Page 4 of Damned By His Angel
“You just said you haven’t seen her!” I snap.
“Oh, did I?”
I narrow my eyes. “What the fuck are you playing at old man?” I snarl.
“Take that soup and head on home, boy, I’ll finish Brady off for you.”
“Why the fuck would I do that?” I snarl as I toss my sandwich on the table.
“Because she asked for you by name.” I reel back but make sure to keep the shock from splaying over my face. My guard is up now, I knew people would figure out that I left Artemis and come after me to get at my brother but I never thought they would find me here. “She didn’t ask where the Angel Of Death lives, she asked if Beth knew where Cronos Argyros lays his head each night.” My nostrils flare, all the townspeople aside from Bill and Beth call me the Angel Of Death. I hate the fucking name but it beats them knowing my real name. Bill knows who I really am and why I am here. He chose to keep my secret, which goes a long way in me trusting him, his wife Beth even calls me Nos sometimes.
“Was she alone?”
Bill nods as I stand to leave but his words have me halting. “I sent her to your house.”
“Why?”
“She don’t look like a woman who is here to kill you.”
“How would you know the difference?” I snap.
“Because they wouldn’t send a woman who is scared of her own fucking shadow and sporting bruises to kill someone like you, boy.”
I bounce in the seat of my old beat up pickup truck as I drive along the gravel road that leads to my cabin, my gun resting on my lap. I’m poised and ready to strike. I stop the truck in front of my house and kill the engine as I climb out with my gun in hand and spin around taking in my surroundings. It’s so quiet out here that I would be able to hear a gun cocking from a distance. I slowly turn in a circle scanning the trees and listening to the birds, they are my first line of defense out here. Animals are great at alerting you to something that doesn’t belong, they hate their resting place being disturbed.
I pause at the sight of a shadow on the ground, whoever the fuck this woman is she isn’t very smart hiding behind a fucking tree!
“You got three fucking seconds to show yourself before I start spraying led,” I shout. “Three… Two…” The words die on my tongue when she steps out from the cover of the tree. My face falls and my mouth parts in surprise at the sight of her. My heart begins to pump harder in my chest, like it’s trying to jump out of me to burrow itself inside hers!
“Hey, Grizz,” she says nervously as she wrings her hands in front of her, she looks like a train wreck. I run my gaze over her and fight the frown from taking over my face at the sight of her rumpled clothes and the way her hair looks like it hasn’t been washed in days. Her eyes have dark rings under them and she looks utterly terrified. The longer it takes for me to say something, the more nervous she becomes and it’s a strange sight to see. I’ve never seen her like this. She is always so sure of herself and her every move yet, here she stands, looking like she might bolt if a bird chirped too loudly.
When she takes a step toward me, I instinctively take one back without thought, forcing her to stop her advance. Hurt flickers in her green eyes but I can’t bring myself to care because she hurt me too!
“Grizz–”
I cut her off before she can continue. “How did you find me?”
She drops her gaze to the ground. “You told me when you sent me that… letter.” I grind my teeth in annoyance. In a moment of weakness six weeks after I moved here, I sent her a fucking letter. I went old school and sent her snail mail but I never gave her my address. “The stamp on the envelope, I remembered,” she mutters.
“Why are you here?” I grit out as I push my gun into my waistband and cross my arms over my chest. She slowly lifts her gaze to me and the sight of her tears has me tensing.
“I need your help,” she says so quietly I would have missed it if I wasn’t paying such close attention.
“That's what your father is for, Amelia.” She flinches at my cold tone. I know I should stop but the words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them. “I’m just a thug for hire like them, remember?” Her bottom lip trembles, she tugs her small cardigan around her body tighter and nods.
“Yeah. You’re right,” she says bitterly and moves closer. I tense in preparation, waiting for her to bust a move but she stills a few steps away and now that she is closer I see the pain and fear in her eyes. “It was good to see you, Grizz,” she chokes out as more tears fall. I remain strong and watch her as she leaves. This time it’s not me walking away from her and it feels almost like Deja vu.
Standing here watching her walk away from me is stirring feelings I thought I had long since buried but it turns out, I still fucking care about her and I hate her for making me feel again. A whole year I have been good, fine, existing and doing everyday things like normal people. I built my own normal and made a life here, an honest fucking life. A life I am proud of. I don’t have millions sitting in my account like my brother, he still sends me and the triplets money every fucking month but I don’t want it.
Artemis has always been the father we never had but I’m not his problem or his child, I’m his twin. It isn’t his job to look after me or shelter me from the world. I know I’m fucked up and different but I’m good with that. I don’t need anyone, I’m happy being on my own. The moment Amelia disappears from my sight, anguish spurs inside me and I loathe myself for letting the past resurface.
“Motherfucker!” I roar so loud that the birds take flight from the trees to escape me.
Amelia
This is my heartless era, being the big-hearted girl got me nowhere!
That’s what I told myself on the bus ride here. I thought if I said it enough, I would start to believe it but it turns out two seconds of being in Cronos’s presence and that shit flew out the fucking window. He has never been cold or angry toward me before, and I knew coming here to him would be hard but it’s not like I could go crawling back to my family after I preached for years that I didn’t need them. I bury my face in my hands and force my tears to remain at bay. The last thing I need to do is cry in the middle of this diner in front of these people who have been eyeing me weirdly since I walked in here this morning.