Too Close to the Sun (The Sun 1) Read Free Page A

anymore.” He focused his look at her injured side.
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “Torrence!” A male voiced bellowed. “Get your ass in here.”
    “Then again...” She pushed the empty glass toward Martin and slid from the stool. “Been nice knowing you.” Hardly wincing this time when she hefted the satchel onto her shoulder, she headed for the back room.
    Alistar “Skeeter” Dugan, Underground Boss of the West Side, was in his mid-fifties and sported an athletic build just starting to go soft. His commanding presence gave him the stature his average height could not. He was overbearing, unforgiving, and his sense of humor had died along with his wife and daughter ten years ago. He was not a man to be messed with and Angel had no doubt that if she irritated him enough, he would forget how much she reminded him of his daughter.
    “I know what you're going to say and I'm telling you, it wasn’t my fault.” She slid the satchel off her shoulder and let it fall to the desktop. “By the way, here’s your money.”
    “Not your fault?” Dugan shouted, slamming the door behind her. “You shot the son of Felinea’s leading crime boss!”
    “Give me a break, it’s not like I killed him. It was just a scratch.”
    “You shot off his –.”
    “I know what I shot off,” Angel interrupted. “Look, the guy was all over me. I told him I wasn’t interested, but the more I said ‘no,’ the more he heard ‘yes.’ I didn’t have any other choice. Besides, what’s the big fuss? He’s Felinean. It’ll grow back.”
    Dugan stormed up to her, causing her to step back. She wanted some distance between them, just in case. His hand shot out and grabbed her arm, wrenching her around. Pain shot through her side with the sudden movement and she couldn’t hide her reaction fast enough. Distracted from what he was about to say, Dugan pulled back her jacket flap.
    “Explain this,” he said when he spotted the blood.
    “Like I said, Tony didn’t like hearing ‘no.’ Things got a little rough before I got my point across.”
    Dugan studied her for a moment. Then, some of the anger drained from his face to be replaced by another emotion. Resignation, maybe. “If you were anyone else, I’d have your head on a platter, literally, and see that it got delivered to Felinea with my deepest apologies.”
    Angel swallowed hard because she knew Dugan meant what he said. “I’m sorry, but the guy had it coming and it’s not like I did any permanent damage.”
    “Yes, you did.”
    “No way. I purposely used a narrow beam so I could isolate the damage to that single area. Now granted, there was some confusion and it was a small target, but -.”
    “Oh, you hit what you aimed for. But you don’t get credit for originality. You do, however, get credit for being number nine and as they say, ninth time’s the charm with Felineans. No more regenerations for that particular organ and folks over there are upset. Tony in particular.”
    The news hit her like a slap in the face, but she tried to cover it with flippancy. “He’s a slow learner. They should thank me for taking him out of the gene pool.”
    “Yeah? Well, his father, who runs the entire east-side, isn’t laughing. He wanted grandkids. Now he wants revenge.”
    Going to stand behind his desk, he pulled the satchel closer and opened it. From inside, he pulled out the bundles of currency and counted them. After counting them a second time, he looked at her. “It’s not all here.”
    “No, it’s not. I took out what you owed me, less the final payment for the ship, as per our agreement.” She refused to look away, waiting for his reaction. Then, to her relief, he nodded. Picking up one of the bundles, he stared at it for a moment, as if trying to decide what to do, then tossed it out to her.
    "What's this for?" she asked.
    “You’ll need it where you’re going.”
    “Which is where?”
    “I don’t know and I don’t care, but don’t take your time