Page 7 of Angel

I replied to Reign’s growl with one of my own.

‘There is NO wedding.’

Levi snorted, coming alongside me to stare at me with an arched brow.

‘No way! It’s your wedding day, man. Where’s Evangeline?’

‘She’s gone,’ I muttered in a ragged, ugly rasp. ‘She jilted me, brothers.’

The five men surrounding me fell dead quiet.

Their easy, loose stances shifted into braced postures.

‘What in the actual?’ Reign muttered.

Jude grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face him, his jaw tight.

‘What do you mean, gone?’ he demanded in a rough register. ‘Explain.’

I lifted my burning eyes to lock gazes with them, my arms crossed over my chest.

‘She took off after telling me she couldn’t go through with it.’

I leaned a hip on the balustrade and tilted my head, letting out a hoarse, bitter chuckle.

‘She’s pulled a runaway-bride freakout?’ Bishop muttered under his breath, blinking at me in disbelief.

‘What kind of sick joke is this?’ Deacon muttered.

I shrugged. ‘Sick as it gets. She came in, told me sorry, and took off. I tried calling, and I even texted, but she’s kept my messages on read for the last two hours.’

My timbre cracked at the humiliation.

‘She’s gone.’

Jude focused on me, his face hard as he processed the betrayal, and he finally huffed. ‘She walked out on you on your wedding day? She must have lost her freakin’ mind.’

‘Where did she go?’ Reign growled, shaking his head, lost in shock.

I jerked my chin to the window. ‘No clue. Some loser picked her up in a red Mustang.’

My brothers stared at me in utter shock and disdain.

In the silence following my explanation, my chest burned.

‘Not surprised,’ Bishop muttered.

‘Brother,’ Jude warned him.

‘Just saying it like it is. I always got the feeling she was dragging you along, playing with your heart.’

‘Bishop,’ I growled, on edge and bristling. ‘Let it go or I’ll send you sailing over this balcony.’

He backed off with his hands raised in surrender.

I meant it too, and had the chops to go through with it, given my black belt in judo.

I lifted the phone in my hand and tried one more desperate time, my thumbs flying over the screen.