Fallen Angel: Mythic Series, Book 2 by Abbie Zanders Read Free Book Online Page A

what he really wanted to hear. “I’ll be there. Tonight. I promise.”
    When David leaned forward again, she was gone.
    So he did the only thing he could do. He went home and waited, hoping she kept her word.
    David breathed a sigh of relief when the doorbell chimed. Ryssa had come.
    Dressed once again in shabby but clean clothing, she looked more like she had the first time he’d seen her, but he didn’t know if he would ever get the mental image of her in her “uniform” out of his head. It made him think and feel things he just wasn’t comfortable dealing with under the circumstances.
    Her face didn’t look nearly as bad as he’d originally thought. What he’d imagined to be bruises had probably been just shadows, or artfully applied make-up. Maybe it was zombie theme night at the club, and she’d been dressing the part.
    Neither of them said anything as he led her to his mother’s room. That was probably a good thing; he didn’t want to give her the wrong impression. This was not a social call, and they weren’t friends.
    Once again, he was not asked to join them. He closed the door, glad that he had seen Elizabeth’s eyes light up when she spotted Ryssa. And oddly disappointed that he was excluded.
    Two hours later, he was still skulking around outside the room. Sitting, pacing, and straining to hear without actually pressing his ear to the door. Other than indistinguishable murmurs and the occasional sound of laughter, he couldn’t make anything of it.
    Whatever the reason, Elizabeth had really taken to the girl. Woman. Whatever. How old was she, anyway? Her pale face and big eyes had a timeless quality that made it impossible to gauge.
    Was she even old enough to work in a club like that?  Without all the crap on her face, she looked about as young and innocent as she could get without being jailbait. But her eyes – those damn gray eyes - they held more pain and experience than anyone that young could possibly feel.
    David put a halt to those thoughts. None of that mattered. She obviously had problems. Lots of people did. Not his fault, and not his business, as she had so eloquently pointed out. The only thing he needed to be concerned with was making sure she wasn’t taking advantage of his mother. He needed to stay focused on that, and nothing else.
    Thinking she’d been physically hurt, though – that bothered him. Not because he cared about her; he didn’t. Well, not more than he should. Anyone with a sense of decency would be bothered. She was young, she was female, and she was small. Yeah, she had a foul mouth on her and an attitude the size of Texas, or maybe Alaska. Yeah, she worked in a bad place and dressed up like some fantasy character in a deviant porn flick. But still. Some things were just hardwired into the male DNA, and seeing a woman hurt – any woman – was inherently wrong.
    She hadn’t had any of those marks that first night, nor when he’d shown up at the club. Did someone there do it?  That guy that had come by and said something about a charge for him being there - was that her boss?  Ryssa had paled and begged him to leave, then said she’d pay... 
    That queasy feeling in his stomach surged with a vengeance. Was he the reason Ryssa got hurt?  Is that why the big bouncer looked at him as if he carried the plague and told him in rough grunts and growls that he couldn’t use Ryssa’s name to get into the club when he’d tried again?
    No, he shook his head. Couldn’t be. He was overreacting, that’s all. Right? 
    Yet she had been begging him to leave, which seemed totally uncharacteristic at the time, and she’d looked scared...
    Ryssa finally emerged from Elizabeth’s room, interrupting his thoughts. She barely spared him a sideways glance before making a beeline for the front door.
    “Am I the reason you got hurt?” he blurted out, following Ryssa out the door. She ignored him. He used the benefit of his much longer legs to catch up to her and grabbed for