Free Charity's Angel by Dallas Schulze

few days. He'd admired her determined cheerfulness even while he wondered what it cost her to smile when she must be screaming with fear and anger inside. He couldn't stand to hear the strain in her voice that said she was close to losing that control.
    "Hi. Not interrupting, am I?" Both women turned to look at him as he pushed open the door. The brother wasn't there, he saw at a glance. A man the size of Brian Williams would be a little hard to overlook.
    "Gabe." Charity's smile told him she was grateful for the interruption. "I thought you said you wouldn't be able to get in today."
    "Well, there was a break I hadn't expected so I thought I'd drop by."
    "I'm glad you did. I don't think you know my sister, Diane. Diane, this is Gabriel London."
    "Actually, we've met," Gabe said, his eyes meeting Diane's and seeing the uneasiness there.
    "You did?" Charity glanced at her sister, surprised that Diane hadn't mentioned meeting Gabe. "When?"
    "The night you were brought in," Diane said. "Gabe was in the waiting room. With a friend of his," she added. "A very pretty woman."
    Gabe wasn't sure just what the glance she threw Charity was meant to convey, but he didn't want Charity to get the wrong idea about Annie.
    "My partner," he said easily. "She and her husband are friends of mine, as well." That should clear up any lingering impression that Annie was more than a friend, he thought. Though why it should seem important, he couldn't have said.
    "Oh." The flat syllable could have meant anything, but Gabe had the feeling Diane Williams didn't like hearing that Annie was nothing but a friend, and a married one at that. He could ponder the reasons she might feel that way later.
    "I thought I heard you talking about going home," he said to Charity. "Are they releasing you?"
    "In a couple of days. There's really no reason for me to stay in the hospital. It's just a matter of waiting now. I can do the physical therapy as an out patient."
    "Are you going back to your apartment?"
    "She can't. There's about a thousand stairs leading up to her apartment. Maybe you can make her see reason," Diane said, willing to apply to any port in a storm.
    "I'm not coming to stay with you," Charity told her, irritated. "The carpets in that apartment are about six inches thick. If I have to learn to use a damned wheelchair, I'm not going to do it on those carpets."
    "I'll tear the stupid things up."
    "I'm sure your landlord would love that. Besides, quite frankly, a week of living with you and we'd be at each other's throats. I love you dearly, Diane, but you are not my idea of a great roommate."
    "I have a cleaning service," Diane said huffily.
    "No cleaning service in the world could keep up with you." Charity reached out and caught her older sister's hand. "I really do appreciate the offer, but I need peace and quiet right now and those are not things I associate with you."
    Diane looked as if she wanted to argue but couldn't. "Well, fine then. Don't stay with me. But you'll go back to your apartment and shut yourself in like a hermit over my dead body."
    "I don't want to be a hermit," Charity said. "But it's the most practical arrangement. When Brian gets back from Europe, he can help me get upstairs and then he can take me to physical therapy a couple of times a week. He might as well use those muscles for something besides lifting barbells."
    "I don't like it," Diane said sullenly.
    "I don't, either." It was obvious that they'd forgotten Gabe's presence, from the surprised expressions they turned on him.
    "Don't you start," Charity wailed in exasperation.
    He shrugged. "Sorry. But I don't think it's a good idea. An apartment whose access is only by stairs is dangerous. What if there was a fire?"
    "Exactly," Diane said in triumph, glad to have an argument Charity couldn't dismiss.
    "Do you have a better idea," Charity asked sarcastically.
    "Actually I do. You can move in with me."

Chapter 6

    " W hat?" Charity and Diane spoke simultaneously, giving the