Page 3 of His Virgin Angel

“It’s okay, Brian,” she said, turning to the boy as he began to whimper. It was then he noticed the boy also had some bruising, and Jack didn’t like it. Pushing his way into the apartment, Jack saw everything. The apartment was so small. Only two bedrooms. Piper was clearly sleeping in the same room as her little brother.

“If my mom and boyfriend find you here they’re going to go insane.”

“Is the boyfriend the one that gave you the black eye?” he asked.

“Yes.” The little boy spoke up first. “He hits us when we don’t behave. We naughty kids. Idiots. Stupid.”

“Sh, Brian, stop.”

Jack had heard enough. Dialing Drake’s number on his cell phone, he ordered the man upstairs. Moving into the kids’ bedroom, he didn’t see anything worth taking, so herding the two out of the apartment building and toward his car wasn’t a hardship.

“Are you going to hurt us?” Piper asked.

“No. I’m not going to hurt you.”

He didn’t know what he was going to do with them, but hurting wasn’t one of them. Drake glanced back at him in the mirror, and he saw the confusion on his driver’s face. This girl and this boy meant nothing to him. But seeing the bruises covering them, he didn’t like it. Jack’s stomach twisted.

“I don’t understand. How did you find me?” Piper asked.

Jack handed her the book back. She took it from him, and he noticed her hands were shaking. “When you have a name you can find anyone.”

“My book.”

“I’m going to take care of you now.”

“You are?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“You didn’t know me that day, but you still stopped to talk to me. Consider this payment for when I needed you, and I didn’t even know it.”

In the back of his mind he’d remembered the girl that had risked her very life to make him smile. It was the first time anyone had ever done that for him, and in doing so, Piper had secured her future for life. He was intrigued by her gentleness, charmed by her age, and now angered by the asshole who had put the bruises on her face. They would pay. Jack didn’t expect anything in return, but he made a vow to always be able to look into her eyes, and see the smile shining back at him.

“Now, tell me more about your mother and her boyfriend.”

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