Faithless Angel (3 page)

“He’s got Ms. Jansen!” came Emily’s shocked cry.

“He’s gonna cut her!”

“Somebody do something!”

“Quiet!” Bradley held up his hand. “Everyone quiet.” His attention went to the boy holding Faith prisoner. “Don’t do this, Daniel. Please.”

“He was searched before he left Booker Hall. I can’t imagine how he got that….” Estelle’s words faded into the shocked murmurs echoing through the group crammed into the hallway.

“Think, Daniel,” Bradley said in the calm voice he used with all the kids, but he looked anything but calm. Panic flashed in his eyes, and the hand he held
out shook noticeably. “You do this right here, right now, in front of everyone, and you’ll be headed for jail.
Jail
, do you understand?”

“This dump ain’t much better, and if you take one more step, I’ll gut her like a fish.”

Oddly enough, it wasn’t fear that made Faith gasp for a breath. It was the force of the boy’s grip. He was unusually strong for his age and weight; Faith knew, for she’d tackled the best of them during the past five years running Faith’s House. Ricky, “Pig-head,” played high school football, and she’d even wrestled him down once when he’d been uncooperative and a bit too sassy for his own good.

She had faced knives before, too. She’d even stared down the barrel of a gun when Emily had been dead-set on running away the first week she’d come to the house. And always before, Faith had been scared. Terrified.

Not this time. Jane’s image flashed in her mind—mousy brown hair, big, wide brown eyes—and Faith’s heartbeat remained steady, as if her life didn’t hang in the balance. But it did, she reminded herself. It did!

She stayed calm.

The frail chest pressed against her back heaved frantically, and she knew her attacker was anything but calm. He was frightened, as frightened as she should be, and he was all the more dangerous because of it.

She raised one hand and gripped the wrist near her throat.

“Don’t even think it, lady,” Daniel said, his voice shaky despite his threat.

Still, Faith’s fingers wrapped about his wrist. The blade pressed deeper into her throat. She felt his pulse race beneath her fingertips.

“Move another muscle and I’ll cut you,” Daniel threatened. “I swear it.” The knife edged deeper.

Bradley turned stark white, his eyes pleading with her captor. “Let her go, Daniel! Don’t do this, man. You’ll be shipped off to a place a hundred times worse than this.”

“Do it,” Faith whispered. “Stop talking and do it—” Her voice caught as the blade pressed deeper.

“Shut up!”

“You think you’re scaring me? she rasped while Bradley shot her a warning look. He thought she was trying to psyche Daniel out, make him blow his cool and lose his nerve. A bitter laugh rose to her lips. She was saying exactly what she would have said a month ago. The difference was, now she meant it.

“You’re not,” she went on. “You don’t scare me, and neither does that knife, and death couldn’t be much worse than the past two weeks. So go on and put me out of my misery.”

“I said
shut up!
” he ground out. Knuckles dug into her throat as Daniel adjusted his hold on the knife. “You wanna die? Well, you just might get your chance. Keep talking and you’ll get it good—” His words were cut off, followed by a yelp.

The knife clattered to the floor and Faith found herself free. She stumbled forward, her fingers going to her throat. She landed on her knees, the room spinning around her for a dangerous second.

Then a large, strong hand came from behind, gripped her arm, and helped her to her feet.

Faith stared up into the face of Jesse Savage. Apparently, he’d come through the back door, approached from behind, and grabbed Daniel by the shirt collar. Jesse’s lips formed a deep scowl, his dark eyes alight with anger and worry and something
else—something she might have mistaken for fear if she hadn’t known better.

But she’d known men like Jesse Savage. They came from the streets; they fought their way through poverty, most ending up behind bars or six feet under. Fear wasn’t a weakness they indulged in. But neither was kindness, yet here he was, her hero—whether he looked the part or not.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded. “Are you crazy, testing a kid like this?” He glanced at the sullen-looking Daniel dangling by his collar. Jesse’s grip tightened on the boy’s shirt. “He could have killed you! A second more and he would have.” Those intense dark eyes riveted on her throat. “And I can’t say as I would have blamed him, with you running your mouth like that. You were asking for it.”

“He was bluffing.”

“But you weren’t.” Jesse’s fingertips burned into her arm, stirring a strange heat that made her body tingle. “Were you?”

“No.”

His fingers tightened considerably and she wondered who posed the bigger threat: this dark stranger who wore a look as menacing as thunder, or the frightened teenager who’d nearly sliced open her jugular?

She knew the answer as she stared deep into Jesse’s eyes and saw a lifetime of pain and hatred and misery. Fear rippled through her, along with an unmistakable pang of sympathy that crumbled her control. She took an unsteady step back, leaning against the wall as the floor took a dangerous tilt.

“Faith, are you all right?” Bradley was beside her, concern wrinkling his forehead. A visibly shaken Estelle followed him.

“I’m so sorry, dear,” Estelle chimed in. “Daniel was searched at Booker Hall. I can’t understand how—”

“It’s all right,” Faith rasped. Her throat burned like the devil, distracting her from the strange feeling Jesse Savage had stirred.

“The show’s over,” Bradley said, turning to the group of kids clustered behind him. “Everybody back to your chores.” His words met with several grumbles, but after a fierce look from him and a nod from Faith, the crowd started to thin. The sound of a vacuum cleaner resumed. The chatter of voices drifted from the kitchen. Dishes clattered, and Faith’s House returned to its usual buzz of normal activity.

“We owe you, mister.” Bradley shook Jesse’s hand. “And it’s back to Booker Hall for you,” he told Daniel, who still dangled from Jesse’s right hand.

“No.” Faith shook her head. “He’s staying here.”

“You can’t be serious?” Estelle gripped Faith’s hand. “It’s too dangerous to have him at a place like this. The other kids—”

“—were just as bad when they first got here,” Faith finished for her. “Richard attacked me with a baseball bat, and Drew set the living room drapes on fire. But look at them now.” Her gaze shot to the two boys barely visible down the hall. One had a can of furniture polish and a rag in his hand. The other boy sprawled on the sofa, his nose buried in a library book.

“Besides, that was the whole purpose of this, wasn’t it, Daniel? To get out of staying?” Faith fixed her gaze on Daniel, whose pale blue eyes widened considerably beneath her inspection. “You don’t get your way around here by bullying people. Cooperation
and hard work are the only things that pull any weight.”

Daniel dropped his head, and studied his worn tennis shoes. He tried to shrug away from Jesse, whose grip seemed to tighten.

“Well pair him up with Mike,” Faith told Bradley. “Mike!” A few seconds later a young man in his early twenties filled the hallway. Wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, he looked like a lumberjack—big, brawny, intimidating…. A definite badass, the kids called him.

“Daniel’s our newest arrival,” Faith told him, doing her damnedest to block out Jesse’s presence. But her body seemed insistent on paying attention to him. Her skin still prickled with awareness where he’d touched her.

He’d felt strong. And warm. And so—

“Yeah, it sounded like quite a show.” Mike’s voice derailed her train of thought. “I was in the shower when it started, so I only heard the tail end, or I would have been here a heck of a lot sooner. You all right?” he asked Faith.

“I’m fine, but I think Daniel needs a little one-on-one until he gets used to the routine here. Think you can keep an eye on him and show him the ropes?”

The young man, a deep frown on his face, his brown eyes solemn, studied Daniel for a long moment. The boy actually swallowed beneath the careful scrutiny, and a smile tugged at Faith’s lips. He wasn’t so hard beneath that tough-as-nails exterior. He was just a kid. A scared, lonely kid.

“You want me to go with
him?
” Daniel stared at her as if she’d just sentenced him to the electric chair.

“Think of him as your shadow for the next few weeks.” Faith stared pointedly at Daniel. “And don’t
even think about taking advantage of him. He’s got a black belt in karate and he’ll eat you for breakfast if you give him a reason.”

“Oh, yeah?” Daniel tried to shrug away from Jesse’s grip again, but the effort was useless. “Well, I guess he can’t be much worse than Hercules here.” He cast a resentful glance at Jesse.

“Don’t count on it,” Mike said, and Daniel visibly paled.

Faith fought back the urge to laugh. Most everyone had the same reaction to Mike. He was huge, all muscle and menace, but he had a kind heart and a way with troubled kids. But then, Mike could relate. He’d been one of them not so long ago.

“Come on, Daniel,” Mike said, holding out one beefy hand. Daniel took another step back, coming up hard against Jesse, who scowled at him.

Despite Jesse’s expression, Faith didn’t miss the amusement dancing in his dark eyes. The look drew an unwilling smile to her own lips.

“Go on, Daniel. He won’t bite,” Faith said. “Unless you try another stunt like the one you pulled on me.” At Faith’s nod, Jesse released Daniel, who straightened his T-shirt and glared at everyone around him, as if to say
stand back
.

Mike wasn’t intimidated. “Come on, buddy. You and I have a little talking to do.” Immediately, Mike grabbed the boy’s arm and pulled him down the hallway, despite a string of heated curses that burned through the air and made Bradley blush.

When the two had rounded the corner, Daniel’s voice fading to an indistinguishable grumble, Faith turned to Estelle. “Let me finish signing Daniel’s paperwork—it’s in my office—and we’ll get him settled in.”

“I hate that this happened, but I’m glad you’re
back,” Bradley told Faith as he followed her into the small, cramped room.

“I’m not back.”

His smile died. “Geez, Faith. You can’t leave me here with that kid. You might have a death wish, but I like my neck in one piece, thank you very much.”

“I’m not leaving you here all by yourself. Megan will be back after the honeymoon. You’ve got Mike to supervise the not-so-cooperative ones.” She glanced past Bradley to the man who’d followed him into the office.

Jesse’s intense dark eyes locked with hers, and she had the sudden urge to cover herself. He didn’t simply stare at her; he looked
inside
her to probe her thoughts.

“Mr. Savage here can help you out with the rest of the kids.” She reached for a stack of files to keep from folding her arms in front of her, as if it would do any good. Jesse could give Superman a run for his kryptonite when it came to X-ray vision. “You’re still interested in a job, aren’t you, Jesse?”

“That’s what I came for.”

“Good timing,” Bradley said. “What do you say, Estelle?” he asked the woman the minute she walked through the doorway, her tattered briefcase in hand. “Think you can run this man’s application through your office ASAP so he can start right away?”

The older woman gave Jesse an assessing stare. He smiled at her, and her expression quickly relaxed, easing the deep crow’s-feet near her eyes. “Why, I’m sure I can get the approval, provided your background checks out, Mr. Savage. That should take two to three weeks. Then we’ll get all the paperwork in order.” Had he looked nervous when she
mentioned a background check, or was it Faith’s imagination.

“We need him sooner than that,” Bradley said. “Faith is bailing out on me.”

“A leave of absence,” Faith corrected. “Indefinite.”

“A shame,” Estelle replied. “But I don’t see a way around the time stipulation. We’re always short-handed, and background checks have to be thorough….” A thoughtful frown settled on her face; then an idea seemed to strike her. “You can’t officially hire him without department approval, but he could start right away as a volunteer.” Her thin red lips spread into a smile. “Once the paperwork goes through, you can pay him back salary.”

“Sounds good to me if it works for you,” Bradley said, turning to Jesse. “I’ll float you an advance on your salary. The job includes room and board. Mike bunks out in a small efficiency apartment over the garage when he’s not supervising a problem case. With Daniel here, he’ll be keeping the boy company upstairs, so you can have the efficiency until Daniel gets settled. We’ll see to something more permanent after that. What do you say, Savage?” Bradley held out a hand to seal the deal with a shake. “Pay ain’t that hot, but I make a mean lasagna. And Faith here—” His words ground to a halt as he glanced at her. “Well, she did make a great omelette, but we’ll have to make do without it. For now.”

Jesse looked hesitant. Then he pulled his hand from his pocket, slowly, almost reluctantly. Strong, lean fingers clasped Bradley’s stubby ones for a brief moment.

Faith’s gaze riveted on the jagged pink scar that marred Jesse’s otherwise tanned flesh. The urge to reach out and trace the line, to share his pain and
ease the suffering she saw deep in his eyes, was incredible. She pushed the thought away, grabbed her pen, and accepted the papers Estelle handed her. She wasn’t some silly bleeding heart. Not anymore.

“All done,” she said, standing up a few minutes later.

Estelle took the papers and glanced at her watch. “Oh, I really must go. I’ve got a meeting in half an hour.”

“I’ll walk you out.” Bradley took her briefcase and followed her through the doorway. “Be back in a sec,” he said over his shoulder.

The moment the two of them disappeared, Faith reached for her purse. All she needed was Bradley’s signature; then she could get out of here before the kids finished their chores and came looking for her, particularly Emily. Faith and the girl had grown very close over the past two years.