Independence: #2 Angel (37 page)

“On my way,” came the brusque, gruff response and the line went dead.

“He knows where to meet you?”

“Yep. Always have a backup plan for when the maybe good plan fails.” Crystal cast a quick glance over her shoulder. “He might already know since you’re wearing the earrings, but I needed to make certain. I don’t think these guys are going to be real forgiving if they catch up with us.”

“I…the earrings?” Angel reached up, swaying wildly when the boat made a jerky turn. “I’m bugged?” She didn’t know why, but that thought actually made her smile.

“It’s not your boyfriend’s fault. My dad doesn’t like taking chances with someone he’s hired to protect,” Crystal told her quickly, uncertainty in her voice.

“Oh, I’m not upset. Relieved, actually and I would have suggested it if I…I don’t know,” she spoke loudly above the roar of the boats. “I guess I wanted to believe they’d just leave me alone.”

“For what it’s worth…I think it was just the woman and Leonard. I don’t think your father knew how crazy she is,” Crystal throttled back. “Get ready to jump with me and run! I’ll lead! I know the way we need to go.”

“It’s so dark out there,” Angel climbed to her feet, tucking the phone into a pocket and moving shakily over the small space in the boat until she was next to Crystal. She glanced behind them. “They aren’t quitting.”

“I suspect they dislike losing,” Crystal said with a chuckle. “I doubt their boss is happy about you going missing when he thought he was so close to the prize. Oh, nothing personal.”

“None taken, I promise. He’s slimy and I’m just so grateful to you.” Angel held tightly to the side of the boat. Her eyes had adapted to the darkness and she could see the shoreline quickly coming up at their side.

“We’re coming in at an angle. I don’t want to hurt my boat too much,” Crystal explained, her hands quickly cutting the engine and holding tight. “Let’s go. Just jump the side and follow me!”

“It’s so dark.”

“It’ll work for us. Trust me.”

“People are always telling me that,” Angel said as she felt the lurch of the boat against solid ground. Her feet and legs reacted to the movements ahead of her, bolting up and over the low side and onto the packed sand and rock beach.

She followed behind the fast, small woman, mimicking her movements and keeping low. There was shouting behind her. But so far no one had begun shooting at them. Oh, god, where did that thought come from? Too much TV, she answered immediately. Her whole life the last few weeks had become something out of a canceled television show.

Colin had been pacing beside the large SUV, stopping only when he heard the female voice over the speaker. His hands clenched over the open edge of the window, Angel’s voice ripping away the foreboding that had swept through him at her text.

He stepped back, letting Abe start the SUV while he moved quickly to the passenger side. He hadn’t been able to think of not finding her; of not being able to get her away from Leonard.

“Lieutenant, Angel is clear of the ship,” he said crisply into his phone. “Thank you.”

“Leonard is still on the boat,” Abe said flatly. “He wouldn’t go after her himself.”

“The Lieutenant’s already picked up Elizabeth Morehouse. This time there won’t be bail with all the evidence you’ve collected and the video from Angel’s shop. This time, it will end.”

“There they are…” Abe jerked the wheel along one of the narrow roads leading through the large wooded area.

Colin was out of the SUV seconds before he watched both women racing along the dirt path above the beach. Both were breathing heavily when a man burst out of the tree cover and tackled them both to the ground.

Angel felt the hand too late, her body taking the brunt of the fall to the ground. The man was focused on her, and released Crystal. Both his arms circled her, pinning her arms to her sides as he scrambled to his feet, taking her with him. He backed up just enough to slide down the sandy slope to the more flat section of hard packed sand.

She kicked back, her feet lifted off the ground as he began moving toward the other men approaching from the water’s edge. A scream was ripped from deep inside her when his free hand came up and gripped her neck, tightening painfully.

“I’ll snap your neck.”

“He’ll kill you.”

“Leonard wants you alive. It’s the only reason you’re breathing,” growled the foul smelling man holding her.

“No!” Angel shouted loudly, pulling her head forward and throwing it back with as much strength and energy as she could find. If she wanted Colin, she had to start fighting to be with him. And it began now.

“You stupid bitch!”

But his hands had loosened enough from her attack that she could twist free and shove against him. She grabbed up the fallen gun and stuffed it into her pocket. Her shove sent him stumbling forward in the sand and she took off running. But by the time she realized she was going in the wrong direction, she was grabbed up again.

“You are causing me no end of a headache, Angelica.”

The voice was savagely familiar and the bite of his hand in her hair brought tears to her eyes as she was jerked to a halt. How had she missed seeing him? She wanted to smack herself but didn’t have the luxury. Not now. Later when she had time.

She couldn’t move, his fingers were so tight, her hair clenched in them when he twisted and pulled her to her toes.

“Enough of this. You will come back with me now and we’re leaving immediately,” Earl Leonard gave her head a sharp jerk. Loud, piercing shouts were echoing along the dark coastline from the place the boat was sitting. Only now it was at a very steep angle, the side closest to the dock now listing almost completely on its end. “What the fuck?”

“Let her go, Leonard!”

Angel tried twisting, tried turning to the voice. The good voice. The place she wanted to be more than anything ever in her life. But her attempts only made his hand tighten all the more. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.

“Keep back if you want her alive. She’ll stay that way until I’m clear.” Leonard pulled her close, releasing her hair just long enough to wrap his arm around her middle and hold her against him like a shield.

“You won’t get anywhere. The boat is going down and so are you.”

Angel cringed. Colin’s tone was the hardest she’d ever heard him before. Her hand closed around the gun in her pocket. She’d never given a thought to weapons like this before. Never given a thought to using one. Ever. Especially on a person. But when she saw him raise a gun and point it toward Colin, all those doubts vanished in a puff of smoke. She would not let him be hurt because of her.

Or any of her friends.

“I won’t let you hurt him.” The calm ease in her own voice surprised her. A lot. Because everything inside her was quaking like a nine on the earthquake scale. Chills ran through her when he laughed, his arm tightening and making her gasp for breath at the pain in her ribs. “I won’t let you hurt him,” she repeated through teeth tightly clenched. Damn if she’d let him know just how much she was hurting.

She’d had just about all she was willing to put up with from all these people messing with her life. Her head straightened, her gaze locked on Colin. So far away and so shadowy in the darkness. But he was there and he was hers. It felt like an invisible link, a thread that wouldn’t release her no matter what happened. And she never realized just how important that feeling was until it was threatened.

Angel looked to where she knew Colin was and pulled strength from that knowledge. She squirmed and pushed until Leonard had her shifted to where they were now face to face. His breath smelled like beer and cigars and she jerked her head to the side to avoid it as much as possible.

“Let her go.”

Angel could count the breaths Colin took in between each word. Words almost as cold as the air blowing off the Sound.

“I need some entertainment. It’s a long trip to Mexico and she’s ruined a good plan and cost me a fucking lot of money.” He pushed his face against her throat and inhaled. “And she does smell sweet. I’ll send you pictures. Mark, get the limo. Have it brought in close.” He called the words over his shoulder after casting a quick look to see four of his men behind him. They were heading to the small boat that had been next to the yacht.

Never let them take you to a second location.

Why did that warning from an assault class come bouncing into her head now?

No matter. She wasn’t going. At least not willingly. She kicked out, both feet, tangling them with his until he lifted her physically from the ground. Since he was a good five inches taller and much bulkier than her, it was an easy task. But it was the cold, flat whisper that made her stop.

“I’ll kill him. Right here. Right in front of you.”

Angel tightened her grip on the gun in her pocket and thrust it forward, making certain the end poked into his ribs. She watched his eyes go round.

“Let me go. You can jump in the boat and just go. Out of my life.”

“I’m taking you with me. I need the insurance policy.”

“If you hurt him, I’ll never stop fighting you.”

“If he’s dead, I’ll break you in a week,” he promised with a hard pull, their bodies moving as one down the damp sand.

“Let me go,” she repeated with another thrust of the gun, the sound of the trigger clicking making him stop moving. She saw his hand lift, the gun in his fingers aiming and she knew without looking at what.

“You don’t have the guts. You’re just what your step-mother claimed you to be. Weak and pliable,” he sneered, his eyes on her as his hand lifted. “You’ll be easier to deal with if he’s dead anyway.”

“No!” Angel pushed the gun harder and closed her eyes. “Let me go.”

“Stupid bitch…” he laughed at the same time the gun in her hand kicked hard, the explosion muffled by their jackets and the various sounds around them. People were shouting. She knows she heard the police lieutenant somewhere behind her. Colin’s voice was echoing inside her mind. Her name, over and over. It was like he was calling to her from the end of a very long tunnel.

She’d find him.

She’d find him, she ordered herself. She’d hit her head on something. How could she hit her head on something when she was being held against that pig, Leonard? Her head hurt and she really didn’t want to open her eyes.

“Angel…look at me.”

“No.”

Laughter filtered down her tunnel.

“I have the rest of his people rounded up. Not sure of the charges.” The Lieutenant’s voice. “But I know there will be a lot of them.”

“Leonard?” Colin spoke quietly, softly, but she could hear him clearly.

“Oh, god! I killed him! I…I…”

“You did not kill him,” the Lieutenant said sternly. “You defended yourself. Period. Is that clear, Angel?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Damn Dom training,” Natalie Templeton mumbled testily. More laughter sifted through to her.

“My head hurts.”

“You managed to find the only large stone on the beach for a mile or so,” Colin answered. She sighed when his fingers stroked gently over her forehead. “Open your eyes, Angel.”

“The EMT’s are on their way,” Crystal spoke from nearby. “I’m sorry, Angel. I don’t know how they snuck up on us. I was trying to keep you in front of me.”

“Not your fault,” Angel answered, wincing and listening to the voice clear some in her ears. “I’m okay. He said he was going to kill you…”

“He didn’t. I’m fine,” Colin assured her.

“He had a gun…it was pointed at you…he said…said I’d be easier to deal with if you were gone,” she whispered painfully. Then everything seemed to finally crash back to the present and her arms flew up and around Colin’s neck in a tight hug.

“I’m okay, honey. I’m okay now,” Colin assured her. His arms had answered hers immediately, trapping her close with his face buried in her throat. “We’re both okay.”

“But…but…”

“This one’s dead, LT,” a strange voice intoned with indifference.

“Oh, god! I killed him!”

“Shut up, you idiot,” Natalie growled. Angel almost jumped out of her skin when her voice came right next to Angel’s ear. “You did not kill anyone. There are half a dozen cops and civilians as witness that know beyond a doubt that you defended yourself against an armed man intent upon doing you harm. Do you understand me, Angel?” Silence filled the long moment on the beach. “I want a response, Angel.”

“Yes. Yes…I understand. He was going to kill Colin. He…he would have hurt all of you…”

“She’s shocky,” said the strange voice. “Let me give her a once over…”

“I’m okay.”

“She might need the hospital,” said a voice close to her wrist, a strong set of fingers surrounding it.

“No. No…I don’t want a hospital. I want to go home,” she whispered through newly falling tears. “I just want to go home. Please. Please don’t leave me alone, Colin.”

“Shh…no one is leaving you alone, Angel. I promise. Just let the man make sure you’re okay.” His hands moved gently to her shoulders and set her back on the hard packed sand, holding her in place until their gaze met. “I won’t let anyone take you off somewhere without me. Now…let the EMT check you over. You hit your head on the rock, Angel.”