Bishop's Angel by Tory Richards Read Free Book Online Page B

ground.
    “Graceful,” Jody chuckled, turning back the
way she’d come. The others followed suit once they saw Angel had
been rescued and was okay.
    “Thank you,” Angel said. “I guess it was a
good thing you were hanging around.” She turned to leave but he
held onto her shoulders, preventing her from going anywhere.
    “Name’s Steve,” he said, reaching for his
beer on a table where he’d obviously placed it earlier.
    She didn’t know him, other than he’d been
sitting at the table next to them with his friends, yet something
warned Angel that he was a little drunk. “Thank you, Steve.” She
turned to leave again.
    “Wait a minute.” Without warning she found
herself being pulled back by a firm hand on her arm. “The least you
can do is tell me your name.”
    She took a deep breath, smiled, and tried to
pry her arm loose without drawing attention. A quick glance at
Bishop told her he was watching them closely. For the first time
she noticed that there was a woman sitting between him and another
man. Was she Bishop’s date, or the other guys? Right now they were
conversing, only Bishop’s narrowed gaze was fixed on her. He looked
poised for trouble, as if sensing it.
    “I’m sorry, it’s Angel. I see my friends are
getting ready to leave. If you’ll excuse me—”
    “Why don’t you stay a little while? I’d like
to buy you a drink.”
    “That’s okay.” Again Angel tried to pull
free as she noticed Bishop leave the bar. “Look, Steve, I
appreciate you rescuing me from Bully Boy and the offer of a drink,
but I’m not interested. Can we just please keep this friendly?” Lord, I don’t want a scene!
    “Sure.” He practically threw Angel’s arm
from him, and then held his up in the air. “I guess you and your
friends are all just flirts, huh?”
    What? Where was that coming from? Angel decided to distance herself from him as fast as possible,
before things got out of hand. She hadn’t noticed how much alcohol
laced his breath until now, and she knew the best thing she could
do was remain calm and just agree with him. Well, at least to a
certain extent.
    “You’re right, and I’m sorry if I misled you
in any way, Steve. Maybe we can have that drink next time?” Angel
guessed she’d taken about three steps backward before he surprised
her by reaching forward and grabbing her arm.
    “Then how about a goodbye kiss, baby?” He
hiccupped.
    The next thing Angel knew she was being
pushed roughly up against Bully Boy, and then all hell broke loose.
The two guys he was with scooted back their chairs and began
rushing toward them, her girlfriends dropped their stuff ready to
jump in, and she was very aware Bishop was walking toward them with
a look of anger on his face. That was all she had time to take in
before she realized Steve was crowding her against the bull and
leaning in for a kiss. She brought her hands up and pushed against
his chest.
    “Steve, man, let her go!” One of his friends
ordered. He took Steve by the arm but Steve pulled away sharply,
not taking his blurry-eyed gaze off Angel.
    “Yeah, you don’t want this kind of trouble,”
the other said. “Let’s go back to the table.”
    “He’s not usually like this,” his first
friend said, making embarrassed eye contact with Angel.
    Angel glanced around to see her friends had
stopped halfway to her, but were poised and ready for action. Then
her gaze fell on Bishop, and real fear raced through her.
Everything about him said he was battle ready. His expression was
hard as granite, eyes as solid and cold as blue ice. His hands were
fisted, and he’d just about reached where her friends had gathered.
He kept walking and passed the two men trying to talk some sense
into Steve.
    They didn’t notice Bishop until he was level
with them. Without hesitation Bishop grabbed Steve, yanked him away
from Angel, and handed him off to his round eyed friends. It was
obvious he wasn’t going to waste words trying to reason