Angel Falling (Falling #1)(70)

“You better be at her f*cking jet in three hours or you’re fired, Captain!” He hung up. Ollie ran his fingers through is hair. It was as unruly as I’d ever seen it. The man was worried about me. Dean’s phone started ringing again.

“Oh, God, please just answer the phone.” I croaked and leaned my head against the cool window pane.

“We’re leaving.” He paused. “Don’t even think about it, Partner!” He breathed deep through his nose. “Safe, don’t worry.” Dean’s tone held a scary edge to it.

“Yeah, well you should of f*cking thought about that before you decided to kiss your ex. Asshole!” Dean hung up and the tears welled again. Just when I thought I had controlled them for a moment they scuttled down my face. I just let them fall.

***

She sobbed against my chest. I tried the best I could, saying anything, everything that would calm the woman down. Susie was special to me. She was. I shushed her, patted her back, held her until her lips trailed up my neck and before I knew what was happening her lips were on mine. The feel of her mouth; wet, warm, and familiar. It wasn’t what I wanted, what I craved. My arms flew out and almost shoved the woman from my chest.

“What the f*ck are you doing, Susie!”

“Hank, you want it as badly as I do! I can feel it. Don’t fight it. We’re both free now. We can be together again. Raise that family you want so badly!”

“No, Susie. We can’t go back. I can never go back. You took something from me and I’ll never forgive you. Never.” The anger that boiled in me from ten years past bubbled to the surface and spilled over. “I don’t f*cking love you. Maybe at one time I did, but that was a long time ago. I have everything I could ever want or need now!”

“She won’t be what you need her to be, Hank. She’s not capable of it!” Her voice was scathing and jilted. The cry of a desperate woman. It sickened me to see what she’d become.

“Don’t you get it? She’s what I need. The woman she is. Yes, she’s a city girl, and damned if I ever thought I’d fall for a woman that was all kinds of wrong. But you know what, Susie? It’s so right. When I’m with her there’s nothin’ else, and I want to be that man for her. Only her.”

“No, Hank. Please, please give us a second chance,” she begged. I shook my head and turned on my heel to find my Angel. I’d been gone a long time and she must be panicked or drunk by now. The thought of my Angel tipsy, laughing those sweet laughs, hanging out with her best buddy and his watchdog of a man tickled me to no end. They were my new family now and that gave me great joy. Gave me hope. That door to the past was shut forever. It couldn’t hurt me anymore.

I made my way through the throngs of people, searching for my Angel in white but she was nowhere to be seen. Then I realized that neither were Dean or Oliver. I enlisted my brother and his wife to help me find them. The property was big but they couldn’t have gotten far. We checked the house, the yards, the stables, the barn, nothing. Until Old Man Henry finally came up to me.

“Boy, didn’t you drive your truck here?”

It dawned on me that when I checked the front I hadn’t come across my truck. It was gone along with my girl and her two friends. What in the hell was going on?

Aspen had left her phone back at the ranch so I didn’t bother calling it. Oliver’s line repeatedly went to voicemail, so I called Dean.

Dean answered after several attempts. “Dean, what’s going on, where are you? Where’s Aspen?”

“We’re leaving.” His voice was cold, very unlike the smooth-talking fella I was used to.


“What the hell do you mean, you’re leavin’? What’s going on? Just stay at the ranch, I’ll jump in my brother’s truck.”

“Don’t even think about it, partner!” Dean’s voice was angry, madder than hell, and I hadn’t the slightest idea why.

“Dean, where is she?” I begged.

“Safe, don’t worry.”

“Don’t tell me not to worry about the woman I love, Dean!” I screamed into the phone.

“Yeah, well you should have f*cking thought about that before you decided to kiss your ex. Asshole!” The line went dead, and so did my heart.

I threw the phone down to the grass and looked up at the heavens. “FUCK!” I screamed and my brother came running over. Oh God in Heaven, NO!

“Did you find her?” Heath, Ma, and Jess were at my side in a second.

“She’s gone!” I closed my eyes and let the fear swim a circle around my body then rush in waves over every pore.

“What in the dickens do you mean, she’s gone?”

“Christ, Ma, I messed up. I messed up bad.” My shoulders sagged and she pulled me into her arms.

“Oh, Punky, no. Tell me what happened. You know your Mama can fix anythin’,” she cooed.

“Not this time. I’ve lost her.”

Dean’s words screamed through my head like a high powered locomotive.

“You should have f*cking thought about that before you decided to kiss your ex. Asshole!”

She knew. I don’t know how or why, I just know that she found out about the conversation Susie and I had. She knew about the kiss. What she needed to know was that it wasn’t what she thought. That I loved and wanted her. Only her.