Angel Fire

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sam stared down the long corridor, trying to make sense of her feelings. Angel had violently hit Leslie, to the point of knocking her unconscious. He had killed that innocent family. He had killed so many that day. And he had abducted her at gunpoint. Tied her hands with a rope, threatened to kill her. She had been frightened, yes. But from the very beginning, from the moment she’d looked into his eyes, she’d seen something…something she couldn’t put her finger on. She thought, maybe, subconsciously, she’d known all along that he wouldn’t kill her.

“Ma’am?”

Sam turned to the young guard who stood beside her. She offered him a quick smile. “I’m fine.”

“I’ll take you down there.”

“No need,” she said. “I can manage.”

“No offense, ma’am, but he’s one mean son of a bitch,” he said.

Sam squared her shoulders. “And no offense to you, but I do this for a living.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Dallas Police Department,” she said.

“You’re a cop?”

“Yes.”

He looked past her, down the row of empty cells. “I should still go with you. They—”

“You can wait here if you want,” she said, taking a step away from him. “He wanted to see me, not you.”

She left the guard standing where he was as she headed down to the last cell. To say she’d been shocked that Angel had been caught so quickly was an understatement. He’d gone to such lengths to escape, to stay hidden. They’d walked for days across the mountains to avoid the highway. Why had he gotten caught? Cameron questioned it as well. Tori and Andrea didn’t know Angel. Not that Sam could say she knew him well, not like Cameron. But from what she did know, he was smarter than to drive right up to a checkpoint.

“Sam? Is that you?”

She smiled when she heard his voice. “Yes.”

She walked closer, stopping at his cell. It was dark and he was sitting in the shadows. When he stood, she heard the rustle of chains. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and his legs were shackled—leg irons. He came into the light and she gasped. His lip was split open, one of his eyes was discolored and badly swollen.

“Yeah, they had a little fun with me,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He shrugged, and she noticed that his hands were cuffed as well. “At least they didn’t shoot me.”

She met his gaze through the bars. “Why did you get caught, Angel?”

“Why? It wasn’t like it was intentional.”

“Wasn’t it?”

He stared at her for a long moment, then his good eye wrinkled up in a smile. “So you made it out okay? No mountain lions?”

She smiled too. “No mountain lions. Actually, they were only about two hours behind us.”

“Oh yeah? Your Tori?”

Sam nodded.

“I guess your faith in her paid off.” He looked past her. “Am I going to meet her?”

Sam shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. She wants to shoot you.”

Angel laughed, then winced and brought his hand up to his busted lip. “Damn,” he murmured. Then, “She wants to shoot me, huh? She’ll have to get in line.”

“I imagine.” She took a step closer to the bars. “Is this what…what this is about? What if I hadn’t made it out okay?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I guess I would have led them to where I left you.” He looked away. “I had to make sure you were okay, Sam.”

“So you’re trading a visit with me for three million dollars?”

“Yeah. What? You don’t think you’re worth that much?”

“When there were no helicopters searching for us, you didn’t think I was,” she reminded him.

“Well, I know they wanted the money. And I wanted to…to make sure you were back in civilization,” he said. “It seemed like a fair exchange.”

“Thank you for being worried about me,” she said quietly. She looked down, then back to him. “I’m having a hard time with all of this, Angel,” she admitted.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I know who you are, what you did. Yet I’m having a hard time separating all that from the man I came to know.”

“Sam, I’m still the man who abducted you. I held a goddamn gun to your head,” he said, his voice cracking. “And I’m so, so sorry for that.”

“Why, Angel? Why are you sorry? Isn’t that who you are?”

Their gazes locked together for a long instance. He nodded. “Yes. Yes, that’s who I am, Sam. Don’t forget it. But you…you were…you were different.”

“Different?”

“You cared.”

She nodded. “Maybe that’s what has got me so shaken,” she said.

“Because I’m a killer?”

“Yes. And now, there’s absolutely nothing I can do for you.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve been in worse jams than this,” he said, holding his cuffed hands up.

Sam turned when she heard the far cell door open to the corridor. “Looks like…my time is up,” she said quietly. She heard footsteps approaching.

“Yeah, I guess.” He brought his hands up, wrapping his fingers around the bars. “You take care of yourself, Sam.”

She reached out and touched one of his hands gently, her gaze locked with his. “I will.” She took a deep breath. She had no words of comfort for him. He would spend the rest of his life in prison. “Goodbye, Angel.”

She turned and was surprised to find Cameron waiting for her. She looked at her questioningly.

“I wanted a quick word with him,” Cameron explained.

Sam nodded then walked past her, turning once, seeing Angel’s hands still clutching the bars.

* * *

Cameron stopped in front of Angel, seeing shock and recognition on his bruised face.

“Damn. Cameron Ross. Now there’s a name from the past.” He looked her over. “What the hell are you doing here?”

She tilted her head a bit. “FBI,” she said easily.

He laughed. “FBI? Figures.” He met her gaze. “Let me guess. You were the one tracking me?”

She nodded. “You did a pretty good job. The rain on that last night set me back a bit.”

“I’m sure it did.” He glanced away, then back to her. “So Sam…you know her?”

“No. Just met.”

“You met her partner? Tori?”

“Yeah. She was on the mission with me.”

“What’s she like?”

Cameron frowned, wondering at his question. She hadn’t seen Angel in a number of years, but she remembered him as cold, impersonal. But his question seemed genuine.

“Arrogant,” she said. “Kinda bossy. Thinks she knows everything.”

He smiled. “Hell, sounds like you’re describing yourself there, Ross.”

Cameron smiled, then slowly shook her head. “Angel, what the hell happened to you? You were a good soldier once. Why all this?”

“Why not? The military taught me to kill. I was good at it.” He paused. “So were you.”

“I simply did my job, nothing more,” she said.

“Yeah? Well, when I got out, there was no cushy FBI job waiting for me,” he said. “But there were other governments willing to pay for my talents. Governments and opposition leaders, both.”

“Using your talents in a war zone is one thing. Coming over here, killing innocent people is quite another. Killing that family…”

“Yeah, well, that was unfortunate.”

She shoved her hands into her pockets. “That’s it? Unfortunate?” She shook her head. “Angel, you’re damn lucky New Mexico repealed their death penalty.”

“Am I?”

She recognized the indifference in his voice and knew he had no remorse whatsoever. She turned to go, then stopped. “Why a hostage, Angel? Doesn’t really seem your style.”

He shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I was working on Plan C, since A and B were fucked,” he said.

“And after all of that, you get sloppy and drive into a checkpoint?”

He moved away from the bars, into the shadows. “Yeah, well, it had been a really long week.”

She had not worked with Angel in several years, but the man who was on her team was always meticulous, never sloppy. She was about to question him further, but the loud clanging of the cell doors down the corridor stopped her. She heard several footsteps approaching and she stepped back. She doubted he would have anything else to say.