“Not demons? You just called them hounds.”
“They're shapeshifters sent here by Hades, not the Devil. He has teams of them stationed all over the world. Their job is to retrieve escaped souls. Michael is one of those souls, but he's learned how to jump bodies, and he's given several teams the slip. He's not an angel, Jake.”
“They're brainwashing you, Indie. Damn it! I knew this was a mistake.”
“You're the one who has fallen for lies. Think about it. Is it godly to drown people and bring them back to serve as soldiers? Why would God have to do that?”
“Because—”
“Never mind,” I interrupted. “You have to come to it yourself. And, as I said, I'm not a hundred percent sure who's telling the truth. It doesn't matter to me anymore. I don't wantto help Silas. And I'm sorry, Jake, but I don't want to be with you either. You and Silas are interwoven. And you and Michael are more than that—you're a package deal. I'm done.”
“Indie, no! You're not thinking clearly. Come back with me. I never should have let you go in—”
“Letme?” I jerked my hand out of his grasp. “You didn't let me go. I ran away when Michael tried to rape me!”
“Um, is everything okay here?”
I turned to see the ice cream guy standing behind us.
“We're fine,” Jake snapped. “Mind your business.”
“Right,” the man said crisply and headed down the corridor. His voice came to us a few seconds later, “You may want to check on your friend. Some guy is grabbing her, and he's acting like a real asshole.”
The sound of screeching chairs, then running footsteps came.
“Fuck!” Jake snarled and grabbed my wrist. He started dragging me toward the back of the shop.
“Help!” I shouted.
They were already rounding the corner when I cried out. None of them paused. They flowed around me—Gage to my left, Gideon to my right, and Garret grabbed me around the waist to yank me away from Jake. Jake stumbled backward and kept going, thanks to the precise shoves of Gage and Gideon.
“Don't you ever come near her again!” Gage snarled and gave Jake one last push while Gideon opened the back door.
Jake went sailing through the doorway.
I watched in horror as Jake fell, his eyes wide and expression haunted with betrayal. He didn't see things as I did, so I was the traitor. That stung, but not as much as him trying to abduct me. Jake had told me from the beginning that I was free to go at any time. But when push came to shove—literally—the truth came out.
“Come on, Indigo Darling,” Garret said gently. “Let's finish our ice cream.”
“Finish? You don't want to leave?”
“Why? We're not worried about him. We'll just keep you close until we get home.” He nuzzled my cheek and grinned. “If that's all right with you.”
I stared at him, then nodded. “You'd better stay real close, Garret.”
Garret blinked, then a slow smile spread over his face, one infused with pure joy and hope. “You've got it, Indie.”
Then we went back to our table and finished our sundaes, thoroughly enjoying them.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jake was over. I was free. I could move on without guilt. But with that freedom came anxiety. Sexual anxiety. It had been a while since I'd been intimate with anyone, much less three gorgeous supernatural men who may or may not be demons. Probably not. I was banking on not. But even if they weren't, they weren't human. So, getting back in the proverbial saddle meant putting that saddle on a huge shapeshifting dog. Oh, that imagery was not helpful.
“Indie?” Gideon asked as we parked.
I was with him in the back of the pickup, staring out the window at the dark landscape. When I looked over, I saw something that eased my nerves. Gideon's fingers thrummed against his thigh, and he blinked a lot. He clenched his hand and released it.
Holy shit, he was nervous too.
