Page 86 of Angel

Steel finally looked up. “Bring me Veronica Banks.”

Scar nodded once—and Angel had to wonder how Scar even knew who Veronica Banks was. Scar turned and walked away, vanishing into the trees.

Ivy watched Scar leave but made no move to follow.

Angel raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going with him?”

Ivy shrugged, “Eh. He can handle a soccer mom. Besides, it gets boring when you’re the only one who will answer your own conversation starters.”

Bulldog let out a sound that resembled a snort.

Steel kicked the body on the ground. “Let’s pick up the trash and get going.”

The rabbit Ghost and Ranger had caught joined Nathan Moore in the cellar. The club learned nothing that they didn’t already know or guess. Veronica Banks had pleaded with Pastor Robins to save her son’s soul. She believed that his lifestyle would doom him to an eternity in Hell and she wanted to save him.

As a parent, Angel could understand the woman’s fears…to a point. She certainly did not understand or condone the woman’s behavior.

They did learn, though, that it was Bree who sliced the man’s patellar ligament. Bree had lost her knife, but Angel was pretty sure she was about to receive a new one from each of her uncles. There wasn’t a single one of them that wasn’t proud of Bree for her actions.

Aaron still felt guilty and claimed he was the reason Bree and Ollie had gotten hurt. No one blamed him. Even Steel. Aaron had tried apologizing to Steel and Jenna for having endangered Ollie, but both of them blew off his apology.

“It’s not your fault,” Jenna told him gently.

Steel had a slightly different approach. “You protected my son. I’ll be forever grateful to you for that. But you break his heart? You disrespect him in any way? And the punishment I have in store for you will make you pray for death…”

Aaron was now so nervous about his date next Friday that he flinched whenever someone brought it up to him.

Ivy had taken back the room she’d used previously like she’d never left. Steel wasn’t sure exactly what to do with her. With the Pythons in Pittsburgh gone and the AC Pythons going after the 3Ts, Ivy’s mission to shut down the drug pipeline that had killed her sister was done. King’s body had washed up on the beach by the AC Boardwalk with two bullet wounds in the back of his head. No one had seen hide nor hair of Fang and assumed the 3Ts or the AC Pythons would catch up with him soon.

Ivy seemed more upset about the absence of the Honeys in the clubhouse than she was about King being executed. “Why the hell would you take away all the free pussy? It was the only good thing about this place!” she whined loudly. Thankfully no kids were around to overhear the complaint.

At their house, Aaron and Cage had the closet gutted and were working on adding the necessary plumbing. Bree even pitched in by handing them tools as they asked for them.

“Are you guys going after my mom?”

Angel had been standing in the hallway by Bree’s chair unashamedly watching her man working shirtless when Aaron asked his tentative question.

Cage paused, his eyes finding Angel’s. This was a difficult topic. The club was owed justice for what the teens had been put through, but the culprit wasn’t a stranger this time. Like with Harper, it was a parent.

Lucky had not liked that the sheriff had lived after how he’d treated Harper and his complacency in his son Richard’s actions. However, the club had let the sheriff live because the man’s guilt was the worst punishment they could think of for him. More than pain or torture, Ronald Hannigan would live for the rest of his life knowing that his daughter did not trust him and that his wife blamed him for their son’s death. He had to look his grandsons in the eyes and know that his inaction was the reason they no longer had a father.

Lucky had killed her brother. He wouldn’t take her father from her too.

Veronica’s situation was different because, as far as Cage could tell, she did not feel guilty. She believed wholeheartedly that she’d done the righteous thing.

Angel knew that Cage didn’t want to lie to his son, but what Veronica had coming to her was club business. Hell, Bree didn’t even know that Nathan Moore was suffering a nine-hundred and ninety-six-day penance of daily torture beneath the clubhouse.

Truthfully, Angel didn’t have any advice for Cage. She didn’t know how she would answer if their roles were reversed. She glanced at Bree to see her daughter watching Cage carefully, like she was looking for the lie.

“You’re old enough to know right from wrong, Aaron. Your mom did a very bad thing and she needs to pay for what she did. She not only endangered your life, but also Ollie’s and Bree’s.”

Aaron nodded slowly. “I know that. I just… I’m not sure I want her to die because of it.”

Cage’s eyes flicked to Angel and then back. “What makes you think she would die because of it?”

Aaron and Bree both scoffed. Then Aaron answered, “That man, Scar, killed the man who had been chasing us because Bree told him that he hurt Ollie. Why would I expect anything less when it comes to my mom?”

“We don’t hurt women and children,” Cage stated sternly.

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