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She looked around, feeling her panic worsen. “Where’s Jax? Where’s Kiko?”

A small group of those armored soldier-types were walking up to them now, gripping assault rifles in their hands.

They were walking straight towards them.

They were walking straight towards Angel.

They moved warily, as if approaching a pride of lions.

Or maybe a pack of hungry, very confused,very, very highwolves.

It struck Angel that this could get really bad, really quickly.

Maybe for the same reason, she walked directly up to meet them.

She could practically feel Cowboy freaking out as he followed her.

He did it in his very Zen, very Cowboy way of freaking out, which was to glide in front of her and between her and the guns, even though it wouldn’t have made any difference, given that both of them wore formal wear, were high as hell, and the armor clad soldiers in front of them carried rifles that could rip them apart in less than thirty seconds flat.

Before they got too close, the soldier in front held up a hand.

“Okay, Miss,” he said. “We need you to stop there.”

His voice was strangely polite.

Angel obeyed it.

Not so much for the politeness.

It was really more the guns. These people had alotof guns. The guns they carried looked disturbingly large, especially now that she stood right in front of them. She had no idea what expression was on her face, but she folded her arms, staring at the guns, then up at the human faces. She thought about all the people behind her, who didn’t wear any armor either.

She had to placate these fuckers.

She couldn’t let them hurt her family.

“Are you in charge?” The same soldier who’d spoken before asked the question, looking directly at Angel. “You’re Angel Deveraux. Is that right?”

Angel and Cowboy exchanged looks.

Cowboy ended up being the one to answer him.

“She ain’t a ‘miss,’ she’s a missus. But ayuh, she’s in charge all right. Near enough, at the moment.” He gave the man an overt once-over, then looked at the others. “What’re you after here, friends? You’ve interrupted a private gathering. Averyprivate gathering. Family and friends only. No one else.”

Angel marveled at just how calm Cowboy’s words sounded to her ears.

She couldn’t replicate that calm herself, unfortunately.

“Did you take our friends?” she blurted. “Dr. Miriam Fox? Her husband, Quentin Black? Did you kidnap them? From here?”

“Yes.”

Angel blinked.

Whatever she’d expected him to say, it wasn’t that.

She expected something nicer.

At least something less honest.