Kiss an Angel(42)

Daisy expected to see triumph in Sheba’s eyes, but instead she merely saw satisfaction, and she realized she had sunk so low that Sheba no longer even regarded her as a threat.

“Where in the hell did Alex find you?”

Shaking her head, Sheba stepped over Daisy’s feet, walked up to Tater, and petted his trunk. “You’re a little stinker, aren’t you, fella? Isn’t he, Theo?” She tweaked the toddler’s foot.

Daisy had been bested on every front, and she couldn’t take any more. As far as she was concerned, her work was done for the day, and she’d survived, if only barely. She dragged herself to her feet and began walking to the trailer only to see Alex going inside. Unwilling to face another encounter with him, she turned away and began aimlessly wandering through the circus grounds.

Two of the showgirls noticed her coming and turned away. One of the clowns pretended not to see her. She desperately wanted a cigarette.

She jumped as a terrible shrieking split the air. Her head shot up, and she saw Frankie near one of the trucks holding Jill’s hand. He pointed at her and screeched. Jill picked him up and, without so much as a word, walked away.

Daisy felt sick inside. The message was clear. She had been declared an outcast.

She walked aimlessly until she found herself at the menagerie tent. The side flap was raised, and all the animals seemed to be inside with the exception of Sinjun, whose cage still sat in the sun. The animal pricked up its ears as she approached and regarded her with disdain. It had been too dark last night for her to see the condition of his cage, but now she noticed that it was filthy. Digger, she’d learned, was supposed to take care of the menagerie, but it must be low on his priority list.

Once again the tiger locked eyes with her and once again she couldn’t look away. Last night the tiger’s fur had seemed to gleam in the floodlights, but now it looked dull and unhealthy. She stared into those mysterious gold irises, and as the seconds ticked by, she felt herself growing unbearably hot.

Sweat pooled under her arms and gathered in the hollow of her throat. Her face became flushed, her breasts wet. She had never been so hot. She wanted to tear her clothes off and plunge into a pool of ice-cold water. She was burning up, and somehow she knew the heat wasn’t coming from her but from the tiger.

“There you are.”

She snapped her head around to see Alex approaching. He took her in from head to toe, and beneath the impact of those cool, impersonal eyes, her body grew chill.

“You have some free time before you need to get ready for spec,” he said. “Why don’t you clean up, and then we’ll see about an early dinner?”

“Spec?”

“I told you it was part of your job?’

“But not tonight. I can’t possibly do it tonight. Look at me!”

As Alex watched her, he almost relented. Every bit of decency inside him demanded that he leave her alone. She was pale with exhaustion and so filthy she was almost unrecognizable. The only cosmetic still visible on her face was a smear of old mascara below her bottom lashes. Her soft little mouth drooped at the corners, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone so clearly at the end of her tether.

At the same time, he felt a reluctant spark of admiration for the mere fact that she was still on her feet. He remembered the way she’d held him off with the shovel and knew what a display of courage that had been for her. She’d surprised him today. Unfortunately, her small rebellion had simply prolonged the inevitable.

Why wouldn’t she give up? He didn’t know what hidden source of strength she’d found to get her this far, but it wasn’t going to last and he refused to torture her. He fought against the softness inside him that urged him to relent, knowing that would be a cruelty instead of a kindness. The harder he pushed her now, the sooner she would face the truth.

He firmed his resolve by reminding himself that she was a thief, and regardless of the circumstances, that wasn’t something he could forgive.

“The first show’s at six. You’re going on with the elephants.”

“But—”

He spotted a scratch on the back of her hand and snatched it up to examine it. “How long has it been since you’ve had a tetanus shot?”

She regarded him blankly.

“A tetanus shot. For infection.”

She blinked, and she looked so drained that he had to resist the urge to pick her up and carry her back to the trailer. He didn’t want to think about holding that small, soft body in his arms. If she hadn’t stolen that money, she’d have spent the night in his bed, but as it was, he’d been so furious, he hadn’t trusted himself to touch her. He hadn’t wanted to touch her.

“How long since your last tetanus?” he said more sharply.

She gazed down at the scratch on her hand. “Last year. I cut myself when I was sailing on Biffy Brougenhaus’s yacht.”

Christ. How could he be married to a woman who knew someone named Biffy Brougenhaus? The hell with her.

“Get some antiseptic on that,” he snapped. “And be ready on time for spec or you’ll be cleaning out the horse trailer, too.”

As he stalked off, his scowl grew blacker. He’d always prided himself on his fairness, but she made him feel like a bad-tempered bully. He chalked up another black mark against her.



Daisy survived spec, mainly because exhaustion had numbed her to the embarrassment of appearing in public wearing her skimpy red costume. Although Alex had told her to go on with the elephants, she’d stayed well behind them so that she looked like she was one of the Flying Toleas.