Page 6 of Archangel

“I’ll pass on to Thorn and Doc instructions to spank their kids more often. All right?” I could tell Rycks was amused, but I wasn’t feeling it. Much.

“You do that. Call and talk to him. When Thorn asked me to take this on, the man was furious.”

“Furious?” For the first time, Sonya looked less than confident. I looked over my shoulder to see she had a sliver of worry in her expression. I probably liked it too much.

“Nervous now?” I raised an eyebrow at her. Hopefully, the scope of her transgressions was finally dawning on her. “Think you finally pushed your daddy too far?”

“Why are you so fucking pissy, Archangel? I didn’t do anything to you.” Oh, she was angry. She was also worried and lashing out. Anger was a classic response in someone who was such a force of personality, especially when someone she cared about was upset with her. Good. She needed to understand what she was facing as the consequences of her actions.

“I already told you. I got called out only to be told half my day is about to be gone and I’m being expected to sacrifice the other half -- and God only knows how many more days –- bringing a stubborn wild child to heel.”

She snorted. “Well, good fucking luck with that, hot shot. Besides, I’m not the one who called you outta bed and away from your fucking beauty sleep.”

Rycks, the fucking bastard, outright guffawed. “I think maybe I understand now why you’re such an ugly bastard, Angel.”

“You’re not helping, Rycks.”

“Not trying to.” The bastard was still grinning, not to mention looking entirely too smug.

We were interrupted when Mechanic pulled up in the requested side-by-side. “Someone call for a ride?” His grin was wide and all too knowing. What the fuck was up with everyone having so much fun at my expense?

“I’ll take a ride back to Salvation’s Bane.” Sonya braced herself on my back and pushed up, looking back at Mechanic.

I swatted her butt again. “Keep it up. You’re about to write a check your ass can’t handle.”

“I swear to God, Archangel. You smack me one more time, when I get down -- and Iwillget down -- me and you are gonna come to blows.”

“You know better than to throw down that shit, Sonya.” Rycks leaned over to look at the annoying woman. “He’s just gonna spank your ass again.”

It was my turn to laugh, only I sounded almost sinister. Or coulda sounded like I was turned on beyond belief. I was really hoping it was the former. “That ain’t a spankin’,” I drawled. “Trust me when I tell you she doesn’t want a real spankin’.”

I knew she was only going to continue to be a brat until she got her way. Right now, all she knew was she didn’t want to go with me. Once we got to our destination and I gave her her own space, she’d settle. For a while anyway. Remainder of the day, we rested. Tomorrow, we talked.

Rycks helped me get her into the passenger’s seat in the side-by-side. I stalked around the other side of the vehicle to hop into the driver’s seat.

“Where are you taking me?” Sonya glared at me while she adjusted her seat belt.

“The Oasis. It’ll help you calm the fuck down.”

“Oh no, you didn’t!”

I flashed her a cocky smirk, a look that said I was in charge and found her attempts to pretend she was in charge amusing. “Yeah. I did. Get used to it, little girl.”

Sonya did something unexpected then. Instead of getting even more angry or threatening me or even physically striking out at me, she gave me an assessing look. “Hmm. Might be time to see what you’re really made of, Archangel.”

“Always up for a challenge. Just be prepared to deal with the consequences of anything you start.”

I’d meant to threaten her, but she didn’t look at all intimidated. “I always am.”

Something about the way she looked at me and the grave way she spoke told me Sonya was, indeed, prepared to accept whatever happened from the bomb blast she was about to create. And I had a feeling the fallout was going to be nothing short of nuclear. There was every possibility neither of us would survive.

Chapter Three

Sonya

If I dood it, I gets a whippin…

I remember watching an old cartoon where a “wascally wabbit” was contemplating doing something he knew would get him into trouble. I now knew exactly how the poor rabbit felt because I was in the same situation. And I was going to resist just as hard as the rabbit did. Which was to say, not very Goddamned much.

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