Graham, Jan - Finding Angel [Wylde Shore] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (37 page)

Angel remained silent as she listened. Her tears had stopped, she didn’t know how to react to what she was hearing, and she just felt sad for all of them. The only thing that kept her grounded and present in the room was Christian’s touch as he rubbed her back tenderly. Eventually Andrew Shore stretched out his hand and pulled her from his son’s arms, hauling her up onto the sofa to sit beside him. He placed the key in her hand and kissed her cheek before drawing her into his side and wrapping his arms around her. Angel curled her legs up onto the couch and relaxed against Andrew’s embrace.

“Thank you for trying to save me.” She spoke quietly as she nestled against him, his chin resting on the top of her head. “I appreciate everything you did for me, so much. Thank you.”

“I should have done more. I have lived my life knowing I didn’t do enough.”

Angel noticed Daniel observing them. He had a look of concern etched into his face and Angel knew his heart ached for his father. Andrew had obviously been through so much more with their mothers’ deaths than Daniel or Christian had ever realised.

“No, you did more than enough.” Angel raised herself up to look into Andrew’s eyes. “Please don’t think there was any more than you could have done. I’m so thankful for what you did. You tried to help me and you did everything you could do to protect me. You were the only person who cared about doing anything, and for that I will be eternally grateful.”

Angel cupped his face with her hands and planted a kiss on his nose. Andrew laughed and hugged Angel so hard she felt like she might snap.

“I’m so happy that you are finally where your mother always intended for you to be, a part of our family. And if my boys ever give you any grief, I expect you to tell me immediately. I’ll ensure Mercedes punishes them thoroughly.” He laughed as both Daniel and Christian protested loudly at the notion of their baby sister being able to administer any sort of punishment to them.

Angel decided not to open the chest her mother had left her straightaway. All three men seemed understanding of the fact that she felt she had experienced enough emotions for one day and agreed that it may be better suited for Angel to open the chest at home when she was better prepared for the feelings that may arise from whatever its contents may hold.

The drive home seemed to take forever. Angel sat silently in the back seat nursing the wooden chest in her lap, the key hanging around her wrist like a bracelet. She periodically ran her hand over the engraved message, tracing the letters of each word lovingly with her fingertips. Daniel and Christian discussed their father and the concern they felt for him after the emotional afternoon they had all shared. Angel listened with slight surprise as Christian pondered why his father had never asked him to try and track Angel’s whereabouts after he had joined the police force.

“There’s nothing I can’t find out about people with the information I have access to,”
he had remarked as he drove down the freeway.

Angel felt her stomach lurch at the thought. She had never even contemplated that if he wanted to, Christian could find out about her involvement with Adrian Hastings. Her head began to throb with the realisation that she needed to come clean about her situation before Christian inadvertently stumbled across the truth. Soon, she decided. She would sit down and ask both men what she should do and see if they would help her, but not tonight. Maybe the next time they were all at home together. After they had all had a chance to digest the information they had learned today, once their emotions weren’t so raw and they were all able to think clearly.

Angel still felt responsible in some way for Christian and Daniel losing their mothers that night. Her rational self knew that she wasn’t to blame, and all three men had stated that repeatedly throughout the afternoon. Still, Angel could not stop felling twinges of guilt rush through her when she looked at the two men, and she hoped that over the next few days those feeling would go away.

As they sat at the dining table with the numerous containers of Chinese takeaway they had picked up on the way home, Angel was silent. It amazed her that both Christian and Daniel were able to eat after everything that had happened. Angel pushed a few cashew nuts around her plate. She was startled when Daniel leant over and speared a large piece of chicken from under her gaze, quickly popping it into his mouth.

“Yum.” Daniel smiled as Angel looked up at him with surprise. “What? You don’t appear to be eating it.”

“I actually thought you must have lost something in it the way you’ve been pushing it around your plate,” Christian added. “I thought chicken and cashew was your favourite?”

“I’m feeling a bit sick.” Angel gave a slight shrug.

She was still feeling guilty, and that, combined with an overwhelming desire to ask them what to do about Adrian and his stupid ledger, was making her stomach churn. She had been with Christian and Daniel for just on a week now. Adrian had given her a two-week deadline to find the ledger. She only had six days left until Adrian would be expecting an answer. Steve had told her to give the ledger to him and in turn get protection from Adrian. Angel knew no one could give her protection from Adrian. The man had police on his payroll for God’s sake. Angel’s time was nearly up, and she knew the only thing that was keeping her safe at the moment was being with two men who had no idea what danger she was placing them in if Adrian found her here.

“What do you need to talk to us about?” Daniel’s tone was firm as she turned to look at him, a firm tone to his voice but his eyes filled with compassion. Angel wondered at the dichotomy of that as she stared at him.

“I do need to talk about something, but I don’t want to do it tonight,” Angel stated emphatically.

“You can’t say that, Angel, and expect Daniel and I not to want to know what it is.” Christian glanced over at her as he continued to eat.

“Well, I’m worried about something, but I need time to figure out how to tell you.” She looked back between Daniel and Christian.

“That doesn’t ease our concern, Angel.” Daniel reclined back in his chair. “Why not just start talking about it and see how you go?”

“Or we could all just forget about it and have sex instead.” She smiled.

“Nice try, sweetie, but no thanks.” Daniel laughed.

“What about this?” Christian grinned. “You tell us what’s worrying you, we sort whatever it is out, and then we all have sex.”

Angel knew she shouldn’t have mentioned anything, but she was having the overwhelming urge to spill her guts about everything. She didn’t want to talk about Adrian though, not yet, not tonight. Angel knew she had to figure out something to say if only to appease their curiosity. It had to be something that would be serious enough to be causing her to worry, but nothing like the truth of her problem in relation to Adrian.

“Okay, well, I was wondering if you would want to have a baby if we were to, um you know, stay together like this.” Angel waved her hand around dismissively between the three of them. “Because I don’t think I can. And I wanted to tell you before you thought about me in the permanent position of…” Angel trailed off as she looked between the two men.

Probably not a good choice of topic to pick, but it had been something she had wondered about over the last week. Angel didn’t think she could have children. She had been told when she was in her late teens that she may have trouble if she ever decided to try and conceive. She knew it was a legitimate concern for her. And with these two men who were family oriented, Angel was sure they assumed she would give them children if she stayed with them in a permanent capacity.

Daniel and Christian looked at her in surprise. She hoped they didn’t think her decision to suddenly talk about what was wrong came too quickly. Maybe she should have bantered with them a bit more before conceding to tell them what was wrong. Both men stared at her in silence for a long time. She was getting to know them by now. They were both thinkers, intelligent men who seemed to be able to read when something wasn’t quite right. She hated not being able to know what was going on in their heads.

“Okay, well, that went down like a lead balloon.” Angel finally broke the awkward silence. “I guess that means that sex is the next thing on the menu.” She smiled at Christian, who was looking at her suspiciously.

“Not yet,” Daniel replied. “I have some questions.”

Angel sighed. Of course Daniel would have questions. Daniel had questions about everything. Sometimes Angel looked at him and could have sworn she heard cogs turning in his head as he sat, quietly contemplating whatever had caught his interest.

“All right, what would you like to know?” Angel expected there would be questions, and the main one she had was why Christian was looking at her with suspicion.

“I also have a confession to make,” Daniel stated matter-of-factly. “I looked up your medical records at the hospital. I knew about the assault and also about the injuries you received when your father pushed you down the stairs.” Angel stared at Daniel in shock.

Oh my God, he knows about the baby.
Angel was left wondering why he hadn’t asked her about it before. She felt a wave of embarrassment and shame sweep over her as the flush of heat filled her cheeks. Knowing Daniel and Christian the way she did, she was aware the men shared information with each other. Nothing was ever kept a secret. Angel realised that meant Christian also knew about her teenage pregnancy.

“And here I thought Christian would be the one to find out all my secrets via his police contacts,” she whispered almost to herself.

“I know about the miscarriage, Angel, and so does Christian. I know that conception might be difficult due to the injuries you received in the fall and during the attack, but there are other ways to bring children into a relationship if you can’t conceive naturally.” Daniel reached over and held her hand. “I want to know a few things though. Firstly, I want to know who got you pregnant when you were so young and how that came about.”

“I had sex.” Angel took a deep breath. “With one of my father’s business associates.”

“Was it consensual?” Christian asked, still looking at her with those suspicious eyes.

“Yes, I believed all the shit he fed me about me being beautiful, needing someone to love me and take care of me…blah, blah, blah.” Angel’s voice was filled with self-loathing. “I was a young, naïve idiot.”

“You weren’t an idiot. You just believed a man who took advantage of a young girl that I’m sure had a desperate need to feel loved by someone.” Daniel’s voice had softened. “Did he know you became pregnant?”

“Yes, I didn’t see him again after I told him. He ended up calling Harold and told him to make sure I got rid of it. Harold was irate. He called me upstairs and yelled furiously at me. He called me all sorts of horrible names and slapped me in the face. I was trying to get away when he pushed me, and the next thing I knew I was at the bottom of the stairs. He came downstairs and called an ambulance. I thought he was worried because I hadn’t been able to stand up after the fall. When he hung up, he walked over to me and kicked me in the stomach…He kicked me three times. By the time the ambulance arrived, I was bleeding. I knew what had happened.”

“He’d gotten rid of the baby.” Christian shook his head in disgust.

Christian wondered how she had ever come to trust Daniel and himself. The more he found out about Angel’s life, the more he admired her resilience and her ability to be as kind and loving as she was. He was still filled with suspicions that this wasn’t what had originally concerned her, but he admired the honesty and respect she always showed them when they asked her the difficult questions about her life. Admittedly, Angel wasn’t forthcoming about a lot of things, but when specifically questioned, she didn’t try to lie or hide the truth. Christian didn’t know if skirting issues was a self-preservation trait on Angel’s behalf, or whether she was trying to protect both Daniel and him from what she perceived as information that could drive them away.

Something Angel had said earlier had caught Christian’s attention. The statement that Angel thought he would be the one to find out
“all her secrets”
echoed in the back of his mind. He knew for certain there was something else that she was scared to talk about. He now realised the key to finding out what that something was would come from talking to his police contacts. For some reason, Angel was still not confident enough to tell them everything that she had going on in her life. He thought back to one of the very first conversations he had with Angel. She had said he seemed too nice to be a cop. She said the only police she had known were not like him. He remembered her answer to his question of how many police had she met.