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“I suspect that nurse will be back in soon for a visit,” Mia remarked. “Hard to resist that Presley charm.”
He winked at her. “You’ve resisted it.”
“Because you never aimed it in my direction. You knew Angel would throttle you if you aimed those goo-goo eyes at me.” She went to Presley and brushed a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Are those drugs in the IV good enough to stave off the pain?”
“Oh, yeah.” He flashed her a grin. “Not feeling a thing. Well, maybe a little floaty. And Angel would indeed have tried to throttle me for goo-goo eyes, whatever the hell that is,” he added, obviously backtracking. “But I wouldn’t have messed with what you two had. It’s one of those soulmate kind of deals.”
Angel frowned. Hell. He was just getting used to the l-word, and now there was soulmate shit involved? But he had to concede that he’d never thought of a woman the way he had Mia.
“So, how’s Melanie?” Presley asked, his expression turning serious.
RJ stepped closer to the bed. “They’re waiting for her to come out of the anesthesia.” He groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face. “This feels like a bad dream, and I keep hoping I’ll wake up, and…” He stopped. “I wish I could go back twenty years and undo all of this.”
Part of Angel felt the same, and he hated to see RJ suffer like this. And the suffering wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
“What’s the verdict on Birdie?” Presley went on.
“She’s out of recovery, and Detective Asa Walker is in with her getting her statement. I have no idea what she’s going to tell him,” Angel admitted. “It’s obvious she tried to kill us, but then that gunman tried to kill her.”
Presley tried to shrug. Then, winced. “Maybe she reneged on a payment or something. Or maybe she hired them, and they wanted to eliminate anyone who could tie them to the attack. Kill the boss, and she can’t rat them out.”
Angel had considered all of that, but it still didn’t feel right. Unfortunately, the only person who could give them answers was Birdie, and he wasn’t sure they were going to get the truth from her.
“You gave your statements to Walker?” Presley asked.
Mia and Angel nodded. “You?”
“Not to Walker but to Lieutenant Landrieu,” he said referring to his former boss at SAPD. “She did a multitask drop by to take my statement, check on me, and try to talk me into coming back on the force. I declined and told her despite being shot, I was very happy at Maverick Ops.”
Presley seemed to be on the verge of adding more, but he stopped when RJ’s phone dinged with a text. It was one that he was clearly anxious to get because he yanked the cell from his pocket.
“It’s the ICU nurse,” RJ rattled off. “Melanie’s awake, and they’re going to let me in to see her.”
“You want me to go with you?” Angel asked.
RJ shook his head, already hurrying toward the door. “I’ll give you an update once I’ve talked to her.” With that, the man practically ran out of the room.
Presley muttered some profanity. “I don’t believe any of this shit was his fault, but he’s having to pay a damn high price for what happened.”
Angel believed the same, and the bottom line was even if Melanie made a full recovery, their lives were forever changed. Then again, he could say the same about his own life. Before Kenton’s body was found, he hadn’t known just how much he needed Mia. His world had felt complete.
Now, he knew it hadn’t been.
Soulmates and l-words. What an ass kicker.
“Please tell me Detective Walker’s going to interview Dwight and Roger,” Presley added a moment later.
“It’s on his agenda,” Angel assured him.
Walker had made that clear in the brief conversation Angel had had with him before he’d gone into Birdie’s room to interrogate, and charge, her.
“Detectives are also going through Birdie’s house,” Mia added.
Presley smiled. “I’ll bet Roger’s mightily pissed off about that. Did he try to stop that?”
Angel nodded. “Ruby messaged to let me know that not only did Roger try to block it, he’s threatened legal action against, well, pretty much every one of us. Apparently, he believes we’ve defamed Birdie’s and his character.”
“So, he thinks she’s innocent?” Presley questioned.
