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s he’d felt it every time it happened after he’d joined Tracker’s team five years ago. This wasn’t the woman Duke knew. It was the woman she’d been at one time, but in the past few years, she’d softened until the hardened edge only showed itself minutes before going into danger.
The problem was, Angel wasn’t merciful, she wasn’t nice when she stepped into the soldier role. And neither she nor Chaya needed more pain at the moment.
“Very well.” Chaya surprised him when she gave a sharp nod, but Duke caught the edge of her tone. “Would you like a brief rundown of the house or would you prefer to go through each room on your own first?”
Angel turned to her slowly, her blue-ringed gray eyes flat and hard.
“A brief rundown would be preferred, then I’d like some time to go through on my own,” she replied, the ice in her voice nearly causing Duke to wince.
He’d give anything to warn her first about the one room he was sure she had no idea existed.
“Natches, would you like to show Angel around?” Chaya requested as she laid her fingers against his arm. “I’ll take Duke to the kitchen for coffee and a slice of Ms. Tully’s buttercream cake. I know how he likes that.”
Angel showed no reaction, no preference either way.
“I can do that.” Natches kissed her cheek gently, the tenderness, the obvious love he felt for her apparent in the gesture. “We’ll be right back.”
“Come along, Duke, you can tell me how Memmie Mary’s doing,” Chaya stated, turning her back and moving for the kitchen. “We rarely see the cousins these days. . . .”
Angel turned to Natches, watching the gentleness in his expression slowly evaporate as his gaze flickered with disapproval.
That look almost pierced the distance she placed between her and the situation. For some reason, his disappointment threatened to matter.
“I don’t have a conflict with you, Natches, and I have no intentions of doing or saying anything that will hurt Bliss’s mother unless she strikes first,” she assured him, watching the disappointment ease, though his expression remained somber. “I’m here to do a job, just as I offered. Nothing more, and nothing less.”
She’d protect her sister or die trying.
Before she could evade him, his arms were suddenly around her, her face smashed into his chest.
“Welcome home, girl,” he whispered, his voice thick, obviously sincere. “You won’t let her welcome you, but you can’t stop me.”
Angel jerked back, the shield cracking, pain surging through it, slapping at her, threatening to steal her objectivity, her training.
“Thank you for the gesture.” It took everything she’d learned, every iota of strength she had found over the years to stare back at him as though she wasn’t being flooded with a lifetime of grief and pain. “I’d like that tour of the house now, if you don’t mind.”
Duke saw the hunger, the pain, and the need as Natches jerked Chaya’s daughter into a quick embrace before Angel pulled back.
He saw Angel’s face when she pulled back, though.
Now Natches was showing her to the office that opened into the living room as well as the kitchen on one side. There was a door that led to a small patio outside as well.
“He’ll show her the downstairs first,” Chaya whispered, wrapping her arms around her breasts as she turned back to him. “He’ll take her upstairs last.”
Duke rubbed at the back of his neck. “He could wait. . . .”
The look he called Angel’s “soldier” face flashed across Chaya’s expression now. “No. If we’re going to come to a place where we can talk and hear each other then she needs to see it.”
“I hate to point this out,” he reminded her. “But right or wrong, she faced you with that chance and she was told to leave, Chaya. Shocking her now might not be a good idea.”
“Shocking her now is all I have left,” she whispered. “But I’ll give you the option of joining them. I don’t think I can bear it.”
Natches took Angel through the house, room by room. The office, then the kitchen, where Duke was enjoying a slice of Ms. Tully’s luscious cake and coffee, then through the other side of the kitchen to a hall. There they turned to the left and entered the guest suite.
She and Duke would unfortunately have to share the suite, he informed her as they walked through a small kitchenette. Then he showed her into the sitting area and pointed out that the couch let out into a surprisingly comfortable bed.
The bedroom had a king bed, covered with an obviously old white bedspread that kissed the floor on each side. Soft, cream-colored carpeting, heavy wood shutters over the windows that folded back to open the room to the sunlight, and light oak furniture. An attached bathroom with both a walk-in shower as well as a garden tub. And a door to the patio off the kitchenette.
Leaving the guest suite they moved farther down the hall. Bliss’s room was next, with a full-sized canopied bed, antique furniture, and a padded white rocking chair.
