“It’s nothing—I wasn’t—I’m fine.” She made a fluttery, dismissive gesture with one hand, but her back against his chest was stiff as a poker.
“No, you’re not.” He was too intent on her to see the shadows deepening all around them.
“No, I’m not.” She relaxed slightly, as though admitting it relieved some great tension inside her. “Maybe that’s why—I don’t know.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“A fun campfire story?” When he didn’t reply, she took a shaky breath. “After Maggie hatched, someone on our side tried to take her. I got in between. I don’t know what I thought I was going to achieve. I didn’t have a weapon on me. If I shifted, I’d end up hurting the wrong people. Not that there was time to do anything. He shot me.”
“What?” Outrage coiled through him. “After Maggie hatched—she’s still a hatchling! When was this?”
His mind scrambled. Carol had been attacked—maybe weeks ago, maybe days, and he hadn’t known. He held her close, as though he could reach through time and keep her safe.
“Were you even safe on the plane, before—”
“Before I was attacked? Again?” The ironic edge to her voice was wobbly. “Yes. Of course. I—I probably shouldn’t have been on the mission, but after they got to where Maggie’s uncle was meant to be staying—it, um, it blew up? And he wasn’t there. Maggie starts to get distressed whenever the people she’s decided she really likes get out of sight for too long, so… I came along. I’d healed by then, anyway. I was fine.”
“Were you?”
“It was only a taser he shot me with?”
“Is that aquestion?”
He couldn’t stop himself. He rolled her onto her back and rose over her, hands planted either side of her slender shoulders, his legs bracketing hers. She stared up at him in shock, eyes wide and beautiful as the deepest ocean.
“You tell me you’ve been shot, and you say it was only a taser like you’re questioning whether you’re allowed to be upset about it happening?” He wanted to kiss her and didn’t know what would happen if he did. His body was too small to contain the rage and care and love boiling inside him. “Who did this to you?”
She stared up at him. Not afraid, even though he’d just rolled her onto her back and dived on top of her. Her eyes searched his, and—
Hell’s bells. If she found the truth there, then shewouldbe scared.
He closed his eyes and lowered his head until their foreheads brushed. Her breath whispered against his cheek.
“It was—” Her voice hitched. “Someone I thought was my friend. Or—who I thought tolerated me, at least. He got me coffee when he went out of the office sometimes. Helped me out when my swipe card didn’t work and I got locked in the stairwell.” Her words shriveled with misery, twisted by the same humiliation that had made her admit to being tasered like it was something to be ashamed of. “You said you trusted me because I work for Lance MacInnis. Well, he did too. And it didn’t stop him from being a bad guy. So maybe you should go back to not trusting me—”
“Too late for that,” he growled, and her laughter sounded more like a sob.
He’d never felt more helpless. She was hurt—she’d been hurt and was still hurting, someone haddonethis to her, and there was nothing he could do. Even lying with her like this, all he could feel was the shaking tension that racked her body.
He wanted to do more. He had to be able to do more. To protect her.
And something deep inside him agreed; the kraken’s heart, mirroring his own.
Carol’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “I never saw it coming. I thought he wasnice.” She closed her eyes. “Story of my life.”
“This has happened before?”
“Not—as recently. I h-have a habit of trusting the wrong people.”
Darkness was rising inside him, but he forced it back. The woman in his arms—warm and small and incredibly strong—was the important one here. Not revenge on some faceless enemy.
I’ll kill him later. Whoever he is. And anyone else who hurt her.He didn’t know whether the thoughts were his or the kraken’s.
Maybe both. And for once, he didn’t care.
16
Carol
