Page 15 of Caretaker

Whatever it was, it hurt me to hear it. I took a step closer to him, and Beardy tensed. I felt Shane at my back, warm and steady, and Al was on my right.

I cleared my throat. “They wouldn’t let me come see you, Angus. They wouldn’t clear you for visitors. I tried.”

He nodded, slowly, and kept his stare glued to mine as though he were afraid to look away. As though I were his lifeline.

He looked surprisingly good. The last time I’d seen him he’d been hovering on the edge of death. Now, he was pale and quiet, but his arm muscles bunched beneath the short sleeves of his uniform, and his body looked sleek, strong, and cared for.

Sure, there were some wounds, some new bruises, some cuts, even something that looked like bite marks.

I swallowed. Who the fuck was biting him?

And when I lifted my worried gaze from his body to his eyes, he looked away.

There was guilt deep in his eyes. Shame, too.

Shit.“Angus…”

Whatever else they were doing to him, they weren’t starving him. He looked nothing like the poor creatures who’d been forced to kneel in ISec, with their sharp shoulder blades and knobby spines.

Shane squeezed my arm and when I looked around, he pointed at the chair he’d dragged from the table. I sat down on the edge of it, murmuring my thanks.

“My kids?” Angus asked.

“They’re okay. They miss you so much. Alisa had her baby, a little girl. She named her Pearl.”

“And Jen?”

“She miscarried.”

He swallowed, then nodded. Miscarriages involving supernaturals were very common, but a person wouldn’t believe that based on the number of Angus’s children. He seemed to be singlehandedly trying to match the human population with the shifter population.

Truthfully, it was as Rhys had told me. Bulls were driven to do two things—fuck and fight. And Angus wouldn’t use birth control. Some of the women did, but not Angus.

A flash of hot possessive jealousy came out of nowhere and lit me on fire. There and gone, it nevertheless left me gasping in its wake.

“What’s wrong?” Shane asked.

I shook my head, not taking my stare from Angus’s. “Nothing.”

“Trinity,” Angus said. “You shouldn’t have come. It’s not safe for you here.”

I leaned forward, trying to ignore the listening guards. “I’m going to get you out of here, Angus. Hang on for a few more days.”

He narrowed his eyes, but I could see the hope trying to creep in. “How?”

I glanced at the guards. I didn’t want to give them too much information. Maybe I shouldn’t have let them know I was working on getting Angus released, but Angus needed to know. “Just…hang on. Okay?”

He nodded. “Hurry, Trin.”

I put my hand to my chest. His whispered words told me more than anything else that he was going through some bad shit.

From the corner of my eye I saw Beardy stiffen, and I hurried to change the subject. “Cory wanted me to let you know he got his shift.”

Angus widened his eyes and leaned toward me, flinching when the collar around his throat bit into his skin. “That’s my boy.”

I smiled. “He knew you’d be proud of him.”

“Who was with him?”