Page 10 of Demon's Angel

I shrug. “Up to you.” My indifference seems to unnerve her. Behind me, Thunder chooses not to introduce himself. Her eyes flick to him warily before coming back. As I watch her I can’t help but take in she’s become a beautiful woman.

It won’t be the first time what’s on the outside covers a rotten core.

“Dave.” A look at my set features makes her correct herself. “Demon. Look, let me go. I don’t know why you’ve brought me here, but I’d like to leave. You and I have nothing to say to each other.”

She’s standing in the middle of the room. I distance myself further, moving to a workbench and leaning against it, my arms folded. “Where’s Theo?” I ask, lazily, as if I really couldn’t give a damn. As I expect she doesn’t.

A quick flash of emotion crosses her face, which is rapidly squashed. “Safe,” she replies quickly, her gaze looking from one to the other of us, as if trying to work out what we know.

“You sure about that?” I ask, keeping my incredulity hidden.

A pause, then a firm reply, “Yes.”

My fingers clench into fists, and I don’t miss the warning shake of Hellfire’s head. Mace and Thunder, even though they’d not been party to our discussion and know little more than she’d abandoned the baby, look like they are feeling about the same as I. Momentarily I loosen my hands before my fingers find my palms again, a sign that I’m taking the lead.

“You think that giving a baby to a stranger in a shopping mall is a good way to keep him safe?” I ask, almost holding my breath. This is her chance to deny it. Her chance to tell me it was only for a few moments, then she would be going back. That the woman she’d handed him to was a friend.

Her shoulders slump. A small sob, which I don’t believe for one moment, comes out of her mouth, then she admits it when she offers by way of explanation, “He’ll be safer with a stranger than with me.”

As I’m at a complete loss for words, Hellfire steps in to fill the void, his voice patient, kind. Fatherly.“You thought you couldn’t look after him? Were a danger to him perhaps?”

“No, no. I’ve never hurt him. Never.” Her voice, quiet until now, becomes forceful. “I just couldn’t protect him if I kept him with me.”

Hell sends me another look and moves closer to her. “This isn’t what I remember you being like as a little girl, Violet. You were the one who came running that time your brother found an injured critter and you thought he was just going to leave it in the barn. I remember driving you and the boys to the animal sanctuary, as you wanted to make sure it was healed and given a home. You were five years old, and I remember it clearly. That girl would never leave a baby alone.” He pauses. I recall the story. Hell, I lived it. I’d been there. But twenty years is a long time. Who can measure an adult by what they were like as a child? “Violet, have you been unwell since Theo was born? It affects many mothers. You shouldn’t be ashamed if you need help. It’s there if you want to reach out and take it.”

As Violet turns her blue eyes on him, I see from my position that the light has gone out of them. The prospect had been right. They look dead. “I’m in my right mind, Mr… er, Hellfire. I knew what I was doing, and why I was doing it. I had no choice. It was all I could do. I did the right thing.”

I can stay silent no longer. Stepping up, I push Hell out of the way and get right up into her face.

“In what universe is abandoning a kid the right thing to do? Tell me that, Violet. What can ever make that right? What do you know of the woman you handed him to? How can giving him to a stranger keep him safe? What the fuck were you thinkin’? What fuckin’ planet are you on, woman?”

Her eyes go wide, her cheeks two patches of red. Her mouth opens, then shuts. I wait for a justification that there’s no way I’ll be able to accept. After a moment, I see her hands curl into fists, see her start shaking, but this time, it’s with anger, not fear. When I’m that close, I feel spittle land on my face, as she shouts, “On the planet where I was fuckin’ raped.”

I can’t. I just can’t.

As I stand gaping, Hellfire and Mace grab hold of my arms and back me out of the room. I make no resistance, words flying around my head. Images slamming into me.

“You got him?”

“Yeah, Mace. You go keep an eye on the girl. I’ll talk to him, okay?” My father’s reassuring voice gives the enforcer his instructions while I seem unable to react to anything.

I’m pliant as Hell leads me up the stairs and into my office. Knowing exactly where I keep it—in the same place as he used to—he takes down the whisky and fills two glasses, then pushes one across to me.

“Drink.”

My hand cradles the glass, but I make no move to lift it. I stare into the smoky depths for a moment before raising my eyes.

“She was raped, Hell. Nathan told me to look after her. She was fucking raped.”

That’s the first thing I need to get my head around, that I let her down. But the next? Christ, I can’t see my way to be easy with what’s spinning in my brain.

I spit it out, “She hates the child as it was a result of a rape.”

“Not the words that she used.” Hell gazes intently at my face.

“She said he wasn’t safe with her.”

Hell nods, having to admit, “She implied that.”

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