Build And Break novel Chapter 2

"Here?" Steven eyed the roads around them. "I thought you said Eleventh Street."

"Guess I lied to you again. Now, please pull over." Angela was dead serious in her demand.

Steven halted the car at the curb of the dimly-lit street. They were at the filthiest neighborhood of the town. Why was Angela there at this hour of night?

Steven flicked on the overhead light. He looked at Angela. She seemed different, he realized. And it wasn't her messily bunned dark hair or the cheap clothes she wore. She was different. Thinner. Older. And all at once as crystal as day, he saw the dark circles and the fatigue in her green eyes.

He unlocked the door and she was already opening the door and touching her feet to the ground before he could unclasp his seat belt. He hastened his exit. "I'll walk you from here. This place isn't safe."

Angela held up a hand a little too quickly, a little too nervous. "Oh, no, you don't have to. I'm perfectly safe here."

Steven watched her calmly. And it wasn't because of his amazing composure. It was of... concern. "Get back in the car. Come back with me."

"Never." The word came out of Angela's mouth as a definite answer. Her nostrils flared with boiling anger. "Do you really expect me to go back with you after all you've done to me, after kicking me out, after getting my own father to disown me completely?"

"Angel?" In all her rage, Angela hadn't seen the man approaching in a hurriedly anxious jog. "Angel, where the hell were you? I've been looking for you for hours." The man stopped upon noticing Steven. His eyes set heavily on him. "You alright, Ang?"

"I'm fine, Jimmy.", Angela confirmed as she watched Jimmy was eyeing Steven and Steven was eyeing Jimmy. Saw Jimmy's hands were in fist at his hips. "Jimmy, it's okay."

"You must be Steven Morris." Jimmy spoke through clenched teeth.

Steven looked around him, uneasy. Spooked. "I am."

"I'm Tony's big brother, Jimmy. Why are you here? Why are you even looking at Angel?" His voice was menacing.

Steven took a step back. Jimmy was shorter than he was but Steven didn't want any trouble. In his eyes, the man before him with a shaved head and a dozen piercing seemed like a criminal. Goodness, he hated that neighborhood.

Angela stepped like a shield before Jimmy. "He was just leaving. And so are we, Jimmy. Let's go home. Your mama must be up waiting." With her both hands at his chest, Angela urged Jimmy to walk the other way.

Jimmy obeyed her. Stealing glances back at Steven as a warning.

Angela daren't look back at the man standing frozen behind her. She didn't want to see the disdain and disappointment on Steven's face.

Steven hadn't moved an inch until the woman who got him there disappeared around the corner. What had just happened? What had happened to the sweet Angie he married seven years ago?

The unceasing knocking on Angela's door startled her. Putting the wet plate she just rinsed in the drying rack, she grabbed a kitchen towel to dry her hands and ambled to the door.

"Who is it?"

"Nobody knows that." Jack bellowed in her face. "Your absence is raising questions and we cannot risk another incident like yesterday's happening and spread around. Your actions could taint my business and Steven's."

Angela bowed her head before her father. "I promise I'll keep myself low from now on."

"No, you're going to do the exact opposite." His firm fingers on her chin forced her head up. "You will leave this filthy place today and resume your life as my daughter and as Steven's wife."

Angela shoved his hands off of her defiantly. "I will not."

"You will do as I say." Her father demanded. "My daughter will not be running around in rags amongst the bums of town."

"Enough, Marshall." Steven's voice sounded along with the confident footsteps approaching. "I'll take it from here."

With a final scoff of disdain directed at his daughter, Jack left the room. The room became silent then.

Angela's body trembled. A knot formed in her throat. She glanced at Steven with hopeful eyes. Unlike her father, Steven wasn't checking out her home. He was only focused on her.

"I don't want to go back with you." Angela whispered.

"You will, Angela." Steven assured her in a surprisingly gentle tone. He wasn't as angry or as menacingly as her father. "Your absence has been long enough. You must come back."