Page 79 of Angel's Flight

“Is that legal?”Armand scoffed and Shaya glared at him.“Of course.They wouldn’t care.”

“They followed my letter to Geneva and found Erik that way, I think,” Shaya confessed.“His other letter never reached me.This was sent as insurance.He must have suspected, but that means his enemies know Erik is in London.”

London

Bidaut’s name hunglike a curse in the air.He had found them.The how didn’t matter, though Erik could guess at it.What mattered more was the consequences they were facing right now.

“So your friend was following me,” Erik mused.He hated it when his paranoia was correct.

“Burt thinks he’s so smart,” this new rogue declared.“Tried to throw you off going after that biddy, but you had to make it complicated and go thieving.I told him to let ol’ John take care of it.”

“I don’t think it counts to steal from another thief,” Erik intoned.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Christine’s brow furrow as she tried to translate.Her English was improving but John’s cockney accent and slang were no doubt baffling.Even so, she looked as furious as Erik felt.

“Don’t matter.I want my reward, and I’ll take it any way I have to,” John spat.

Erik weighed his options.John would be easy to subdue in a fight, easier than Burt had been, considering his inebriated state.Erik very much wanted to make this fool suffer, but their friends were watching.Adèle knew what kind of monster Erik was, but Howard and Letitia didn’t know the ugliness that lurked in his soul or his face.He didn’t want them to see any of that and he didn’t want to disappoint Christine more than he already had, yet his hands still itched to give this man back his friend’s knife by plunging it into his throat.That was not the thought of a good man.

As if sensing the murderous intent rising in him, Christine pulled Erik back an inch.“Give him what he wants and let him go,” she whispered, shaking her head in disgust.“He’s not worth it.”

Howard came up behind the man, clapping a hand on John’s shoulder.“I think it’s time you leave, sir.”

The man shrugged Howard off roughly, fixing Erik with a glare.“Not until I get what I want.Or I run to tell where you are as fast as I can.”

“Hasn’t your friend already done that?”Erik asked back.That was the rub, wasn’t it?They might contain this man’s threat, but others awaited.Erik had been so sloppy...“Maybe I want you to give Bidaut a message for me.Tell him I won’t be as merciful with him if he tries to find me again.”

“Erik, no,” Christine hissed.“Just let him go!”

“I’d listen to your lady,Erik,” John warned, hand twitching over his pocket.So he was armed.Damn.Erik hated this – he hated giving in when he wanted to fight, but Christine was right.His blood was worthless.

“Fine, have your friend’s little blade,” Erik sighed.He threw the knife to John, who caught it clumsily.

“Don’t forget the money,” John hissed.

“Five pounds, was it?”Erik muttered.Maybe this would buy them time.Or maybe he was getting swindled by a lout who would go running to Bidaut no matter what they did.Still, the relief on Christine’s face when Erik produced the coins was worth it.He held them out and the man approached, reeking of whiskey.“I doubt this will last you a day.”

“Oh, it will,” John said with a smile that curdled Erik’s blood.He was too close and Erik couldn’t move because Christine was holding onto his arm so tightly.“When I add that to the ten I’ll get for giving him this.”

Of all the things Erik had suspected the man to do when he lunged forward, tearing off his mask wasn’t one of them.A blow or a stab he could have endured, but not this.Not the horrible feeling of cool air against his skin or the sickened gasp someone gave when the mask clattered to the ground.

“Jesus Christ!”John screamed, eyes like saucers, the same disgust Erik had come to know for decades flooding his eyes.But it wasn’t John’s horror that hurt, it was that of the strangers Erik had sung with just hours before jumping from their seats and fleeing.It was the way Howard looked at him in utter shock, his cheeks pale and his mouth slack.The way Letitia covered her mouth to dampen her cry.The noise of despair Christine made because she knew it was over.

It was the ruin of it all.So familiar and so terrible.

“Erik!”Christine screamed, but it was too late.His hands were around John’s throat and the man was on the ground with Erik above him.“Erik, stop!”

“Did Bidaut not warn you?”Erik growled, his muscles like iron as Christine tried to pull him off the stupid, useless criminal who didn’t deserve to live.There were other hands upon him, Howard perhaps, trying to wrench him away, but Erik was too strong, too determined.Then there was a hand around his own throat forcing him to look into a face full of fury and terrible beauty.

“Erik, I order you tostop.”Christine’s voice was that of a goddess of wrath and Erik obeyed before he could even comprehend the words.It was like a flame inside him had been snuffed out, leaving only the smoking remnants of his rage as Christine pushed him away from the fray.

He kept his focus on her, on his Christine, his wife and world.There was anger in her face, and horrible disappointment, but there was also love and mercy.Or he hoped there was after he had ruined it all again.Erik stared at her as John scrambled to his feet and fled.Howard comforted his friends and kept his distance from the monster that had been revealed.

“We have to go,” Christine said, stricken and furious at the same time.“We have to run right now.”

“Where?”Erik asked back, the heat of the room hitting his face and making him desperate for his mask.“Where?Where do we go?”

Christine looked at him with such disappointment because she had been expecting him to know, hadn’t she?She had expected him to have a plan or a place all along and now he had nothing.Not even an idea.Even his apologies and pleas for forgiveness stuck in his throat.

“My flat is not far, we can go there.”

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