Page 15 of Soul Redeemed

Would he even want her back after the way she’d betrayed him and his brother, Logan?

Ava hadn’t wanted to hurt him that way, but doing so had earned her freedom from the soulbinder that Ryke had kept tied to her throat for years. Had she not betrayed him, she’d have perished alongside her wicked brother and burned eternally in hellsfire.

As she washed her hair, a million questions she hadn’t thought to ponder invaded her headspace. What if Calix had fallen in love in her absence? What if he’d bonded, and the soap she spread over her dirty, used body belonged to a female worthy of such opulence? What if he refused to forgive her?

Ava’s survival instincts urged her to push those thoughts aside. She’d cross that bridge when she came to it. In that moment, she didn’t have anywhere else to go—nowhere she felt as safe. Whether he wanted her, or not, didn’t matter.

She rinsed the last of the soap from her body and, flipping the water off, slid the door open. Memories of times with Calix, when he’d wash her down after they’d had sex and carried her in his arms to his bed, danced through her mind, as she grabbed a towel from the shelf just outside the shower. Even the soft cotton smelled good as she held the towel to her nose and inhaled the clean scent of bleach beneath a floral aroma.

After quickly drying, she wrapped the towel around her body and made her way to Calix’s armoire to borrow a T-shirt and sweatpants. To think there’d once been a time she’d scoffed at wearing such garments, and yet she couldn’t wait to slip into the cozy cotton.

She retrieved the clothes, knowing their exact location. As she closed the door, a gasp hitched in her throat.

Leaning against the armoire stood a tall, bulky male wearing a black Metallica T-shirt that clung to enormous biceps. He toyed with a toothpick that half-hung from his mouth and tipped his head. The silvery glow of his eyes told her he was pure Fallen, and Ava remembered him from before. The demons had hired him as their security. Xander. “Thought I’d wait for you to shower.”

Ava clamped her eyes shut to will herself somewhere else, but an ice-cold grip cinched her throat. Her hands flew to her neck at the same time her eyes opened to the angel, holding her effortlessly off the ground.

He lifted a hand covered in metal, twisting it in front of her. “Diablis steel gauntlets. Pretty fucking cool, right?”

“I’m … friend … Ca … lix.”

“What’s that, love? Can’t understand you with my hand around your throat.”

Fucker. She clawed at his arm in her completely futile struggle to get out of his unyielding grasp.

Tugging a phone from his hip, he kept his toothpick lodged in his mouth and one-handedly dialed a number. “Calix, I know Gavin’s MIA at the moment—said you’re his next in command. Got a chick here. Said she knows you.”

Ava could only make out the mumblings of Calix’s voice on the other line, and her heart leaped in her chest. Caught between fear and excitement, she could damn near piss herself. Perhaps she should. Maybe the asshole’d let her go. Not likely, though.

“Hang on. What’s your name, sweetheart?”

“A … va,” she rasped, fighting against the tight squeeze of her windpipe.

He loosened his grip only slightly. “Try again.”

“Ava.”

“Says her name’s Ava, boss.”

Calix’s shouts rang through the receiver over the distinct sound of squealing tires.

“Got it. I’ll make sure she doesn’t go anywhere.” His wicked grin fell on her once more as the angel hung up the phone and tucked it back at his hip. “Says he’s been expecting you.” His gaze flicked down and back, before the towel fell away from her body, leaving her completely naked in front of him. “Perhaps you should make yourself decent before he gets here.”

8

Calix floored the gas of the black Trevita, weaving in and out of traffic along Jefferson Avenue so fast that all he caught in his periphery were white streaks of light.

Ava. Goddamn. She’d finally returned to him.

As much as Calix wanted to torment his mind with why she hadn’t bothered to contact him before, the shivers of excitement forced him to keep his focus on the road, or risk slamming his car straight into a building.

He didn’t exactly like the idea of Xander finding her first, no doubt the male had probably already come on to her—a thought that made Calix want to rip the eyeballs out of the angel’s skull. Better him than Logan, though, because without a doubt, his brother would’ve struck first and asked questions later.

Yet another issue that weighed heavy on Calix’s mind: how could he trust Ava? What could the female possibly do to redeem herself in the eyes of his brothers? And him? It was her brother who’d nearly ended both Calla and Logan’s lives, and for that reason alone, Calix shouldn’t be so quick to forgive her. But the needs of his body warred with his head, and by Gods, he’d attend to those before anything else, because one thing Calix knew for sure—if he continued to starve himself for the female, his brothers would have a much bigger problem to contend with.

And Calix never liked the idea of being a headache for anyone.

Within minutes, he arrived at the mansion’s gates that had already begun to swing open. Across the lawn, spectral figures roamed the property—the ghouls who kept guard all hours of the night, scaring the shit out of any trespassers. He pulled the Trevita onto the circular drive and one of the ghouls materialized just outside the door, flipping it up.