Page 69 of Kill Me Sweetly

Wes surged forward to take the tray. “That I am, and you’re Angel?”

“One and the same. Can’t you tell we’re brothers?” He quirked a brow, and Wes looked from him to me. We couldn’t be more different. I was white with a Vikinglike appearance and Angel was a bald black man with a beard and absolutely no likeness to me.

“This is a trick question, right?”

Angel cackled. “Yeah. I love messing with people when they hear we’re brothers.”

“Cute.” Wes glanced at the muffins with longing. “Damn, they smell good. You’re an amazing baker.”

“Thanks, Wes.”

He picked up a muffin. And turned it around in his hand. His blue eyes sparkled as he sniffed it. “You could make a fortune if you expanded Saintly Sweets.” He looked at me, and something was off. “Why not just do this for a living?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He put the muffin on the table with a sigh. He closed his eyes for a beat and when they opened, it was as if all the lights had gone out. The sunny demeanor was gone, and in its place was a dark and dangerous killer.

“I’m far from an idiot, Shep. I’m aware you lured me here, for what? To kidnap me? Torture me until I answered all your questions?”

“Are you feeling okay, Wes?” Angel made to circle the counter.

“How about you stay right there, big guy?” Wes didn’t move an inch, and it was as if I were watching at perfectly programmed robot.

“What’s going on?” I tried to go for shock, but Wes saw right through it.

“Cut the bullshit.” He slammed his hand down, smashing the muffin. “Seems you all figured out who I was, huh?”

“We don’t want to hurt you.” Angel’s hand was reaching for his back pocket, near the syringe. We only needed to get Wes to hold still for a second.

Wes laughed as though he really found Angel funny. “I like how you think I’ll be the one hurting here.”

“Wes, please. Come with us. We can get you away from the consortium, help you.” I held out my hand.

His smile fell. “Like you did Four? Do you think he’s safe? That at some point they won’t find him and bring him home?”

“Where you’re from isn’t home, and you know it.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You know nothing.”

I cocked my head. Okay, maybe nice guy wasn’t working. “I know that you were taken as a child, and you don’t know what it feels like to be loved. I understand you were trained to be a killer, and all of your dreams were stripped away. I know somewhere in that head of yours, you don’t want to be in that prison anymore.”

He didn’t say anything, just stared at me. I thought for a moment maybe I was getting through to him. I was sorely mistaken.

With my next breath, he did an aerial cartwheel, kicking the tray of muffins upward. It hit Angel in the face, and then Wes was on me.Like, did he fly? What the fuck?

“You. Know. Nothing,” he growled and scratched across my face.

“Fuck.” I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away. “Stand down!” I shouted but nothing happened. He just cackled and went for my face again, this time with his teeth.

“Hold him!” Angel shouted.

I was trying, but he was like a rabid porcupine. There was no way to hold him without attaining bodily injury.

“Two, that’s your name, right? You need to stop.”

But he didn’t. In a blink-and-you’d-miss-it maneuver, he flew back and immediately forward, kicking me flush in the jaw. My head snapped to the side, and I fell into one of the glass cases.

“Shit!” Angel shouted. I glanced up and saw Wes’s attention was now on him.

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