Nate felt like hell. He hadn’t taken the pain medications the doctor gave him because he didn’t want to be drugged up if Angel needed him. They were at Benny’s now, waiting for Cade, who had called and said he was landing within the hour, and Marcus, who Billy had gone to pick up.
“Hey, Mickey, give me a beer and a shot, will you?”
Angel raised an eyebrow. She looked cute when she did that, but Nate was pretty sure he didn’t want to hear what she was going to say. “You really shouldn’t drink with the pain meds.”
“I didn’t take any.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to be drugged up. It doesn’t hurt that bad,” he lied. He got shot once in the back with a BB gun when he was twelve. He thought there was nothing that could ever hurt worse than that had when the ER doctor dug out the little pellet, but this hurt ten times worse. Maybe twenty.
Before Angel could argue further, Mickey set a beer and a shot down in front of Nate. He looked at Angel and said, “I don’t know this one.”
“Angel, this is my Uncle Mickey. This is Sadie’s father—you know Sadie, who just got married to my friend Marcus.” Mickey and Angel greeted each other and Nate said, “They should be here any minute. I’ll bet you miss Sadie.” Mickey shrugged. Nate and anyone else that knew him knew he wasn’t a demonstrative person, but they also knew that he loved his daughter more than life itself.
“That crazy Billy Joe went to pick them up. No telling if they’ll make it back alive,” Mickey said with a roll of his eyes. “What the hell went on over at Wanda’s this morning? Old Colt came in here and wanted me to make him breakfast because he said Wanda was busy with a swarm of police and that they took you out in an ambulance. I tried to get Billy Joe to tell me what happened but he wasn’t talking, which for him is suspicious.”
Nate and Angel had to talk with the local police as well. The sheriff had already been filled in by the FBI agent Angel called about the killer, but they had a lot of questions about what happened at the B&B that morning and Nate had to turn over his gun while they did their investigation.
“Angel?” Nate was relieved about the interruption at first. Mickey liked nothing more than gossip. He was glad Billy hadn’t given him any information. But when he looked up and saw how the man that said Angel’s name was looking at her, he changed his mind.
“Agent Sullivan,” Angel said with a smile. Nate found that he didn’t like that either. When she told him the FBI agent was meeting them at Benny’s, he’d been somewhat relieved to know they’d have some back-up in town to help them with this case. Judging by the way the killer appeared and disappeared, he wasn’t going to be easy to catch. But something about the way the big guy with the weird golden brown eyes was looking at Angel told him this was more than just another case to him. “This is Nate Colvin.”
The agent finally took his eyes off Angel and turned to greet Nate. “Hello, Mr. Colvin. I heard about your injury, I hope it’s not too severe.”
“Nah, it’ll be okay,” Nate said.
“Agent Sullivan, have a seat,” Angel said. She moved over and the big man sat down next to her. He gave her another soft look that Nate didn’t care for before looking back at Nate.
“Good job on getting a shot at this bastard. We’ve been chasing him for five years and that’s the closest anyone has gotten. Hopefully his DNA is in the database and we can finally get this SOB.” Nate nodded at him and Agent Sullivan turned to Angel and said, “I’ll probably be in town for a week or so unless we get lucky and find this bastard before then. We’ll work on getting you a place set up back in LA—”
“Wait, what? You’re just assuming she wants to go back to LA. Have you asked her?” Nate jumped in before Angel had a chance to respond. She was looking at him with surprise and a small smirk on her face. “I’m sorry,” he said, feeling a little hot. “Not my business.” He looked back at the FBI agent, who was now looking at him the way Nate had probably looked at the agent when he first realized how the man felt about Angel.
“It’s okay,” Angel told him. She looked at Agent Sullivan and said, “Nate’s right. You really should have asked me. I’m sorry, but this is why I felt the need to leave in the first place. I can’t stand being hovered over all the time and told what I can and can’t do and where I can and can’t go. I’m also over LA. I just can’t stand being in a place with so many people any longer.”
Nate almost felt sorry for the FBI agent. He looked crushed. It took him a minute before he finally said, “Understandable. We can find you a place anywhere you like and I’ll have the guys watching you keep a lower profile…”
“John...” John? Nate had to fight to keep his eyebrow from rising on that one. He wondered just how close the two of them had been in LA. “You’re not hearing me. I don’t want to be watched any longer. I don’t want to be ‘set up’ anywhere. I want my life back.”
“Angel, I’m sorry but you have to know this man is not going away until he gets what he wants, which is you…”
“Dead. I get it. Nate and his team are going to keep an eye on me for a while.”
The agent turned his attention back to Nate. “I’m not sure you know what you’re getting into here. This man has brutally murdered six women over the past…”
“Six?” Angel interrupted. “It’s only five.”
The agent looked reluctant but he said, “Another body was found last week. It was in an advanced state of decomposition, but it was female and after we ID’d her we discovered that she fit the profile perfectly. We think she was his first victim, which means he likely started earlier than we thought he did. She wasn’t discovered right away because that alleyway had been closed down due to a big sinkhole that broke out right after a rain storm several years ago. They put a big cyclone fence up around it with barbed wire on top to keep anyone from climbing in there and getting trapped in the hole. The city had so many repairs to do that they only recently began work on it again. The workers found the body in the old rusted garbage bin.”
“Oh my God,” Angel said, her voice almost in a whisper.
“So please forgive me,” the agent went on to say to Nick, “But I’m not sure that your…team is equipped to handle this.”
“We won’t be tracking the serial killer,” Nate said. “That’s your job. We’ll just be making sure that Angel is safe.”
“She’s a material witness in this case. The only witness,” Agent Sullivan said firmly. “So protecting her is our job as well.”
“Only if she chooses to have you protect her.”
“Angel,” the agent said, seeming to tire of arguing with Nate. “Please. This is your life we’re talking about.”
“Yes it is, John. It’s my life. I know you’re only trying to do what’s best for me, but I feel like if I stay under lock and key 24/7 like I was in LA that he may as well have just killed me that night for all the life I have. I want to stay here and find a job and start a new life.”
“Here? In Blossom Hill?” Nate blurted that out loud before he realized it.
She nodded. “Yeah. My original plan was San Antonio, but I like it here. And as far as the killer is concerned…” She turned back toward Agent Sullivan. “Don’t you think looking for him in this small town will be easier than looking for him in a city with a population of over three million people?”
“We have a lot more resources in LA.”
“I think the lady has answered the question more than once. She doesn’t want to go back to LA. I can assure you that my team is well-trained and more than capable of keeping her safe,” Nate said. He knew he sounded like a jealous ass, but this guy was pissing him off.
“That we are,” Cade’s voice suddenly cut into the conversation. Nate couldn’t recall being happier to see anyone in his life.
“You are?” Agent Sullivan looked up at the big man standing at the edge of the table.
“Cade Travers,” Cade said, holding out his hand.
“Special Agent John Sullivan, FBI.”
“Pleasure,” Cade nodded, sliding into the booth next to Nate. “How’s the arm?”
“Great,” Nate lied again. It was throbbing painfully and he just wanted to chop the whole thing off.
“And I take it you’re Angel?” Cade turned his attention to her.
Angel nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Travers.”
Cade shook her hand. “No one calls me ‘Mr.’ anything. Cade is fine.” He gave her a brief smile before turning back to the FBI agent and saying, “I just caught the tail end of that conversation, but I can assure you that my team is made up of some of the best men in this state. We’ll make sure that Ms…”
“Masters,” Angel interjected.
“We’ll make sure Ms. Masters is well protected,” Cade finished. Before anyone could say anything, Mickey was at the table with Cade’s usual beer and shot.
“Shoulda known all hell would break loose if you went outta town,” he told Cade with a grin as he set the drinks down in front of him.
“I tell you, Mickey, they should just elect my ass mayor.”
Mickey laughed. “You got my vote.” He looked at Agent Sullivan then. “Can I get you something?”
“Ginger ale,” the big man said. Nate refrained from rolling his eyes as he took a gulp of his beer. He could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face. The pain was getting harder to bear. It was burning like fire.
Once Mickey was gone the agent said, “I can’t force Ms. Masters—” Nate didn’t miss that it had suddenly gone from “Angel” to “Ms. Masters “—to let us protect her. But I will ask you this: I expect that we’ll be called as soon as you see or hear anything that might be pertinent to this case. I welcome your input, but in the end this is my case and I won’t have you getting in the way.”
Nate saw the muscles in Cade’s jaws flex, but his tone was even and his expression neutral as he told the agent, “You got it.”
Agent Sullivan looked at Angel again as he said, “I need to get over to the bed and breakfast. You have my number if you need anything. Mr. Travers, here’s my card.” He handed Cade a card and stood up. His strange-looking eyes were still on Angel. It took him what Nate thought was a really long time to finally turn away. When he did, he looked at Nate and said, “I hope you heal quickly.” Nate gave him a nod and they all watched him leave in silence. Once he was gone Cade turned to Angel.
“I need to know everything, start to finish. The first thing we need to understand is how this man found you here. Without your phone or a financial trail he shouldn’t have been able to find you. Is there any way he was following you all the way?”
“I don’t think he was following me because he didn’t even know where I was when I left. The safe house was very well hidden and well protected. I didn’t throw out my phone until I was in Arizona,” she said, “so maybe he tracked me that far by GPS. After that, I just don’t know.”
“Where’s your car?”
“At Tate’s,” she responded.
He looked at Nate. “Did you check it for tracking devices?”
“No,” Nate said, shaking his head. “At the time I dug it out and we took it to Tate, I wasn’t aware of any of this. Everything’s happened pretty quickly since then.”
“That’s okay, we’ll take care of that.” Cade went on to ask questions about her bank account and where she’d pulled out her money and if she had any credit cards that she’d been using. By the time he finished, Billy, Marcus, and Nate’s cousin Sadie were there. Marcus and Sadie both seemed sweet and didn’t hesitate about Angel staying in Marcus’s home when Cade asked them. They were all throwing around ideas about tracking the serial killer when she realized that Nate seemed to be fading quickly. His forehead was covered in sweat and his eyes had that glazed look to them again. He was pale too. She knew he had to be in pain, whether he was willing to admit it or not.
“Maybe I should get Nate somewhere he can lie down?” She posed the statement as a question, but in her head she’d already decided that she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Cade, Marcus, and Billy looked at him at the same time.
“I’m okay,” Nate said weakly.
“Marcus, can you take them up?” Cade asked him.
“Absolutely, my pickup is here.”
“I’m really okay.”
“Give him a gun?” Cade said.
“For sure,” Marcus said with a curt nod.
“Can anyone hear me talking?” Nate asked.
Angel smiled as Cade went on to say, “Make sure the radio’s working. Billy, did you get them some food?”
“I already have food,” Marcus said.
“You have pinecones and tree bark,” Billy said. “I got ‘em real food, beer and even wine and tea for the lady. Jesus, I hope Sadie’s going to do your shopping from now on.”
Marcus rolled his eyes and looked at Nate. “You ready?”
“Oh, now you want my opinion?”
“Any sign of anything suspicious, radio me,” Cade said. “I’ll be there in five minutes. Show Angel how to use the radio.”
Nate looked like he gave up trying to get them to hear him. He simply nodded and said, “Okay. You ready, Angel?”
“Yes, I’m ready. I just wanted to tell you all thank you. I really appreciate this. As soon as I get back to work I want to pay you your usual rate so please keep track of all of this.”
She got the feeling from the look on Billy’s face that she’d never be able to afford their usual rate, but the rest of them had neutral expressions as Cade said, “Of course. But for now, no worries. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.” Angel didn’t know if it was the guys or being out of Los Angeles and in a smaller, quieter place, but she actually felt safe even after everything that happened that morning. She smiled and thanked Cade again, and after Marcus told Sadie he was leaving, she helped Nate out to Marcus’s truck. The only uneasy feeling she had at that moment was the idea of being completely alone with Nate in a cabin in the mountains. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. It was herself that she was worried about.