Page 21 of Wicked Angel

"Then let me protect her," Gaven’s response echoed from the other side of the door. "Move up the date."

"What?" my father sputtered. "It's already happening quickly. We've got everything set up and scheduled for a month out."

"Move it up," Gaven said, his voice hard, “to the end of next week.”

Shock and horror warred within me. Was he serious? Move up the wedding? How would that solve anything? Panic encroached on my mind. No. I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t yet figured out an escape plan.

"The end of next week?" my father repeated. "Are you insane? Do you even realize how expensive that will be? It'd be better if we simply held Angel here at the estate for the time being. She'll be safe under constant guard—"

"Not safe enough," Gaven interrupted with a growl. "I want her to be my wife, Raff.Now.Fuck the money. I'll pay for it."

Suddenly, I felt lightheaded.

I shoved away from the door as quietly as possible and turned, racing back up the back corridor the same way I’d come. They likely thought I was still with the doctor. They couldn’t know that he’d released me early. I still had time.

A plan began forming in my mind. If they were moving up the wedding that meant I was out of time. I couldn’t stay here and just let this happen. I had to escape. I had to get out of here.

I made it back to my room without running into anyone else, and it was a blessing. I did not doubt that if someone had come upon me with my mind in such turmoil, I wouldn’t have been able to hide the fact that I was up to something. The second the door was closed and locked behind me, I dove across the space, ripped open the closet doors, and began yanking out supplies. A duffle bag. A small bag of money I’d saved up—pocket money my father had given me that I’d never spent. It amounted to quite a lot, considering I rarely ever spent it.

Would it be enough?I worried.

Underneath the bed, I found my computer bag tucked neatly away. I pulled that out and cracked it open. For now, all I needed to do was find a suitable place to hole up while I planned the next part of my escape.

A quick search brought up a cornucopia of available places to stay. None of them were high class, but that was good. My father wouldn’t expect me to stay anywhere that he wouldn’t approve of. Then again, he certainly wouldn’t expect me to actually follow through with this plan either, but there was no other choice. I was out of options and out of time.

I selected a shady-looking business hotel that was more of a pay-by-the-hour place and scanned the address to keep it fresh in my memory. I thought about writing it down, but I couldn’t risk someone finding it before I was gone. Heart pounding in my chest, I snapped the computer shut and tucked it into the duffle bag before I began going through my clothes and picking out the least ostentatious pieces.

As for the shooter from this afternoon…my hands slowed as I folded a t-shirt and put it into the bag. It would be stupid of me to leave my family’s mansion without at least a plan to deal with them on the off chance that they came after me.

Though I hoped that with me gone, whoever was angry enough by the idea of me marrying Gaven would just fade away, I couldn’t rely on hope for survival. There was only one person I knew who could help me with that—someone who I was sure would be happy to see me go.

I finished packing and then hid my supplies in the bottom of my closet before I slipped back out of my room and headed forhers. I knocked once, twice, three times before she finally opened the door.

“What?” Jackie snapped, propping herself against the doorframe.

There was no “Oh, dear, are you alright, baby sister? I heard about what happened.” I knew she had. There was no one else in this house that knew everything about every-fucking-body save for our father and my sister. It was not lost on me that she didn’t even seem to care. Which was why she was the perfect candidate for my escape plan.

“I need your help.”

She scowled, the expression drawing lines down the sides of her face. “Fuck off.” The door swung towards me as she stepped back and I jammed my foot into its path before it could close.

“I’m leaving,” I hissed into the crack of space, leaning closer as I lowered my voice. “You want me gone, right? Then help me.”

Silence and then … the door opened again and Jackie’s face appeared, a sparkle of curiosity in her gaze. “Well, then…” She grinned, swinging the door open. “Come on in.”

I swallowed roughly as I stepped into her room and spotted the wrack of weapons hanging on her wall. It was a definitively masculine aspect to her bedroom, but I’d long since stopped wondering about the strange curiosities of my sister. To know would be to put myself in danger, and it was hard enough to live with her, knowing her inclinations with the bloody world we were born in.

When running from a monster, though, one needed to use all of the weapons in their arsenal. Jackie could be that weapon. She could tell me how to protect myself. She could tell me how to get out, and in the end, we would both get what we wanted. Me, my freedom. And her … the sole line of succession.

10

GAVEN

Adarkness was stirring within me. Something I'd always known had been there, but until that moment—the moment when Angel's life had hung in the balance—I'd never realized just how deep it ran. I’d raised myself up from nothing—little more than an errand boy to the one who cleaned up the messes of others. Recovering bodies and wiping a crime scene down to hide the disappearance of yet another enemy of whichever family I was working for at the time.

I’d seen more money in being the actual killer than cleaning up their messes. It was simple, profitable work. One bullet could garner me half a million. All I had to do was give up a soul that hardly existed in the first place, and my lack of background made it all too easy. There were no parents or siblings—no connections beyond the foster system and juvenile detention hall I’d been raised in. Killing became my business, and I was damn good at it. I’d never actually considered it evil. Just a job.

I’d made my fortune on death and destruction and had nothing to risk. Nothing that could be taken. Not until now. In the split second when I thought my prize was about to be ripped away from me, a crashing wave of rage hit me.

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