Page 3 of Baking and Angels

Now, he had his doubts.

But I also helped save her life,he reminded himself.

Yet, it didn’t count, did it? He did that for Helena’s sake.

Cindy owed him nothing.

“I’m going to call her,” Helena decided while he was thinking all this, standing with urgent, sharp movements. “Where’s my phone?” That brought her up short. “Oh, crap. I left it at the table at the venue. I don’t have alandline.”

“Helena,” he croaked out. He reached his hand out for her again. “Don’t be afraid.”

She took it and kissed the back of his knuckles, then set them against her cheek. “I’m going to take care of you, Raffie. No matter what happens,”she vowed.

Then Fate tested that pledge.

The doorbell rang.

Chapter 2

The Earthly Authorities

Showed Up

Helena’s shoulders stiffened as she walked toward the door. Skittering energy seemed to spike up and down her limbs. Rafferty’s own mouth felt like sandpaper as he forced himself up, his legs more stable now, following her to the swinging door that separated her kitchen from the rest of her house. He had it held open, only a crack since he was still naked, but it was enough to see all the way tothe front.

His beloved lifted up onto her toes to look out the window at the top, but she didn’t seem reassured by what she saw.

“Oh, no,” she breathed, then shot a glance at him. Whoever it was, it was bad, which meant he needed to put pants on to face it. She seemed to mutter something, but he couldn’t hear it anymore. When he had been a demon, he could have heard her whisper halfway across the world. The reminder of his lack of powers ratcheted up his anxietyeven more.

Turning away, he let the door fall softly shut so he could grab up the clothes she had left him. He heard the frontdoor open.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her voice as neutral as possible if distant, muffled through the kitchen door.

Changing his mind by an overwhelming urgency to see, he went back to the door with an unzipped fly to silently press it open again.

Two women entered. Both wore professional peacoats over suits. His heartbeat kicked up a notch as one of the women held up a badge on a chain around her neck. The other woman opened a wallet to flash her credentials.

What if it was Vassago in disguise, come to get another snack?

“Hello, my name is Agent Archon. I work for the BDI, and we are investigating an incident of demon summoning that you might be connected to. Do you have a few minutes for some questions?”

Rafferty’s brain went completely blank. The BDI? He had no idea what that acronym stood for. What he did know was they were clearly the Earthly authorities, they had found his beloved Helena, and whatever they were going to do to her was allhis fault.

Helena didn’t answer Agent Archon’s question, her gaze shifting from the badge to each woman’s face.

The agents, of course, noted it. “First off, Ms. Rhodes, are you aware of the events that took place last night at Wrightwood Ballroom between the time of midnight and 1:30 a.m.?”

While the first agent asked the question, the other agent lifted up a device in her hands, studying itsreadings.

Helena stood there, her mouth opening and closing. She clearly had no idea what to say. Agent Archon read her nonanswer with calculating eyes. “Ms. Rhodes, may I ask where you were last night during that time?”

“I was… at Wrightwood Ballroom,” Helena said in a small voice.

“So you were present last night?” Agent Archon confirmed. “And did you see and/or speak to Ms. Scarlet Kovacs during that time?”

Helena closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against them as if that would help her not see it, not relive those final moments before they had fallen through hell.

“Ms. Rhodes,” Agent Archon said gently, coaxing, “you saw something, didn’t you? Something happened to Mr. Yosef Cantor, didn’t it?”

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