The Julius House

swung it on its long shoulder strap and had the shock of seeing the ax sever the straps and my purse hit the ground. However, that took up one swing and he had to haul back for another try, and that gave Angel time to lunge from her prone position and grab his ankles, so his next step toward me brought him down as the ax whistled harmlessly past me. He hit the driveway with a thud but kept a grip on the ax, and he was trying to maneuver to use it on Angel when I stomped on his hand.

With a howl he let go of the ax, and I stooped and grabbed the handle and slung it as far away as I could sling. I instinctively wanted the ax out of the equation, since sharp cutting edges make me very nervous. But he used his hands after that, spinning, grabbing Angel’s ponytail and hitting her face against the gravel. She did not allow the pain to deflect her, but with an expression of absolute determination reached for a spot on his arm and pressed in with her strong fingers. He screamed and let go, and aimed a kick at Angel’s head. Swift as a snake she rolled, and the kick landed on her shoulder instead, but I saw her mouth open in pain. She was slowed down enough for him to jump to his feet. I’d been circling futilely, trying to see a vulnerable spot, but they were so fast it was bewildering. When he jumped up, I insanely tried to block him, but he straightarmed me and my feet in their leather-soled suburban low-heeled pumps flew right out from under me, and with a whump! I landed flat on my back with all my wind knocked out. I was quite unable to move as I heard heavy running steps crunch down the driveway.

Angel’s face, scraped and bleeding, appeared over me. “All right?” she asked urgently.

I managed to waggle my head a little, still waiting for the intake of breath that would make me whole.

She ran after the intruder, her footfalls lighter and swifter. But I heard a car start up, and I knew Angel would be back soon.

She was, but in no mood to sit around and rehash our experience.

“Into the house, now!” she said harshly, scooping me off the ground with one movement. I drew in some air finally. The relief was immense. Angel’s arm was under mine and I was being dragged/marched into the house. Angel had my damaged purse in her other hand, extracting the keys as we went, and she cast my purse down while she twisted the key in the lock. She more or less pitched me into the living room while she locked the door and shot the deadbolt behind us. While I sat there still trying to figure out what had happened, Angel ran to the kitchen, with blood from the abrasions on her face dropping down to spot the floor.

I heard her voice, quick and calm. She was on the phone calling the police.

I struggled to my feet and wobbled into the kitchen.

Angel was hanging up the phone. She turned to the side kitchen door and shot the deadbolt on it; then the back kitchen door received the same treatment. She went around the kitchen yanking the curtains shut.

Then she turned to me and I realized she was furious. There was nothing slow and deliberate about Angel anymore.

“When I tell you to run, you run,” she said in a low, barely controlled voice. “You don’t hang around to save my ass. You were in the way out there. I told you to run.”

“Angel,” I said, realization dawning. “You’re my bodyguard. ”

We stood staring at one another. Both of us had a lot to think about.

“Why didn’t you run?” she asked.

“I couldn’t leave you out there.” I reached behind me for a towel and handed it to her. “You’re dripping all over,” I said.

She took it absently and began patting at her face. She glanced down at the towel and seemed surprised at the red blotches on it.

“You have to go to the doctor.”

“No,” she said. “We’ll take care of it. We’re not going anywhere until Shelby checks the road between here and town. That’s what he’s doing now.”

“That’s who you called.”

She nodded. She went to look out the curtains.

“You didn’t call the police.” I said this cautiously, feeling I was saying something quite naive.

I was right. Angel raised one eyebrow and shook her head.

I didn’t even have to ask why. Angel thought this attack was related to Martin’s illegal activities. Angel and Shelby, of course, had known all along, I realized in an ever-widening ripple of revelation; Martin had brought them here to protect me before we were even married, had bought me the Julius house because of the garage apartment for the Youngbloods to stay in, had foreseen the possibility that something like this might happen.

I got the first-aid kit from the bathroom, feeling as if I were already half-dead. I was shocked by the attack, humiliated by all I now knew. I should be grateful; I would undoubtedly be dead by now if it weren’t for Angel Youngblood. But I felt cold and stony; I hated them all, Angel and Shelby and Martin. I thumped the first-aid kit down on the counter in the kitchen; I picked up the phone. Angel made a face of protest, but before she could speak I turned on her a face so dreadful that she went back to staring out a gap in the curtains.

“Emily,” I said, when I heard the voice on the other end of the line, “I won’t be able to come to Altar Guild this afternoon, I’m so sorry.” Appropriate, but rather huffy, noises from Emily.

“Well, I fell on my way to the garage-yes, I know that’s an old-lady thing to do-the gravel was slippery and my shoes are leather-soled-no, I’m fine really, I’m just bruised. I’ll be there next time, for sure! Give the ladies my regrets.”

I hung up the phone. I stood there, my hand on it, staring off down the black hole I’d fallen into. I got a white washrag out from under the sink, moistened it, wrung it out.

“Sit down,” I told Angel.

She abandoned her post but insisted we drag a chair over to the window. She kept watch while I cleaned her face. I knew it hurt; I didn’t care. Once her abrasions and cuts were clean, I dabbed antibiotic ointment all over them. She was a sight.

Shelby’s car crunched down the drive. He pulled into the Youngbloods’ accustomed parking spot on the far side of the garage, so he was hidden from view. Angel had appropriated a knife from my kitchen drawer; she stood watching for her husband intently, the knife gripped in her right hand.

“Unlock the kitchen door,” she told me.

I did it.

“Stand back from it.”

I rolled my eyes and went back to lean against the counter. I could see through Angel’s little gap. Finally Shelby crossed it, walking warily, eyes going everywhere at once. In his hands was a shotgun.

My mouth fell open.

A number of things had hit me that day, literally and metaphorically. But the most telling thing, the moment of truth, was seeing that shotgun in Shelby Youngblood’s hands.

Someone had tried to kill me. That man had been trying to get me. Angel had just been an obstacle in his eyes; he’d had no idea of her function or capability. His focus had been on killing me. I thought of that ax coming down on my head. Suddenly my knees were wobbly.

Shelby came in the kitchen door with a rush. Angel was on hand to lock it after him the instant he was in.

“You okay?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Mad,” she said. “I’m mad as hell. I couldn’t get him. My feet went out from under me. She got the ax away from him, not me.” Angel obviously did not need or expect any fuss about her damaged face; Shelby’s dark eyes had assessed her injuries quickly and dismissed them. Angel was a professional, it was borne in on me more strongly every minute. If I was dealing with my own humiliation, so was she; she had failed in her job.

“Roe got the ax?” Shelby said incredulously.

“It’s in the middle of the front yard. She threw it.”

“Roe did.” Shelby still couldn’t quite absorb it.

“He got very close,” Angel said angrily. “If I hadn’t already been out of the house, he’d of got her.”

I had to sit down quite suddenly.

I pulled one of the breakfast-table chairs out. The legs made a scraping noise.

“So I guess you didn’t spot him on your way through town.”

“No blue Chevy Nova.”

“Tags were covered with mud,” Angel said sullenly. I could tell she’d already told Shelby this on the phone and he’d been on the lookout on the way here.