Graham, Jan - Finding Angel [Wylde Shore] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (10 page)

“Is that the same storage facility information you gave to Adrian Hastings early this morning?” Steve watched the look of shock and confusion fill Angel’s face.

“How do you know Adrian was here?” Angel’s hands trembled as she sipped her coffee. Steve hoped she assumed the police had Adrian under surveillance and that they followed him to her house last night.

“Just answer the question, Angel. I can’t explain how we know.” Steve knew he couldn’t mention the surveillance of the house. It had taken so long to get the residence bugged in the first place, and finally, it had paid off. He couldn’t risk her insisting they remove it. Particularly if Hastings had a taste of something that he might come back for.

“I told Adrian about the storage facility, yes. But he doesn’t know the address.” Angel sighed. She appeared tired, like she was struggling to find the answers to Steve’s questions. “I have to text him the address, so you better get there first. I’ll send the address to him when you have finished doing your cop stuff with it.”

“You told him there were receipts in the garbage he took. He has the address, Angel, and he would have found the receipts by now.” Steve was annoyed. If she intended to give the police the address, why tell Hastings about it.

“I lied. There is only one receipt, and you have it. You have the address, not him. I had intended to ring the station on Monday and ask to see you. But you called in this morning for a nice social chat and saved me the trouble.” Steve heard Angel take a sip of her coffee. Even the slightest noise echoed loudly in his head. He was leant forward and rubbed his temples.

“Is it a hangover, or have you been working hard?” she asked. He heard another sip.

“Both.” Steve’s head was pounding, and everything going so well was making him nervous. Angel was definitely an observant woman. Most civilians wouldn’t even notice if the cop talking to them had a headache. He knew Angel didn’t particularly like him. In fact, she had asked to speak to Markham instead of Steve the first time he had interviewed her regarding Samuel’s death, stating that Markham was less intimidating than Steve. Maybe the request had added to Steve’s bad attitude during that initial interview.

“So what else did you want to know about my visit from Adrian?” Angel picked up a cracker and started to eat it.

“I want to know everything, Angel. What was in the parcel the courier came to pick up yesterday afternoon?” Steve was going to ask anything and everything if she was in a mood to talk. “Where is the ledger he wants? What movies does he have of you? How did you get mixed up in all this and why did you stay with that creep, Barnard? Why did you fuck Hastings? And why the fuck didn’t you call me and tell me all this was going on with Hastings weeks ago?”

Angel took a deep breath. She had woken up not long before Steve had knocked on her door. She hadn’t had time to prepare for this. Angel knew that answers were needed, but there was something more important on her mind. She had woken up with one thing firmly planted in her thoughts. Adrian was going to kill her. She assumed last night and his conversation about fucking her every day was all smoke and mirrors, a way to get her to relax a little and trust him. Adrian would then be able to eradicate her in case she knew more than she should. Even though Steve’s visit this morning was a surprise, Angel knew it was also an opportunity. She could use the visit to possibly get some help and hopefully avoid the inevitable. Angel was going to tell Steve everything she knew, which admittedly wasn’t much.

“The information that I sent to Adrian is on the USB drive. I scanned it before Adrian sent someone to collect it. I don’t know where the ledger is. I didn’t find it when I was cleaning.” Angel took a sip of coffee. “I didn’t come to you earlier because I really don’t know anything, and I thought if I gave Adrian the information he wanted, he would leave me alone.”

“You missed some answers, or are you ignoring the questions intentionally?” Steve was too annoying for words. He obviously had no idea how difficult this was for her. Angel could feel him watching her as she walked out into the back of the house and returned with a manila folder.

“Enjoy,” Angel said, handing him the folder.

As Steve looked through the contents, he appeared uneasy. Angel knew the pictures were shocking. He would only assume what could be on the DVDs. Angel held her breath when she realised his attention was fixed on the legally binding debtor’s agreement.

“Who is Skinner Jones?” Steve’s gaze conveyed true concern.

“He was the man I lived with before moving in with Samuel.” Angel’s eyes began to moisten with tears. “As it turned out, Skinner loved drugs more than me. And he had a very determined sense of self-preservation. ”

Steve didn’t say a word as he closed the folder. Mercifully, his phone rang and saved the day. Angel wiped her moistened eyes and continued to sip at her coffee. He ended the call quickly but Angel assumed from the conversation the police had arrived at the lockup and were currently working their way through its inventory. Angel heard Steve assure the caller Hastings had no idea where the lockup was at this point in time. And he mentioned securing the ledger if they found it. He placed his cell on the coffee table and picked up his coffee.

“Well.” Steve stared at Angel. “More answers still required.”

“I don’t think the other questions are relevant.” Angel was starting to feel nervous. Maybe she shouldn’t be telling him anything. Adrian had police in his pocket. Maybe Steve worked for him and this was all a setup. She sat gazing into her coffee, deciding if she needed to vomit.

“Let me decide if it’s relevant. I want to know why you didn’t ever leave Samuel.” Angel bit at her bottom lip. Not only was Steve a pain in the arse, but he was a nosey one.

Steve observed Angel’s hand move up to her neck. She seemed like she was miles away in thought, her fingers circling a scar at the base of her throat. Steve had asked the question out of interest rather than a need-to-know fact for the current case. Now that Angel was touching that scar he wasn’t sure he wanted an answer.

“I did try to leave, but that turned out to be a difficult thing to do. Samuel was very possessive of what he owned. He threatened people I knew and threatened me, so I stayed. Besides, I had no where to go. I have no family and very few friends.” Angel glanced back at Steve. “What was the other question?”

“I’m not convinced by the answer. I think there’s more to it.” Steve was trying to figure her out.

At this point she was an enigma. She had thrown him out of her house on his last visit, and now he was drinking coffee with her. She had sent information to Hastings and fucked him then given Steve an arsenal of weapons and information that may lead to the solving of some very serious crimes. Steve had no idea how to take her. She seemed nice, but then he didn’t know why a nice person would be in such a desperate situation. She didn’t make sense, and he needed for her to make sense. He needed to know whose side she was on.

“Why did you fuck Hastings?”

“I’m a slut.” Angel blushed, and tried to avoid Steve’s stare.

“Why did you fuck Hastings? And don’t give me glib answers like ‘I’m a slut’.” Without realising what he was doing, Steve had grabbed her face and forced her to make eye contact. “Tell me the truth. Why fuck him?”

“I wasn’t going to. I tried not to, and I did ask him to stop but…” Angel paused. “You won’t understand.”

“Try me.” Steve’s voice was firm.

“I haven’t had someone touch me like that for so long. He was gentle. It was sensual. Yes, I know he is a dangerous man, but he wasn’t dangerous last night, and I decided I needed to know someone was interested in fucking me without being cruel. I wanted to feel a man being considerate of my body.” Angel stared at Steve. “I wanted to come without the fear of a gun going off inside my mouth or my cunt or a knife slicing my throat. And yes, he wasn’t a good choice of man to do that with, but he was here, so I fucked him. Are you happier with the truth, or does it make you feel as sick as I do about it?” Angel stood and walked into the kitchen to refill her coffee.

Steve sat quietly for a few minutes. The truth in Angel’s words hit him hard in the gut. It felt like he’d received a match-winning punch from a professional boxer. What the hell should he say in return?

“Thanks for your honesty.” Steve didn’t know what else he could have said. He felt like a complete dickhead. He had heard some of the attacks on Angel. Samuel was a sadistic bastard, and more than once the surveillance team had been tempted to break down the door and drag her out of the house. He recalled the incident he had heard with the shotgun and glanced at the duffle bag.

“Will we find your DNA on any of the items in the bag, Angel? Did Barnard use any of them to assault you?”

“What do you think?” Angel poured Steve a refill of coffee. “You know Steve, you have forgotten to ask a very important question.”

“And what would that be, Angel?” Steve couldn’t figure out why the girl wasn’t sitting in a corner rocking after what she had been through. And he only knew a bit of what she had suffered at the hands of Barnard. Steve was starting to think that underneath that pretty exterior, Angel Wylde must be cast in steel.

“Why am I telling you this?” Angel asked the question and continued to answer it immediately. “I’m telling you all this because I have come to the conclusion that Adrian Hastings will eventually kill me.”

Fuck.
Steve hadn’t expected that.

“Angel, you have me on a roller coaster here,” Steve blurted out, nearly choking on his coffee. “I think I need a moment to digest all this.”

“What’s to digest? Adrian fucked me last night for selfish reasons, to throw me off guard. I realised this morning when I woke up that at some point he will kill me.” Angel cleared her throat. “So I’m giving you everything I have found that may be useful to the police.”

“Do you think he killed Samuel?” Steve didn’t want to do this with a hangover, but he had no choice.

Angel sat quietly for a moment. He knew she was watching him as he rubbed his temples yet again. It had to be obvious that he was in a bit of pain. She knew he had a hangover and hearing all this wasn’t easy. Angel had thrown him totally off-balance. After all, she was usually a bitch to him when they spoke. Not that he didn’t deserve a large dose of attitude from her. He was usually so arrogant someone needed to take down his obviously dominant arse. Steve watched as she walked into the kitchen and came back with a box of aspirin and a glass of water that she placed in front of him.

“He told me he killed him last night,” Angel replied. “Adrian said,
‘
I’m sorry I didn’t intervene earlier into the situation you were in with Samuel.’ I interpret that as Adrian killed Samuel or ordered him killed. The house had been trashed when I got home. Someone had been looking for something, and Adrian let it slip that he had Samuel’s missing hard drive. How they got him strung up I don’t know. Samuel wasn’t easily overpowered by anyone. But the coroner said it was suicide, so I guess that means the case of Samuel is closed.”

“Not necessarily,” Steve said before gulping down two aspirin. “New evidence can reopen it. And we have new evidence if you say Hastings confessed to killing Samuel, as long as you’re willing to testify when it goes to trial.”

“You’re so funny.” Angel laughed. “No one makes it to trial to testify, and I wouldn’t either. I said he’d eventually kill me, Steve, not that I wanted to hand him the gun to do it. Besides, he only said he wished he had done something sooner, not that he did anything. He would argue I had misunderstood him.”

“I remember he said that but—” Steve didn’t realise what he was about to say as he continued. “Didn’t he also say, ‘Anyway, I have gotten rid of him from your life and mine,’ or something like that, wasn’t it?” Steve suddenly noticed the horrified look an Angel’s face.

Oh fuck,
I’m so fired over this one
.

“You have the house bugged. It’s not Adrian that is under surveillance. It’s me. How long? Who heard me have sex last night?” Angel was visibly angry. “How long have you been listening in on my life?” She picked up a pillow and started hitting him with it. “You fucking bastard, how long?” She screamed as Steve grabbed the pillow and pushed her back into the couch, avoiding the slaps of her now-empty hands.