An Angel in Serpent's skin

Ch.23-Up in the air

Angie's p.o.v

"We need to find our baby." That was all it took to get Sweet pea on his feet. We were out the door in little to no time and headed towards my old house to find Sierra. I sped the entire way and got there in less than an hour even though it was normally an hour and a half long trip.

Josie was the one who answered the door, and I could see the shock written on her face at my appearance. It had been months since we'd last seen each other.

"Where's your mom?" She raised an eyebrow at my no nonsense attitude, but stepped aside to let us in anyway.

"Hello to you too Akira. Why do you need mom?"

"I need to ask her something." I began searching the rooms trying to find her.

"Is this about Alissa?" I stopped dead in my tracks when she asked that question, and slowly turned towards her with a deadly glare.

"What do you know about my baby?" She shifted uncomfortably, no doubt feeling small under my intense gaze.

"Not much, only that mom just found her a home this morning so we had to keep her with us last night. Not that we were complaining, for all intents and purposes that's her granddaughter and my niece. Not to mention she's quite possibly the cutest thing on the planet." I felt my muscles relax ever so slightly at her words.

"Isn't she just?" That was the first time Sweets had spoken since we got here, and a small smile came to my face when I saw the dreamy look in his eyes at the mention of his daughter. I was a little confused as to when they got back on speaking terms, but didn't figure it was very important right now.

"We need to find out where she is, can you tell us?" Josie turned to look at me, and nodded motioning for us to follow her.

We ended up in Sierra's office which was basically covered in paper. Josie jumped right in, scanning pages fairly quickly until she found the right one. With a triumphant noise she handed us the paper.

"It has the name and address of the person keeping Alissa. I figured you could make a note or something since we can't take it with us." I nodded and looked over the paper. A small gasp escaped my lips when I saw the name listed.

"I won't need to take note, I know who it is." Josie's eyes widened, but she knew better than to ask. Sweet pea on the other hand practically head butted me to get my attention. I tried to ignore him, figuring I'd tell him on the way, but he was having none of it.

"Who the hell is it Angie!?" I took a deep breath and looked up at him.

"It's Richard, Sweet pea. Richard King currently has custody of our child, so I guess I'm gonna go ahead and contact him and pray that you were right and he is in fact on our side. Because if he isn't... if he isn't... I don't even know Pea. I really don't know." With that I walked out the door and to the car, driving away as soon as Sweets had closed his door.

The ride to the office was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Neither of us knew what to say, and neither of us wanted to tempt fate by telling the other it would be okay. This left us with only one option, silently stewing in our own worry and guilt until it practically consumed us.

I didn't realize I was crying until I felt a tear slip down my cheek. I moved to wipe it, but Sweets beat me to it, carefully dragging his thumb across my cheek to catch it then grabbing my hand in his. We didn't try to start talking, we knew that wasn't gonna help, instead we latched onto each other in a desperate attempt to save our sanity.

The drive felt like it would never end, and by the time we got there my anxiety had increased exponentially. I swore Sweets could hear my heart beat if he listened close enough. The door to the office was open, and the lights were on which meant that someone was here. I was silently praying that it was Richard, that he knew we'd come looking for him and would already have Alissa here. We were instantly greeted by Layla upon entering.