Angel Reborn, page 6
“Twenty, thirty minutes, tops. I’ll call Angie now and let her know you guys are outside. You have no idea how much better I feel knowing you’re there, Zeck. Don’t let anything happen to my little girl.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve got you. No one’s gonna get inside that house. I still can’t believe you’re a dad. I bet you’re a good one, though. Lucky girl.”
“Oh, I’m the lucky one.”
They ended their call and then Nick had me dial Angie to let her know his guys were there. He gave her Zeck’s name and had me read off the number from the call log, and he told her to call Zeck if she saw or heard anything unusual before we could get there.
He seemed much less tense, and I wondered who this man was for my husband to have so much faith in him.
“So, this Zeck guy is a friend of yours?”
“Yes.” Nick grinned. “Yes, he is. I haven’t seen him in years. But there’s no one I’d rather have watching over Sage. If I’d had any idea he was available and so close by, I would have insisted that Graeco get him. He’s damned good at what he does. One of the best.”
“How long have you known him?”
“We go way back. We met when we were both young and stupid, and we’ve gotten each other into and out of more tight spots than I can count. He’s a good guy. He’s always had my back.”
I was reminded of how little I knew about my husband’s life before we met. What history did he share with this friend I’d never heard about, and what kind of tight spots had they been in together? Based on what little I’d learned so far about the world Nick had existed in, maybe I was better off not knowing.
“We should try to clean up a little bit,” Nick said, looking over at me. “I don’t want to give Angie a heart attack, and I definitely don’t want Sage to wake up and see us like this.”
Flipping down the visor, I recoiled at my reflection in the tiny mirror. My eyes were wider than I’d ever seen them—brighter too—but wild with worry and fear. The smoky shadow and perfect cat-eye liner Cricket had applied earlier had smudged terribly, leaving me looking like a rabid raccoon at the end of three-day boozy bender.
The rooftop wind had torn apart my elegant updo, and the freed strands, still stiff with product, stood out on all sides like I was pulsing with static electricity.
But the scariest aspect of my appearance was the dried blood. The side of my neck was covered with it where it had drained from the wound in my chest as I lay dying, and somehow, there was even a smear of it across my cheek. No wonder everyone in the penthouse had stared at me with such enrapt fascination. Nick’s jacket may have covered the healing wound in my chest and the blood surrounding it, but the amount of blood on my neck and face made it clear I’d been injured more seriously than we’d let on. Even if they weren’t vampires who could scent my blood, Gwen and Graeco had to know we’d lied.
Pulling open the glove compartment, I was relieved to find a few napkins, but despite my best efforts at spitting and swiping, the blood simply smeared instead of going away completely.
“Is it not coming off?” Nick asked as I cursed.
“Not really. I need some water. My mouth is so damned dry. And what are we gonna do about your shirt? My dress is black, so it hides the stains pretty well, but that white shirt looks like evidence from a crime scene. Even if you take your jacket back, it’s still not going to cover it all.”
He glanced down at his shirt and frowned. “We could stop by the house and change. It’s on the way to Angie’s, and if we run in and run out, the detour shouldn’t take us more than ten or fifteen minutes tops. I’m sure you’d like to get out of those heels and that dress. We could get your phone, too.”
The thought of ditching the stilettos and the bloodied dress was tempting, and now that we knew Angie and Sage had bodyguards and the men following them seemed to have gone, I felt a tad less frantic about reaching them. I still wanted to get there as soon as possible, of course, but maybe we could spare ten minutes to run inside and change so we didn’t walk in looking like serial killers. Or a murder victim, in my case. Or was it attempted murder since I was still alive?
Not wanting to get lost in that train of thought, I forced my focus back to the more urgent matter. “Do you think those men in the Lincoln will come back?”
Nick ran his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends. “I don’t know. Based on the timing Angie gave us, I think they got called off when the intruders left the towers. They have to know we’d beef up security around Sage with everyone at the Gilde on high alert.”
“If they do come back, are you sure Graeco’s team can handle things? You trust this Zeck guy that much?”
“Yeah, I do, but we don’t have to stop at the house if you don’t want to. We can go straight to Angie’s and clean up there. We just have to figure out what you’re going to tell her.”
I wadded up the napkins I’d used and crammed them into the panel on the door. “I trust you, and I trust your judgment. If you think Sage is safe enough for us to stop, then let’s do it, but let’s be quick.”
“Of course.”
The past few hours had felt like I’d been transported to some alternate reality that wasn’t really my life, so when we reached our neighborhood and turned onto our street, I think I’d half expected to see piles of rubble left behind from a supernatural invasion. It was a relief to see that everything looked exactly as we’d left it hours ago.
The living room light was on at Stephanie and Wyatt’s as we passed, and I pictured Wyatt sitting in his recliner watching TV while Stephanie did crafts upstairs across the hall from where Marleigh lay asleep in her room. Oh, what I would give to have had such a mundane evening! They had no idea vampires and shifters even existed, and I envied their ignorance about the world around them.
“Let’s move quickly,” Nick said as he parked the van in our garage. “Let’s get in and out and back on the road.”
My feet were killing me, so as soon as I got out of the van, I bent to slip the stilettos off while Nick went to open the door into the laundry room.
“That’s odd,” he said as he stepped inside. “The alarm’s not on.”
A shiver of foreboding skittered across my skin. “Didn’t you set it when we left?”
“Yeah. Stay here, okay? I’m gonna take a look around.”
“What? Wait! Do you think someone’s in our house?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m gonna check things out.”
“Let’s just leave! Get back in the van, and we’ll call the cops. I don’t want you to go in there!”
“If we call the cops, we have to wait for them to arrive, and we don’t have that kind of time. It’ll be fine. Stay here.”
“Nick!”
He disappeared through the laundry room door into the kitchen, and I grabbed the nearest garden tool and went in after him.
“Nick?” I called out when I got to the kitchen and he wasn’t there.
I strained to hear over the loud pounding of my heart, and then suddenly, he appeared right in front of me.
“Dammit,” I yelled, jumping back. “Don’t do that! Why can’t you just move at a normal speed like a normal person?”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” He lifted a brow as he looked down at my makeshift weapon. “What’s with you and shovels tonight?”
“Geez, I dunno. Somehow I keep finding myself in situations where I need a weapon and a shovel is the only thing available. Is the coast clear?”
“I think so. I was in the middle of checking when you called out, so I rushed back here.”
“And scared the crap out of me.”
“Again, sorry. Hey, did you happen to check the front door before we went out?”
“No, but I locked it when Cricket left after doing my hair and make-up.”
His eyes narrowed, and he frowned. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I specifically remember because I never wear red polish on my nails, and I was thinking how nice my manicure looked when I turned the deadbolt. Why?”
He huffed out a frustrated sigh as his frown deepened. “Because it’s unlocked now. You didn’t go in or out that way after you locked it?”
“No.” My skin prickled with unease. “You came in the garage right after she left, and then we both went out through the garage. Do you think someone broke in?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you sure you set the alarm?”
Strumming his fingers on the counter, he stared toward the laundry room and the alarm panel. “Yeah.”
“Why didn’t it trigger if someone got in? And how did it turn off?”
“Both excellent questions. I’m gonna take a look upstairs. Stay here. For real, this time. Unless I tell you to run, and then you haul ass out of here.”
“I’m not leaving without you,” I said, but with his ability to move freakishly fast, he’d already left the room.
While I waited, I checked the pantry, which was where I’d found a home intruder last time, and then I moved to check the French doors leading out to the deck, relieved to find them locked.
I stopped and listened for Nick’s progress upstairs, but he moved so stealthily I couldn’t hear him at all until he came walking back into the kitchen, at a normal speed this time.
“All clear,” he said, but he still looked worried.
I wanted to feel relieved, but there were too many unanswered questions.
“What the hell? Does it look like anything’s missing?” Propping the shovel against the cabinet, I opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, finally able to address the terrible thirst I’d had since I regained consciousness.
“No,” he said as I guzzled down the entire bottle and grabbed another. “But we don’t have time to deal with this right now. We need to get to Sage. I think we should pack a bag and stay at Angie’s tonight, just to be on the safe side until we have a better idea of what went down here.”
“Sure.” It felt as if no place was safe, but as long as I could have my family all under one roof, I didn’t care where we stayed.
As we went up the stairs, Nick said, “I’m gonna get some guys over here to do a full sweep. I want them to check for fingerprints and inspect the place to make sure there’s nothing we need to be concerned about.”
“You mean other than people trying to kill us, strange men following our daughter, and someone breaking into our house?”
“Yeah, but I was thinking microphones, cameras, booby traps.”
“Oh.” This was so not my normal life. “Right.”
Nick shed his tuxedo shirt and pants the minute we walked into our room, but I didn’t feel comfortable stripping down. I couldn’t shake the thought of someone being in our house. And even if they were no longer here, Nick had planted the notion that they might be listening to us. Watching us.
My stomach growled, and I let out a cautious burp. I’d drunk too much water too quickly, and it felt like it was going to come back up.
Moving to the sink in our bathroom, I splashed my face and then wet a bath cloth. Lathering it with cleaner, I began to wash away the make-up and dried blood. The whole time, I kept looking in the mirror at the room behind me, expecting to see someone pop up out of nowhere.
“Where’s your phone?” Nick asked as he finished tossing a set of clothes into an overnight bag.
“I left it connected to the charger over on my nightstand.”
Once my skin was scrubbed clean, I pulled the last of the pins from my hair and reached for my brush, but it wasn’t on the counter where I normally kept it. Thinking maybe Cricket had put it somewhere when she was doing my hair earlier, I searched the cabinets and drawers of the vanity, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Have you seen my brush?” I asked Nick as I stepped inside the closet and flipped off the light to remove the bloodstained gown in the dark, still weirded out by the thought of cameras.
I pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and then turned the light back on and grabbed another pair of jeans and a shirt to put on in the morning.
Exiting the closet, I went to the dresser to get my pajamas, and then I shoved my clothes into the bag with Nick’s. “Babe, did you hear me? I can’t find my brush, so I’m borrowing yours.”
I grabbed his brush and tossed it in the bag, and then I turned to look at him.
He was standing next to my nightstand, frowning down at my phone as he slid his finger across the screen.
“Babe?” I said again, wondering why he wasn’t answering me. “What’s going on?”
“I’m looking at the alarm app, and it says the alarm was deactivated remotely just before the front door opened. Then it shows the front door opening again a few minutes later, but the alarm was never re-activated. Someone was definitely in this house, and I don’t know how, but they had access to our alarm.”
Eight
Aria
I was stunned, frightened, and seriously about to puke, but Nick jumped into motion.
“Have you got whatever you need for tonight?” He tossed my phone and the charger cord into the overnight bag and zipped it shut. “I’m gonna grab some things for Sage and then we gotta get out of here.”
“But who was in our house? And how did they turn off our alarm?”
“I don’t know. Where are your shoes? Get your shoes.”
I was rooted in place. “What the hell is happening? Why are they doing this to us?”
He grabbed a pair of sneakers from the closet and socks from the dresser, and then he knelt to guide my feet into them as I held onto his shoulder for stability.
“I’ll have a team here tomorrow to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb,” he said. “We’ll be safe tonight at Angie’s with Zeck’s team on duty, and then in the morning, I’ll figure out a more long-term solution.”
“What do you mean, long-term?”
Somehow, I hadn’t thought past tonight. I’d been so focused on first getting off the roof and then getting to Sage that I’d never considered that the danger we were in would be ongoing. My mind revolted against that reality.
He stood and I took a step back, needing space to process what I was only just realizing.
“I don’t want a long-term solution, Nick. I want this to stop. Now. Tonight. This is not our life. This is not how we live. This is not how I want Sage to live.”
“I know. I’m going to find the people responsible and put an end to this.”
“But how long will that take? And what do we do in the meantime? Your family’s compound has more security than a damned prison, and these people breezed right past it. All we have is a little home security system—one they can turn off whenever they want, evidently.”
“Then, we’ll change our system. Upgrade it. I’ll get someone out here tomorrow.”
“Upgrade to what? They got past retinal scanners and armed guards.” I began to pace the bedroom, throwing my hands up in frustration. “Even if we can somehow turn our house into a fortress, what good will that do us when we’re someplace else? The Vardiyati could be anywhere. How do we keep Sage safe? We can’t just lock her up and never let her go outside.”
“We’ll do whatever we have to. I’ll hire a full-time security detail.”
“Bodyguards? You want to send bodyguards with her everywhere she goes? How do we explain that to a six-year-old? Are they gonna go to class with her? To dance lessons? And how does she do either of those without endangering the other kids? Hell, we put Angie at risk tonight because she took Sage out for dinner and ice cream.”
He buried both hands in his hair and swore. “Look, I don’t have all the answers right now, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll do whatever it takes. I won’t let you or Sage be harmed. And that’s not me boasting or tempting fate. That’s me stating a fact. I will find whoever is behind all this and put an end to the threat. And until I do, yes, we may need to curtail some activities or have her be escorted, but it won’t be forever.”
“Won’t it? You yourself said your family has enemies. If you’re taking over the Gilde, we inherit those enemies, don’t we? Which means we will always have to live in fear of one threat or another.”
Dropping his hands to his hips, he looked down at the floor with a sigh, and then his eyes met mine. “We won’t always have to live in fear. If I thought that was the case, I never would have agreed to take the position. And I can still turn it down. This family—us…you, me, Sage—that’s my priority, and it always will be. If I could put a stop to it tonight, I would, but I’m gonna need a little more time. Give me a day at least. What I can do tonight is get the three of us under one roof and ensure that we’re safe.”
I blew out my anger with a deep sigh and went to put my arms around Nick.
“I’m sorry, babe. I know you’re doing all you can to protect us, and I know none of this is your fault. I just hate feeling so damned vulnerable. I don’t know what to do, and I’m angry.”
He smoothed his hands up and down my back and then wrapped me in his embrace. “I’m angry too, Angel. I’m angry too.”
“I don’t want us to stay at Angie’s,” I said as we drove to her house. “I don’t want her any more involved than she already is.”
“Okay,” Nick said in a hesitant tone. “Once we get to Angie’s, I’ll send Zeck back to our house and have him do a full sweep and get it secured for us to head back there.”
Looking up at him, I shook my head.
“No, babe. I don’t want to go to our house either. I won’t be able to sleep there. Not tonight.” I reached over and threaded my fingers into his hair. “Take us to the Nyack house. No one’s expecting us to be there, right? It should be safe…right?”
“It’s not a far reach for anyone to guess that’s where I’d go if my home in New Windsor wasn’t an option, but I’ll send Zeck ahead of us to make sure the property hasn’t been compromised before we show up with Sage. I can also look at the online status reports for the alarm there to see if it’s been triggered or deactivated recently.”
