Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
That was to say, not at all.
Though he did like my cupcakes, and so far, that was his only positive.
I was a newer Angel in the group, not as new as Joey and Gemma, but not one of the OGs, like Raye, Luna, Harlow and Jess. I hadn’t had as much experience as they did with this guy.
But I’d been around him and the girls talked.
As far as I knew, they’d never seen him away from his post as the nighttime clerk in reception at a skanky hotel in a not-so-awesome part of town.
And this begged the question, what was he doing here?
He put his hands up in front of him. “Listen, don’t shoot. I just want to talk to you.”
“Great. Awesome. How about doing that not in a deserted parking lot at five in the morning? Say, come back during visiting hours,” I suggested, keeping my Taser at the ready.
“I don’t have a lot of choices,” he told me. “They can’t see me coming to you women.”
Uh-oh.
“Who can’t see you?” I asked.
He took a step toward me.
I lifted the Taser a smidge and warned, “Stay where you are.”
He stopped.
My bag vibrated with a call.
I ignored it.
“Okay, I need you guys’ help,” he stated.
Really?
“Why?” I asked.
“There’s like, one person who’s, like, decent to me,” he said.
And that was it.
My phone stopped vibrating.
“That’s not giving me much info,” I pointed out.
“One person in my whole life.”
I didn’t want to feel sorry for the guy, but one person?
That sucked.
My phone started vibrating again.
Shit!
Who was calling me this early?
“And they’ve got her,” he finished.
Uh-oh!
Obviously, I ignored the phone again.
“Who’s got her?” I asked.
He jumped and looked beyond me.
I was not about to be taken in by that kind of crap, him conning me into looking over my shoulder then pouncing on me, so I stayed on target, my attention glued to him.
I watched him relax and only then did it occur to me how jittery he was, considering I’d heard a car pass too. But The Surf Club was on Indian School Road, one of the many busy city streets in Phoenix. Therefore, no matter how early it was, there were going to be cars.
“Ignore the traffic and keep talking,” I urged.
“They want me to—” he cut himself off when another car passed and he looked to the entrance drive to SC.
“Dude, stay on target,” I advised.
He turned back to me. “They said they’re watching me.”
Great.
“Did they follow you here?” I asked.
“I don’t think so.”
I hoped he was right, for both of our sakes.
“Then hurry with your story,” I urged.
“I…can I pull out my phone?” he requested.
“Sure,” I replied. “Just go slow.”
He started to reach to his back pocket, froze for a nanosecond, before his gaze shot to the entrance, then he turned and sprinted away.
What the…?
Since he was racing away, I thought it was safe to twist, and I saw lights from a car flash through the lot.
I whirled full body, only to see a black Denali angling in.
Those Denalis equaled one of the Nightingale boys.
I relaxed, stood there and watched as Shaw Drake parked, cut the lights and ignition, and folded out of the car.
Shaw was a new recruit.
Former Marine. Tall. Built. Dark-brown hair. Preposterously gorgeous.
I wasn’t sure if this kind of thing was a prerequisite to the hiring process, but I knew Shirleen, the Operations Manager who did the hiring, and I’d been invited to her screening of 300 to christen her huge new TV in her fabulous new condo.
So I was guessing it was.
I couldn’t blame her. Daily eye candy in the office didn’t hurt anyone.
But the sheer amplitude of these guys’ hotness?
Cripes.
“You good?” he asked me, attention trained beyond me to where Mr. Shithead ran away.
The Nightingale crew had cameras on SC. And at the Oasis.
Reminder: when it came to the Angels, they weren’t taking any chances.
I should have known I’d be covered when some creeper approached me in the parking lot. And the NI&S guys were probably who was calling me.
I was still impressed with how fast he got there.
“How did you get here so fast?” I asked.
“Call went out to everyone, I was closest. Headed to the gym. Gabe’s on his way.”
Well…wasn’t that just marvelous?
I had yet to figure out how I was going to tell Gabe to back off (again) but do it nicer this time, and it would seem I wasn’t going to have the opportunity to figure out how to do that.
Also, what was with these guys?
Who went to the gym at five in the morning?
Were they dedicated to the task of giving every human being on the planet an inferiority complex?
If so, they were succeeding.
“Just to say,” he began with humor in his tone, “I’m not a threat. You can lower the Taser.”
“Oh.” I lowered the Taser. “Sorry.”
He approached. “Do you know that guy?”