Tony yawned and arched his aching back until he felt it pop. Coffee. He might be able to get through another few hours with a bit of the double-strong brew, if he could figure out where the coffee pot was in the pile of boxes marked Kitchen in messy Magic Marker.
He stood and trudged through the minefield of boxes in the living room. Another yawn stole over him. With his eyes squeezed shut, he almost walked into the warm body in his path. He brushed soft, heated skin and jerked back, eyes snapping open.
The angel stood in front of him, her bright red hair tumbling around her in a windswept tangle, three duffel bags at her feet.
Goddammit, she’s not an angel!
“Son of a bitch!” he snarled. “How the hell did you find me?”
She just grinned. “Hi, Tony. You look tired.”
“I—you—what?”
She picked up her bags and squeezed past him. Numb, he turned to stare at her. She looked around, her shoulders shaking with restrained laughter. “This is a mess. Looks like I showed up just in time.” She dropped her bags and perched herself on one of the larger boxes like some kind of crazy little pixie, watching him with merry eyes.
Uh. Tony blinked several times. No, she was really still there. Looking at him. Laughing at him. Why that little— “Why the f**k are you in my apartment? With bags?”
She shrugged one pretty shoulder. “I told you, my job’s not done. I’m—”
“Don’t say it. Don’t you dare.” Tony raked his fingers through his hair and scowled. “Who are you, really? Tell me the truth. Someone must have put you up to this. How else could you find me?”
She sighed, closed her eyes, and rubbed her fingers to her temples. He could practically hear her counting to ten in her head.
“I’m trying to explain,” she said, spacing every word slowly and evenly. “If you’ll shut up and let me.” She took several deep, measured breaths and opened her eyes again. Her serene little smile was back, her face the infuriating picture of composure. “I’m an angel. My name is Rebecca Chance. My bags are here because I am, and I’m not leaving until my mission’s complete. I’m here to save you, and in turn save Miranda.”
“I told you—”
“I know what you told me. And I’m telling you that I’ve seen it. Divine foresight lets me see all kinds of things I wish I couldn’t. Like you killing a man.” Something bitter darkened her eyes and turned her mouth down at the corners. “If I leave, it will happen. But I’m staying. It won’t happen. So you may never believe it was even possible, but that doesn’t change that it’s my job to prevent it. Your belief isn’t necessary for that.”
A shiver ran down Tony’s spine. He sank to sit on one of the boxes. His belief might not have been necessary, but hers was so absolute in this moment that she’d almost convinced him. Almost made him believe she could be an angel.
Almost.
Damn it. He didn’t need her. He wasn’t capable of murder. He’d been raised Catholic, regardless of his current less-than-devout status. He understood the concept of sin, and murder was a sin. But even without his upbringing, he knew himself. He’d never kill anyone. Never hurt anyone. The only person who’d ever been able to make him lose it that badly was Jane, and he’d never let himself show his temper around her. Never let himself even think about harming her, no matter how angry she made him.
If Jane couldn’t push him to those extremes, there was no way a stranger could.
“That’s what you think now,” Rebecca said softly. “But you don’t understand the circumstances. You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. You do need me, Tony. Whether you want to or not.”
He raised his head and looked at her. She was doing it again. Answering his thoughts. Even if she wasn’t an angel, she was…something. Something strange. Something abnormal.
And he cursed himself for thinking that when he caught the flicker of hurt in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, but wouldn’t meet his gaze. “It’s a lot to take in. I know.”
“I’m sorry, I just—” He sighed. “Why me? Why now?”
“I told you why you. Why now? Because within the next few days, you’ll have to make a decision that will save or damn your soul. Timelines are a little unspecific with foresight, but we know it will be soon.”
Was he really buying this? Maybe if anyone was crazy here, it was him. He hesitated, then asked, “Can you really read my mind?”
“Yes.”
“What am I thinking now?”
He closed his eyes and filled his mind with a memory of red roses—that particular shade of deep, velvety red that his mother had worked so long to cultivate. Dewdrops glistened on the petals, throwing back morning sunlight. He remembered the scent of the garden: the soft musk of the roses, the damp coolness of freshly turned earth, the trace of his mother’s perfume and sweat. To the day of her death, she was always in those roses, kneeling with a shovel in one hand and pruning shears in the other. Warmth seeped through him. His mother was in heaven now, if it even existed.
“It exists.” Rebecca’s quiet voice coaxed him to open his eyes. She watched him intently, her eyes unreadable. “And I imagine your mother’s heaven is filled with those roses. They’re beautiful. And they make you happy. I thought Miranda was the only thing that could.”
“It’s just a memory.” He stood and turned his back to her, staring sightlessly at the jumble of furniture tossed in one corner of the living room. He couldn’t look at her, at that soft, sweet mouth or those eyes misted by compassion, or he really would start to believe her.
Even worse, he’d want to believe her.
“So maybe you can read my mind,” he said. “Or maybe it’s a trick. But if you’re an angel, how are you here? I didn’t think angels were real. Are you dead? Is it one of those things where you have to die before you can become one?”
“It’s hard to explain.” Listening to her was harder when he couldn’t see her. Now he strained for every inflection in her soft voice, carried by its music until he almost didn’t catch the meaning. “I’m as alive and human as you are. I never died. I was just…chosen. Before my mentor came to me, my life was nothing. Just loneliness and a small, rat-infested apartment.” The hollow pain in each word made Tony’s chest ache. “She offered me something more. A chance to be something better, and to make a difference. So I accepted. Sally trained me for this…and now here I am. For you.”