Angel and Tristian… the fact that they weren’t fake like the rest of the family. When they loved someone… they loved them wholeheartedly.
“There’s my angel,” Isabel patted her weakly on the back. She felt some of her strength returning to her by just being near Angel. The girl always did have a way of lifting her spirits and making her feel loved. But, that wasn’t going to stop her from playing the illness for all it was worth. “I’m glad you made it back to see me one last time,” she let her voice hitch as if it was such a sad thought.
“What?” Angel breathed then pulled back so she could look down at her grandmother. “Grandmother? What are you talking about?” Just hearing her say something like that made her heart hurt and her eyes tear up.
“Oh, let’s not talk about me dear-heart. Tell me everything I’ve missed in the last couple of years and who is this so-called boyfriend I’ve been hearing rumors about?” Isabel gave her a soft frown. “I can't believe my baby granddaughter is trying to grow up in a place so far away that I can't even watch it happen.”
*****
Tristian stepped out of Ashton’s room, closing the door behind him as his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Seeing it was Ray, he quickly answered. “Hey Ray, what’s up?”
“The limousine just left and your girlfriend is on her way up the mountain. It seems to be the last of the allowed traffic. Do you still want me to lock the gate down here?” Ray asked knowing it had been Isabel Hart’s instructions.
“Yeah, grandmother is adamant about not wanting any uninvited guests showing up.” Tristian confirmed. “Just close it down tight and head back up here for some fun. If anyone needs out… then they’ll just have to have an escort off the mountain.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ray murmured.
He clicked the cell off and pulled the heavy iron fence closed. Snapping the three thick padlocks together, he looked up at the high spiked fence. Seeing the cell phone tower out of the corner of his vision, he took off in that direction. It was the only cell tower for about fifty miles and he had a feeling that it was about to become useless.
*****
Angel stepped out the terrace doors needing a moment alone to absorb the shock of seeing her grandmother looking so fragile in that wheelchair. Every time she had brought up the question of her health, Isabel had sidestepped the topic with questions of her own.
After only a short visit, her grandmother had claimed she was tired and needed to go lay down for the rest of the day, but she made Angel promise to come back and see her in the morning. It worried her that her grandmother was going to bed so early and she wondered just how sick she really was. Her grandmother had been in such good health before she'd left Sanctuary to go to California. She had even blossomed after grandfather's death.
Angel's lips thinned at the thought of the old man she'd always thought of as a monster. She had never hated anyone in her whole life, but a few hours before he had fallen down the stairs, he had caught her and Hunter coming back from swimming alone at the pond.
Her grandfather yelled at her, telling her she was too old to be playing with the Indian riffraff from the reservation. He told Hunter to get the hell off his mountain then slammed the doors behind him. Seeing Hunter leave like that was heart wrenching. When she tried to speak up on his behalf, her grandfather had turned and smacked her so hard that she'd fallen down.
Angel had cried out in pain but hadn’t said anything else knowing her grandfather was probably right. He hadn’t even known she and Hunter were doing things they shouldn’t have been doing… kissing, touching, and experimenting. If he had known about that, he would have hit her more than once.
“See, told you it wasn’t a statue of an angel. It really is Angel,” someone laughed from behind her, startling her right out of her melancholy. Swinging around, she smiled seeing Uncle Robert’s identical twin sons, Devin and Damien.
“Oh my gosh, you guys have grown up!” She smiled as they took turns hugging her and swinging her around in circles. They were the same age as Tristian, but they had somehow outgrown him in the last two years. Standing at least six foot, two inches, they looked like bouncers. Both of them were in skintight, black t-shirts with the logo, ‘Sanctuary’ on the front of them.
She placed a hand on each one of their upper arms, watching the pride flash in their gray eyes. “I guess that tells me what you two have been up to,” she giggled. “Been staying out of trouble? Or causing it?”
“Who? Us?” Devin laughed as he set her back on her feet, letting his hand caress her thigh and hip on the way down.
“You should know us better than that,” Damien rolled his eyes at his brother as he slipped his arm around Angel’s waist and pulled her out of Devin’s hold. It was a game the twins had played for years… always trying to outdo each other when a pretty girl was nearby.
“Lucky for you guys that she does,” Hunter glared at the twins then smiled as Angel turned at the sound of his voice.
Angel’s lips parted as she laid eyes on Hunter for the first time in almost two years. Suddenly, all kinds of memories flashed through her mind, making her knees weak and her pulse race. Emails and phone calls just didn’t stand a chance against seeing him in person.
His hair was longer than she remembered, going halfway down his back in inky darkness. He looked just like one of those guys on the front of a historical romance novel where the Indian and the white girl are pictured in a hot embrace.
Blushing at the mental picture, she untangled herself from her cousins and stepped toward him. “You’re taller,” she breathed as she looked up at him. Hunter was the one person who knew more about her than her brother did.
“No, you’re just shorter,” Hunter taunted right before he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her into the air. “Unless, I do this.” She always had been light as a feather to him. He growled inwardly as she reached down for him, ending the childish ride with a tight embrace. He inhaled her scent, reminding him of all the reasons he had waited on her to come back.
Knowing they were being watched, Hunter quickly set her back on her feet and looked over her shoulder at the twins. “The pool party’s starting and there’s someone out there asking for you guys.”
“Stacey!” the twins high-fived each other. “See you two later.” They took off as if it was a race to see who could reach the girl first.
“So they finally learned how to share?” Angel asked with a straight face as she watched the twins leave then giggled lightly at her own joke.
“I think they just like the competition,” Hunter mused. “This Stacey girl shows up all the time just so they’ll fight over her… so far, neither of them has won.”
She smiled softly as she turned back to Hunter, noticing a long lock of ebony hair that had fallen into his face when he’d picked her up. Reaching for it, she tenderly moved it to the side, and tucked it behind his ear. “I feel like I can finally breathe.”
“What was stopping you?” Hunter’s voice was just as soft as hers. He knew what she was saying because he could feel it too. He felt it so much it was making his eyes burn.
His gaze lowered to her pouting lips and he felt himself getting closer… wanting to kiss her like
