Page 7 of Angel's Fantasy

“What? Tell me,” he said. “Anything.”

I could hear him speaking but I wasn’t looking at him anymore. My eyes were locked onto Bella’s, and in that moment I knew that she knew what I wanted.

Her eyes widened in a flash of recognition as she partially stepped from behind her father, then narrowed, calculating as she looked me up and down.

“If I go with you, you have to promise not to hurt him.” Her voice was quiet but firm, and she took a step forward. “I want your word.”

I was speechless. I was half-joking when I even hinted at her coming with me… I didn’t think she’d actually volunteer.

It had taken Calvin a minute to realize what was going on, but when he did, he looked just as surprised as I was feeling.

“No,” he said. “No. No way I’m letting you take my daughter out of here, you son of a—”

“Daddy, stop.” Bella put her hand on his arm and shook her head frantically, only looking back at me for a split-second with those big, fearful eyes before turning her attention back to Calvin. “Don’t you see there’s no other way? There’s no other choice here. I have to do this.”

Seeing her plead with her father was hitting me hard. I didn’t want her to beg—not like that, anyway. I didn’t want her to feel completely trapped. I wasn’t a fucking monster. But she was right that Calvin was quickly running out of options, and it had gone way too far to simply turn around and walk away.

His debt had to be settled. Today. Now.

“There’s always a choice,” I said, finally. I was looking directly at her, but I meant the message to be for both of them. “You don’t have to do this, Bella. You don’t have to pay for his bad choices. He’s the one who owes the debt. He’s the one I came to collect from. You can walk away from all of this right now and I swear to God I won’t hurt you.”

“And what?” She hissed, nearly spitting the last word. “Let you kill him? That’s not a choice.”

“It was his choice,” I repeated, raising my voice and shaking my head. “Maybe it doesn’t make sense to you—and maybe it shouldn’t—but that’s the way this world works, and your dad knew that. He made his decisions willingly. He pays the consequences.”

If my words meant anything to her, if they made any difference to her whatsoever, she didn’t let it show. She didn’t take her eyes off me, and when she spoke again, the fear in her voice was tempered with something else—a determination that wasn’t there before, that hadn’t ever been there as long as I’d known her.

“If I come with you,” she began, nodding in my direction and speaking slowly and deliberately, “you’ll give him more time to pay? As much time as he needs?”

Calvin shook his head again. “Kimbella—”

“Wait, Daddy,” she ground out slowly, her eyes still laser-focused on me. “Let him answer.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I can agree to that.”

“And you promise you won’t hurt him as long as I stay with you?”

“Yes…”

“You promise?” The desperation in her voice was back, but I could tell it was only on behalf of her father. Her mind seemed to be made up about everything else. She was just ironing out the details.

“I promise. I’ll give him more time.” I addressed Calvin directly. “If she comes with me, you can take as much time as you need. You bring me the money when you’re ready, and Bella comes home. That’s our new agreement. Take it or leave it.”

“We take it,” she said, slowly walking forward to stand by my side.

“Now, wait just a second,” Calvin started to protest a little, but the fight was gone from his voice. I could see it in his eyes that he knew it was the only way.

Bella knew it, too. “Daddy, please… just say yes. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

She was standing so close to me that I could feel the heat radiating from her body, and it struck me again just how determined she was, how headstrong and fiery. Her dad was a fuck-up, and I hated that she was going to pay for his mistakes, but there was no denying that my body was completely on board with the idea of having Bella under my roof, within sight anytime I wanted.

I didn’t fool myself enough to think that she’d be completely under my control, though. She’d made it clear by her actions today that she knew what she was doing and was in charge of her own life, her own destiny.

This would just be another challenge for her, but if she thought she was going to call all the shots once we were alone together, she was in for a surprise.

I lowered my gun and raised an eyebrow questioningly, expectantly. “Well, Calvin? What’s it gonna be? Your daughter seems to have it all figured out. Do you agree?”

He hesitated, and for a moment I wondered if he’d offer up another half-hearted protest. He didn’t wanna die, though, and his will to live apparently outweighed any sense of moral outrage he felt about my agreement with his daughter.

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