Page 11 of The Sinner's Touch

“Kade!”

Angel’s terrified voice pulled him from the past and set his feet to running. He found her in the bedroom, her back to him. She was shaking. He moved into the room, right behind her, and he saw what had her so upset.

A single white rose lay on the bed with a handwritten note that said, “Soon.”

CHAPTER FIVE

“Don’t touch anything.”

Kade’s warning echoed in her mind as she stared at the flower on her bed. He’d been here. In her apartment. How had he gotten in? Had she left the door unlocked or maybe one of the windows? There was a fire escape right outside her bedroom window. She’d never worried about that before, but now she was already calculating how much money it would take to move. To a place without a fire escape. Where it would be harder for someone to break into her apartment. Maybe someplace with security.

Being a bartender paid well, but she paid her monthly bills as well as her school tuition out of it. There wasn’t a lot left over. It was nothing compared to what she used to make as a stripper. Or an exotic dancer, as the girls tended to call it these days. A spade was a spade. She wasn’t ashamed of it. It had paid for her move here and her brother’s funeral expenses.

Boston was her new start. She left the old persona of Angelique and her memories behind her and became simply Angel. A woman, a student, and more than a little lost. She learned to tend bar her first year in Boston and had gotten a job at Pops’ when the bar she worked at closed. Working there hadbeen the best thing that happened to her. She learned to depend on herself, to deal with her grief, and to count on people who always had her back. The people there were more like family than simply a crew that staffed the place.

And now she’d put them all in danger. That thought tormented her. Especially Jessie. If Angel had just gone inside and ignored the trash, none of this would be happening. Jessie would be home safe and sound instead of waiting for police protection.

Kade’s fingertips brushed her arm, and she yelped, startled. She knew it was him, but she couldn’t stop the little squeak of fright. A serial killer had been in her apartment. She deserved some slack tonight.

“Hey, it’s just me.” His soft voice sent shivers down her spine that had nothing to do with fear. “I called Bailey, and he’s heading over with a forensic team.”

“He was in here, Kade. Touching my things, doing God knows what.”

“I know, Angel. It’s going to be okay.”

As much as she wanted to believe him, she didn’t. This man ranked right up there with the Boston Strangler. It was all her customers could talk about. He was smart, cunning, and the police couldn’t catch him. Hell, the FBI’s best serial killer specialists couldn’t find him. She wasn’t holding her breath on everything turning out okay.

She closed her eyes and tried to calm down before the building hysteria could take over. Now was not the time to have a breakdown. She had to stay sharp, focused, if she wanted to survive this.

“You’re not staying here anymore, Angel.” Kade’s authoritative tone snapped her out of her self-pity better than any pep talk she gave herself.

“Of course I am. It’s my home, Kade. Where else am I going to go?”

“I called my brother. He owns an apartment in a building with security tighter than anything we could provide you. Nik said it was okay for me to move you there.”

Nikoli Kincaid. She knew him well. The boy had started coming into her bar before he was old enough to order drinks. She’d also known exactly who he was. Kade had pictures of all his brothers. The fact he’d had no clue who she was when they met only served to strengthen her resolve to forget Kade. All she ever was to him was a means to an end.

“He wasn’t too keen on loaning me the apartment until I told him it was for you. He’s a fan.”

“He’s a good kid.”

“You do know he’s my brother, then.” The accusation in his tone stiffened her spine.

“I remembered him from the photos you showed me. Why?”

“You never told him we knew each other.”

“No, Kade. I didn’t. Why would I? You walked away from me and never bothered to tell your family about your wife. Why would I say anything to him? What was I supposed to say, anyway? ‘Hey, guess what. I’m your brother’s ex fake wife.’ Uh, no. I moved here to forget about you and everything else. Telling him would have only brought up questions best left unanswered.”

His lips thinned the tiniest bit, but she didn’t care.

“And what do you mean, our marriage is legal? You were pretending to be someone else when we met.”

He sighed. “When I entered the police academy, I was recruited within the first week and pulled out. All traces of my being there were erased. They thought it would work better for me if I was simply me. My parents have ties to Russia, which on the surface could entice several drug lords. It was easier to be thereal me, so when I married you, Angel, it was with my own legal name. That was real. I just forgot to have it annulled.” He cocked his head, thinking. “Well, I don’t think that would have worked, anyway. We did consummate the marriage. We would need to file for divorce.”

He forgot to file for an annulment? She was so unimportant to him that he forgot all about her? A fresh wave of pain hit, but she pushed it down with the anger simmering under the surface.

“What would you have done if I were married? Huh?”

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