Page 3 of Her Angel: Elias

With a sob, I came undone for him.

Samara

I was just finishing up a client call when two things happened at exactly the same time. My office door opened, and my phone got a text alert. Elias walked in, his face grim, and the noise in my head did not get quieter.

“What now?” I whined, already knowing I would not like whatever he was about to tell me.

“That small thing that I had to deal with last week suddenly turned into an even bigger thing.”

Oh, so we were talking in code. Being vague at work, like someone might overhear and know what he meant. Which was fair. My brother could do shit like that with just an internet connection and a phone. Maybe not even the phone. He’d once made a joke about some guy named MacGyver. It had been Christmastime, and most of the extended family had been in town, which meant I’d been half manic.

Mostly manic. Whatever.

I didn’t realize it was a joke until Hayat’s Poppy—the man who’d welcomed us into his family like we were always meant to be a part of it—nearly keeled over from laughing so hard. His stomach muscles had hurt for the entire day after he’d finally stopped. I’d had to Google who MacGyver was, and then I’d bust a gut laughing too. Vaughn was kind of hilarious when he tried.

But that wasn’t even the point. If he could spy on people in another country so easily, so could countless other people. Like a three-letter government agency.

By small thing, Elias meant the issue that had taken him east for an entire seven days. That small thing that had not been even a little bit small. Now, it was a bigger thing. And we weren’t going to pretend I hadn’t already known what the thing was to begin with. I did, and he knew it, as did everyone else in the MC. They simply pretended I didn’t.

Regardless of the situation’s size, this meant he was going to have to leave again to help the MC deal with it.

Fucking hell. Big things took so much longer to clean up than small ones.

Elias had been home for less than a week. They’d all been unusually subdued whenever I’d run into the brothers who had accompanied Elias on that last run. Jack was quieter than normal when I saw him at the bar. Which was its own brand of terrifying. Darkness enveloped him more and more with each passing day. Kingston, Chance, and Reid looked haggard as hell. And almost everyone in town was turning and walking the opposite direction whenever they saw Max out in public.

This situation was weighing heavily on all of them. Another club had asked for Angel’s Halo’s help dealing with a situation involving someone who was selling club secrets. After the last trip, they’d assumed it was taken care of. Apparently, they’d been wrong. It wasn’t as simple as a single weak link. The entire club was rotting from the inside out, and they were going to have to clean house.

“How long?” I asked quietly.

“I don’t have a timeline, baby girl.” He said it with regret thick in his voice. I could see it on his face. He really did not want to leave me, but he had a responsibility. People other than me relied on him.

My chin trembled without my permission, and suddenly, he was pulling me into his arms. Turning, he sat me on the edge of my desk, and I wrapped my legs around his waist automatically. As he cupped my face in both of his callused hands, his blue eyes grew more intense. “I’ll only be gone as long as I need to be, Sammy baby. You’re going to stay here, do the work that needs to be handled for the clients, hang out with your girls, watch over our nieces, and be good.”

“I’ll do my best.” I was only being honest. The work would get done. I’d go to book club with Abi, shadow my bestie and the two offspring she’d created with my brother. The world would continue to rotate, and I’d attempt to live life.

That was all I could offer, though. Being good, the kind of good he would expect of me, was something I couldn’t promise. Not if the noise got too loud.

Understanding filled his face. “I love you, baby girl.”

“I love you too,” I whispered.

Pressing a kiss to the center of my forehead, he reluctantly stepped back. “See you soon, my precious psychopath.”

The office door had no sooner clicked shut behind him than a text popped up on my phone.

Abi: Hayat is coming for a visit. All the men are on daddy duty, and we’re having an indefinite slumber party at your house. Do NOT argue with me on this. It’s happening. Starting tonight.

Some of the tightness that had been squeezing my lungs eased. Surprisingly, a small laugh escaped me. Elias must have told Abi, and she’d decided she needed reinforcements to keep me distracted. Not that I was complaining. I adored Hayat and her deviously precious daughter, Jessa. I didn’t think it was possible to love any other children more than I did Amala and Calina, yet with Jessa, it was impossible not to fall for those impossibly deep dimples and those warm chocolate-brown eyes.

Me: What would I do without you, bestie?

Abi: You’ll never have to find out.

Samara

Even with Hayat and Abi to distract me, I couldn’t stop glancing at my phone every few minutes. I couldn’t help it. Something felt off, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. Elias’s tracker didn’t go off course from his previous route during the first trip to the Obsidian Souls’ MC. He’d even texted me twice, both times when he and the others had stopped to refuel and eat.

Maybe I was just too in my head. Missing him was hard. Every part of my body ached when he was away. And then there was the level of noise in my head. It grew louder and louder. The constant back-and-forth of my consciousness telling me that I was too much, that Elias would eventually get tired of having to manage me.