Free Messenger's Angel: A Novel of the Lost Angels by Heather Killough-Walden Page B

touching the archess in any untoward manner would be as good as signing his own death warrant, he would have acted on the dark thoughts that ran through his mind as he watched Juliette. As it was, however, time was short and she was too valuable. So he settled for watching her. He’d also been watching Gabriel Black. The archangel.
    Gabriel and his archess had somehow managed to book the very same ferry and were headed to the very same place. Though Daniel wasn’t exactly surprised, he was definitely disappointed. This wasn’t the time and place he would have chosen to make his move on the archess.
    He’d hoped for just a little more time. He’d learned by reading her files that she was going to do research on the Outer Hebrides. He could have posed as a librarian or fellow ethnographer—something to gain her trust until he could get her alone, in some secluded spot at night. He had also hoped to have enough time to make preparations for their return trip to the States. It wasn’t easy to transport an unconscious or unwilling captive overseas. Not these days, anyway.
    But the fates had conspired against him, and time had all but run out. With the archangel and his archess in such close proximity, there was no way they wouldn’t be meeting up soon. And once they did, Daniel didn’t stand a chance of getting Juliette Anderson alone—ever again.
    Daniel leaned forward in his chair and sighed through his nose. If he didn’t move now, it would be possible for the two to meet while disembarking. He watched a minute more while the lovely archess made her way down the stairs to the level below, her waist-length hair shimmering beneath the low lights as she moved. And then he rose from his seat, taking his black backpack with him. He’d purchased it after leaving the Adarian headquarters. It had everything in it that he would need to subdue Juliette if it came to taking her by force. He was fairly certain it would.
    He moved to the stairwell and stared down into a steadily growing crowd below. He didn’t see the archess anywhere. Cursing under his breath, he took the stairs at a rapid pace and searched the sea of faces that had gathered between the two stairwells. He met several pairs of female eyes as he hastily searched, but none of them belonged to Juliette. His heart rate kicked up a notch. How could he have lost her so quickly? She’d simply rounded the corner in the stairwell and slipped his grasp.
    With a growing sense of unease, Daniel pushed his way through the crowd and gazed across the expanse of the deck to the stairs on the opposite side. They were the stairs that led to the observation deck outside, and as far as he knew, only Black had taken them up during this trip.
    No sign of him. He must still be up top.
    Daniel turned and followed the crowd down the second set of stairs to the disembarking station. His mind worked quickly. He needed to be able to follow the archess until she was somewhere alone, and he needed to guarantee that he wouldn’t be seen. Daniel paused near the wall by one of the restroom doors and fiddled with his backpack. When he was certain no one was watching him, he slipped into the men’s restroom, double-checked that he was alone, and became invisible.
    Then he waited until another man came in, and used the open door to slip back outside once more. The crowd bottlenecked onto the outer lower deck and he expertly navigated the sea of bodies until he was able to stand apart from them and scan the crowd.
    There.
    Juliette broke away from the crowd and headed across the street. He knew from reading through her receipts on the memory stick that she had reserved a car to pick up here in Stornoway. That was where she was headed.
    Daniel broke into a run after her and then, when he was twenty paces behind, he slowed and trailed her. There was still no sign of Black, but there were loads of other people around, too many for him to make his move without a witness.
    He was feeling impatient.