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into his arms, but her stiff posture forbade it. Or take her hand, but she’d hidden it in the folds of her skirts. He wanted to put his fingers in that short, curly hair of hers, but it looked too soft to be real. He desperately wanted to kiss her, but very much feared she would jerk away from him in hate.
    Instead, he stood before her like a statue, the tornado of emotions he was trying to hide leaving him torn. “Callie.”
    “You should have let me die.” She lifted her gaze. Her sorrow and pain were plain even though she shed no tears. “Damn you. How could you let them do this to me?”
    “I love you.” As if that said it all. As if it could excuse his need and his desperation, his refusal to give her up to such a brutal end.
    She recoiled.
    “I could not have borne it if you died.”
    She snarled and rose to confront him. “But this… this you could bear? A broken thing for a wife? A monster, barely human?”
    She lifted her arms out at her side, forcing him to look, but Jasper was done reacting to her appearance. That had been a mistake he wouldn’t repeat again. He understood her anger, but letting her see just how much he hurt for her wasn’t going to help either of them.
    “Don’t ask me to agree that you would have been better off dead, because it’s not going to happen,” he snapped, stubbornly taking a step forward.
    He’d never seen such an expression of disgust on Callie’s face as she glared at him. It made her look more of a stranger than any of the physical changes. “Get out.”
    He squared his shoulders. “I’m not leaving.”
    “I can force you out, don’t doubt it.” She held her artificial hand up and closed it into a tight fist. “Did you realize that the operations you agreed to would make me faster than you? Stronger than you? Do you know that I can see the sweat beading on your forehead right now with this new eye? That this hand could snap your neck in an instant? You wouldn’t even see me move. You wouldn’t have time to whisper a plea for your life.”
    “Is that what you’re going to do? Kill me? Or do you just want to make me hurt? Make me bleed?” He took another step. “Will it make you feel better to take from me what was taken from you?”
    “You bastard,” she hissed. “Do you think I don’t know that what happened to me was your fault? ”
    “Yes, it was my fault.” His heart hammered. Could she somehow sense that too? “It was my fault you were left alone. My fault for not getting to you in time. My fault for lying to you about where I was and what I was doing. Those lies put you in danger, almost got you killed.”
    “I wasn’t even safe in my own home.”
    “I know.” He rubbed his hand through his hair roughly. “And nothing I say could ever express how much I regret it. I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for my mistake.”
    “Mistake?” She choked out an angry, painful laugh. “Oh, is that all it was? A mistake? ”
    He came around the bed. As exhausted as he was, he couldn’t give up. He knew she was waiting for him to do just that, digging into every chink in his determination until she found a way to push him out of her life for good.
    He dared take the final step toward her, reaching for her hand. “I should have told you what I was doing. I should have been there to protect you. I’m sorry. I—”
    She jerked away. “I told you to leave.”
    Everything in him roared that this was a fight he needed to win. He had to stand his ground if they were going to have a chance together. But this wasn’t a war, and his heart just couldn’t bear to see that look on her face.
    “Fine. I’m too tired to do this with you tonight.” He sighed, shoulders drooping. He felt battered and heartsick, like in those first days when he didn’t know if she was going to survive.
    Jasper understood. He’d seen this before in soldiers who’d been injured and could no longer serve. They felt as if their value had been stripped along with the