His Word...Destiny ~ Book Three in the Trusted Saga ~ (excerpt)

Title : His Word...Destiny

Book Three in the Trusted Saga

Release Date : Available now (link under "Books" section.

EXCERPT...

Samantha Barnes/Angelica Williams

I was locked in a world of darkness where the only emotion I could feel, was fear. Images of Nathan’s face leering down at me filled my mind, and I struggled to inhale enough oxygen to fill my lungs, my dismal world punctuated by the sound of tires squealing, and the roar of an engine as an accelerator was punched down to the floor, and a car sped off at a rate of knots up the street.

“Angel?” I heard the worry in Chase’s tone when he urgently called out my name, and it seemed to snap me out of the nightmare playing through my head. My eyes prickled with the onset of tears, but I was determined I wasn’t going to cry. I had to clear my throat of the lump that had gathered, when I choked back my tears, before I could talk.

Oh, my God---Kiara’s seeing Nathan? I felt sick to my stomach, and I brought my hand up to cover my mouth. I didn’t think I was actually going to be hurling up the contents of my stomach, though---it was more like an automatic reaction to the sudden realization that swamped through me, that someone I once considered a friend could betray me like this, and be openly fornicating with my nemesis. Oh, dear God. She can’t be serious---she just can’t be.

I focused on Toni’s worried face, and my brows creased together in a mixture of confusion, and hope.

“Kiara’s seeing Nathan?” I whispered incredulously. The sharp pointed cut of her bob fell forward when she lowered her head, breaking eye contact with me for a few seconds, before she lifted her head, and met my gaze once more, sadness lurking in the depths of her eyes.

“I guess she must be,” she confirmed my vague suspicions, and dashed any amount of hope I had that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut, and all my breath had been knocked out of my lungs. Pieces of her malicious, snarky visit replayed inside my head.

“He’s very unhappy about the lies you’ve been spreading---he plans to pay you a visit to discuss it.”

My head lowered, and I brought my hands up to rub my temples with my fingers. The tell-tale needle pain was stabbing behind my right eye---a sure fire sign that I was getting a headache, and I rubbed my temples even harder, trying to stave off the imminent throb from getting any worse.

I broke out in a cold sweat when I heard the firm knock on the front door, and held my breath, while Toni got up to cautiously open it. I almost cried with relief when I heard Levi’s sultry tones.

“Who in the hell left those black tire marks out the front of your house?” Toni stepped aside to let Levi in, while he asked about the burnt rubber.

“Angelica,” he was kneeling by my side in an instant. “What the hell’s going on?” Within seconds, Levi threaded his hands beneath my legs, and around my back, lifting me like I weighed nothing more than a feather, and walked me over to the sofa. He sat down, still cradling me in his strong arms.

For once, Chase remained silent. There was no goading Levi into a verbal altercation, or any threats of physical violence. Instead, he just came and sat quietly down in one of the arm chairs opposite the sofa.

“Kiara was just here.” I heard Chase grudgingly begin to answer Levi’s questions. “Angel almost threw her out of the house.”

Levi’s grip around my upper thighs on his lap tightened, while he mumbled something under his breath that I wasn’t quick enough, or coherent enough, to catch.

“What was she doing here?” he addressed Chase in a calm, but assertive tone. I snuggled in closer to his warmth, feeling his strength surround me in a comforting way when his arms firmed around me.

“We think she came here to taunt Angel.” Levi’s arm’s hardened even further as Toni nodded her agreement with what Chase said.

“What do you mean, taunt?” he asked crisply, his gaze alternating between the pair of them.

“She announced that she didn’t find Nathan to be at all like the savage monster that Angel’s painted him out to be all these years,” Chase paused for moment when I shuddered on Levi’s lap, but Levi moved his hand up to my shoulder, and pressed me closer to his strong chest. He had a chest so firm, his massive pectorals felt like armor plates had been glued to his body, and I never felt safer than when I was encircled in his powerful embrace.

“She sort of threatened Angel,” Chase concluded.

“How did she threaten Angelica?” Levi’s voice was still calm, but there was an underlying menacing quality to his tone.

“Kiara told Angel that this Nathan dude wasn’t impressed with what he calls her “lies” about him, and that he was considering taking legal action against her,” Chase halted mid-conversation when Levi snorted with disgust. “She also said he was considering paying Angel a visit.”

That information didn’t sit well with Levi one little bit. His grip around my shoulder tightened, and his fingers were digging in almost painfully into my upper arm, while the rest of him tensed to hardened stone beneath me, like he was ready to spring up at any given moment.

“In light of current events, Angelica, you have two choices.” He noticed my frown beginning, and gave me a look that told me I’d be better off if I didn’t interrupt him, so I clamped my lips back together. “One---you pack, and move somewhere else, or two---I reinstate the security I arranged when I left for Spain.” Both choices didn’t appeal to me one bit, but I could see Levi wasn’t going to give me any other option, so with a defeated slump to my shoulders, I chose the lessor of two evils.

“Reinstate the security,” I mumbled reluctantly.

Levi’s hand briefly squeezed my upper arm in a grip that said “I-know-you-don’t-like-it-but-I’m-pleased-you-agreed” while he leaned to one side, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. After tapping it with his thumb, he waited for whoever he was calling to answer at the other end, as he soothingly rubbed his hand up, and down my upper arm.

“Simon---how soon can your buddies be at Angelica’s front door?” Holy shit---he wants them here right now? I watched his brow furrow in a slight frown while he listened to Simon. “Fine---I’ll stay with her today, and we’ll figure something out after that.” He ended the call, tightened his arm around me, and leaned forward to place his phone on the little coffee table in the middle of the small room.

“They can’t get here until tomorrow evening---so you’re stuck with me for the rest of today,” he grinned, and pulled me in close, leaning back into the back of the sofa. Like that’s going to be some great hardship. I grinned back in return, while I got comfortable. I didn’t notice Toni was missing in action, until I glanced around the room. Where the hell did she go?

“Perhaps I’ll have Simon take care of you tomorrow,” Levi mused quietly to himself.

“I wouldn’t mind having some bourbon, or something---does anyone else want one?” I asked. Kiara’s visit had me balancing on a knife’s edge more than I wanted to admit. Chase nodded, and Levi’s sultry tones rumbled inside his chest when he responded that he would like one, too. I got up out of Levi’s lap, but hesitated, unsure if I should leave them both in the same room for a few minutes on their own. Chase caught on, and grinned at me.

“I promise I’ll stay in my seat, Angel,” he assured me with his hands held up in surrender in front of him. Levi just snorted from where he sat on the sofa.

“Play nice---I’ll be back in a minute.” I called down the hallway to Toni on my way through to the kitchen. “Tone---you want a drink?”

Her muffled reply came from the direction of her room. “Yes, please.” What the hell’s she doing down there?

I looked for the bourbon, and was disappointed when I couldn’t find any. The only thing we had, was some of Chase’s Jack Daniels. Ugh. I removed four glasses from the cupboard, and walked over to the fridge, pressing the first glass against the ice dispenser to drop some ice in, and repeated it with each glass, until they all had some.

I knew Levi liked his neat over ice, so I poured his first. The rest of us liked a little bit of coke in ours, so I poured a dash in each of the remaining three glasses. I picked up Levi’s, and one for Chase, and took them into the lounge.

“We’ve only got Jack’s…haven’t got any bourbon,” I explained as I handed them their drinks.

“My Jack’s?” Chase asked, taking his glass out of my outstretched hand. I shrugged apologetically.

“Yeah---sorry, Chase---I’ll replace it.” He shrugged nonchalantly, and mumbled that I “didn’t have to”. Toni walked passed me when I returned to the kitchen to fetch our glasses, and I heard her mumbling something to the guys. When I returned to the lounge, I came to complete standstill in the doorway, so abruptly the ice in the glasses clinked against the sides. I stared disbelievingly at the pile of photographs Levi was holding in his hands. I glanced quickly over toward Toni, feeling the blood drain from my face.

No way---she better not of done what I think she’s fucking done. I clenched my jaw tightly when she avoided making eye contact with me, and my hands started to tremble, the ice clinking methodically, jingling against the sides of the glasses. She was as quiet as a mouse, and wouldn’t look up at me when I reached the arm chair she was sitting in to hand over her drink.

She mumbled “Thanks” when she took her glass from my outstretched hand.

I turned around to find Levi casually flicking through the pile, the muscles at the sides of his jaw protruding, and contracting at regular intervals. He looked madder than when he came storming through the club after arriving back from Spain, and hauled me over the dance floor, and up to his office. But his demeanor was nothing compared to the anger that was welling up inside of me, at the blatant betrayal of my trust by Toni. How can she fucking do this to me? My legs were starting to tremble as much as my hands, and I reluctantly fell down onto the empty seat next to Levi on the sofa, spilling a little of my drink in my lap from the sudden drop.

Levi thrust a photo in front of my face.

“Is this what he did to you?” Levi asked in a steely, quiet tone. I couldn’t look at it, and turned my face away, so I didn’t have to. The complete, and utter devastation I felt at Toni’s betrayal, was overwhelming. I didn’t even bother to stop the flow of tears welling in my eyes from dripping down my cheeks. I didn’t notice that Chase had got up out of his chair, and come to stand behind the sofa looking over Levi’s shoulder, until I heard his acerbic heated curse.

“Son of a fucking bitch.”

I glared at Toni, and she shrunk into the back of her chair from the ferocity, and weight of my black look.

“How could you do this?” I whispered heatedly, choking back a sob. She fidgeted on her seat, and couldn’t look me in the eye.

The night Nathan beat me to a pulp, I’d turned to Toni for help, phoning her on my cell, while I staggered away, unnoticed. She’d helped my broken body up from where I’d collapsed in a bloodied heap, hidden in the entrance to the underground car park of the shopping center I’d been able to make it to that was located near Nathan’s house.

© Copyright Carol Delmornay 2016.

All Rights Reserved.