Dante's Angel (21 page)

Hunter sighed.
“Nikita’s having all the fun.”

“Yeah, fun.”
Dante snorted. “I’m sure you’ll get to shoot someone soon enough.”

That seemed to
perk Hunter up.

Hammer
grinned. “I’d be satisfied with breaking a few bones.”

“I’ll see what
we can do,” Dante told him. He heard a beep from the link in his ear and knew
everyone who worked in the bar and the men at the table had heard it as well.
They had found a way for Sheriff Wyatt to tap into the radio link that the bar
used. It was a non-verbal way for them to communicate, and one that any
outsider wouldn’t know about. Being the paranoid son of a bitch that he was,
Storm beeped in a few times a night, just to make sure the line was working.

Dante beeped
back, then picked up his glass to take a sip. He spit it back with a groan.
“Jesus, this tastes like warm piss. I’m going to get us a new round.”

“Not that
we’ll drink it,” Jessup pointed out. “Can you make mine an iced tea?”

After the
other men agreed, Dante picked up the glasses and made his way to the bar. When
he got there, he leaned one arm on the bar. “Hey, angel. Can I get a refill?”

Zoe looked
down and saw the almost full glasses. “You wasting my beer, caveman?”

Dante grinned.
“Yeah, I guess I am. Can you set us up with some iced tea instead?”

“Sure thing.” She
took the glasses and poured out the beer before setting the glasses in the
washer, then got to work filling the new order. “You boys having fun over
there?”

“Barrels. How
are things over here?”

“Just peachy.”
Her eyes sparkled with amusement. “I got an offer to run off to Aruba with
someone about twenty minutes ago.”

That got
Dante’s back up. “What son of a—”

“Mr. Brennigan
asked, quite nicely I might add,” she said with a grin.

Dante relaxed
as he looked down the bar toward an old man sitting on a stool. Mr. Brennigan
was in his eighties, and looked like he could even be a century past that.
“Maybe I need to have a little chat with him and warn him not to try and steal
my girl.”

Zoe laughed.
“That would probably make his night. I noticed your dad isn’t back yet. Maybe
Ellie talked him into that nap after all.”

Dante grumbled
for a second before saying, “He texted a little while ago. He’s taking Ellie
and Sarah out to dinner, but said he’d be here before closing.”

She set the
new glasses on a tray for him, and he couldn’t help but lean in to grab a quick
kiss before he took them back to the table. Dante was just setting the glasses
down when he heard a long beep come over the radio. All the men at the table
froze, and the rest of the bar employees stopped what they were doing.

“
Hey, boss? We’ve got trouble moving in
,”
Jimbo said over the link. “
It’s Zoe’s
dad. He just pulled up in a fancy rental with two bodyguards. I think the
guards might be packing. What do you want me to do?
”

Dante looked
up at met Zoe’s gaze. She was still frozen in place even though the rest of the
staff had started to move again. “Zoe?”

“Let him in,”
she ordered softly.

“
Wyatt here,
” Sheriff Storm Wyatt’s voice
sounded out through the link. “
We’ve just
got word that a suspicious SUV has been sighted circling around Zoe’s apartment
building. It’s got tinted windows, so we can’t see inside. I’ll check it out
and get back to you.
”

“Fine,” Dante
said. Without looking away from Zoe, he spoke through the link. “Start clearing
everyone out. We’re shutting down. It’s going down tonight.”

He started
forward as he heard the chairs moving. He didn’t need to look back to see that
his friends were doing what he asked. Dante looked over toward the entrance and
saw an older man in an expensive suit walk in, followed by two other Asian men
dressed all in black.

Subtle, Dante
thought.

Zoe’s father
was looking around the room with a blank expression as Dante joined Zoe at the
bar. Her hands were braced on the counter, and he reached out to grip one, only
to find that it was ice cold. He heard the protests of some of the customers as
GT told them to get gone, but he didn’t care. His sole focus was Zoe. She
looked so pale and scared that it made him want to toss her father back outside
on his ass.

Pride swelled
as he saw her gather herself. Her shoulders went back and she stood tall as she
looked over at her father, waiting for him to see her. To the rest of the
world, she looked cool and composed, but Dante could still feel her hand shaking
in his.

“I’m right
here with you, baby.”

Zoe squeezed
his hand, but she couldn’t look away from her father. It had been so long since
she’d seen him. Emotions warred inside her. He looked good to her. Older and
tired, but good. It made her happy to see him again in person, but the reason
for his presence made her nerves jitter. Still, no matter how screwed up things
were between them, she still loved him.

But that
didn’t mean she forgave him for everything he’d done.

She saw the
instant he recognized her. Jin Tao’s eyes widened, then his face relaxed, once
again becoming expressionless. He started forward, and Zoe saw people move out
of his path. He’d always had that sort of control over people. He wasn’t a very
tall man, only about five eight, but he commanded attention simply by
breathing. It was as if people could sense the power he wielded that had
nothing to do the expensive suit he wore.

When he stood
in front of her on the other side of the bar, he came to a stop. They stared at
each other in silence for long seconds. Finally, he spoke. “Angelica.”

“Father.”

Jin Tao’s eyes
drifted down to where she was still gripping Dante’s hand in hers. It was a
knee-jerk reaction to try to pull away from him, but Dante’s grip tightened on
hers. She held on because she needed the connection, needed something to keep
her stable when she felt like she was going to shatter into pieces at any
moment.

Jin Tao looked
back at Zoe, dismissing Dante. “I’ve come to take you home.”

Zoe felt the
jerk of Dante’s hand in hers, and his slight show of nerves helped settle her a
little. “I am home.”

Jin Tao’s lips
tightened in displeasure. “This town?” He looked around the bar in disapproval.
“Surely you can’t mean that. And you work in this…”

“Now, you
don’t want to insult our bar,” Dante drawled out in warning. “We’re pretty proud
of this place, aren’t we, sweetheart?”

“We are,” Zoe
confirmed.

“Everyone is
clear,” Jimbo called out as he locked the front door. “Bar’s closed.”

“Good. Jimbo,
I want all the staff out. That means you, too,” Dante ordered.

“No can do,
boss. Wait staff is out safely, but I’m sticking,” Jimbo drawled out. “So is
Reggie, Cole, Rick and the rest of the guys.”

Dante turned
toward GT, and she just shook her head. “Don’t even.”

He was about
to argue, but Jin Tao interrupted when he said, “You can’t keep hiding here. You
need to come home so I can protect you.”

“Protect me?” Zoe
felt her temper spark. “You weren’t around when I needed you the first time, so
why the interest now?”

Jin Tao’s
cheeks flushed with anger or what could have been shame. “I was dealing with a
difficult situation overseas. The Chinese government had tried to put a block
on our manufacturing plants, and had charged me with several crimes they
couldn’t substantiate, but it all took time to sort out. I didn’t receive your
message until I was released after being questioned. If you would have just had
a little patience and hadn’t run away—”

She let out a
sharp laugh. “You wanted me to wait around for you? After Paul Wei tried to
kill me? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Dante didn’t
understand the rapid stream of Chinese that Jin Tao let out, nor could he
decipher the response Zoe shot back with. The bar staff that remained gathered
together as Father and daughter argued back and forth. Out of patience, Dante
didn’t like the harsh tone of Zoe’s father as he spoke to her enough to put a
stop to the exchange.

“English,”
Dante barked out. “I don’t know what the hell you just said to her, but you
don’t get to speak to her like that. I don’t give a shit who you are. You
understand me?”

Jin Tao
frowned. “You are a very rude young man.”

Dante snorted
in derision. “You thought that was rude? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Zoe reached
out and placed her hand on his arm. He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it,
all the while never taking his eyes off Zoe’s father. Dante could see that Jin
Tao didn’t like seeing his daughter with a man like him, but he really didn’t
give a damn.

Zoe belonged
to him, and it was better to let her father see it.

 
“Who is this man, Angelica?” Jin Tao demanded.

“This is Dante
Fox, my fiancé.” Before her father could speak, she gave him a warning. “Be
very careful what you say. I won’t tolerate you disparaging the man I love. You
lost the right to interfere with my life when you stopped being a part of it.”

“I am your
father!”

“You stopped being
my father when mother died,” she countered. “You just sent me away so you
didn’t have to bother with me anymore, and after that, you tried to pawn me off
to a monster. You know what he did to me. I know you were shown the reports.”

Jin Tao
winced, and for the first time, real sadness filled his dark eyes. “I didn’t
know that Paul was so…evil. He hid it from everyone. He came from a good family
and—”

“A good
family? Jesus, dad. Wake up! His family is just as guilty as he is!”

“Is it just
me, or does one of the men in black look a little twitchy?” Hunter asked
softly.

“I agree.”
Hammer shifted a little to get a better view. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”

“I didn’t come
here to argue with you,” Jin Tao announced on a sigh. “I’ve been looking for
you since you disappeared from New York. When I heard about what happened in
Portland…Angelica, you should have contacted me.”

Zoe’s chin
went up. “After what happened to Ashley, I didn’t know who I could trust.”

The radio
signaled again, distracting Zoe so she didn’t even hear what her father said in
response. Instead, she heard Sheriff Wyatt’s voice boom out over the link.

“
Shots fired. I repeat. Shots fired. Four men
inside the SUV started firing when we tried to approach. We are currently in
pursuit. Be on guard, they wanted into Zoe’s apartment. They’re looking for
her,
” Storm warned.

“We’ve got
incoming!” Jessup called out as he slammed the door shut that led out to the
garden patio. He began barricading the doorway, and a few of the other men
rushed forward to help him. With his phone in his hand, he said, “Malcolm was
on his way back and a car just drove through the patio fence outside. He and a
few others are exchanging fire. One deputy is down, and the medics are on the
way.”

 
“What is going on?” Jin Tao raised his voice
over the disarray, his expression was tight with confusion. “Angelica, what in
the devil is happening?”

“Paul Wei
followed you here,” she told him, and watched his eyes widen in disbelief.

“I’m done fucking
around. You two,” Dante growled at the bodyguards as he pulled out his gun and
aimed it at them. “Take your weapons out and put them down on the bar top.
Now.”

“Ru, Fai, do
as he says,” Jin Tao ordered softly.

The shots outside
were muffled inside the soundproof bar, but they were hearing the updates
through the radio link loud and clear. Dante watched as both bodyguards
unfastened their suit jackets and slowly pulled their guns from their shoulder
holsters and put them on the bar top.

“
Two more SUVs just pulled up. One in the
back, covering the side exit, and one in the front,
” Brix said over the
radio. He was up on the roof with his sniper rifle. He paused, then came back
on the line. “
I could use some help up
here. These guys are starting to piss me off. Can I kill these fuckers, boss?
”

Storm cursed
viciously over the link. “You can’t just kill everyone, Brix!”

“Have at it,”
Dante whispered, countering Storm’s order. In a louder voice, he said, “Hunter,
help Brix out?”

“With pleasure.”

Storm’s voice
rang out through the link. “
Confirmed
sighting of Paul Wei in the SUV in front of the bar. They’re packing a fucking
arsenal. I’ve got the streets blocked off around the bar, but damn it to hell,
they are shooting up the entire area.
”

Someone shot
out the front windows, shattering glass everywhere. Hammer, Dare and a few
other men rushed forward, taking cover against the walls surrounding the
windows as the sound of gunfire and sirens filled the room. They returned fire
toward the men in front, while Jessup, Reggie, Jimbo and the others guarded the
side and back windows. Zoe and GT screamed as a stray bullet hit the shelves of
liquor bottles behind them, distracting Dante for a moment.