Free PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless by R.L. Mathewson Page B

the Sentinels and live out the rest of eternity doing something else, something with a whole hell of a lot less
    bullshit than this.
    Greg shrugged. "Then I guess you won't mind if we have a little fun with Danni while you make up your mind?" he asked
    casually as he watched him from the corner of his eye, probably hoping for a reaction.
    He wouldn't get one.
    "Do whatever you want," he said, closing his eyes and settling in for a nap. He hated sleeping with the light on, but he
    didn't have much of a choice since these bastards refused to shut them off. When he got out of here he was buying a place with
    metal shutters for his windows so that he could block all light out of his room.
    He hadn't always been this way, but living in his subbasement Sentinel quarters for the last twenty-five years had spoiled
    him. He liked waking up without the sun blinding him. It didn't matter if it was day or night he could always see everything
    clearly so the last thing he needed in the morning was sunlight damn near blinding him. Maybe he'd get a place in the
    mountains, near a town of course. He wasn't about to go fucking nuts and live off of squirrel blood, but he wouldn't mind a little
    privacy and the shade the trees could provide. It would be nice to finally-
    "You don't care what we do to your precious little Danni?" Greg asked in a taunting tone.
    Caine sighed heavily, but didn't open his eyes. He really could care less. "Do whatever the hell you want, just be quiet
    about it. I'm trying to sleep."
    A moment of stunned silence followed and he couldn't help but feel a little offended. Did the dumb bastard really think he
    was going to break him by torturing Danni? That was just fucking sad.
    They could do whatever the hell they wanted to her and he wouldn't break. Not only had she been raised knowing that one
    day she could be captured and tortured, but he also knew they wouldn't do anything too horrible to her.
    Maiming and killing her wouldn't exactly aide their little cause so he knew that they'd probably rough her up a little bit. It
    wouldn't be anything that she couldn't handle. He'd trained her at an early age and taught her the importance of pushing through
    the pain. She was probably the best human soldier he'd seen working for the Sentinels and there was a good reason for that, the
    job was her life.
    If she wasn't training, she was reading up about training, watching others train, and doing everything she could to make
    sure her job went smoothly. A few times over the years he'd fought back the urge to take her aside and have a word with her
    about wasting her life, but it hadn't been his place. He also hadn't wanted to make her think that there was a place for her in his
    life.
    Because there wasn't.
    He might watch her from a distance and do whatever he could to limit the bullshit in her life, but that didn't mean he
    wanted her to be a part of his life. Having her around would be a complication he didn't need or want. He'd made a mistake all
    those years ago when he took her under his wing and although there was nothing he could do about it now, that didn't mean he
    would make it worse.
    They needed to learn real fast that hurting her wouldn't change anything. She was just another human who would die one
    day, leaving him behind. In a hundred years from now, he'd probably forget all about her. Hell, give him a month away from
    her and he'd probably forget what she looked like.
    "Hold her down," he heard Greg order, but he was too bored with the whole thing to even bother opening his eyes. He
    knew she could take whatever they dished out and then some. She was a tough girl, had to be the way she was raised.
    A surge of anger shot through him before he could stop it. Even after all these years, regardless of the fact they'd died
    years ago, he still couldn't forgive Aaron and Susan for the way they'd treated Danni. While Danni had been growing up he had
    to stop himself time and time again from throttling the oblivious