From A to Z - Angel Reyes

Chapter 11

Once Bishop and Tranq relented, getting down on their knees, the gun was removed from Angel's mouth. His lips were split open, bloodied and already swollen, and his front tooth was chipped. One of the men pushed him down, face in the sand, and hurried to help empty the truck before it blew. Angel didn't get up, he knew he'd catch a bullet if he did, but he looked at the others to see what damage he inadvertently caused his brothers. Creeper was shot in the shoulder, Gilly had taken a few heavy blows and while the rest were knocked around they were generally unharmed but each Mayan was furious. They knew they had a long evening ahead of them and their problems were just beginning.

Spitting blood and aching, Angel listened to Miguel chastise them all in a smug and incredibly condescending tone. He had every right to be angry but to make the Mayans feel as if they were adversaries was only increasing the tension between them. When he finally left, the Mayans all relaxing a bit, Bishop started barking orders at his guys.

First priority was getting Creeper to the doctor and everyone else cleaned up before moving on the Base Town Tribe. Sunlight would help, although it had its drawbacks, really though they had no choice but to wait.

—

At just about the time the guys were watching their hijackers speed away with their cargo, Zara was passed out in her hotel room. She was drinking lightly on purpose, to be responsible, but after talking with Campbell and obsessing over Angel, she started pounding drinks. Not long after she stumbled to her hotel room and crashed out. When she woke up the next day she instantly groaned and dry heaved before even opening her eyes.

"Jesus Christ," she whimpered. "I'm going to die."

Reaching out blindly, Zara grabbed her phone and finally peeled her eyes open to check for messages. When she saw nothing from Angel her stomach churned even more and her heart sank. As if she was being mocked by fate she had a text from Campbell from hours before.

"So good to run into you. You look amazing. Can we have a friendly drink, maybe just coffee?"

"Sorry, douche, eat a dick," she grumbled. Instead, she typed something quick and sent it before rolling over again.

"It was nice to see you too but no. I'm not comfortable with it and don't think it's really appropriate considering I'm in a new relationship."

Feeling brave, or just too blinded by her hangover, Zara also texted Angel.

"Hey. I'm coming home early, sometime today, if you want to get together and talk. I think we should clear the air. I miss you."

When the text popped up on his phone, Angel was getting his teeth fixed at the urgent care dentist. He wasn't going to just walk around with a busted front tooth and the lisp it gave him. He saw it was from Zara but swiped the notification away, fully intending to get back to her. When he was done, Coco was there to grab him so they could move on Base Town and so Zara's text was forced from his mind.

Her phone went off again and Zara checked to see if it was Angel. It wasn't, so she ignored the text and fell back to sleep for another hour or so. The second time she woke up Zara ran to the bathroom to vomit and spent a large portion of her day on the cool porcelain tiles.

"Sorry. Super hungover. Have a great weekend, ladies! I looooove you!!! Xoxo"

Zara sent that text to the bride and her sister without hesitation and far from concerned about hurt feelings from them. She was too sick and officially too heartbroken to care.

Prostrate on the bathroom floor, Zara called EZ on speaker, still on the floor. It rang twice before she heard his voice speaking breathlessly.

"Hey. You okay?"