Page 122 of Lucky In Love

With a nod from him, I turned and headed upstairs to clean up.

Holy shit, Angel is alive!

My angel.

Chapter Four

Andrew

Andrew

Isat there on the bed, staring at the wall that joined our two rooms like I could see through it. The water had shut off in her shower a little over five minutes ago. While the bedrooms in this place were soundproof, there was something about the way these two bedrooms connected. We could hear the water whine in the pipes. But now I was wondering how long would be proper to wait before I headed over to talk to her. I had rarely been scared of anything, but here I was, terrified of the woman who was supposed to be dead. I let out a huge huff, forced myself to stand up, walked out of my room, and turned toward her door. I froze with my hand an inch from it, took a shaky breath and then a step back, letting it out slowly.

Beth and Wes walked out of their room at that moment. Turning to face them, I saw Beth was smiling and shaking her head. “Come on, Skeet. Go talk to her.”

My attention flicked to the door again and then back to them. “What if she doesn’t want anything to do with me, Bug?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She walked up to me and took my hands. Squeezing them she explained, “First, it’s a conversation, not a marriage proposal. Second, if she doesn’t want anything to do with you, she’s not the one and it’s her loss. You deserve happiness, Skeet. You deserve to have someone look at you like you hung the moon, specifically out their window so that the stars would sparkle in their eyes.”

“But—”

She released one of my hands and put a hand over my heart. “If there is anyone in this house who deserves it, you are one of them. You saved Desiree, Barbara, and me to make sure we survived to have our happiness. We will never be able to repay you for that. No one says that you have to pick up right where you two left off. However, you do owe it to yourself to knock on this fucking door and see if there is a chance at friendship, if nothing else.”

I shook my head and smiled as I looked over her shoulder at Wes, who was leaning on the wall, smiling at us. “You know she’s pretty special, right?”

“Yeah, why do you think I changed her last name? Just wish I hadn’t waited so long to realize it.”

Beth took a step back and stood beside Wes after giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “We were dumb.”

“Why aren’t you two over at the townhouse?”

Beth let out a long breath and used a finger to point out each item. “How many brain cells got burnt out in the last twenty minutes? I needed sparring time with you, and Emily and I need to spend more time going over the Vaux numbers to see how long I can keep the IRS off Dallas’s case. And then there’s the fact my cutie-pie husband works here. Is that all okay with you?”

“Don’t remind me about the paperwork I still have to do.” Wes groaned. “Come on, darling. We need to leave or he will never knock on that door.”

I turned back toward Angel’s door and took a steadying breath. I can do this. Just then, Beth ran over, knocked three times, stuck her tongue out at me, raced back down the hall, and hurried down the stairs, giggling the whole way.

The door swung open as she disappeared, and standing there was my angel, dressed in a rich blue waffle-knit robe that accentuated her curves perfectly. She had removed the red blunt cut wig she had been wearing, revealing her beautiful brown hair set in box braids. She was smiling, and I couldn’t help but follow the curve of her neck to where an old, familiar charm necklace sat. A silver, four-leaf clover, angel wing, and Phantom of the Opera mask charms hung from a simple silver chain around her neck. When she noticed I was staring at it, her hand lifted to the necklace, and she played with the three charms as a nervous habit.

Lifting my hand to touch it, I stopped halfway between us, lowered my hand again, and swallowed. I was in awe that it was around her neck. Lifting my gaze to meet hers, I said, “You still have it.”

“It’s been my lucky charm. I’ve never stopped wearing it.” She took a deep breath and gestured for me to come in. “It was a way to still have you with me.”

I held my breath as I passed her, not sure if I could hold my control in check if her signature jasmine scent hit me as I stepped into the guest room. When the door shut, my chest expanded with a deep breath before I turned and met her gaze. My thoughts scattered as my eyes met hers, and I just stared back. I half-wondered if I was in a coma and lying in a hospital bed somewhere. I had to be dreaming.

It took a few moments before I was able to muster up an answer, my voice barely above a whisper. “You are really here?”

Angel took a step forward, nodding, then another slow step toward me, so that she was standing right in front of me. My attention was all over the place: the scrape above her left eyebrow, the one on her right jaw, the one on her neck, and the way her lip was swollen and split. The only new mark on her skin that didn’t make my heart break was the small, new phantom mask tattoo on her neck.

“I’m here, Shadow. Very much alive.” Her focus moved all over my face before she uttered, “When I heard Ivanov’s guys mention your name after the attack on the compound, I didn’t know how to feel. I was both thrilled and terrified that you were alive.”

“Terrified?”

She nodded again. “I overheard Ivanov’s guys talking about how badly you were hurt, and if I had to learn you were still alive only to then find out that you died . . . I’m not sure I could have handled that.” There was so much pain in her eyes that I had to ball my hands into fists to keep from reaching out and running my thumb along her cheek. I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to touch her. Would she want that caress?

“How did I not hear that not only were you still alive, but also engaged to that fuckhead?”

My angel chuckled, a small smile gracing her lips. “I can’t tell you why my livelihood was kept a secret, but as for Jacob, it wasn’t something either of us wanted. He wasn’t bad. He had to put on a front and keep up with expectations and appearances. Jacob never touched me romantically, except for a little hand-holding and wrapping an arm around my waist when out in public. He couldn’t even bring himself to kiss my temple. Seriously, the man is, well, was madly in love with his boyfriend, and they would have been an amazing force and really would have given Ivanov a run for his money. Only, Jacob’s father wouldn’t accept that he was gay and let him be his true self. I felt bad for him in that aspect.” She sighed. “Something broke inside him when his father hauled Ryan out and shot him dead. That was the only night that we slept in the same room. I held him until he cried himself to sleep.” She stopped for a moment, then continued, “He was dumb today and is dead because he tried to stop Maloy from getting to me.”

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