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“Thank God you’re all right. Thank you, God,” Natalie repeated over and over while Angel cried into her shoulder. Finally, she pulled back, her eyes running over Angel. “Oh, baby. What did they do to you?”
Tears streamed down Angel’s face. “I need Cole. Where’s Cole?”
Natalie gathered her back in her arms. “Okay, baby. Okay.” She picked up the phone with one hand, the other still holding Angel tightly while she dialed the number with her thumb.
Ten minutes later, Cole and Crash roared up the driveway. Cole tore into the house, flinging the door against the wall. He stood in the entry, his chest heaving, and his eyes connected with his wife’s where she was squatted down talking to Melissa, TJ and Brayden. A moment later, they were each across the room, closing the distance between them and flying into each other’s arms, clutching each other tightly in a hug.
“Baby-doll. Thank God. Thank God,” Cole murmured against her hair, his arm holding her head close to him. He stroked his hand over the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair. He held her tight for a long time, not wanting to let her go. He whispered against her ear, “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you, mama?”
She tried to shake her head no, but he held her so tightly she had to verbally respond. “No. He didn’t touch me. Not like that.”
“Did he touch you at all?”
“They drugged me. That’s all.”
He squeezed her tighter. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Angel looked over his shoulder and saw Crash standing to the side. And then she remembered Shannon. Pushing back from Cole’s hold, her eyes moved between the two men.
“Baby, how did you get here?” Cole asked, frowning.
She told them about the DEA agent that let her go and how he had said for them not to bother trying to go there, that the man that took her, the British man, would be long gone.
“Nicklaus Ralston?” Crash asked.
Angel shrugged. “He never told me his name.” She proceeded to tell them about Tate’s offer to give them a new location on where Ralston would be on Thursday night and his advice to wait for their retaliation until some big player named Montoya was out of the building.
Cole gritted his teeth. “Don’t much like being told how to handle this.” He looked over at Crash, and then his eyes came back to Angel. “One thing I’m not clear on, babe. I don’t understand why he just let you go.
“I don’t know. I guess he got what he wanted. I mean, I was shocked when Shannon walked in. Was that part of your plan?”
Crash frowned, taking a step toward her. “Wait…what?”
“Shannon.”
“Angel, Shannon’s back at my place. Wolf’s watching her.”
Angel shook her head. “No, she’s not. She walked in and gave herself up. Told him he had what he wanted now, so he could let me go.”
“What?” Crash’s eyes moved from Angel to Cole and back again.
“Only that’s not what happened. That slimy Brit was going to have them kill me anyway. That DEA agent, Tate. He was the one that brought me back and let me go. He told the two other men that Ralston had changed his mind, but when he walked me up the drive, he told me that Ralston hadn’t changed his mind.”
Crash bolted toward the door, but Cole stepped in front of him, grabbing his cut. “Wait, Crash!”
“Let me go, brother. I’ve got to get Shannon.”
Cole slammed him up against the wall with two fistfuls of vest. “Listen to her.”
Angel told him the rest of story, every detail she could remember. As she did, Crash tried Wolf on his cell, pacing as he dialed the number again and again, but he got no answer. His stricken eyes met Cole’s, and he shook his head. “He’s not answering.”
“Fuck,” Cole whispered.
Crash stormed out.
Cole looked at Angel. “Baby, I’ve got to go with him.”
She nodded, “Go.”
