Send Angel! (A Frank Angel Western #2) (19 page)

The Palace Hotel in San Francisco was one of
the finest in America. Renowned for its cuisine, for its palatial
luxury, the Palace attracted the most handsome men and the most
beautiful women in the world to its portals. At this time of year
it was crowded with the rich, the famous, and the hungry swirling
motley multitude of seekers for fame and fortune who came to
California like a never-ending torrent.

Frank Angel sat in the dining room, looking
at Kate Perry across the snowy expanse of linen and gleaming silver
on their table. He raised his wine glass and made a silent toast to
her. She smiled back.

It had been two weeks since
that last fateful night in Daranga. With the death of Burnstine,
the troubles in the Rio Blanco valley had come to a bloody and
sudden end. There had been reports to send to Washington, and many
loose ends to tie up. But that was all behind them now. Kate Perry
was a very rich young woman, for the Government purchase of the
portion of the ranches which were to be flooded, both her
father
’s and
Walt Clare’s, would be a generous one, all of it hers by unarguable
right Even now, Army engineers were surveying the canyon of the Rio
Blanco, and the booming dynamite could be clearly heard in Daranga.
Angel had bidden his friends a last goodbye and then they had been
free to go. They had been driven in an Army ambulance, with an
escort headed by Lieutenant Blackstone and proudly led by Sergeant
Battle, across to Tucson and from there they had come to San
Francisco. The sweeping bay with its happily-named islands had
enchanted them, and the blush of roses had softly come again to
Kate Perry’s cheeks. She had gone shopping in the busy streets with
a childlike abandon, and the pale blue dress she had bought brought
out the beauty that rough clothes had only hinted at.

Still, what she had gone
through had scarred her deeply, and for a while she had flinched
whenever Angel touched her hand, her arm. Then, one night, her mood
had changed, and the girl had become a woman. Afterwards, in the
big, high-ceilinged room with the plaster cupids in the corners,
she had cried for a long time, finally falling asleep in his arms.
He had lain awake long into the night, watching her sleeping. What
Kate Perry had lived through, survived, would have broken most
women. Her courage was something he could understand and admire,
and he knew that now she was whole again, what had been between
them would change. He had felt the old restlessness, too. Now they
sat, warmth between them and sadness as well, and she said
softly:

‘
You
want to go.’

‘
I’ll
be around for a while,’ he told her.

‘
Only
... a while, Frank?’

He looked out of the window and watched the
clanging, noisy bustle in the streets of San Francisco.

‘
I
have money, Frank,’ she said softly, as if reading his thoughts. ‘I
... we could go anywhere. Anywhere you wanted to’

‘
I
know,’ he said softly. ‘But it’s not for me. I have my
work.’

‘
Your
work?’ she said, surprise in her voice. ‘Your work?’

‘
It’s
what I do,’ he said doggedly. ‘What I am.’

She fell silent for a long,
long moment, toying with the knife beside her plate.
‘You will not be
tied down, is that it?’

‘
I
guess so,’ Angel said. He was uncomfortable, talking about it. ‘I
can’t live steady, Kate. I need the change, and the challenge.
Living the same life day after day after day - that would be a sort
of death for me.’

‘
We
could be happy, together,’ she reminded him. ‘We are. Happy. And
safe.’

‘
Safe?’ he echoed. ‘I don’t want safety, Kate. Being safe is
like saying you’re just waiting to die.’

‘
This
job,’ she managed at last. ‘Somewhere, one day, you will die.
Someone will kill you. You know that.’

‘
All
the more reason to live,’ he said. ‘Really live now. Not just
exist.’

She looked at him again and he looked at
her, and they got up and went out of the dining-room, the surprised
head waiter watching them go with raised eyebrows, then nodding
wisely, These honeymooners, he thought. He had seen thousands in
his time. They always made him sentimental. He would buy Rosa some
flowers tonight, he thought.

In the big room Kate Perry came
into Angel
’s
arms all golden and warm and in her love for him and his for her,
they found all the giving that could be done. Tomorrow, she would
lose him. Tomorrow, he would go out of her life and back to that
other, harder, deadlier life to which he truly belonged.

‘
But
that’s tomorrow,’ she said softly and blew out the
light.

Frank Angel will return in

KILL ANGEL!

Coming Soon!

And available in the series

FIND ANGEL.