Page 19 of Angelic Vengeance

I couldn’t understand.

Anger burned my chest as I remembered the night we met. How I’d lost my shit and almost killed some guy. I was extremely good at icing out my emotions, but I too had my triggers.

Although I didn’t regret almost paralyzing the piece of shit in the alley behind Francesca’s nightclub, I regretted Zachary witnessing the raw anger inside me. That had only been a mere droplet of the internal ocean of my rage.

Throughout the week I’d seen Zachary about three times at different events. He always wore one of his polished suits, alternating between expensive watches.

I paid attention to details in general, nothimin particular.

We made eye contact a few times from across the room, and I always felt the heat of his gaze even when I wasn’t looking. However, he hadn’t approached me since Natalia’s dinner.

It was weirdly bothering me that he had switched up his routine.

I thought I knew what I was dealing with: a criminal who enjoyed the hunt. But now, I wasn’t so sure. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something I was missing.

I took a deep breath and got back to reality, opening the old door of a Bronx red-brick house. Closing up behind me, I entered the dark hallway and made my way to the living room where I sat on a leather armchair with a protective plastic cover, a matching chair and sofa to my side.

Some plant pots sat by the window, which was covered with a white-cloth curtain. The fireplace sat empty during the suffocatingly warm summer. Religious icons and black-and-white pictures hung from the tapestried walls.

However, in the corners of the room, the tapestry was coming off and turning yellow. When I looked closer, the plants were dead, and light dust coated the furniture.

Outside of these walls, I had to fight for everything growing up. To survive. To eat. To not be touched.

I closed my eyes remembering the multiple times I escaped my foster homes in the middle of the night and ran all the way here. Ruiz always welcomed me, and as a kid, it used to be one of my favorite places, even if I knew I was going to get a scolding with my hot chocolate.

There’d always been something cold or mechanic about Ruiz – I guessed that’d been where I’d got my personality from – but I never quite figured it out as a child.

Still,I always came back here.

Little had I known the real monster had been hiding between these four walls my entire life.

The house had now been abandoned for years, yet something still brought me back. Maybe one of these days, something would draw Ruiz back as well. We’d meet again and settle our…Misunderstanding.

She was hiding. Waiting. Stalking.

But I’d always been a patient woman.

CHAPTER 7

Present

THE COOL SUN WAS UP and the fat pigeons of Manhattan were chirping. Cars caught in traffic pointlessly honked and people speed-walked past each other. Some went working, some went hustling, but everyone was thinking about making money. It was early but the morning rush was pretty much over.

After getting coffee and running some errands, I headed to The New York Public Library. The high, regal ceilings welcomed me as I advanced on the brownstone floor. Before I knew it, I was getting lost between wooden shelves of books. After spending an unnecessarily large amount of time in the Romance aisle and picking three new books, I decided I had reached my limit.

I turned to leave but my face hit a guy’s chest, consequently making me drop the books. I knew who it was before I even looked up.

“Morning, beautiful.”

A weird feeling bloomed in my chest.I wanted to stab him.

Running my tongue over my teeth, I raised my chin to look Zachary in the eyes. It’d been another week sinceI’d last seen him and I was beginning to think I was lucky enough to never run into the man again.

He wore basketball shorts and a black hoodie with a gym bag on one shoulder; his hair wet like he took a shower not long ago. Considering I’d nevernotseen him in a suit, I was slightly taken aback.

My heart missed a beat when I remembered there was a private members’ gym down the street.Did he see me walking and followed me in here?

“Did you see me walking and followed me in here?”