Angel Among Sinners (The Garden Book 1)

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  r a c h e l b l a k e

  Angel Among Sinners

  Copyright © 2020

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is for a brief quote by a reviewer.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locals are entirely coincidental.

  This book is meant for adult audiences only as it contains adult themes and explicit sexual encounters.

  Cover Design by Laura Hidalgo

  Edits by Sandy Ebel of Personal Touch Editing

  Formatting by Cynthia Starrett

  To all of you who have pushed me and sprinted with me, thank you. This one was a hard one.

  To Amy, thank you for being my person. I know you don’t think you did a lot and you are going to yell at me when you read this, but please know that this book would not be happening without you. Love you.

  To my annoyingly always right, husband, I love you. Thank you for supporting me thought all of this crazy and believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

  The authors who have pushed me through this journey, thank you. Thank you for writing with me, pushing me and reminding me not to compare my beginning to someone else’s middle.

  To my beta and Alpha readers, thank you for the advice and love. This story was a hard one for me and you all pointed out what needed to happen.

  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

  Prologue

  She made herself as small as physically possible, curling into a ball, praying he wouldn’t get her in the kidneys again. He wouldn’t take her to the hospital so soon after their last trip; he couldn’t risk the questions.

  “You know how to fucking walk, Embry. You know!” The hateful words were accompanied by a blow to the side of the face.

  She swallowed the whimper, knowing any sound from her now would be taken as a challenge, a reason for him to hit her harder.

  “Do you do this shit just to embarrass me? Just to make my life harder?” A kick landed on one of her ass cheeks. “After all I have done for you, this is how you repay me? Refusing to go through with an arrangement I’ve been working on for months.”

  Embry pulled her head deeper into her chest, tangling her fingers into the hair at the back of her head. Small, she just needed to stay small, and he would leave her alone.

  Usually, with an infraction such as this, he would be already done, his words echoing behind him as he left her curled on the floor, but this time was different. This time, she’d not only embarrassed him, she’d also had the audacity to tell him no and to demand she married a man of her choosing. She had to wonder if part of it was because it had been so long since the last time he had taken his anger out on her.

  Biting her lips was the only way to hold in the sob that threatened her vow of silence. She thought he’d changed, maybe life was going to be different from now on, maybe the loss of his wife, her mother, would be enough to change him, force him to realize he didn’t want to be alone.

  She was wrong, so very wrong.

  The sound of the doorbell had his second kick landing awkwardly against her spine, drawing a strangled cry from her lips.

  “You were too loud. You know better than to alert the neighbors.” His words were little more than a sneer as he walked the few steps to the front door.

  Embry didn’t move, she knew better, knew doing so would just earn her more of his ire. She just laid there, arms still thrown over her head, legs still pulled into her chest.

  Raised voices met her ears. Another male was arguing with her father; that was a new one. The men in the police department he had in his back pocket were trained well. They always responded to the calls, but always wrote it off as unviable.

  The thump, followed by a groan, had her holding her breath. This wasn’t a normal visit from her father’s hand-picked police officers. Something was wrong.

  “Embry. Fuck, are you okay?”

  A strangled cry fell from her lips when she was rolled to her back.

  “Shh, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you, I promise.” The man looked her body up and down, no doubt trying to see what damage had been done. “Where did he hurt you?”

  She studied the man crouched next to her. His eyes weren’t hateful like the people who usually came to the door. He looked to be in his early forties, the speckling of gray just starting to show along his temples, with a slim build.

  “Come on, honey, I’ll get you out of here.”

  The hand he held out for her hung there untouched.

  “I promise I won’t hurt you. I… I just need to get you out of here before he wakes up. Then I can come back and deal with him.”

  “Did you hurt him?”

  “Not nearly enough.” The stranger gave his hand a little shake. “Come on, I’ll take you someplace safe. You can wait there until I get this sorted out with your father.”

  What choice did she have? She could lie there, ignoring the offer of help, waiting for her father to come back and finish her beating, or she could take this small offering and get through today—she needed to get through today.

  Shaking, she placed her hand in his and allowed him to slowly pull her to her feet. Her new injuries made themselves known—her jaw ached, a couple of bruised ribs, possibly a cracked one, definitely a few new bruises, and she could already feel her eye swelling from her father’s fist.

  When she was on her feet, she wrapped her arms around her middle and met his eyes. She didn’t know this man, so she would be damned if she would be afraid of him.

  “Strong, I like that. Go pack a bag. You won’t be coming back here.”

  Embry didn’t need to be told twice, moving up the stairs as fast as her battered body would allow, her ribs screaming with every move. As soon as she was in her room, she silently shut the door and leaned against it, her forehead pressed to the cool wood.

  What the fuck was she doing? Was she really going to go with this man? Running her fingers through her hair, she quickly went through her options.

  She could go out the window. The drop to the ground would hurt like a bitch, but she could do it. She’d done it before. Then what, run? Hell, she could hardly walk without stabbing pain in her ribs. Not to mention the fact she would be moving slowly and would never make it far enough to deter her father from coming after her. No, she needed a car.

  That left her with one choice—she had to take the offered help and survive today.

  With a deep breath, she grabbed her gym bag from the floor, dumped the contents, and went to her closet. She pulled a couple sets of clothes from their hangers and shoved them into the bag, then the entire contents of her underwear drawer. Finally, she grabbed the framed photo from her nightstand and wrapped it in a couple layers of cloth before zipping the bag.

  A final look at th
e closed door had her moving to the other side of the bed and then to her knees. Pulling her nightstand from the corner, she pried up a bit of the carpet and revealed the small stash of money she had managed to tuck away. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

  Rolling the bills as tight as she could, she tucked them into the little pouch at the bottom of the bag, pulled the strings tight, and tied them off. She may have no choice but to trust this man right now, but she wasn’t stupid.

  “Embry, are you ready? We have to go.”

  His voice sounded from the other side of the door, but it still sent her heart into overdrive. Putting on a brave face, she looked around the room one more time and headed for the door.

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  As soon as she opened the door, he took her hand and quickly led her down the stairs. Her steps didn’t falter until they got to the foyer, and she saw her father lying in a heap on the tiled floor. When she went to step over his prone form, he grabbed her ankle, a groan rumbling from his chest.

  “Embry.” The single word was weak, but there was no doubt it was a warning, an order for her to stay—a demand.

  Shaking his hand from her leg was easy enough, but when his hand fell helplessly to the floor, she paused.

  “Embry, we have to move.”

  She looked from her father to the stranger holding her hand.

  “I… He’s hurt.”

  “So are you, and he’s the person responsible for that pain, he caused it. This is your chance to get away, but I won’t force you.” He released her hand and stood there waiting—waiting for her to make a choice between what she knows and the unknown.

  Berating herself for questioning the choice she had already made, she reached for his hand once more and allowed him to pull her out onto the porch, through the front yard, and to the car still running in the drive. Settled in the front seat, she white-knuckled the straps of her gym bag and looked at the house she had always dreaded coming home to—her prison. Not anymore.

  ***

  Embry looked around the hotel room. She was by herself. The still nameless man who’d rescued her had left, telling her to order whatever she wanted from room service, and he would be back in the morning. Looking at the half-eaten cart of food, she may have gone a little overboard, but she couldn’t help herself, especially not knowing what tomorrow held.

  She shook her head at her thoughts. She had bigger things to be worried about. Shit, she didn’t even know the man’s name, let alone what he was doing there or why he had helped her. For all she knew, he was just as bad as her father, waiting for the chance to attack her.

  No, she wouldn’t believe that. She had to have faith that not all the people in the world were like her father, and there were still good people.

  Glancing at the clock, she breathed a small sigh of relief. It was 11:47. She had nearly survived another day.

  Voices from the hall caught her attention and then instantly had her on alert when she recognized one of them as her father’s.

  “You have to bring her back to me.”

  “I don’t have to do anything.”

  “Getting the police involved in this matter will make things messy, but I’m not above it. Bring her to me before I have to come get her myself.”

  “That’s the thing. You don’t know where I’ve stashed her. If you did, you would already have her, and we both know you’re not going to get the cops involved. I made sure those nice, new neighbors of yours—you know the ones you haven’t been able to pay off yet—saw her willingly come with me.”

  The tone in her rescuer's voice had the hair on the back of her neck standing up. She knew it was too good to be true.

  “You’re not listening to me, Tommy.”

  “No, you’re not listening to me, Ross. She’s mine. You promised her to me in return for access to her trust fund once we’re married. That was the deal, and I have no intention of allowing you to pull out.”

  “You have sex with her now, it will be rape, and you damn well know it.”

  “There’s no difference between now and once we’re married. If what you say is true, she’s going to be unwilling either way. May as well get it out of the way now.”

  A buzz started in her ears as the panic threatened to suffocate her. No, she had a plan. She knew him coming back in the middle of the night was a possibility. She wasn’t stupid. Anyone who had anything to do with her father wasn’t a good guy, so she had planned an escape. Now all she had to do was put the plan into action.

  Embry took two deep breaths before she moved to the nightstand and grabbed the only thing in the room heavy enough to do some damage as a weapon—the bible. She had practiced this—stand behind the wall, wait for him to come in and swing.

  “What are you doing?”

  The proximity of his voice had her white-knuckling the green bound book in her hands. “Um, I-I...”

  “You took too long, Embry,” he sneered from the doorway. “If you wanted to hurt me, you should have moved faster, locked the door, something.”

  “I did lock the door.”

  He held up a plastic slide card. “That’s the thing about using a hotel such as this to take women. The people working the front desk get to know your preferences and learn to keep a spare key for you. It’s all part of the game.”

  “This isn’t a game.” She turned to watch him as he deposited the contents of his pockets on the dresser. “This is my life.”

  “You’re right about that, this is your life. Too bad you don’t get to take control of it. As you probably gathered from the conversation you overheard, you were promised to me, but your father tried to back out, but that isn’t an option anymore. Once I take what’s mine, no one else will want you. We’ll get married, your father will get his money, and we’ll all go on our merry little way.”

  “Except me.”

  “Except you.”

  Feeling far more confident than she should, she looked him straight in the eye for this next part.

  “If you’re doing all of this for my virginity, you’re too late. I had someone of my choosing take care of that little problem for me already.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Am I, Tommy?” Embry took a risk using his name, but his flinch told her it was a direct hit, so she was going to savor that small victory after his refusal to give her his name. “I know the kind of man my father is, so I made sure I had control over that one thing. It’s the only thing he wasn’t going to take from me. I controlled it, not him.”

  “You stupid fucking bitch.”

  He took hold of her chin, squeezing it between his thumb and forefinger, hard enough for her to have to fight against the urge to pull away. When he leaned into her, the strong smell of alcohol hit her nose—he was drunk off his ass.

  How stupid was it the fact he was drunk had her relaxing the slightest bit? She had a reason for his complete change in personality.

  “You were in such a hurry to get out of your father’s clutches, you didn’t even think about who you were trusting.”

  She knew that wasn’t the truth, but she knew better than to give the thought a voice; it was better he thought she was scared.

  “What, cat got your tongue?” Tommy released her face a second before he slapped her and sent her sprawling onto the bed. “You’re going to give me what I paid for, and you are going to give it to me now.” Fumbling with his belt buckle, he looked away from her.

  That was his mistake. In the few seconds his attention was elsewhere, she grabbed the corded phone from the bedside table and drilled him in the side of the head, making sure to use as much of her strength as she could. The cheap phone cracked when it made contact, but it was enough to knock him off-kilter. She watched as he fell over, hit his head on the table, and finally settled to the ground.

  Shocked, she sat there for a few seconds, waiting for him to pop back up, waiting for the retaliation, but it never happened.

  Looking over the side of the bed,
she searched for signs of life. No pool of blood and his chest was rising and falling, so at the very least, he was alive. A twitch of his hand had her scrambling off the bed, her ribs screaming out in agony, but she didn’t have time to move with caution. She needed to get out and find another way to survive before he woke up.

  She looked around. Her eyes landing on the wallet that sat next to the TV had her moving. Opening it, she pulled out a stack of cash and shoved it into the pockets of her jeans.

  Without looking back, she grabbed the still packed bag off the chair where she had discarded a few hours before, moved to the door, and shoved her feet into her shoes before slipping into the night.

  A glance at the small watch wrapped around her wrist had a bitter taste filling her mouth—12:07. She had made it through another day—on to the next.

  Chapter One

  “Want some?”

  Embry looked at the peach that was being held in front of her face before she pushed it away.

  “It smells amazing, but no.”

  “Afraid you’ll get something in your teeth?” One of the other ladies yelled from further down the alley.

  “No.” Embry ran her tongue over her teeth. She would kill for a toothbrush.

  “Is it germs? Because if it’s germs, baby, you’re in the wrong business.” An older lady asked as she adjusted her breast in her barely-there top.

  “It’s not germs, okay?” With a sigh, Embry continued, “The fuzz on the skin makes me gag.” Laughter erupted around her, causing a blush to spread across her face.

  “Well, I hope you can take a cock better than you can a peach, baby; otherwise, you’re still in the wrong line of business,” the older lady said.

  “It’s not my first night. I know what I’m getting into,” Embry growled, her lip curling the slightest bit.

  “Your first week then.” When peach lady saw the questioning look, she continued, “Your clothes are too clean, too fresh, for it to be any more than that.”

  Embry looked down at the skirt and off the shoulder top she wore. It was one of the few things she’d grabbed from her father's house she could modify to keep her from looking like a nun trying to pass as a hooker.