Chapter Twenty
Anna
She spent the rest of the night in Caine’s arms, unwilling to let him go more than a few feet from her.
His brothers returned swiftly after he contacted them, and they were immediately moved up to the top floor, a huge two-story penthouse where she was introduced to another pair of dragons. Corde and Vanek were polite about letting them use their spare room, but though she knew they were well protected now, she still didn’t feel safe.
Whoever the senator knew in the military, they were important. Anna didn’t want to think of how he would escalate things next after learning of the failure of his strike team. So far she’d avoided learning the fate of the men who had stormed Caine’s apartment, contenting herself with knowing that “the dragons and military are handling it.”
Her sleep came in fits and spurts, never more than half an hour or forty-five minutes at a time. Eventually the sun rose over the horizon, illuminating the bedroom through the blinds. She yawned and stretched, her brain fuzzy from being overtired.
Caine was wide awake, his fingers absently stroking through her hair, a pleasing sensation that had done wonders to help her relax and grab the minimal sleep she had. Without him, Anna wouldn’t have slept at all. He truly was her hero.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault.”
His arms squeezed her tight, the massive biceps reminding her of his strength. “This actually isn’t your fault in the slightest. It has you at the center, yes. If you’ll recall, however, you wanted to leave multiple times, and I constantly convinced you to stay. It was I who intervened with Lincoln and then Lee.”
“But he’s after me.”
“I know he is, Anna. That’s not your fault, however. You didn’t choose that. You didn’t ask him to be. He made that decision, just like I made mine. You cannot feel guilty for the decisions other people make. That is what makes freedom of choice so important. That it can’t be controlled by other people. I choose to help you, to protect you, because I care for you deeply. Not because you cast a spell on me.” He tilted his head sideways. “You didn’t case a spell on me, did you?”
She giggled. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“That’s my girl.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re stronger than you realize, Anna.”
“I doubt that,” she said, snorting her laughter. “I’ve never worked out a day in my life. Trust me, you don’t get these hips from the gym.”
Caine laughed. “I was referring to your spirit. Your strength of mind is admirable.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice growing up,” she admitted. “Being an orphan, you sort of have to be strong, or else you don’t make it.”
“You’re an orphan?”
“Well, I don’t know,” she admitted. “I was given up for adoption at birth by my mother. She didn’t want me, I guess. The state raised me, if you can call it that.” It hurt to talk about her past, but after everything they’d been through, after all Caine had done for her, the least she could do was give him an explanation of how it had come to pass.
“You don’t need to tell me this.” He spoke softly, comforting her with his hands.
“I know. But I want to. Besides, the more I talk about it, the more I’m told it will help me heal. It’s probably a huge mistake, but I trust you, Caine. I don’t do that often. If ever.”
He nodded, thankfully not insulted by her saying it was a mistake. She had never meant it to mean that he was untrustworthy, but simply that it always seemed to bite her in the ass when she let people into her life.
“I was adopted, eventually. When I was nine, I think. I thought it was all uphill from there,” she said bitterly, memories rising to the surface.
“It wasn’t what it seemed, was it?”
She shook her head. “No. Not at all. They did the bare minimum to ensure I survived and was healthy. I got my education from television, and when I was fourteen, they arranged for me to be married to a powerful man in the community. A man who would pay them handsomely for a young woman.”
Caine’s face darkened. “Senator Lee.”
“Exactly. But he wasn’t Senator Lee back then. Just plain old businessman Lee. It was much easier to fly under the radar that way.”
Caine didn’t relax, nor did the anger leave his features. Anna reached up and caressed his cheek. Eventually he let go, his jaw unclenching and his forehead smoothing over. His eyes didn’t change. They continued to glow with a brilliant inner white, a sign of his heritage.
“It sounds bad, but it wasn’t. At least, not in a sexual aspect,” she said. “Not for me. There were others for that. No, besides the odd inappropriate touch, I was never harmed. He needed me for other purposes.”
“So what did you do?”
“Everything. His laundry. The dishes. I cooked. Cleaned. I was his personal property. I’ve been used as a footstool, a personal bathing nurse, you name it. If I screwed up, I was beaten or locked in a cage.” She shivered at the memories. “Five years ago I finally worked up the courage to run away. I’ve been on the run ever since.”
“I’m so sorry.” Caine pulled her in close, kissing her forehead several times in a row as she snuggled right into his heavily muscled chest, enjoying the contrast between her softness and his taut body.
“I’m just ashamed it took me that long to leave,” she confessed.
“Don’t be. At all. You were groomed from a young age to believe that is how the world worked. It takes time for you to understand that most people are not like that.”
“I guess.”
“I promise, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to prove to you that there are people in the world who truly do care for your well-being, and want to pamper, not punish you.”
“You’ve already done that,” she told him, resting her head on his chest. “Simply by being who you are, you’ve shown me things I never before imagined. For that, I can’t thank you enough.”
She tilted her head up and kissed him, enjoying the closeness of the moment. Caine was different, she knew. He wasn’t the sort of person to treat her the way Lee had for a decade and a half. Fifteen years. Had it really been that long? Unbelievable.
“Hello?”
They both sat up, Anna sliding from his lap just in case Caine needed to be agile.
“It’s Colonel Mara,” he said. “I’ll go chat with her.”
Anna nodded and sat back to wait. She could hear the pair talking in quiet tones, but not well enough to make out what they were saying. They had to be closer to the elevator. She yawned and sank further into the couch, feeling tiredness sweep over her. Before she knew it, she was fast asleep.