THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

yeah, that too, but he’s restless like me,” Trish noted.
    “Really? What do you mean?”
    Trish warmed to the new topic. “He can’t stay still for long. He’s always planning something and sometimes he flies without a load, without saying where he goes. I guess just to be flying. I think he just gets bored without the adrenaline rush of flying fighter jets, but he’s always off doing stuff and won’t talk about his work. I call him the mystery man.”
    Now they were getting somewhere.
    Angel leaned forward but before she could ask what Trish meant there was a knock at the door. Trish rocketed up from her chair. She rushed to the door and swung it wide open with no consideration for who stood on the other side.
    Angel jumped from the couch, ready to fight for herself and for Trish if a threat came through the door, but that didn’t happen.
    Two arms decorated in bangles and rings wrapped around Trish’s back, then a head of spiked blond hair appeared over her shoulder when this new person hugged Trish.
    Turning to Angel, Trish announced, “This is my friend, Heidi and Heidi, this is my friend, Angel.”
    “Nice to meet you.”  Angel walked over to shake hands.
    “Same here. Wow, you’re even taller than Trish. I’m living in the land of giants.”
    An understandable observation from someone who only reached Angel’s shoulder.
    Trish’s uninhibited grin radiated happiness. Angel swallowed a lump of jealousy over the noticeably close friendship.
    No brother, no sister, no girlfriends, no man in Angel’s life. Why couldn’t she have one person in her life who cared for her?
    Was she destined to spend her life alone?
    Heidi told Trish, “Ready to go home?”
    “Sure thing.” Trish turned to Angel. “Tell Zane I had to go, but I’ll see him later.”  She gave Angel a big hug and whispered, “Thanks. I owe you.” 
    “What for?”
    “Not lecturing me about drinking and helping me clean up the floor, which means you don’t plan to tell Zane.”
    The unrestrained hug warmed Angel’s heart. She didn’t want to lecture Trish, but she would like to help the young woman. “I won’t say a word, but take care of yourself.”
    Trish nodded then snatched up her purse from the kitchen, and waved as she left in a flurry of chattering as Heidi closed the door behind them.
    Leaving Zane and Trish would be hard, but never seeing either one again was going to hurt. Once she went into a witness protection program, no way could she have contact with either.
    She smacked her head. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. I cannot believe I didn’t ask her about the damn boat curtains. Next time I need to keep my nose stuck in my own business,” she complained to the empty room. Shaking her head, she dropped onto the dark green leather chair, wishing she really lived here and had Trish as a friend.
    Trish would probably say, “Just do it, Sug. Take care of that small problem and hang around.”
    Angel had stretched the truth with that adjective.
    A small problem would be if no one showed up in a week to pay the rent on her tiny house back in Raleigh. Playing keep-away with Mason and his goons ranked up with a nightmare-level crisis.
    What few worldly possessions she owned would soon be set on the street, including a used racing bike and her acceptance notice to compete in the Tamarind Triathlon.
    All the hard work she’d invested to compete in the high-profile event was wiped away.
    Angel glanced at the door. Should she duck out the back and head for the marina to search for the coins?
    After all it took to get back here without being seen?
    At least she hoped she hadn’t been seen.
    Patience , she reminded herself.
    With no idea where Zane had gone, or when he’d return, she pondered Trish’s comment about Zane being a mystery man. Trish might have said more if Heidi hadn’t shown up.
    Zane might be a mystery to his sister, but he’d been nothing short of a lifesaver since Angel had met him. As if it hadn’t been enough to rescue her the night she’d escaped, he’d shown up in the abandoned gas station out of thin air after someone had taken a shot at her.
    Questionable timing? Yes, but she’d been damned glad to see him.
    The man chiseled at the barriers she’d built around her emotions. His first kiss had surprised her, but now that she’d tasted Zane Black’s kisses, she wanted more. She licked her lips, savoring the memory of his taste.
    Years of debilitating setbacks had hardened her soul. She