He’d bet on it.
“I need to see her.”
Chris wasn’t playing this game. Elizabeth had asked him to make sure the man didn’t get broken further, and he’d do that. What wouldn’t they all do to protect the man?
Clearly, everything.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you see her.”
He moved menacingly toward the man, but Chris was no pushover. He’d been doing this a very long time.
Instead, he put out his arm, stopping Saint from doing what he’d planned on doing. The last thing he wanted was to see his personal security hurt. Saint was a Marine, but Uriel was an Archangel.
They were two different animals, cut from the same cloth. If Caspian hurt Saint, Raphael would lose his shit, and the last thing anyone needed was that fight.
Elizabeth didn’t need their family torn apart at the seams. They were already fracturing as it was.
Deep down, Caspian was a man on the edge. Chris knew that he’d put his hands on Elizabeth, and that told him how far gone he was.
Someone had to be the voice of reason, and at that point, they were all struggling to stay in control. He wasNOTthe only one having an issue with pain, suffering, and worry.
He’d literally been holding the skull of the man he considered his father.
Today was a shitty day all around.
On a shittier case.
“Before you put your hands on me, Caspian Carter, know this. I might forgive you for abusing me, but I willNOTforgive you for shoving my wife! You need to get yourself in control before you loseEVERYTHINGelse too!”
That seemed to stop the man.
Gone was the calming tone, and in its place was the sound of a pissed off father, reprimanding one of his kids for doing something incredibly stupid.
Well, that tracked.
Pushing Elizabeth had been just that.
Immediately, Saint and Raphael backed down, since they were pretty sure that Chris was going to be able to defuse this.
Chris wasn’t done.
“We understand you’re hurting, and we want nothing more than to carry that for you. Only, you can’t hurt the messenger. Can you break me? Yes. You’re bigger, and a Marine, but do you want to let him win like that? He took your girlfriend, but do you want him to take your family? Because I pay Archangel Security, and I willABSOLUTELYhave Ivan terminate you for putting your hands on the people in this family. If you don’t get in control, and now, you will find yourself on a transport back to DC without a home. I don’t play when it comes to abuse in this family!”
And that did the rest.
At the word‘abuse’, he reined it in.
FAST.
Caspian stood there, and he unclenched his hands. Maybe it was the idea that he was an abuser, or the tone in Chris’ voice when he told him he’d be family-less and homeless, that did it.
“I don’t know how to do this,” he whispered. “She was taken from me. She was mine, Dad. Help me. Please,” he added, and that softened the man.
Chris moved closer and put his hand on the bigger man’s arm with the gentleness of a parent who had also had loss in his life, and understood.
“Come and sit,” he said. “We’ll go into my office. Saint, stay here with Chrissy, Tony, and Jaxon. Raphael, join us.”
The man didn’t question it.
