Page 25 of Archangel

That’s when I realized I had bared my teeth and tensed to spring. At El Diablo. I cleared my throat and straightened. “Sorry.” I sat and gave him a sheepish grin. “I should say, I will protect her with my life and God help anyone who comes between me and her.”

“I’d expect nothing less. Now. Next question. What are you doing to do about little Miss Sunshine out there?”

“Who the fuck let in that skank ho in the car compensating for her personality?”

“Ah, my sweet Jezebel.” El Diablo held out a hand to his wife. She flounced to him and plopped down in his lap. “You sound displeased.” He frowned at her, but winked at me when she spoke.

“The bitch is flirting with anything with a dick. Which, I could care less about. What I do mind is how she keeps asking for El Diablo. President of this club.”

“Me?”

“Oh, yes. Apparently, she wants to be the woman of the president because everyone else is beneath her.”

El Diablo gave me a look. “I think I’m beginning to see why you forgot her so completely.”

I shrugged. “Apparently, it was a defense mechanism. As to my plan, Shotgun is going through everything he can find. Given Eden had about as good an encounter with Gloria as you did, Jezebel, she’ll help him. He’s doing the divorce as well as redirecting my payment deposits. Once that’s done, he’s looking into her life and the man she was in a relationship with until recently.”

“How long does Shotgun think that’s gonna take?” Jezebel obviously wasn’t liking where this was going. The woman had good instincts.

“Not sure. Several hours at minimum, but I’m sure he’ll want a little more time than that. She can be confined to a room in the club whores’ wing. Lock her in. Give her food and some clean clothes. Though from the looks of her, I’m sure she’d bitch about anything we gave her.”

Jezebel huffed out a laugh. “Do you honestly care?”

I grinned. “Not in the least.”

There was a chime and a buzz as both El Diablo and Jezebel got messages. Jezebel pulled hers out and read the message before handing it to her husband. Neither of them gave anything away with their expression. I checked my phone in case I’d missed the thing buzzing. If Shotgun had sent out a club message, I needed to check. Nothing.

“Everything OK?” I asked, looking from El Diablo to his woman and back.

“Yep.” Jezebel gave me a friendly smile that made me entirely too uneasy. “Just got a couple of things to take care of.” She stood, then leaned down to kiss her husband. “I’ll start working on this now and meet you later tonight. I’m sure she’ll need all this sooner rather than later.”

“This is your forte, my dear. Spare no expense. Funding your good deeds is my forte.” He grinned at Jezebel and she gave him a merry laugh before kissing him once more, then hurrying out of the office, closing the door behind her.

Chapter Eleven

Sonya

I didn’t make it the first twelve hours waiting on Archangel. Me and Linnie and Bella had pizza and beer until we were stuffed, then passed out for a couple of hours. They left right at dark at my insistence.

“There’s no use you guys staying here when you could be at home in your own bed. I’ll have Ripper send me the bill because I think I want to chill here for another day.”

“Stay as long as you like. You know your dad won’t mind.”

“I just want to be away from both clubs for a few hours so I can think without everyone wanting to know what happened. That’ll come soon enough. I need to have time to process.”

“You sure you don’t want one of us to stay with you, Sonya?” Bella gripped my hand in hers. “I don’t mind.”

“I appreciate it, Bella, but I’m good. Really. Besides, you guys have work to do.” We all three burst into giggles again.

“God, I’m full,” Linnie groaned. “Got Lock and Poison headed here with a cage. One will drive my car home and the other will take us home. He might have brought someone with them to get Bella’s car too, but I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “Someone’ll get it for her.”

“You guys are the best,” I said again. “I know I said it before, but I mean it.”

“You feel better?” Bella gave me a hopeful look.

I thought about my answer before nodding. “Yeah. I actually do feel better. I also realize you were right, Bella.”

“Oh?” Her eyes widened in surprise. “Er, I mean, of course, I’m right. But what was I right about this time?”

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