In the kitchen, Wrath and Rosabella had taken positions at opposite sides of the small room. Wrath was presently jammed up against the fridge and looked like a demon with its horns in a trap. He folded his muscular arms and dropped his chin like a prize fighter staring down the contender. “You should have told me about Eddie.”
“Told you when?” Rosabella propped her hands on the counter behind her and leaned back slightly. Her muslin skirt draped lovingly over her long legs. “When you were busy fighting one of your inane wars? Or maybe I should have crossed hell to find you and let you know you’d left a little something behind?”
“You sent me back there.” Wrath growled. “You sent me back to my demesne when you told me you were done with me.”
Rosabella sighed. “Don’t be a fucking drag, Wrath. You didn’t want a daughter any more than I did.”
“Is that what you thought?” Wrath’s expression was genuine confusion. “You thought I would abandon my child?”
“You walked away from me fast enough.” Rosabella sniffed. “What was I supposed to think?”
Wrath took a deep breath, his huge chest rising and falling like it housed a working set of bellows. “You’re rewriting history. You were the one who walked away from us. I wanted to try.” He jabbed a thumb into his chest. “I was the one who would have done anything to make us work.”
“Oh, please.” Rosabella glared and tossed her head. “You were…are…a hell prince. I was never a priority for you.”
“I guard the seal to wrath.” He gaped at her. “It’s an important job, but that didn’t mean I never had time for you. I wanted you. I loved you.”
Haziel suspected he might still love Rosabella. Her heart went out to him a bit. Unrequited love was totally shitty. And Wrath had lost a daughter when he’d lost his love as well. Watching him defy the entire treaty to assure Eddie’s safety, Haziel had a feeling he would have made a great father. A scooch overprotective, but a good father nonetheless. Human girls needed a strong father in their lives. Fates alone knew, human girls had enough challenges to face and enough stacked against them.
“This is all ancient history.” Rosabella flapped a hand. “And you know why we had to keep her a secret.”
That much was true. Love Ramiel as she did, Haziel wouldn’t like to bet against the possibility that he might have eliminated a Nephilim if he’d known about her.
Haziel didn’t get the abhorrence archangels had for Nephilim. It wasn’t like Nephilim had any choice in their conception. And if Eddie was an example of Nephilim, Haziel couldn’t agree with the elimination policy preached by the archangels. Eddie was lovely and sweet, also missing and in all kinds of danger.
“You should have told me about my child,” Wrath said. “I could have kept her safe.”
Rosabella’s facade crumbled, and tears filled her blue-green eyes. “You’re right. I should have told you.” She wiped at her cheeks with her palm. “But I was frightened.”
Wrath flinched. “Frightened? Of me?”
“You’re so…” Rosabella’s voice quavered. “You’re so intense. So much. How did I know you wouldn’t get angry and try to kill me and the baby?”
Now Wrath could be a bastard, and he certainly had a temper, but killing a pregnant woman? No. Haziel studied Rosabella a bit closer. She didn’t want to be harsh, but she wasn’t entirely sure the woman was genuine. If she’d been so afraid of Wrath, why had she become his lover?
“Rosabella.” Wrath frowned at her. “Is this what you think of me?”
Yeah, that had to be a bitter pill to swallow.
“Please, Wrath.” Rosabella held her hands out to him. “Find my baby girl. Find her and bring her home. Don’t let your hatred of me color the way you treat her.”
Wrath stared as he worked words out of his mouth. “I don’t hate you, and even if I did, I would never punish Eddie for that.”
“Please.” Rosabella rushed from the kitchen.
As she passed Haziel, her expression of forlorn pleading smoothed into a little smirk. She caught sight of Haziel and stopped. “And who are you?”
“I’m Haziel.” It was the truth, and she didn’t owe Rosabella any more than that.
Rosabella studied her with a sneer. “So, you’re Wrath’s latest.”
“No.” The idea of her and Wrath was just…well…ludicrous. She loved Ramiel and he and Ramiel were, if not exactly enemies, then opposing forces. “I’m not Wrath’s anything.”
“Hmm.” Rosabella’s gaze swept from her toes to her crown. “Take it from me, honey, you don’t know what you’re missing out on.” She grimaced. “Then again, he may be hot, but he’s a stage five clinger. Ugh!” She wrinkled her nose. “Nothing turns me off faster than a clinger.”
Haziel had no idea how to respond to that, so she repeated, “I’m not Wrath’s anything.”
“Pity for you.” Rosabella smirked. “Although, I don’t know how much of him there’s left.” She leaned closer. “Now that I’m gone.”
Well, wow! Haziel turned and watched her as she hurried down the stairs. Eddie did not deserve that mother of hers. She’d have been much better off with her father.
“What are you doing here?” Wrath thundered.
Oops. Haziel turned back to him with a sinking in the pit of her stomach. “I was looking for you.”
“To spy on me?”
“No.” But she had been spying, so she confessed. “But when I saw you arguing with Shade, I didn’t want to interrupt, and then Rosabella came, and that didn’t seem a good time to announce I was here either.” And because she could never tell a half-truth because Ramiel had made sure she couldn’t, she finished with, “And I was fascinated when I heard who she was.”
Wrath tensed like an enraged bull about to charge. “You admit it.”
“I admit everything.” They may as well get this out of the way right up front. If they were going to work together, he needed to understand this about her. “In fact, I wouldn’t tell me a secret because I’m incapable of keeping them.”
“What?” He gaped at her.
Haziel stepped away from the wall she’d been trying to blend into and straight into the full-bore glare of Wrath. It was lucky for her that he didn’t have his power, or she’d be angel dust by now. “It’s my gift.” If one could call it that. “Or curse, if you will. Truth. Always have to tell the truth.”
With a head shake, Wrath studied her intensely. “You always have to tell the truth?”
