Chapter Three

Something was off. I knew it before I even got to her block. I couldn’t feel her near me anymore. The heavy sensation I feel in my chest when she’s not close was in full force. Like an elephant sitting on my chest, not allowing me to fully catch my breath until I at least see her. Though it doesn’t fully go away until I press my skin to hers.

When I got to her apartment to walk her to work like the gentleman I am, I saw her car there, which is normal. The piece of shit Nova is on its last leg, and there is no parking at her work, so it makes sense why she leaves it. I’ll need to buy her a new car soon, though, something nice. I think she would like something red.

From there, I climbed up the fire escape to her balcony and let myself into her apartment. The bathroom was in disarray, just how she always leaves it when she sleeps in a little too much. She wasn’t supposed to meet with Gabrielle today. The last time they texted was two days ago about getting together on Saturday. I only have her text messages wired to come directly to me, but maybe I need to set up another tap so I can get her phone calls too. Dominic is more of the tech wizard in that aspect, and asking him for help with something as important as this is too risky. I’ll figure it out.

With the most likely places of her whereabouts crossed off the list, I went straight to Hooked Sinker. I flipped up my hood, acted like I was texting, and walked past the dive bar. The window gave me only half a second view of my angel behind the bar, but it was enough to allow oxygen to fill my lungs for the first time since I left her this morning.

Nodding to myself, I move across the street, taking up residence at my spot in the alley across from the bar. It gives me just enough visualization to watch through the window without being noticed. She’s not ready to meet officially just yet. I need more time with her first.

My phone suddenly begins buzzing in my hand, and I can’t help but groan before answering it.

“What could you possibly need now?”

“Where are you? We were having a discussion. You went to the bathroom, and now you’re gone.”

I shake my head as I pull out a cigarette, putting it between my lips before pulling out a lighter.

“Oh, did I forget to say goodbye?”

“Knock off the attitude, Zayden. What are you up to? Have you been prospecting without me? Do you know how dangerous that is? You don’t think, you just kill. You have to be smarter than that, or you’re gonna get us both locked up.”

I roll my eyes at that as I take a large inhale of my cigarette.

“I’m not prospecting a job.”

The phone goes quiet for a few seconds before he speaks again. “What are you up to then?”

I stay silent as I watch my angel smile at a man in his late forties. She hands him a beer, and he gives her a wink in return. My jaw clenches so tight that my molars begin to crack under the pressure. I feel the familiar rage begin to tingle every nerve ending in my body. These men shouldn’t even be looking at my angel, let alone winking at her. I memorize everything I can about him, so it’ll be all the easier to hunt him down later and pluck his eyes straight from his fucking head.

“Zayden?” Dominic asks.

“Watching over an angel,” I snap before ending the call and turning my phone off.

She needs to get the fuck out of that place. I won’t allow it anymore. She can finish her shift tonight, but after this, she is fucking done.

I’m flickingthe blade of my favorite knife open and closed when the back door of the bar opens and my angel steps out, headphones on as usual, as she makes her way to her apartment. I pull out my phone, tapping into hers with ease before the familiar sound of Frank Sinatra rings through my ears. I love watching the way her hips sway to the beat, like the old music physically moves her.

I’m a good hundred feet away from her on the other side of the street, but she wouldn’t notice if I was right on her as she practically dances her way home. The way her body moves so freely has my cock hardening to a pipe. I’m always hard when she’s around, and the way her lips feel against the head of my cock is like touching fucking heaven.

I can’t lay in bed beside her and not get turned on. I usually just rub it out as I rest my head against her neck, but a darker side got the better of me the other night. I rubbed myself against her lips for just a moment. I hoped she’d wake up. I hoped she’d taste me and see how perfect we are together, how destined we are. Unfortunately, she didn’t. Doesn’t mean I didn’t come into my hand in front of her face so hard I blacked out.

For a moment, I’m so lost in the memory of her, her scent, her skin, that I don’t see where he comes from. There is a man walking behind her, a sinister smile on his face and dirty clothes on his body. The look he has as his eyes rake over her sends white-hot anger searing through me. He’s too close to her, and I’m too far away.

Darting through a few parked cars, I sprint to the other side of the road. My feet are quick but light, barely making a single sound. It’s an art to be mastered when you are as large as I am, but it’s one I’ve perfected.

He’s practically twenty feet from her, and my heart is pounding with fury as I close the final steps between us and slip my arm around his neck. My hand covers his mouth to muffle his screams, though I know my angel plays her music entirely too loud to hear regardless.

Taking my knife from my pocket, I flick it open before plunging it into his side, right into the kidney. Even through my hand, his scream is piercing. He reaches for the knife, gripping the handle, but I smack his hand away as I pull my knife from his fingers and push him to the ground. I jump on top of him and begin letting out my wrath on this worthless waste of life. He was going to touch her, hurt her. He’ll never even get the chance to set eyes on her again.

I grip the sides of his face, digging my thumbs into his eye sockets until I hear a loud pop in each, and his screams fill up the night air. My eyes flick forward to see my angel crossing the street, completely unaware of the scene behind her as she makes her way to the front of her apartment building. Good. I wouldn’t want her to set those unique beauties on someone as unsightly as this man.

“Freeze! Hands where I can see them!” a voice shouts from over my shoulder.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I have two choices at this moment. I could grab my knife, turn, and have it lodged in the cop’s jugular in less than two seconds, but based on the sound of the passenger door opening, I’d say he has a partner with him who will no doubt get a few bullets into me before I can get to them, and honestly, I still walk with a slight limp since the last time I was shot.

My second choice is to play victim until Dominic can get a crooked enough judge to get me out of no doubt an attempted murder charge. I don’t like that one at all, but it seems to be the only one that gets me back to my angel the fastest, so I’ll make it work.

I quickly slide into character, leaping away from the scum as I scramble across the ground and hold my hands up shakily.

“P-please, help,” I stutter. “H-he attacked me. Tried to stab me with his k-knife.”

The cop holding me at gunpoint pauses for a moment, his eyebrows dipping as his mind tries to catch up with the curveball I just threw him.

“Looked like you were the threat, not him,” he says, still holding that gun on me as he looks at the other guy.

I look to his partner to see a hardened judgment in his eye as he too holds out his gun. My mind starts racing with a plan to get out of here when another cruiser pulls up and two more cops get out. Fuck. Looks like my angel will have to sleep on her own tonight.

When they slap the cool metal handcuffs onto me, my eyes flick up to the second window to the left on the third story. The light flicks on in the same moment, and a small sense of ease settles that she’s safe, at least for tonight.

I’ll see you soon, angel.