Golden Angel: (Broken Angel #5) Read Free Page B

Her breathing came out in harsh gasps. Ruby lips moved, but no words were coming out.
    “Run, now,” Sammy whispered. “She’s gonna explode.”
    “Great? You actually think we’re doing great?” she spat, her voice rising with every word she spoke. “Boy, you are some piece of work. I should’ve known better. I can’t believe I fell for your smooth talk. Friends. Right.” She barked a laugh.
    “What do you mean? I am your friend.”
    “Of course you don’t know. How could you? You’re not one of us. You come to the island pretending to be a friend. You made Sammy like you. My family liked you. And I . . .” Pausing, she bit her quivering lip.
    “Leilani.” He reached out to touch her cheek.
    She jerked away from his hand, glaring. “You made everyone like you. And then the next minute you were gone. Just like that.” She snapped her fingers.
    “He came to the hospital,” Sammy said.
    “We’ve been over this before, Sammy. You were confused,” she said to him softly, brushing the hair off his sweaty forehead.
    “I wasn’t confused. Tell her, Jeremy. You were there.”
    “Well . . .”
    “See what you did?” she snapped. “You made a five-year-old boy hallucinate about you. He wanted you to be there so badly he imagined you there!” She then turned to Sammy, lowering her voice and speaking to him calmly. “You were on a lot of medication. He wasn’t there.”
    Jeremy opened his mouth, about to say that he had been there. He’d been by their side every single second. But he couldn’t without letting them know who he really was.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t know about the accident. I had to leave on family business,” he finally said.
    “Whatever. I can’t deal with you right now. I have to get back to work. Sammy, I told you to wait in the kitchen.”
    “I can watch him,” Jeremy said. “We can catch up on things.”
    “Yeah!” Sammy’s face brightened.
    “No. We’re not falling for that again.”
    “Aww, come on, Leilani. Please,” Sammy pleaded.
    “I’m sure he has other things he needs to do. Maybe on another island?”
    She was pissed, and rightfully so. He knew he had to leave, but he didn’t want to, not with her mad like this. He was about to plead his case when someone yelled, and the sound of drums blasted from the speakers.
    The audience whooped and hollered as five men dressed in thigh-length red sarongs sprinted through the audience.
    As they ran on stage, one of them with a tribal tattoo covering his upper arm stood in the center, twirling a fire staff. He stopped holding the fire high above his head and brought it to his lips. He spat out liquid and the fire blew out high above his head. The audience roared with delight.
    “Don’t leave yet, Jeremy. You have to see Kai do his fire dance. I helped him learn his moves,” Sammy said, looking proud.
    That’s Kai?
    He gazed in awe at the man nearly the same size as he was, twirling two fire staffs. He spun them so fast that they blurred into one large circle of fire.
    That was the boy Leilani had once called Chucky? He wasn’t a boy anymore. He was a man.
    The other dancers flanked Kai’s side, making the girls in the audience yell even more. They looked small in comparison to Kai’s massive body.
    They worked in unison as fire swirled over their heads, around their bodies, and under their legs.
    “Isn’t he great?” Sammy eyes shined as he watched Kai.
    He glanced at the suddenly quiet Leilani, and his heart faltered.
    Her eyes were shining too.
    He forced his heart to beat again. This was what he wanted. It was the way it should be. He didn’t want them to be alone. They had Kai.
    He should be happy for them. He should leave them alone to live their lives.
    So why couldn’t he make his feet move?
    And why couldn’t he tear his eyes off of Leilani?

4
    N aomi sat on the bedroom’s open, wall-length window, dangling her legs off the edge. A tear rolled down her cheek.
    Why, Welita? Why did you have to