Page 11 of UnWholly Angels (Crestview Cardinals #1)

Chapter Six

Riley

T he fragile sheet of ice cracked beneath the weight of my car as I pulled into Nick and Chloe’s driveway.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood as I watched a slow-moving silhouette on the porch, my eyes widening at the sight.

Chloe and the kids were driving behind us, so who could possibly be lying there?

My question was answered when Nick’s chest began to rise and fall rapidly as he reached for the door handle.

“Who is that?” I asked with concern. The temperature tonight was below freezing, and I couldn’t imagine anyone would survive in this for too long.

“No, no, no…shit! Let me out now,” Nick demanded, yanking hard at the door handle. I grimaced as he threw himself from the car, even though I was still driving. “Who knows how long Maya’s been out here!”

Maya?

It couldn’t be.

“Wait,” I called after him, frozen in my own state of shock.

When I realized Nick wasn’t stopping, I pulled as close to the porch as possible and slammed the car into park.

Ripping the keys from the ignition, I ran as fast as I could to meet him without slipping.

His panicked whispers could be heard over the shrieking wind, and my brows furrowed.

Disbelief crossed my features as I stared at the half-dead woman in front of me.

Nick had no idea what he was talking about; Maya was dead.

Through the blood and grime on her body, I recognized my cam girl as the person before us.

I wondered what could have caused her to go from the smartass woman I met a few days ago to this.

But I couldn't ignore the twinge of familiarity as I knelt to examine her.

“What did you call her? Answer me, Nicholas,” I snapped.

“It doesn’t matter right now,” he insisted. “Her lips are blue, and she's covered in blood. I don’t think all of it is hers, though. Help me get her inside before she loses a limb.”

Nick was in pain tonight after taking a few good hits into the boards, so I took the lead.

Scooping her into my arms, I quickly made my way into the house and raced upstairs to the guest room.

This girl needed to warm up fast, or she was going to die.

I hoped that she didn't have frostbite, or she would need to be taken to the hospital.

Tired footsteps followed us down the hallway, stopping abruptly behind me as Nick wordlessly threw a few thick wool blankets on the bed.

I laughed to myself and shrugged. At least I'd be nice and itchy.

Laying the woman down gently, I placed each thick comforter over her softly.

Rage coursed through my veins, and I wanted to know who did this and why.

Nick ran his hand over his face. “I’ll go turn on the shower for—”

“No,” I interrupted, throwing up my hand to shush him.

“If we warm her up too fast, she’ll go into shock.

Go get me any extra blankets you have and fast.” The slam of the front door caused me to snap my head to the side.

Nick’s family shouldn’t have to see this.

Nodding toward the stairs, Nick took the hint quickly, backing out and closing the bedroom door softly as he went to tend to his family.

Turning back to the woman before me, I groaned as I considered my options.

I needed to warm her up to see where the blood was coming from.

In order to do that, I had to take her clothes off.

There would be no point in heating her up if she died from blood loss first. As I moved to the bed, I hesitated.

What would happen if she woke up in the middle of this half-assed rescue mission?

I scoffed at the thought but knew skin-to-skin contact would give her the best chance.

Yanking my hoodie and shirt over my head, I climbed into bed next to her and pulled the covers over us.

I positioned myself to face the woman before ripping her nightgown down the middle and tossing it aside.

In any other scenario, this would have been insanely sexy, but my expression turned to shock at the sight of the bruises covering her body.

But there weren’t just bruises. As I wrapped my arms around her, my thumb brushed lightly across cuts littering her back.

Some felt slightly healed, while others were still scabbed over.

I was slammed with so many mixed emotions for this woman.

I wanted to take her pain and make it my own.

Something in her life must be dangerous, or she was in some sort of trouble with something, or someone.

My heart clenched, feeling guilty about how arrogant I was to her in the parking garage.

“You’re going to be okay,” I whispered into her hair. I brought her body closer to mine, tightening my arms to create a protective shield while I warmed her frozen body. I was beyond sweaty but had no intention of going anywhere.

After some time, a relieved sigh left me as her color slowly returned.

Her fingers were resting against my back, twitching every so often as her temperature rose.

She was still bleeding, and I had to figure out where it was coming from.

Thankfully, I knew the basics. Her eyes fluttered slightly, and part of me wished she would wake up as Nick’s voice entered my head.

Who knows how long Maya’s been out here.

Her lips are turning blue.

My head snapped to the door as Chloe peeked in to ask if I needed anything.

I knew she was trying to help, so I asked her to bring up some gauze and warm water.

It was the only thing I could think of, but I knew it would buy me some time.

Once she left, I turned back to the woman before me and stared hard at her features.

Why did Nick call this girl Maya? He knew she was dead.

Even if I had somehow imagined her death, there was no way this girl was my Maya.

Her nose was thin but formed. Her jawline, defined.

She looked like she’d had work done, and Maya was always against it.

A ‘to each their own’ situation, but my girl never would.

My girl had been against becoming plastic.

She cared about how she looked, but in a beautiful, flawless sense.

With or without makeup, she always turned heads.

My thoughts were interrupted when Chloe returned with the supplies.

I thanked her quietly, turning away as she left the room again.

My jaw clenched as I examined my cam girl’s arm, disgusted by the mangled sight.

Pulling the covers further down, I turned her forearm around and revealed a fresh wound.

Someone had taken a fucking piece of flesh from this woman.

It was a gnarly gash, but it wasn’t deep enough to need stitches.

“Who did this to you?” I asked darkly, as if she could hear me and answer back.

I slowly ran the cloth over her arm, clearing the blood away so I could wrap it with the thin cotton-like material.

The rest of her wounds were superficial and would heal in time.

Luckily, there were no signs of frostbite either, which meant she was the luckiest woman in the world right now.

Once finished, I watched for a few moments to make sure she remained stable.

But something clawed at the back of my mind; a nagging feeling of betrayal and confusion that seeped into my chest. I was still stuck on the fact that Nick called her Maya.

Was it possible that she was alive? I needed to know, or this would eat away at me.

There was only one way to find out.

Maya had a noticeable birthmark on her neck, right under her right ear.

It was larger than usual and looked almost like a burn on her skin.

She was very self-conscious about it, but I had no problem telling other people to fuck off if they stared at her for too long.

Birthmark or not, she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and I reassured her of that as much as possible.

Soft snores poured from her mouth as I pushed her matted hair to the side. Looking below her ear, my jaw tightened when I found the birthmark right where I remembered it to be. My stomach dropped as my whole world came crashing down around me.

“Freckles?” I whispered, placing my forehead against her temple with a deep inhale. No. I'm not…I'm not ready for this .

“Riley?” A hoarse whisper pulled me from my racing thoughts. Glancing down, my eyes slowly locked with her brown orbs, which were now open and frozen in time.

Maya.

Lifting the covers from my sweaty body, I jumped from the bed, throwing my shirt over my head and heading for the door.

It felt like a walk of shame, and I could feel her gaze burning into my back as I raced out the door.

One could call me a coward, but I did not have the mental capacity at that moment.

I could only focus on the fact that Maya was alive.

She was here, and if she looked like that, it could only mean one thing.

Fuck.

Rocco still had his claws in her.

Barreling down the stairs, I found Nick and Chloe in the living room.

“You bastard! You knew, didn't you?” I shouted. “You’ve known for twelve fucking years she was still alive?” Venom filled my words as I grabbed Nick by the front of his shirt, hauling him up from the couch.

His eyes went wide as I stared at him, my heart racing as I clenched my teeth.

“How could you do this to me? What the fuck dude!”

“Angel, I—”

“Shut up,” I growled at Nick. “You’ve known all along. You lied to me.”

Chloe rose from her spot on the couch, running to her husband's defense. “Stop it, Angel. He didn’t know,” she insisted, trying to diffuse the situation.

I whipped my head in her direction and glared at her.

“Stop lying, Chloe. You knew about this too. In my eyes, you’re just as much to blame.

” My voice cracked as grief and betrayal slammed into me.

“You should have told me. I could have helped her; I could have saved her instead of believing she was fucking dead this whole time.”

Chloe placed her hand on my forearm. “There was nothing you could have done. She needed to be the one to ask for help, but she wasn’t ready. We didn’t have a choice; we had to wait,” she explained.

I huffed angrily and let go of Nick, pushing him away from me. “You let me take the fall for this, knowing she wasn’t dead?” I asked in disbelief. When he didn’t answer, I shook my head. “I went to jail for nothing. I believed Maya was dead. Everyone told me she was dead. And it was all a lie?”

Nick moved to stand beside Chloe and gripped the back of his neck. “Dude, I promise I haven’t known this whole time. And Chloe was only trying to protect Maya. We didn’t do any of this to hurt you, I swear,” he insisted.

I stared at him, trying to process everything I had just learned. Suddenly, a realization hit me like a freight train. “Nine months ago, you told me about this ‘hot cam girl’ I just had to check out,” I snapped.

“You knew it was Maya. It’s been her the whole time, hasn’t it?” As the words settled in the air, a small whimper came from the stairs, but I ignored it, too angry to focus on anything else.

Was Maya part of this sick joke?

Maya had to have known that was my screen name...

Right?

Please don’t let her be in on it?

Chloe answered before Nick could. “You were watching her this whole time. How come you never noticed any similarities?” She narrowed her gaze at me.

“You can be so dense. Why do you think we sent you her page?” She narrowed her gaze at me.

“We were desperately hoping you would see the similarities: brown eyes, the freckles, and her…softness. The way that woman still remains so loving is nothing short of a miracle. I was just hoping something inside you would see that too.”

I stood still, chest tight, and unable to answer when another sound drew my attention to the stairs.

Looking up, my chest tightened at the sight of Maya sitting on a middle step, her eyes filled with tears as she held her bandaged arm against her chest. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

All I could do was stare at her, the anger and betrayal stealing my ability to breathe.

Maya’s face scrunched with confusion, like my words were sinking in, and at any moment, the lightbulb would go off.

Suddenly her head snapped up, her eyes wide with either realization or. ..shock?

Nick broke the silence as he took a step in my direction. “Angel, you have to believe us,” he pleaded. “We didn’t have a choice.”

Keeping my eyes locked with Maya’s, I clenched my fists and forced myself to speak her way.

“I promised to protect you. I loved you, but clearly you never loved me,” I said, my voice sounding lifeless.

She tried to speak, but I cut her off. “I bet you and Rocco laughed your asses off after I was hauled away that night. Non-compliant, weak Riley was out of the way. I spent three years behind bars for a crime I didn’t commit.

I didn’t deserve that, Maya. You have no idea what I had to do to survive.

” I walked over to the stairs until I was inches away from her.

I could see her trembling, but I didn’t care.

“I hope it was worth it,” I hissed before reaching under my shirt to yank my necklace off and throw it at her feet.

A sob escaped her lips as I turned away from her, ignoring Nick and Chloe’s protests as I left the house and stomped toward my car.

I fished my keys from my pocket and got in, ready to race away and never look back.

As I turned the key in the ignition, I felt a pull in my chest and glanced back at the house.

I knew I shouldn’t leave, but staying would only do more damage.

I needed to find a way to numb the pain and shock rushing through me.

Shaking my head, I turned to my center console and opened my GPS. When the voice command was ready, I searched for the only place I knew could solve this problem.

“Show me the nearest liquor store.”