SHE FELL ASLEEP IN my arms.
A half hour later, when her breathing was slow and even, and I knew she would not wake back up, I let myself fall asleep.
Dawn came and went, and she slept curled against my side like she was always meant to be there. Painfully throbbing to take her, I remained still. I had meant what I had said to her. I would not release until I was inside her.
Preoccupied with thinking about all the ways I wanted to take her, and her body’s response to my touch last night, too late I heard the tires on the gravel. Chiding myself for not catching the vehicle’s approach before it had gotten to the gate, I hastily got up and accidently woke her.
Stirring, she opened her eyes. “Good morning.” She watched me pull on my pants, then my T-shirt. “Where are you going?”
Sleep rough and seductive, her voice tempted me to return to bed. Instead, I leaned over and kissed her. “Someone is at the gate. I will be back. Stay.”
I was not expecting danger. Luna had assured me on the plane, after she had fallen asleep, that we were not followed out of Mexico. With the head of their organization dead, he had said whoever stepped in to replace him would be more concerned with logistics than revenge. I only believed him because there was no loyalty in crime. But to be safe, I stepped into my boots and grabbed one of my rifles from the rack on the wall.
Fear instantly dissolved her content expression as she took in my gun. “Who is it?”
Seeing the look in her eyes, I vowed to install an electronic security system with video surveillance as soon as possible. “You are safe.” I would make sure of it. “I do not know who it is, but there is only one vehicle.” Higher pitched, lighter sounding, it was not the mail delivery truck. I was guessing a sedan.
“Where you expecting anyone? Does anyone come out here?” Panic pitched her voice.
“No and no.” I did not want to cause her more alarm, but I would not lie to her. “Stay. I will be back shortly.”
She grabbed my wrist. “Don’t go out there.”
Pausing, I cupped her face. “Someone with malicious intent would not approach the front gate in a vehicle midmorning.” I heard one car door, then a second and third, open and close. “Regardless, I will not let anything happen to you. Wait for me here.”
She nodded, and I took my leave.
My quarters were set back and around a stand of oaks that afforded some privacy from the front gate, but I could still see the vehicle through the trees and the figures standing at the gate.
It was her family.
I slung my rifle strap across my shoulder and strode toward the gate.
Theodore saw me first.
“Where is she?” he demanded. “She isn’t at her apartment.”
My voice calm, I unlocked the gate. “Emily will not be staying there anymore.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Theodore eyed my gun. “And what the hell do you have that for?”
I spared him a glance. “There are wild animals on the property.” I did not owe him an explanation, and he did not deserve one. Angel’s story was hers to tell if she chose. I nodded at her mother. “She is fine. She is resting.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Thank you, but I would like to see my daughter.”
“You can’t just keep her here, locked up,” Theodore bit out. “That’s illegal.”
My patience at an end with him, I ignored his comment and his other stepdaughter cowering behind him with a basket in her arms. Focusing on her mother, I kept my voice even. “If you would like to visit, there are tables to sit at in the main building.” I indicated the last building standing on the property besides my quarters. “I will let her know you are here.” Before I could turn to go, I heard her come up behind me.
“I’m not here against my will, Ted.”
“Emily!” Her mother burst into tears and ran around me.
I turned as her mother grabbed her in a tight hug and my angel flinched. I did not know if it was from the contact or her injuries, and I did not care.
I gripped her mother’s arm and issued a warning. “Careful.”
The woman’s eyes went wide and her mouth opened in a perfect O like her daughter’s. “Oh my God, Emily.” She let go of her daughter, and her hand covered her mouth as she took in her bruised face. “You’re hurt.”
“Let go of Marie,” Theodore barked.
I had already dropped my hand. “Tell your wife not to jostle her.”
“This isn’t the damn dark ages, son,” Theodore reprimanded. “You don’t tell a woman what to do.”
“I am not your son.”
“Stop.” Emily threw a hand up toward her stepfather. “Stop it, Ted. Just… stop.” She shuffled a foot forward in her shoes she had called flip-flops and gingerly hugged her mother. “I’m good, Mom, really. I’m just tired, a little bruised, and I have a lot to do. My purse was stolen, and I need to get a new phone, but I’ll call you once I do, okay?”
“We can take you home. You can rest there. You don’t want to be out here all alone,” the mother pleaded.
“Mom, I’m not alone. I’m—”
I stepped in, putting my arm around Angel’s shoulders. “She is not going back to her apartment, Mrs. Anders.” I held her mother’s shocked gaze. “She is staying here with me.”
Three sets of eyes stared at us.
Angel shifted under the scrutiny, but she did not deny it.
Theodore’s hands fisted and his nostrils flared. Eyes wide, the mother looked between us, but it was the sister who spoke.
Stepping forward, the sister thrust the basket she was holding toward her sister. “Here, you’ll need this. Sustenance,” she explained before glancing up at me. “If you hurt her, I will ruin you.” Looking back at her sister, guilt clouded her expression. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” A tear slid down her cheek. “It was my fault you were taken. I shouldn’t have left you. I hope one day you can forgive me. And for whatever it’s worth, I totally would’ve fallen for him to.” Without waiting for a response, she walked back to the car and got in.
Holding the basket in one hand, my angel slid her free arm around my waist. “Mom, I’ll call you when I get a new phone.”
The mother burst into tears.
Taking his wife under his arm, Theodore glared at me. “If she’s smart, she’ll leave you before this goes any further.” He turned and led his wife back to the car, putting her in the front passenger seat. Ten seconds later, the car’s tires were spitting out gravel behind them as I closed the gate.
“Well.” Angel exhaled. “That was… something.”
I did not comment. I had expected nothing less.
She looked past the main hall to the foundation I had already set for the house. “Is that the house you’re building?”
“Yes.”
“It looks big.” Her tone was even, emotionless.
“Three thousand square feet.”
“Mm-hmm….” She bit her lip then released it. “So that’s like what? A couple bedrooms?”
“Four.” I studied her for a reaction.
She only nodded. “And that building?” She tipped her chin toward the main hall.
“That was the main hall. It will come down once the house is built. For now, it has a kitchen in it.”
She held the basket closer to her body. “You eat in there?”
“Occasionally.”
She frowned. “Will we eat in there?”
“We can eat wherever you prefer. There is an outside table behind my quarters.”
She looked up at me. “Are we making a mistake?”
I did not hesitate. “No.”
She nodded. “Okay, good. I didn’t think so, but….” She looked down at the closed basket, then rapid-fire thoughts tumbled out of her mouth. “I think Phoebe gave us banana muffins. Smells like banana muffins. It’s the only thing she knows how to make. Well, that and cocktails, but it’s a little early for that, and anyway, that would be insensitive. And shitty. And more than bitchy. But banana muffins are good. They’re kinda my favorite. Which makes it really hard to be mad at her, because she makes killer banana muffins. They usually have chocolate chips. The small ones, not the big overwhelming ones.” Looking more lost than she had when she’d come off the ship, she glanced up at me. “So, are you hungry? Do you want to eat outside?”
I brushed my thumb over the fading bruise on her cheek. I could not take away what had happened to her, but I could take care of her now. “I will install an electronic security system with video surveillance. I will replace your phone, and I will get you proper footwear. The construction on the house will take me a few more months, but in the meantime, I will make sure you are comfortable. Do you have any other immediate needs?”
She blinked, twice. Then she frowned. “How much money do you have?”
I eased the line between her eyebrows with my finger. “More than enough for five lifetimes. What do you need?”
Her throat moved with a swallow. “The house—will it have a pool, the screened-in kind? And a paved walkway from the driveway to the front door and grass all around, because there’s a lot of dirt here, and I’m not sure I like dirt, and now it’s between my toes.” She looked down at her feet then back up at me. “I wasn’t prepared for that. It feels a little early in the day to already be so dirty?” Her expression that of an unsure child, her last statement came as a question.
I stroked her cheek. “Pool, paved walkways, grass—consider it done.”
“Okay.” She briefly closed her eyes and leaned into my caress, but then her eyes opened and she looked back up at me. “And a screened-in pool?” she asked, her face innocent, her expression pure.
I fought a smile. “Yes, screened-in pool.” I brushed her hair behind her ear. “Anything else?”
“Maybe before the house is built, we can get a TV… or even an iPad? With Netflix? And a coffee maker, like the kind that takes those little coffee pods? And that’s it. I swear, that’s all I need.”
“No television in the bedroom.” I wrapped her smooth hair around my fist. “You will not need it.”
Heat flamed her cheeks. “Oh.”
“I do not know what the other things are, but we can get them.”
Biting her bottom lip, leaning into my hold, she nodded once. “Okay.”
I tugged just enough on her hair then released the strands. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” Her shoulders squared and she sucked in a sharp breath. “Never, ever, ever leave me. Unless something really bad happens, but tell me first. Don’t just walk out like my father walked out on my mother.”
“I would never do that to you.” I kissed her forehead. “And I am never going to leave you.”
Her shoulders released the tension they were carrying, but her expression did not change. “Okay, now you. Tell me what you want.”
I took her face in my hand. “I want you to marry me.”