Page 8 of Callen's Captive
“I didn’t mean to put you down. I’m sorry.”
Steely eyes lifted at last. “Not much has changed here. More dirt, more rat droppings, but it was safe, and it was home, shifter.”
“Shifter?”
“Weren’t you the one pointing out how humans are like animals compared to shifters? Rather ironic considering that most humans think shifters are more animal than human.” She placed the hanger back in the closet. “Not everyone has money in this life, or the means to get it.”
He moved behind her and turned her to him with one hand. From somewhere deep inside, he wanted to hug her, and he had never been one to hug anyone. She sounded like she needed it, but her body language, her face. . . everything said she didn’t wanthistouch, so he kept his distance.
“How old were you when your family lived here?”
She stared at him in disbelief and he had no clue what he had said wrong. Fuck, he hated the human world where things were so complicated.
“I think you’re right, we’re better off in the living room.” She shut the flashlight and shoved it back into her pack.
“Kate, please. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to insult you. I want to find out what’s going on and figure out how to keep you safe.”
“Why? Why do you even care what happens to me? Are you doing a favor for Anna, trying to impress her maybe? She’s not a pushover, and she’s been through a lot in the past few years, so if you’re using me to get to—”
“Anna’s a friend, nothing more. In fact, she’s involved with a friend of mine. So, yes, I’m here in part because of her. Because she’s worried about you.”
And because your scent had me wound so tight, I couldn’t sleep at night. My wolf kept howling until I had no choice but to find you.
“You’ve done your job, shifter. I’m safe. You can go back home, tell Anna I said, ‘Thanks’ and that I’ll be in touch, eventually.”
“How? You don’t know where she is.”
“Then I guess I won’t find her.” Kate shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but he could see the sadness in her eyes. Anna was her only friend. A woman Kate had only communicated with via phone and email, and had never met in person, was her only friend.
Callen took the flashlight from her and placed it back on the desk. With a single click, the light filled the dingy room once again, and he imagined a young girl living here, perhaps not knowing anything better existed or that she was living in squalor.
“I’m guessing light pink.”
“What’s light pink?” she asked.
“The color of the walls when you were little.” He pointed to the few remaining splotches of faded pink paint on a crumbling wall. “Is that your favorite color?”
She eased back onto the bed, the springs creaking despite her slight weight. “Blue, actually. I guess the walls were pink for whoever lived here before me. The place was already abandoned when I moved in. What you see now is pretty much how it was back then.”
“Your family. . . struggled.”
“My foster parents had good jobs and a nice place, but I couldn’t stay there after what happened to Janie. This was one of the places I crashed once I left.”
Hell.
Callen’s fists clenched behind him. Some enforcer he was. He was supposed to be able to read people, but he’d read her wrong from the very start.
“Maybe we should discuss your current situation and then get some rest.” He still didn’t know why the WSSO was after her.
She lay down on the mattress, with her head on her backpack, and he winced at the idea of her skin touching that filthy mattress. At least she had jeans and a long sleeve top on.
“Discuss, shifter.”
“Callen,” he reminded her. “I already apologized. I’m not used to anyone questioning my sincerity or my word, especially humans. They usually prove untrustworthy. Do me the courtesy of using my name, please.”
“Fine, you’re sincere. I believe you, I don’t see what it matters what I call you. You’ll be gone in the morning, and I’ll never see you again.”
He’d battled the stigma of being an enforcer for over twelve years. So many of his pack kept him at arm’s length, too afraid to get close to an enforcer because what they feared he’d to do them. . . as if he randomly went around torturing people or bashing heads together.
