wanted their career to go and they trusted me to see that it happened.

How had I gotten mixed up in this, again?

Oh yeah, favors for angels. I made a note and stuck it on the refrigerator in big red letters:

No more favors for angels.

Chapter Five

The phone was ringing. It took me a minute to realize what the sound was as I burrowed deeper into my feather mattress topper and pillows. It didn’t stop and the sound didn’t go away. I only had one phone in the house and it was in the kitchen. Since the vast majority of my communication tends to be telepathic, I had never seen the need for having one in every room like it was apparently the fashion these days. I remember when cordless phones had come out and wouldn’t work three feet from the base, so the idea of walking around my apartment with one wasn’t a reality in my mind.

Unfortunately, that shortsightedness meant I was going to have to get out of my snug nest and pad into the kitchen. The floor in there was marble and cold first thing in the morning since my apartment had one of those programmable thermostats to be energy efficient.

Maybe whoever it was would leave me alone.

The phone stopped ringing for about a minute before it started up again. Needless to say, I’d never gotten around to an answering machine, either. I made it run through two more times before I finally conceded whoever was on the other end was not going to hang up Grumpily, I crawled out of my nest and padded into the kitchen.

“What?”

I sat in a chair in my breakfast nook to pull on a pair of socks grumpily.

“Not a morning person, check.”

I blinked and pulled the phone away from my ear and only hesitated a moment before hanging it up. I sat there and started counting. I made it all the way to twenty-five before it started ringing again. I picked it up on ring number seven.

“What?”

“No sense of humor before coffee, check.”

I hung it up and unplugged it. If the man was going to try to be funny, he could wait until I was awake enough to appreciate it. With that thought, I crawled back in bed to blessed silence. I was almost warm again when the pounding on the door started.

Somehow, all the charity I’d been feeling toward one very sexy halfling was quickly turning into something frightfully close to hate when I yanked open the door.

“What do you want?”

I glared at the Starbuck’s cup and pastry bag Gray Devereau held out to me, totally ignoring his sheepish expression.

“I got you up.”

Oh, he was certainly bordering on the boundaries of genius. What
was
his clue?

“It’s not quite eight.”

I glowered and debated on closing the door in his face, but the smell of the coffee was too much of a lure. I snatched it and turned to walk into the kitchen, not inviting him in, but not closing the door, either. Considering the circumstances, he could take that any way he wanted to and be grateful.

“I was trying to catch you before you went to work.”

“I don’t work,” I snapped even as I sipped the mocha with a sigh. Okay, he was partly forgiven. I peeked in the bag and saw the cherry scone. He was working his way to halfway forgiven.

“The guy on the corner said to tell you that the blackberry ones were junk today and he sent them back. It’s cherry for the rest of the week, but he thinks they’ll have a new supplier next week.”

“I don’t want a new supplier,” I sulked as I pulled the scone out of the bag and used the bag as my plate, pulling off a corner and offering it to him since he’d followed me into the kitchen. “I like their blackberry scones. The cherry’s a close second, though. How did you know where I got my breakfast?”

“You struck me as a coffee person and since there’s a Starbuck’s half a block from your door, I thought it was worth a shot.”

Give the man a point for observation skills. He hadn’t known me long enough to be that good at detective work, but maybe that’s why he made the big bucks.

“And how did you get Jimmy to give you my order?”

“I started describing you and he began laughing. He knows you by name and knows every meal that you eat, apparently. He warned me away from bean sprouts if I expected to get anywhere. Apparently, there’s a story there?”

“There is.” I sighed and conceded the point. He’d bribed his way in to say whatever was on his mind, so I waved him to a seat. “The automatic timer doesn’t pop on until eight. I try to make it a habit not to get up before then unless it’s an emergency. Are
you
an emergency today?”

“It’s an honest mistake.” He smiled that sweet-as-berries smile as he sat down and eyed the coffee when I nudged it into the middle of the table to share. For a smile like that, I’d have shared a hell of a lot more, but coffee was all he was getting today, anyway. “I didn’t know that you weren’t up running the rat race like the rest of us at seven. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Yeah, I gathered that.” I chuckled as I leaned back against my chair and tried not to think about the fact that I was entertaining a man in my breakfast nook with its view of downtown in my silk pajamas. Granted, the style was very conservative, but the fabric was decadent enough to make them feel like I should have something over them. “I also figured it better be important if you weren’t going to let me rest. How many times did you call through the rings?”

BOOK: Angelic Avenger
6.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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