Page 200 of Avenging Angel

And now I wished I hadn’t dragged my girls to that place with me.

* * *

I wasin a bad mood for obvious reasons when I let myself into my apartment after dropping off the girls.

The only good thing was that I saw Cap’s Porsche in a visitor spot (I mean,seriously, how did he always score those?), which meant, when he told me what he was doing shouldn’t take long, he wasn’t blowing sunshine, and now, he was safe home.

At least that was something.

I walked into my place to see the light on over the stove, which wasn’t a lot of illumination.

Even so, I saw Cap sitting on the couch.

Patches was curled up beside him, but they weren’t cuddling and waiting for me.

No.

Cap had his long arms spread across the back of the couch, his legs open in a seriously aggressive manspread, and I could feel his eyes burning into me like lasers.

“Where have you been?” he asked in that ominous quiet voice of his.

Considering this seemed to be a dicey situation, and I tardily realized I should have left a note or shot him a text, I came in and put my burner, keys and the pictures of the women on the coffee table, before I shared, “After you left, I had an idea and rallied the girls to go look into it.”

“And you didn’t take your phone?”

“Clarice told us?—”

“Fuck Clarice,” he clipped. “Always take your fucking phone.”

I stood in front of him like a naughty schoolgirl, and not the fun, role-playing kind.

And I didn’t like it.

Right.

Considering what happened the last time we had words, I suggested, “I think we both need to breathe a little before any more is said.”

“This is me, Rachel,breathing. If I wasn’tbreathing, I’d be in your space, shouting in your face.”

“Cap—”

“I came home at two in the morning, and I didn’t know where you fucking were.”

Eek!

I copped to it immediately. “I should have left a note.”

“You should have left a noteandtaken your phone.”

“I don’t think Clarice wants?—”

“I don’t give a fuck what Clarice wants, Raye.” He dipped his head to the coffee table. “Do you have my number in that burner?”

“No.”

“So you get in a situation, how are you gonna contact me?”

“I’ve memorized it.” And I had, for just that occurrence (and, obviously, because he was my guy).

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