Page 103 of Caretaker

Not even he could have emerged from the hell of the last few months unchanged. Unscathed. No, not even Angus could have done that.

I clenched my fists. “I want to kill them,” I said suddenly, my voice cracking. “I want to find them and I want to kill them all, Angus.”

And finally, he moved.

He reached for me and pulled me onto his lap, and he held me against his chest as I sobbed. The wrongness, the injustice, the frustration…

“I learned some disturbing details about what they did to him…”The captain had been about to tell me something horrendous, something I didn’t want to know then and didn’t want to know now. So I wouldn’t ask. I would do the only thing I could do. I’d let him know I loved him.

But first, I needed to cry. I needed to curl up in his arms and let him hold and comfort me, as though I’d been the one they’d tormented. But I cried for him, and he knew it.

At last, I turned to him and took his face between my palms, relishing the feel of his flesh against my skin. He was there.

“You’re safe now,” I said.

The old Angus would have laughed at me. He’d have slapped my ass and roared something stupid and I’d have called him an asshole.

But now, he stared silently into my eyes and nodded. His voice was so low I almost couldn’t hear it. “Yes.” And maybe he wasn’t even talking to me. Maybe he was convincing himself. “I’m home.”

“If anyone ever comes for you again, I will shoot them down,” I swore, savagely.

He finally gave me a hint of a smile. “They’ll never take me again, sweetheart.”

And of that, he was absolutely certain.

For a second, a spark of something unrecognizable lit his gaze, and I recoiled in terror. “Angus!”

The humans had effectively destroyed the man he’d once been, and this Angus, this dark, frightening thing, had taken his place.

No. That wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. Angus was still Angus. He was just…changed.

As we all were.

He buried his fingers my hair and pulled me to him. “Shhh,” he murmured against my lips. “You don’t have to ever be afraid again, Trinity. Not of me. And not for me.”

I’d seen the fires of hell in his eyes, and I wasn’t afraid for him.

But maybe I was a little afraid of him.

They’d turned Angus into something dark.

I drew back, just a little. “Come back,” I whispered. “Come back to me.”

His face softened. “I’m here, sweetheart.”

“Just now—”

He licked the tears from my face, gently, but with a restrained passion that made me shudder with desire even as I shivered with fear.

Maybe Angus wasn’t different.

Maybe he just wasn’t hiding anymore.

His gaze was searching when he pulled back to look at me. And he must have seen something that made him uneasy because he relaxed his grip and his fierceness dimmed. “You did more than save my life. You rescued me. You didn’t give up on me. You didn’t quit until you brought me home. I’m yours, Trinity.”

I took a shuddery breath. “Only mine.” And the possessiveness that rose up and grabbed me by the throat surprised me, though it wasn’t exactly new.

He didn’t smile, just studied me with complete seriousness. “Only yours.”