Page 74 of Angel's Vengeance

Tearing her gaze away from the mental image of Rhode that always followed her around regardless of her will to leave it behind, she was equal parts annoyed and grateful when she realized she’d left the paint chips in the car.

Because, despite every cleanser she’d tried, she hadn’t managed to buff away the scent of Rhode from the leather.

“Well, that’s surely going to change very soon.”On heavy limbs, Neela walked out the front door of the garden apartment and almost had to pinwheel her arms to keep from eating pavement.

Rhode stood in the middle of the parking lot with his hands in the pockets of his slacks and his broad chest standing between her and her car.A look of stony resolve was carved into not only his expression but the set of his shoulders as well.He was enormous, his silk shirt immaculate, and wore a quiet rage she’d only ever seen on the mortal Vikings from her video games.The sight of him forced goose bumps to emerge in places she didn’t think possible and froze every muscle in her body, including the one at the center of her chest responsible for keeping air in her lungs and her body upright.If she’d had any ounce of decency or self-preservation, she’d have started spewing the apology she’d had saved on her lips from the very moment Cyro was blasted into the sky.

But all she could do was absorb the fierce beauty that she’d worried she’d never see again.Rich deep eyes, a wide brow, a chiseled chin that always had the perfect amount of rasp to it when he’d drag it across her delicate skin.

“What are you doing here?”she managed to say, though how she had trusted her voice to get the words out was beyond her.

“I think we need to have a conversation.”

Her heart sank down to her heels.And there it was.The reckoning he expected from her, which, going by his stern demeanor, was to be delivered with no small amount of flourish and groveling on her part.

She could grovel.If that was what she needed to do to get him to finally listen to her, then that was what she’d do.

“I don’t know where to begin, honestly.”Neela took a tentative step closer and wrung her hands beneath her chin.“For so damn long, I’ve had the words at the ready.But now that you’re here, I’m terrified that they won’t be enough, that they won’t satisfy you.”She took a deep bracing breath and closed her eyes, willing every ounce of remorse and compassion into the explanation she prayed he’d accept.“Rhode?—”

“The light suits you here.”

Her eyes flew open, but before she could inquire further, she was stopped by the seraph’s monotonous pacing across the pavement, which was only broken up by the occasional glance back toward where her apartment was.

“Eastwardly facing windows, attached garage, security cameras evenly spaced throughout the perimeter.The property management company is pretty good at selecting tenants as well, according to Chrome’s background check.No history of tenant evictions or small claims suits.It’s a small property, ten units.Easy to keep on top of.Employs regular lawn maintenance and snow removal contractors, all with equally clean records and up-to-date full insurance.Maintains an average tenancy of five years and has only ever raised rents to keep in line with municipal tax increases.They even get the building power washed and gutters cleaned on a regular cycle, which is practically unheard of in most mortal housing developments these days.”

Neela’s mind spun at the speed he paced in front of her.“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m saying your instincts about this place are spot-on.It’s perfect, and that doesn’t surprise me.Your instincts are always perfect.”

Whatever native magnetism Rhode had exuded earlier to freeze her in place had slowly begun to unstitch itself from her limbs.Her brows made quick work of their newfound freedom and immediately shot to her hairline while she searched for words beneath a veil of confusion.On impulse, phrases likelet me explainandI’m sorrycame to the forefront, but every time they were loaded into the rocket of her mouth, poised to fly, Rhode’s dark and twitchy frame passed across her nose like some courtroom prosecutor delivering closing remarks right before the jury was about to break for lunch.

“I remember you,” he said emphatically to the painted lines in the parking lot that resembled her not in the slightest.“Maybe not fully, not in the way I should have, but mysoulremembered you.”

Neela shook her head.“You’re not making sense.”

“That’s exactly it,” he exclaimed, waving his hands in the air, trying to plead his case to a jury of pigeons who’d stopped to peck at a discarded muffin wrapper.“When Cyro had his knife to your throat, I didn’t see red.I saw flames.I saw the mass destruction of everything around us for miles.I saw who I needed to kill, what I needed to sacrifice, how much damage I could sustain and still fight to get you free.I saw body counts and centuries-old trees buried beneath the snow mounds.There was no logic to it, only training.And when you hissed at him and that blade pressed farther against the delicate column of your throat, I lost my fucking mind.All I could think about was how soon I could slice that bastard’s arms off and get you in mine.So when you started speaking, any semblance of my rational brain had been demoted to reserve status at best.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a warning went off.A caution against interrupting whatever outpouring Rhode was coming to terms with, despite the torrent of things she’d held inside for weeks on end.

Finally, his pacing ceased, and he grabbed up her hands in a desperate gesture of acceptance.“I should have trusted your instincts.I should have known that under no circumstances would you have done the things you had, said what you did, if there were any other options available.I didn’t believe you then, but my disbelief wasn’t born of mistrust and hatred ofyoubut of Cyro and every sick fuck who delighted in the torture of others.”

All the taught muscles in her middle slowly untangled from her vital organs, allowing her to take the first full breath in weeks.And once the seal had been broken on that blockage, she’d finally been able to breathe him in.Reallybreathe him in, into her lungs, cells, and every aching part of her that had been starved for so long.But she stalled out that inhale in favor of gripping the sides of his face so she could immediately tell her truth.“You have to know that I never meant to hurt you.I never meant?—”

“I love you.”

Neela paused, needing all the time available for her brainwaves to fall over themselves untangling those three little words.

“You can’t love me.You don’t even like me that much.”

“I love you,” he repeated more insistently.

“No, you don’t.Youcan’t.You can hardly stand to be in the same room with me.I’ve had more breakfasts with members of your family without you present than with you there.I’ve had cooking lessons from Steel, gone on shopping trips with Molly and Drea where Brass accompanied us, and even been taught by Iron where best to stab a dagger into a man for maximum takedown with minimum thrust.Since I’ve been at the den, I’ve slept in your bed more times than you have, except for the few occasions when we’d both been so strung out and exhausted that we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”

“More than a few times,” he amended, and damn if her heart and other heated parts of her didn’t remember every single one of those times.

Neela closed her eyes and sought out the strength she needed to paint the true picture of what life had been like for her from the time he’d first found her in that mechanic’s parking lot to this one.But the energy just wasn’t there.How could it be?She’d spent so much time analyzing every misstep she’d made when it came to him, and now that he was here, touching her likehe’dbeen in the wrong, she just had nothing left in the tank to fight with.

“I love you,” he said again, rubbing soothing circles into the fleshy pads between her thumbs and index fingers.“I was so eternally wrong about everything.I let preconceived notions of who you were get in the way of what, deep down, essential parts of me knew you to truly be.My soul has been crying out for you since we both shared the same air in that dank cell, and I had no idea who you were or whether the soothing presence I felt was even real.My entire being screamed for you across the whispered inches that separated us then, and it hasn’t shut up since.”

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