Page 37 of Angel

A glance down at the rope burns on her wrists gave her a shiver. She’d nearly forgotten about the Taser burn at the small of her back but the throbbing returned now that she was thinking about it.

However, there was something that she’d never done with a man that she had always wanted to. It would mean so much if Cage was her first. She didn’t have any worries about him turning her down, since he’d offered this himself the night before.

She took his hand. “Sleep here tonight?”

He nodded. “What about Bree? If she needs you in the middle of the night, I can always go to the couch.”

There was a slight sting in her eyes as she tried to hold back tears. She really needed her hormones to quit acting like she was still pregnant. “Thank you.”

Cage leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

Other than to get clothes each day, Cage did not spend time in his clubhouse apartment over the next week. He did eventually have to return to work. Despite what he told Angel, he couldn’t abandon his crew or put so much on his foreman unexpectedly. However, Cage and Angel started trading off who took Bree to work with them.

Three days after the attack, Angel reopened her studio. She insisted on it. Bree’s therapist, Juliana, even came to the studio to ensure Bree handled returning there well. The three adults watched nervously as Bree rolled herself through the front door. She stopped and stared at the place where Angel had first been attacked. Then, without a word, she wheeled herself back into Patrick’s workroom.

Cage had spent the day prior removing all the hanging light fixtures and puttying up the holes in the brick. Patrick had also stopped by and helped to clean up the glass and materials.

Bree had entered the room in complete silence. She sat there and stared at the wall where Angel had been held captive for about twenty minutes.

Then she rolled herself out and asked where they were getting lunch.

Juliana said that Bree’s reaction was odd but good. She was facing her fears, but they could expect an increase in her nightmares.

Cage had offered to take Bree with him to the construction yard, so she wasn’t forced to remain in the tattoo studio longer. Angel had agreed and been grateful for his offer. Which was how the two of them had started a routine of trading Bree back and forth between them throughout the day. They only had two more weeks until she started high school.

Bree didn’t seem to mind. She was still studying the workbooks Harper had given her to ensure she was at roughly the same level as her fellow sophomores. Each time Angel and Cage traded her between them, she would laugh and say she felt like the weekend child of divorced parents. While ‘divorce’ was not a word that Cage wanted to think about in regard to Angel and himself, he liked how happy Bree got when she said the word ‘parents’.

Cage continued to spend the night at their house. He’d kept up his promise and went to the couch on the nights that Bree wanted to sleep with Angel. He had no desire to ever sleep in his lonely apartment again and swore that the couch was more comfortable than his bed.

He knew that Angel had finished her period. He’d been hoping that she would initiate sex after she was finished, but she didn’t. They continued to make out like teenagers every chance they got and Angel even gave him a fantastic blowjob one morning to make up for kicking him out of her bed the night before. No sex, though. As much as Cage claimed he was fine with it—and he was because he’d never push her into having sex—he couldn’t help but wonder if something else was going on.

The Pythons had not been back to Mount Grove since the day of Angel’s attack. Both the police, the VDMC members and prospects, as well as half the town were on the lookout for them or a strange vehicle. As soon as word of Angel’s attack had spread, their small community had banded around her like a hive of bees protecting their queen. Cage didn’t even think Angel realized how many people knew or cared about her until this week. People who had never stepped foot in the tattoo shop before now stopped by daily to check on Angel or Bree.

Kelly, the waitress at the diner, offered Bree free apple pie for life after hearing how she’d saved the day. Tony, the owner of the town’s pizzeria, told Bree she had free breadsticks anytime she wanted them. Mabel, who owned Loafin’ Around and Deputy Danny’s mom, offered her unlimited cupcakes.

Though Cage wasn’t happy about it, eventually Angel, Juliana, and Cage sat with Bree to inform her that the man she’d shot had died.

Bree hadn’t cried. “He deserved to die,” had been her exact words. Harsh, coming from a fifteen-year-old, but none of the adults could find it in them to argue with her.

She had expressed concerns that she would go to jail for killing the man.

To soothe her fears about being arrested, Carlos had stopped by Angel’s house. He, Zoe, and Zoe’s son Kyle had been staying with Bulldog and Abby until a more accurate threat level regarding the Pythons could be determined. Carlos had taken Bree out onto the back porch and had a long talk with her about how the law worked regarding self-defense and intent.

Keys had done his magic and had taken all of the Pythons’ money. Cage had no idea how any of that worked. The fact that Keys had done it so easily made him worry about his own money sitting in ones and zeros on a bank server and wondered if perhaps he shouldn’t pull some of it for safe keeping.

Based on reports from Keys, Ghost, Ivy, and Ranger—the latter three had been spending a good deal of their time spying on the Pythons’ clubhouse—the patched members did not know that their money was missing. King, however, was in a rage. He had not replaced his VP after his brother’s murder and was seen mostly with his SAA, Fang.

Ivy was staying in the clubhouse in one of the empty rooms. While VDMC members had the option of claiming a room, the ones who had homes tended to give up their room. Angel had, as had Bear, Lucky, and Bulldog. Jumper kept his, as did Pirate, because both wanted a place to stay if their apartment was compromised or they were too tired to get there. Grumpy, Steel, and Scar were the only members who had never taken an apartment. Grumpy had purchased a house in town when he’d moved to Mount Grove and Steel had taken the only house on the property when the club had purchased the land. Though a former member and no longer eligible to take an apartment, Scar had never claimed one. No one, not even Bulldog, knew where Scar lived or had lived.

Tensions were high while the Via Daemonia waited to see what the Pythons’ next move would be. Cage hated waiting. He hated that King was still alive and walking around. He understood the tactic of being defensive, but damn did he wish Steel would order them on the offensive. Taking King’s money was not enough for Cage. While there was no proof, there was no doubt in Cage’s mind that King had ordered Angel’s attack.

No one had forgotten about the Pythons’ prospect or Scar’s gift that Ivy had delivered. Ivy was, for the most part, spending her time with Ghost and Ranger spying on the Pythons. Cage hadn’t seen much of her around the clubhouse and, from what he heard from the others, had been following all of the rules Steel had put in place for her. There was a rumor going around that Ivy had taken a Honey, mostly Ginger, to her bed each night.

Starbucks was still soothing his bruised ego from when Ivy had turned him down after he offered to join them for the night. Star had offered to purchase a beer for Ivy and, while looking Sara up and down, Ivy told him she only accepted beers from sexy as fuck women…which he was not.

Bulldog had gone down to visit the prospect each day. He questioned him about King, the Pythons, and any future plans he knew of. Keys had found out the kid’s name was Sam Carome. He was barely eighteen, a high school dropout, and his mother died of an overdose when he was six. While there was no mention of a father on his birth certificate, Keys was able compare his DNA with those of the Pythons’ on file and got a match. Sam was Venom’s son and King’s nephew. Venom was the former VP of the Black Pythons who had been murdered in another member’s attempted coup to become VP.

Once this information came to light, the Via Daemonia were obviously torn about what to do with Sam. He couldn’t go free. Misguided or not, young or not, Sam had participated in what would have been an unspeakable crime had Bree not acted as she had.

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