Page 102 of Mine to Protect

“Happy?”

“Wanted. And now that I’ve found you, I realize that’s all I’ve been searching for my whole life. You.”

I brushed the tips of my fingers down his scruffy cheeks. “You make me feel happy, and safe, and normal.” I shrugged at his raised brows. “Everyone’s tried to fix me. You’re the only one who noticed me for who I was—scars and all.”

“Ditto, Lady. Ditto.”

Something vibrated against my bottom, making me look down between us.

“Don’t get too happy. I don’t have a vibrating dick. It’s my cell,” he grumbled. Helping me off his lap, he jammed his hand into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out the phone. He stared at the number before answering and holding it to his ear. “Hello. Yes…. Really?” A few seconds of him silently nodding drew my ear closer to his phone, hoping to catch a word or two. “Great. Yeah, I can be there in a few. Thanks, see you then.”

After running a hand down his face and scratching at his beard, he stood and extended a hand to me. “I’ve gotta run to the station. Seems they were able to get some evidence off Benny and want to talk to me about it.” His large fingers wrapped around mine and hauled me up. “You okay with numb nuts in there?”

I dropped my head back and groaned in frustration. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t like him.”

“Really? Hadn’t guessed that,” I said with a sarcastic bite in my tone. The animosity between those two was becoming unbearable, way past the point of annoyance.

“He wants what’s mine, and he can’t have it.”

My hand froze over the doorknob. Slowly, to give myself time to rein in my frustration, I turned to face him once again. “One, I am not a toy in the sandbox, so stop treating me like one. Two, he might want it, but he can’t have it because you have me. And three… three….”

“Three, I’m a possessive jackass who won’t stop being a possessive jackass because that’s the way I’m made.”

I flashed him a narrow-eyed glare. “I don’t like point three.”

“Point three causes point one and two, so point three is the keystone to all this.”

“Whatever.” I pushed through the door. As soon as I was inside, the claustrophobic feeling came back in full force.

Cas strode past to his room while John watched from his seat at the kitchen table, where he ate a bowl of cereal.

“What's eating him?” he asked.

“He has to run out to the police station.”

“Ah,” John said between bites. “Overprotective ass.”

With an eye roll, I fell onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. A dark shadow encroached from the other side of the sofa. Flicking my eyes over, I found Cas’s concerned dark ones.

“I’m going. We good?”

“Good.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Because if we’re not—”

“Freaking A, Cas, just go. I’ll be fine. We’re fine. Everyone is fine.” Okay, that was a little snippy. What was going on with me?

“Don’t take offense, man,” John said. I couldn’t see him from my prone position on the couch, but the sound of the chair scraping back and loud footsteps told me he was moving closer. “She’s about to start.”

“Ah,” Cas said in relief. “Need me to get you anything?”

I gawked at the two men.What the heck.

---