Wings of Redemption by Sarah Gilman Read Free Book Online Page B

this, of course, but he’d keep a more appropriate distance between them for the duration.
    Even though he wanted to kiss her again.
    Five rings.
    “Kestrel?” Saffron met his gaze again, one thin eyebrow arched.
    He glanced at the phone’s screen. “It’s Virgil. We should get going.”

Chapter Five
    “I don’t believe you, Ms. Morin,” Virgil snapped.
    Saffron briefly turned her face away from the demon, seeking Kestrel’s gaze. Kes stared at the opposite wall, his arms folded. He’d barely spoken to her since breakfast. Barely even looked at her. She swallowed.
    Turned out honesty wasn’t always the best policy. She didn’t regret what she’d said at breakfast, though. It wasn’t like she’d tried to shove him into a cage. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand who he was and who she was. It had been just a little harmless sentiment for someone who’d been there for her during the worst night in memory. Jerk. Or, maybe Carny had the right idea: Grumpy.
    “Ms. Morin, you best remember who you’re talking to.”
    She refocused on the Guardian and blinked. Damn, she’d said that last word out loud. “My father’s business is not my business. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
    “You’re protecting him.”
    “Well, he is my father.”
    “I can respect that. We protect our own, and I wouldn’t expect you to do any different. We’re still having this conversation, however.”
    “I really don’t know anything else. I haven’t even lived with him for ten years, and back then, I spent my time sneaking out of the house, not asking about things I wanted nothing to do with.”
    “A detailed layout of the house, property, and security measures would be most helpful.” The demon pushed a pencil and a notebook of graph paper in her direction across the pine table.
    Saffron held herself rigid in her chair. True, she had no love for her parents’ interests, but she had plenty of love for her parents. She sure as hell wasn’t about to provide the Guardians with the means to successfully break into the mansion. All things considered, the security was wanting. She knew several ways to sneak in and out unnoticed. Most burglars without inside knowledge would have no luck, but for a determined teenager who didn’t stop to consider the probability of breaking bones, it’d been doable.
    The demons would kill her parents. No ifs or maybes about it. Unlike herself, her mother—who actively participated in the family business—and father were very much the colony’s enemies.
    Kestrel’s enemies.
    Not a newsflash, but damn, the reality seemed harsher in light of Virgil’s questions. Her mouth went dry and her stomach turned to lead. Her father would have no reservations about mounting Kestrel’s wings in one of those macabre display cases.
    Still, she would not help the Guardians hurt her family. Time to lie. “There have been renovations I haven’t seen yet. He may have gutted the house for all I know.”
    “Bullshit.” Virgil sat back in the chair. “Would you be more willing to talk if Kestrel left the room? Speaking of these matters in front of your host must be awkward.”
    Kestrel’s wings extended a couple feet and he leveled a downright nasty glare in the Guardian’s direction. “I’m not leaving.”
    Saffron flattened her hands on the table. “My father pays four men under the table for the purpose of finding and, if they get the chance, slaughtering archangels. I am not a shrinking violet unable to spit out that fact just because an archangel is in the room. There is no smoothing over the truth. I know that.”
    Finally, Kestrel glanced in her direction, his expression a forced mask, his silver eyes unnaturally bright in the dull beige-and-tan conference room.
    “Are we done?” The half-night of sleep, the warning that her life was in danger, the sudden cold shoulder from Kestrel, and Virgil’s attitude combined and festered in her gut. “We better be done.”
    “We’re