“It might be nothing.” I try and downplay it some. I can tell he is pissed for a moment then masks it quickly.
“When it comes to you Angel, it’s everything. Now tell me what Chad did.”
“Well, he keeps offering me a job.”
“You don’t want this job.” He’s not asking me. He knows how much I dislike Chad. That I always groan when I hear his name.
“Of course not, but he keeps on pushing.”
“Pushing.” Lucas takes a step toward me.
“It might be in my head but I swear every time I turn around he’s there. Not just at work either. It could be a coincidence.” I cringe at my own words.
“There are no coincidences, Angel. Like that day in the grocery store. I followed you in.”
“You’d follow me anywhere.” I smile, trying to lighten the dark mood that has fallen over the kitchen. I know he’s not upset with me but with Chad.
“I would,” he agrees, stepping between my legs. I put my hands on his chest, breathing him in. I know my touch always brings him comfort. He leans into it. “Can you blame me?”
“I’m thankful for the day you followed me into that grocery store. Not so much for Chad being at our grocery store.” Lucas’s jaw ticks. It’s quick but I catch it.
“Has he shown up anywhere else that isn't work?”
I nod my answer. “Don’t be upset.”
“Don’t be upset that someone is scaring my wife?”
“I didn’t say I was-” He levels me with a look. Yeah, I suck at lying. “I don’t want to cause problems.”
“You’re never a problem, Angel.” He leans down to kiss me. I wrap my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. When he pulls back I smile up at him because his mouth is a little red and swollen from our kisses. “Chad won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“But we have to work together sometimes.” If only it were so easy to avoid the man.
“You trust me?”
“You don’t ever have to ask me that.” I trust this man with my life. He thinks I’m his angel but he’s my everything.
“Then I’ll handle it.”
“Okay.” I instantly feel better, feeling silly that I didn’t say something sooner. Of course my Lucas would handle it for me. He’d do anything for me.
Chapter Eleven
Lucas
I’ve never taken a person’s life out of revenge. All of my killings have been done simply to restore balance in this world. Pedophiles, abusers, rapists don’t get the punishment they deserve. Sentences are too light. Cases are too hard to prove. Victims live in fear. That never sat right with me so I used the skills I had to make things right. I’ve never deviated from that in the past. It’s the only way I can sleep in Angel’s bed, touch her precious body, accept her love.
Chad is not a pedophile, abuser, or rapist. He’s an asshole who cheats on his taxes, his clients, and his partners. And now he’s an asshole who has made my wife feel unsafe. Is that enough to warrant his death? I lower my binoculars to my lap. I shouldn’t have to wait for him to hurt her in order to act. That seems nonsensical.
Angel’s ringtone buzzes, momentarily distracting me.
“Darling?”
“I hope I didn’t bother you. I was just going to leave a voice message.”
“Not a bother.”
“Mom called and she’s complaining that she hasn’t seen us in a week. Do you mind if we go over there tonight for dinner? She’s making your favorite--pot roast and garlic mashed potatoes.”
“What time?”
“Is six too early?”
“Perfect. I’ll stop and get a bottle of the merlot she likes.”
“Thank you. And don’t work too hard today.”
“I won’t.”
It’s mid-morning and I’ve done nothing but shadow Chad. He’s boring. When he is not playing solitaire on his computer, flirting with his secretary who isn’t interested, or accepting a blowjob from a client who washed her mouth out with Coke after the encounter and spit into the bushes outside his building, he is sleeping. I drum my fingers against the steering wheel. Can I take his life? Will the world be imbalanced if I don’t? How can I be true to my vows to Angel and allow him to continue to breathe? She doesn’t want to admit it, but he frightens her. That isn’t allowed. Not while I’m here. Is there something I can do short of killing him? A simple beating perhaps? I cheer up at the prospect. I could disfigure him and every time he looked in the mirror he would have a reminder of what happens if he disrespects Angel. As I mull over that idea, I make a few notes in my notepad and tuck it away. I need to get back to the morgue and supervise an autopsy of a young man who may or may not have taken his own life. That’s more important than Chad at the moment.
It’s nearly five when I sign off on the report. The young man had died of natural causes. His family would find some sort of peace from this, I think. I have just enough time to shower and then pick up the wine for Linda, Angel’s mother. The older woman greets me at the door with a huge smile and hug.
“Lucas. You’re here. Bill, your son is here.” She gestures for me to hurry inside.
The scent of the roasted meat and roasted garlic fills my head. “It smells delicious, Linda.”
“Well, it’s done.” She pats my back and relieves me of the wine. “Go in and sit with Bill. He’s watching the news and needs someone to listen to him argue with the anchors since Angel and I refuse to.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Bill hates politics and reporters but is addicted to both. The news is always on in the Peterson household and it’s always loud.
“Can you believe this shit?” Bill says when I step into the den. “The shit that they’re allowed to say on the air is incredible. Do they fact check anymore? Do they know what a fact is? If these two were in my class, I’d have failed them.”
Bill is a retired science teacher. That’s where he met Linda, the school receptionist. When he tells the story of how they fell in love, it always starts with Linda dropping a stapler on his foot. Linda says she threw it at him for being a jerk. We all know whose version is accurate.
“Who’d you cut up today?”
“The Benson boy.”
“That’s some sad news. I had his cousin in my biology class. He was dumber than the notebooks he never wrote in.”
“Did he drop your class to graduate?”
“I passed him because no matter how many times he sat in my class, he wasn’t ever going to get it.”
Hearing that Bill bent the rules and passed kids who shouldn’t have been passed surprises me. Bill reads me accurately. He mutes the television and leans over the arm of his chair. “I know you’re a by the book kind of guy, Lucas, and I like that about you. I didn’t think there would be anyone good enough for Angel.”
“I’m not,” I inform him.
“‘Course you’re not. No one is but you’re good enough. You’re steady and trustworthy and you probably would’ve made the Benson boy sit in your class a hundred times if that’s what it took for him to get his grade up, but not everything’s black and white. The Benson kid had two younger siblings and a deadbeat father. He needed to be out of school and making money. Things like Mendel and his peas and his model theories in genetics isn’t going to help him put food on the table. He works out at the washing machine plant welding tubs and making fifty grand a year. Passing him out of biology wasn’t for me; it was for him. Sometimes you do things that aren’t quite right because it helps someone else out. You know what I mean.”