Abandoned Angel by Kayden Lee Page A

first told him that she was pregnant. For an instant he bore a look of anger and disappointment, but as quickly as she had caught this look, it disappeared. Rusty then flashed a smile and appeared overjoyed over the idea of having a baby to call their own. He was gentle with Angelina during the pregnancy, and for a while, she thought the baby had actually changed him, but he hadn’t. As the baby demanded her attention, Rusty became jealous and cruel, and started using drugs more heavily. He never figured out how to handle Justin, same as he never learned how to control his ugly temper. Rusty had always pushed the work of having a child off on Angelina, and then took it out on her when she gave their son too much attention. It had been a no win situation for the mother, so she did her best to care for her child.
    Ahead of Angelina and Blaze, the other bikers began to slow down. One at a time, they motioned for the bikers behind them to turn off the main road onto a quiet gravel one. Although there was a bit of distance between the other bikers and Blaze, it was easy to follow their tracks as the dust blew up behind the slow moving bikes. Blaze braked to nearly a complete stop. He waited for the dust to settle before he followed the others down the pebble filled, gravel road. They inched along at a snail’s pace for nearly two miles before they turned down a path created among collections of trees. The breath taking greenery placed amidst the hard desert landscape surprised Angelina. It was very out of place, carrying an eerie feel to the atmosphere. As they pulled up Angelina noticed that there were a number of bikers already camped out; some of them were napping on the ground, and a few had small tents up. Angelina wondered why they were stopping and hoped they would not be staying for long. Maybe the men needed to rest. Although worn out and sore from the constant ride, she wanted to keep going. She needed to get to where Justin would be, and as soon as possible. She had not considered the fact that they would not actually ride all day.
    Blaze parked his bike alongside a cluster of trees. Most of the bikers they were riding with had already pulled in and started unloading their bikes by the time Angelina and Blaze pulled up. Blaze had driven slowly on the gravel road to keep from getting rock dings on his bike. He hated to drive on gravel roads, because doing so always gave him the overwhelming urge to wipe down the chromed bike, until its metal sparkle in the sunlight, and then park it in the garage - as he used to.
    His wife often teased him about it.
    “You are such a perfectionist,” she would say, her smile drawing him in. “Are you afraid to dirty the bike my big bad husband?”
    He loved the way her mouth curled and her intense blue eyes sparkled when she teased him. He missed that. Now, Blaze hated to drive on gravel roads, not because of the dust and the dings, but because it reminded him of his wife, and the life he used to have, and he did not want to remember how it used to be. Blaze avoided gravels whenever he could.
    “What are we doing here?” Angelina asked as she eased her stiff body over the back of the seat onto the ground. Along with her sensitive ribs, her lower back now ached from sitting so long in one position.
    “It’s time to rest,” Blaze answered. “We’ll stay here for the night.”
    “ FOR THE NIGHT ?” Angelina raised her voice in alarm.
    “We can’t stay here for the night, I have to get to Iowa; you said that you would take me,” stated Angelina, panic taking hold of her.
    A quick reacting Blaze swung his body around and grabbed the upper part of her arm, his fingers dug into her pink skin. His free hand latched on to the front of her neck, and he stringently held her throat, preventing her from moving. Caught off guard, Angelina gasped to catch her breath. What had triggered the anger? Stopped in mid-sentence, she attempted to take a deep breath, and waited for what was to