Unleashed (TalentBorn Book 4)
Page 25
She flinches when I say the name and a searing guilt lances through my gut. Pearce caged her and her son to make Joe help captured me, and no matter what Joe says, that makes everything they went through my fault.
“I’m sorry, Angela.”
“You think I have any use for apologies?” she snaps at me, but her hands are shaking. “Look around you. I can barely keep a roof over my son’s head. I can’t get a job because I can’t stand the thought of leaving Tino with anyone else. I can’t even sleep at night in case they come back for him.”
“Let us help you.”
She snorts and gives me a derisive look that I know better than to take personally. I represent everything that tore her life apart.
“Help? None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you, and Joe, and your whole damned world.”
“I know, and I’m–”
“Don’t you dare apologise again.”
She looks on the verge of throwing me bodily from her home, or at least attempting to. I raise my hands in a mollifying gesture, and watch her across the half dozen feet separating us.
“You’re right,” I say. “Words are worthless.”
I get to my feet and turn my back on her.
“What are you doing?” she asks. I’m sure she means to snap the words at me, but there’s a quiver of anxiety that I don’t miss.
I answer by lifting up the back of my shirt. I hear her gasp as I reveal the scars – some from a whip, some from burns, a couple from a knife. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at them in the mirror, but I know what they look like. I’ve felt Scott run his hands over them a dozen times.
I drop my shirt and turn back around. The blood has drained from Angela’s face.
“I know what you went through,” I tell her. “He took me, too.”
She shakes her head.
“Nothing like that,” she says, massaging the inside of her wrist with her thumb, probably an unconscious action. I catch a glimpse of the small burn scar there.
“I know what it’s like to be afraid all the time.”
“He videoed it when he burned me. He said it was Joe’s fault for disobeying him. He said–” She grimaces and forces the next words out. “He said next time it would be Tino.”
I bury the surge of nausea and hold her eye.
“Joe did everything he could to protect you both.”
“If he really cared about us, he wouldn’t still be out there, getting caught up in other people’s fights. He chose you, all of you, over us.”
She wraps her arms around herself and looks away.
“He’s doing it for you,” I say, a little sharper than I intend. “Both of you. Do you think you and me are the only people Pearce has ever locked up? Joe is doing everything he can to make the world a safer place. Not for me. Not for the Ishmaelians. For you. His family. For his son. His potentially talented son.”
She sniffs and drops her chin onto her arms, staring at me balefully.
“I just want it to be over. All of it.”
“And it will be. But what sort of man would Joe be if he didn’t fight to make it happen? He won’t rest until you’re safe. Angela, you and Tino the only things he cares about. He needs you. And you need him.”
Her face softens. I’m sure Joe never told her this stuff – he’s much too modest – but someone’s got to.
“We miss him,” she says.
“Then come back with me. Our new base isn’t much, but you’re safer there than on your own. Tino will have all of us watching his back. We’ve got round the clock security – and our guns are real, not just empty threats.”
A flicker of a smile passes over her face.
“I mean it, Angela. We’ll protect you. Here, take my number. It’ll be turned off, but I’ll check it every day. Leave a message, and someone will come and get you.”
She shakes her head, and my shoulders hunch in defeat. That was it, that was everything I could promise her. If it’s not enough, I don’t know what more we can do.
“I don’t need to,” she says. “We’re ready now.”
“You’ll come?”
“We will. I just need to get a bag together for Tino.” She pauses. “I didn’t see your car parked outside.”
Ah. I really need to learn to think things through.
“Do you get travel sick?”
*
Angela, like most people, turns an interesting shade of green when we shift. Tino sleeps through the entire thing, tucked against his mother’s hip. I carefully lower her bags to the ground.
“You’ll be fine in a minute. Just wait here a moment, okay?”
She nods vaguely, looking around the grimy warehouse. I can guess what she’s thinking. It’s hardly the place to raise a kid. But at least it’s safe. For now, anyway.
“Guys?” I call, listening to my voice echoing off the walls.
“Anna!” I recognise Joe’s voice coming from one of the rear rooms, getting louder as he works his way towards us. “Where’ve you been? I found your–”
He stutters to a halt as he steps through the doorway and sees the two figures behind me.
“–note.”
“Hi, Joe,” Angela says, shifting Tino from one hip to the other. He stirs but doesn’t wake. His hands bunch into fists, entwining in her shirt as he snuggles against her. Joe stares at the pair of them.
“Angela,” he breathes, after a long pause. The sound carries easily through the absolute silence of the room. He takes a step towards them, then freezes, like he’s worried she’ll disappear if he gets too close.
“We want to come back to you,” she says. “If you’ll have us.”
Joe crosses the room in half a dozen strides and wraps his arms around her, hugging her, touching his fingers to her face, kissing his son.
“I missed you so much,” he says.
“I missed you, too. Joe, I’m so s–”
“Shh,” he cuts her off. “Shh. None of that matters now. I love you.”
He presses his lips to hers, and I slip out of the room with a smile on my face. Maybe it’s not much. Iain’s dead, Duncan’s gone, and most of the Ishmaelians have been captured. But it feels good to undo one small piece of the damage Pearce has done. My fingers trace the choker around my neck, and close around the silver locket hanging from it. My lips curve into a smile. I’m not yours anymore, Pearce.
Alistair thinks Pearce is afraid of me? He should be. I’m coming for him next.
Somewhere deep inside, Savage Anna stirs. Hurt, hurt, hurt, she whispers. Kill. Kill. Kill.
A note from the author
Thank you for sharing part four of Anna and Scott’s journey with me. To find out what happens next, be sure to check out TALENTBORN:HUNTED, book five in the TALENTBORN series.
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Other Titles By C.S Churton
TalentBorn Series
AWAKENING
EXILED
DEADLOCK
UNLEASHED
Coming Soon
HUNTED
CHIMERA
Druid Academy Series
DRUID MAGIC
FERAL MAGIC
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