ANGEL: When Angels Cry Read Online Free

Dane
snapped.
    Ricky leaned close to Gabe, cocked an eyebrow
and nodded silently. A gesture Dane didn’t miss.
    “I said I wasn’t fucking eavesdropping.” Dane
hissed.
    “Easy, baby.” Cole touched his shoulder and
smiled. “No need to get riled.”
    Dane shrugged his hand off with annoyance and
tipped the bottle to his lips again, knuckles straining as he
gripped the glass container fiercely.
    “So anyway,” Ricky chimed. “Angel says he
isn’t looking for a boyfriend. But I think he’s lying. So…” He
glanced at the three men, eyes lingering briefly on Dane who
refused to look at him. “I was thinking of maybe trying to talk him
into going on a date with me.” He smiled. “Unless, of course,
anyone here has dibs on him?” Again, his gaze settled on Dane.
    “Cole and I pretty much keep each other
busy.” Gabe smirked. “So…we don’t have an issue with it.” He
glanced past Cole. “How about you, Dane? You got a problem with
Ricky asking Angel for a date?”
    With a stiff grunt, Dane stepped off the bar
stool without looking at any of them. “I really don’t give a fuck
what he does.”
    When he walked away in an obvious huff, Ricky
chuckled. “Fuck, he’s got it bad, doesn’t he?”
    “To put it mildly.” Cole laughed low. He
looked at Ricky. “By the way, he thinks you’re a slut.”
    Ricky chuckled and grabbed up the beer Carl
set before him. “I am.” He grinned and chugged the drink.
     
    ***
     
    Wade and Axel were bad enough on their own,
but things always got worse when Byrd showed up. He was a couple
years older than Wade, and when he was around, he was the alpha . Even
Wade listened to him. Angel wasn’t sure how they got hooked up with
Byrd, or where he even came from really. Wade had just showed up
one day with the man in tow, saying something about meeting him at
the bar, and he was cool. That was about six years ago, right after
Wade and Axel’s dad, Wayne, had died in a drunk driving
accident.
    For a brief moment, Angel had been sure
things would get better after that. Wayne had been his and Maddy’s
stepdad, and their sole provider when their mom had passed away
when Maddy was eight and Angel was eleven. The man had no real use
for them–but neither had their mother really. She had met Wayne
when he’d come by to buy some crack from her and Gary, Angel and
Maddy’s real father. Angel vaguely remembered him, and didn’t care
for the memories he did retain. The man had been weasely and
sometimes looked at Angel in ways that had scared him. But Wayne
had run him off when he’d decided he wanted to fuck their mom.
Angel hated Wayne, but at least the guy had had no sexual interest
in young boys.
    Then when Wayne died, Angel was convinced he
and Maddy would be taken into the custody of the state. Anything
had to be better than where they were at. But Wade was almost
twenty by then and the state seemed to have no qualms about leaving
them in that home.
    Angel glanced across at Maddy now. The boy
lay on his back on his bed, headphones on and his old Walkman
blasting as loud as it could go. Angel realized they were way
behind the times. The only music Maddy had were some old cassettes
and that Walkman that Angel had bought for a couple bucks at a
second hand shop.
    His eyes lingering on his little brother,
Angel leaned his back against the bare wall. The bedroom was
grungy, like the rest of the apartment. A couple mattresses on the
hard, bare floor for beds. A pillow case stapled over the window
for a curtain. And the constant stale stench of rats, seeping out
of the large hole in the wall near the floor in the far corner of
the small room. The skittering of the vile little creatures inside
the walls never ceased, and at night Angel could hear them
venturing out into the bedroom. But he was used to rats–both the
rodent and human versions.
    A sudden burst of raucous laughter erupted
from the kitchen. Angel looked at the bedroom door. There were no
locks. Not even a chair