Hands All Over

Ch. 8 Family Ties

The phone woke Angela up once again. This time it was Skeeter, and he sounded a little panicked. Apparently, he'd run into Happy on his way into the funeral home that morning. She changed into normal clothes and headed down the steps, smirking when she spotted her cousin leaning up against his Harley looking as badass as ever. "You gotta scare the shit out of all the people I work with?" she teased.

"Didn't do shit," Happy defended on a shrug.

"Uh-huh," she said with a roll of her eyes as she went to hug him. She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek as he gave her a quick squeeze. Once she pulled away, she leaned next to him against his Dyna. "What are you really doing in Charming, Hap?"

"Came to see you," he answered vaguely, his eyes falling once again to her lip. "Thought you'd be in better shape though."

"I'm fine," she insisted, rolling her eyes. If he was there to visit her, he would've had her meet him halfway or at his Mom's house as he'd done in the past. "So you wanna do dinner or somethin'?"

"Nah, got shit to do," Happy answered on a shrug. "Headin' up to Oakland."

Her eyes widened slightly. "What?"

"Takin' care of business. Don't worry about it," he said on a shrug.

Angela shook her head. He was finally going to go after Esai. "Hap, don't...don't start shit 'cause of me."

"Someone hurts my family, they don't get to skate by," Happy said seriously.

"Hap, no," she said quickly, her dark eyes pleading with him. "It was nothing. I handled it. I'm fine!"

He just shook his head at her. "This time, you're fine. What about next time? I can't protect you all the time, kid. Only way I can do that is to end this shit once and for all."

Angela felt a lump rising in her throat as tears gathered in her eyes before she could stop them. She'd been so stupid to tell Happy about what happened. She should've seen this coming. "Hap, please..."

Another quick shake of his head told her that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him by pleading. Once her cousin made up his mind; he rarely changed it. "The shit I do ain't none of your concern," he told her, his voice low and rough.

She nodded, wiping quickly at her eyes as she let out a shaky breath. "All right."

Hooking a finger under her chin, he lifted her face slightly. "Keep your head up. This ain't on you."

"Yeah," she breathed though the weight of Esai's impending death was starting to settle on her shoulders. "Yeah, okay."

He leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Stay strong, kid. I'll see you later."

" 'kay. Just be safe," she said, watching him as he got on his Dyna. Happy smirked at her, as if that was an issue. The only person who needed to worry about their safety was the man he was going after.

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Angela had just finished up the three bodies she needed to take care of and was about to fall into bed when her phone rang. Groaning, she prayed it wasn't another pick up. She was emotionally and physically exhausted, the last thing she needed was to take another trip to the hospital. "Hello?" she mumbled on a tired sigh.

"Were you asleep?" Juice's voice came from the other end.

"Sorta," she said, rubbing a hand over her face.

His chuckle made her heart skip a beat. "You should come down to TM, we're having a party."

She considered it for a moment before quickly decided against it. The effort it would take to get showered and all dolled up sounded like a little too much work. All she really wanted to do was sleep. "Can't drive. Too tired," she said around a yawn. "Have fun though. What are ya'll celebrating?"