Page 20 of His Angel
“How’s that?”
She knows absolutely nothing about my relationship with Tamsin, so how she can determine her relationship is different, I don’t know, but I’d like to.
“You guys are just girl friends… it’s, I dunno, it’s just different with him.”
Him.
That catches my attention, and I raise an eyebrow, hoping for more, happy to wait out the silence, but it looks like she is too as she checks her phone again.
“Expecting a call?”
She shakes her head.
“Checking the time?”
She shakes her head again.
And we’re back to getting blood from a stone.
Great.
“Isn’t this supposed to be some kind of girly afternoon or something?” she asks. “Nails and whatever…”
“Yes,” I say, jumping up. “And I forgot to turn on the sauna. Are you okay here for two minutes? I’ll be right back.”
She nods, checking her phone again as I slide across the room and out the door, escaping through the glass doors in the living room with nothing more than a smile to Liselle and Amy. They notice my escape, raising an eyebrow as I mouth an apology.I just hope Ruby is still there when I get back.
Following the path past the pool, it snakes around the brush and brings me out by the sauna and steam room, someone or something banging and clattering nearby.
Someone was here before, hiding, watching, waiting. Nick and Leo might have brushed it off as my overactive imagination, but what if it wasn’t? What if there’s someone else out here right now?
Cautiously, I hang back, waiting to see if it continues, if they, or it, know I’m here. As suddenly as it started, it stops, a voice carrying through the silence.Thereissomeone here.I step back, my heart pounding. I was right, someone is watching us, and I’m here, alone, without so much as my damm phone.Fucking idiot.
The voice gets closer and I square my shoulders, taking a deep breath before shouting, “Hey, who’s there?”
Hopefully, it’s enough to have whoever it is running away. Hopefully, they haven’t been waiting around for a random girl to turn up out here and I’m walking right into whatever trap they have set up.
The muttering continues, getting closer but not responding as I call again, “You should know I’m not alone. Who’s there?”
What an absolute liar. I have no way to protect myself from whoever should come around that corner in nothing more than seconds, clearly not giving a shit about the fact that they’ve been caught.
Maybe they know I’m alone. Maybe they don’t care. What if that’s what they were hoping for all along? The Angels pottering around outside just waiting to be taken anddisappearingjust like George.Fuck.
I take a step back, my nerves faltering, the bravado I was holding onto crumbling as someone rounds the corner and walks right into me.
I scream.
Like a big fucking girl, scrabbling to get away from the hands that hold me up when I would have otherwise fallen flat on my ass.
“Woah, woah, woah,” Wyatt says. “What the hell’s going on?”
His voice cuts through the panic after the longest second of my entire life. I swear I see stars, gardens, my expansive home, me and Tamsin laughing as kids, half my life flashes before my eyes before the words register and I stop flailing around, planting my feet on the ground and looking up into the concern lining his dark eyes.
“What’s up?” he asks, one hand leaving my arm to pull his headphones down.
“I thought you were… fuck.” I pant the words out between shallow breaths, my heart rate once again sky-high. “I didn’t know it was you. I called, but nobody answered. I thought… I thought it was something bad.”
“Breathe,” he placates, taking a deep breath himself and looking me over. “You’re okay, it’s just me. I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” he says, tapping the headphones. “Podcast.” He shrugs.
