Fallen Angel (Angel's Halo MC 6)

“Is there even anything to eat here?” Kelli grumbled as she looked around the room with curious eyes.

The upper floor was completely open, containing both the kitchen and living room, but downstairs there were two bedrooms and a little bathroom that had a postage-stamp shower. There was also the small room where the first generation of Hannigans had cleaned and cut up whatever game they had caught.

There was a drain in the middle of the room so that the game could be hung upside down and the blood could easily flow out of it. The room, no matter how often and thoroughly it was cleaned, always smelled like old blood. When this cabin had belonged to my father, it hadn’t always been used for hunting, and some of that old blood didn’t completely belong to the deer and elk that he and his brothers had killed.

“There should still be some canned food in the pantry.” I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in close. “Go shower, babe. I’ll find us something to eat and make some coffee.”

Something in her eyes softened, and she gave me a smile with those pouty lips that were just one of her many gorgeous assets that got her good tips at Paradise City. “Thanks, babe.”

I slapped her on the ass and pushed her in the direction of the stairs. As she walked away, I just stood there, watching her leave me. She didn’t seem to care that I had been hurting all day, that I had been stressed and tired and pissed at the entire world. She was like a robot at times, emotionless. When I’d first met her, I’d thought it was just a mask she put on to keep the rest of the world out.

Now I wondered if she was a sociopath.

I heard the water turn on downstairs and then went back down to my hog to get the few provisions I had brought. Coffee was the biggest necessity since I knew the pantry was still well stocked after the last time I’d been up here with some of the brothers. I found a few cans of beef stew in the pantry that still had a few months before it went bad. I put it

on the stove to simmer while I made the coffee.

I was putting our dinner in bowls when Kelli returned, her hair wrapped in a thin white towel and dressed in one of my old shirts. She sat at the beat-up old table, tucking her bare legs up under her and showing me that she was indeed wearing panties. For the first time since I had started fucking her, my dick didn’t even stir at the sight of her sexy little scrap of underwear. I had turned off all my emotions to prepare for what was going to happen next, what I had to do. It would make this easier. I couldn’t let myself soften where she was concerned. Too much was at risk if I fucked this up.

I set her bowl and mug of coffee in front of her before grabbing my own and taking the chair on the other side of the table. She drank her coffee in silence for a few minutes, letting the stew cool a little before daring to eat it. I kept my focus on my meal, refusing to let the events of the day overpower me. I could think about Tanner and Warden later, when I had Kelli under lock and key.

Her phone buzzed, surprising us both. Service out here wasn’t the best. I had put a booster on my phone so I could get texts just in case Quinn or Bash needed me.

I lifted my gaze to find her frowning down at the screen of her phone. “Problems?”

She blinked her eyes a few times, seeming unable to focus on me. “Um, no. Just…” Her speech was starting to slur, and I pushed my half-eaten bowl of stew away. “Jusssh…” She tried again, her brow puckering in confusion. “Jusssh.”

“Just what?” I asked with both brows lifted.

She started to sway in her chair, and she unfolded her legs from under herself clumsily in an attempt to balance herself. Her phone dropped onto the floor at her feet, and she grasped the edges of the table, shaking her head as if to clear it. “Wats wong wit me?” she slurred out.

I lifted my mug of coffee, watching her over the rim of it as I took a slow swallow. “Your coffee was laced with a little concoction my sister invented herself. Just a little will knock a man as big as Spider on his ass for two days. I barely put a pinch in your coffee.”

She jerked to her feet so quickly that her chair tipped over, and she nearly tripped over it as she hastily backed away from the table. “Wut?” she groaned, her hands going to her head as she started to sway.

“Just relax,” I instructed her. “Let it do its job. It won’t kill you.”

“Why?” she cried as she grabbed on to the back of the old couch across the room. Her legs were shaking, her knees about to give out, but the girl was a fighter. “Why?” she cried again.

I shrugged like it was nothing to me. Like she hadn’t stabbed me in the back and pierced my heart with her poison-spiked dagger. Like she hadn’t killed what I was beginning to feel for her. “Why did you meet with Bubbles?” I asked instead.

“Who?” But she was too far gone to hide the guilt that flashed across her face.

“It doesn’t matter,” I assured her. “You’ll tell me eventually.”

Her legs started to give out, and she dropped to her knees painfully hard as her body began to go slack, becoming dead weight. Her eyes began to drift shut, and I slowly got to my feet, taking my time as I crossed the room. She fell onto her face, and I told myself I didn’t care if she was hurt or not. She deserved a little pain for what she’d done to me.

She was completely out by the time I reached her and lifted her into my arms. I carried her downstairs to the master bedroom and laid her on the floor as I prepared the bed. I put sheets on the mattress and then attached the cuffs to each bedpost. When I had everything set, I placed her on the bed and then slapped the cuffs on to each wrist and ankle.

As I looked down at her, I couldn’t help remembering all the times we had played this game before. Kelli liked the rough shit. Got off when I tied her to the bed and made her beg to come. But that wasn’t going to happen this time. This wasn’t a game.

Turning away from the sight of her spread on the bed, so fucking gorgeous it hurt to look at her, I shut the door behind me and walked into the bathroom. I felt dirty and not just from the long ride to Northern Nevada. Kelli made me feel tainted, but I had to turn that shit off. I couldn’t let myself feel all the things that were churning in my gut right then. It would get me nowhere when I needed answers.

I showered and then went back upstairs to clean up the kitchen before parking my ass on the couch and shooting my brother-in-law a text to let him know I had arrived and had everything under control.

Chapter Twelve

Rory