Chapter One Hundred Two

Angel stood by the door, afraid to step inside Colton’s room. It didn’t take long for Thorne to get there. He must have taken the jet, which meant people would take note that he’d suddenly jumped on a plane to rush off.

She didn’t care what happened to her now. She’d gladly spend the rest of her life behind bars if it meant Colton was okay.

“How is he?” Thorne asked.

“He’s stable for now. It’ll be touch and go for the next twenty-four hours.” She had been watching every breath, every blip on the heart monitor.

He was alive. For now.

“He made it through surgery,” Thorne said with a nod. “That’s a good sign.”

She didn’t answer. She wasn’t ready to rest easy. Not until he opened his eyes.

Not that she would be there to see that happen…

“The police will be looking for you,” Thorne said at her side.

“I don’t care.”

“You’re not going to be any help to him in jail.”

She knew that. But she hadn’t been any help to him, even standing right next to him. She’d done nothing but cause him trouble and pain. She could only hope she wouldn’t cost him his life.

She’d been so stupid. She’d done nothing to stop Lucas Stone while she’d had the chance.

She’d thought he was long gone. She’d killed him. Or so she’d been told. When he showed up in that warehouse, walking straight out of her nightmares, her mind had seized up and she hadn’t been able to move a muscle.

“I didn’t help Colton when I had the chance. This is my fault. I froze when I saw Lucas.”

“You’re sure it was him? We were all certain he was dead.”

Killed, the night he’d shot her for betraying him. She’d managed to get off a shot, too—a good shot from the amount of blood he’d left behind. He’d stumbled backward and tumbled over the edge of a bridge. A very high bridge.

She’d been told he would definitely have died from the gunshot, the blood loss, or the fall. Apparently, none of those things had actually ended the monster.

“Right. I guess I’m not very dead, either, am I…” Angel murmured.

“Not so much. Neither is Samantha.” Thorne’s daughter was alive and well in the witness protection program, married to Garrett. “Or Colton.”

God, she hoped he stayed that way.

She remembered his concern that no one would come to his funeral when he died the next time. Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

“Let me guess. You’re going after Stone.” Thorne sounded almost bored.

“I have a plan.” At the moment, that plan consisted of many dangerous things. But she knew once she calmed down, she would be able to come up with a way to track Lucas and bring him to justice. Now that she knew who she was dealing with, it wouldn’t be as difficult. She knew Lucas Stone as well as anyone could know him.

“Is there anything I can say to talk you out of going it alone?” Thorne asked.

“And risk more people I love? No, thank you.”

He looked a little startled at her words.

She managed a weak smile. “That’s right. I love you, you stubborn old grump. You’ve been like a father to me. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done for me. You saved my life.”

He smiled back. “I seem to remember you telling me you saved your own life.”

When he’d showed up at the hospital the night of her brother’s attack, Thorne had told her how lucky she was. He’d said her guardian angel must be working overtime.

She’d been bouncing from anger, fear, and the pain of losing her parents. She didn’t know the man who’d walked into her hospital room and said he’d known her father long ago, and that he was there to help.

She’d lashed out and said something disrespectful. Something about how he was a little too late to help her. Then she’d told him she didn’t need a guardian angel because she could take care of herself. She was her own damn guardian angel.

That was when he’d given her the nickname Angel, and when she finally got her shit together and joined his team, that was the name she’d taken.

“I’m mature enough now to give you credit for saving me from myself,” she admitted. “I was on a path of self-destruction.”

Thorne crossed his arms and gazed down at her. “Yet you’re not mature enough to let me help you with this.”

“If he wakes up, give him a job on Task Force Phoenix. He’ll make a good marshal. And you may need someone to replace me.”

A muscle worked in Thorne’s jaw. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to rid the world of a diabolical killer.”

She gave him a quick hug, and spared a long look at the man lying in the bed with all the tubes and wires. Her chest hurt at having to leave him again. If she were a different person, she might have been able to have a happy life with him. She wanted it so bad, but it was out of her grasp.

There was a killer out there, and he needed to be stopped.

With that, she left the hospital to go plan her next move.