"Yes, many times when I was younger and lived in Dushanbe. Not quite as often after my parents and I moved to a small village north of Khorugh."
Shit. Her parents. Angelo had been so worried about getting Minka back to the United States and the DCO, he hadn't even thought about the possibility of her having family back in Tajikistan. They probably had no idea what had happened to their daughter, or even that she was alive.
He set his half-eaten slice of pizza back in the box and wiped his hands on a paper towel. "Are your parents in Khorugh now? Is there a phone number we can call to let them know you're okay?"
It would cost Landon a butt load, but Angelo would pay him back. He was already reaching for the cordless phone on the table when he realized Minka had become very still.
"Is everything okay?" he asked.
Stupid question. She'd been held captive and turned into a hybrid. How could she be okay?
She slowly nodded, putting her pizza down, too. "Yes. It's just that I'd rather not call my parents. If they find out that I'm alive, they will want me to come home right away."
"Isn't that a good thing?" He tried not to let his confusion show. "That your parents love you and want you to come home?"
Minka shook her head, her beautiful eyes suddenly sad. "They wouldn't love me or want me in their home. Not once they see what I've become. I'm a monster now, and it's better if they think I'm dead."
Angelo was so stunned that all he could do was sit there and stare. He knew Minka had been through a lot, but he hadn't truly realized how bad it must have been. She'd rather her parents think she was dead than have them discover she was a hybrid. That was screwed up.
He reached out and took her hand. "You're not a monster, Minka. I can promise you that."
The smile she gave him was as sad as the look in her eyes. "I have claws and fangs that barely fit in my mouth, my face twists into something horrible when I'm angry-and I'm angry all the time. I've killed people, torn them apart. If that is not a monster, what is it?"
"Someone did something very bad to you," he said softly. "But that doesn't make you a monster. It makes them the monsters. We're going to find a way to get you through this, and someday, I'm going to make sure you get home to your parents."
Minka nodded but didn't reach for her pizza. He didn't either. Neither one of them had an appetite left, he guessed. He closed the lid on the box.
"We can finish the rest later," he said as he stood.
Carrying the box into the kitchen, he stuck it in the fridge, then went back to the living room. Minka was sitting with her legs crisscrossed under her, Boris clutched to her chest, and a far off look on her face. Angelo sat beside her and put what he hoped was a comforting hand on her knee.
"It's going to be okay, Minka."
She nodded but didn't look convinced.
"Zarina and the DCO know a lot about what those doctors did to you," he said. "Zarina's done some amazing work helping another hybrid like you get his rage under control."
She blinked. Damn, she had some seriously long eyelashes. "There's another … person like me at the place we were today?"
"Tanner Howland." Angelo jerked his chin at the plush sloth. "The guy who gave Boris to Zarina."
Her fingers gently caressed the stuffed animal. "Hybrid. What does that word mean?"
Angelo probably wasn't the best person to explain it, but he was the only one there right then. "It means something-or someone in the case of you and Tanner-made from combining two different parts. You and Tanner are part human, part animal, kind of like a shifter."
"Shifter?"
Now he'd gone and done it. Angelo didn't know if he was going to make any sense, but he tried to answer her question the best he could without getting too complicated.
"Remember the dark-haired woman who was with Landon when you first met him today?" he asked. "She's a shifter. Unlike you and Tanner though, she was born part animal. You and Tanner were injected with something to make you that way."
Minka considered that. "So that is why she smells different. And the woman who let me use her clothes-Layla-she's a shifter, too? She smells very much like the dark-haired woman."
Angelo nodded. "Yep. Layla and Ivy are sisters."
She fell silent, as if thinking about everything Angelo had told her. That gave him a chance to ask something he was curious about.
"How did you end up in that village where my team and I found you?"
If Minka was surprised by the change in subject, she didn't show it. Instead, she told him how she had been captured while crossing the mountain pass that led from her home to the small U.S. military compound where she worked. When she described the two doctors who had experimented on her, it wasn't hard to figure out that they were the same ones who'd hurt Ivy. Angelo knew for a fact that the DCO was going to be very interested in what Minka knew about these guys. He just hoped they cared as much about helping Minka.
"I don't know how long I was a prisoner," Minka admitted. "They captured me in midsummer, then moved me around a lot, so I lost all track of time or even where I was." She shivered. "It was just one long, horrible nightmare."
She obviously didn't want to talk about the details of what had happened while the doctors held her, and Angelo didn't push. He had dealt with the same kind of issue in Special Forces. When guys went through a rough patch, you couldn't get them to talk about it until they were ready. Minka would open up when it was the right time for her.
He smiled as she yawned. She looked exhausted. So was he, for that matter.
"You ready to go to bed?" he asked.
Minka's big, brown eyes widened.
It took him a second to figure out what he'd said, and when he finally did, he chuckled. "I meant that you get the bed. I get the couch."
She blushed. "I am a little tired."
They took turns using the bathroom; then he led her into Landon's bedroom.
"I'll be right out there on the couch," he reminded her. "We can leave the door open if you want. And if you need anything during the night, just call my name. I'm a light sleeper."
Minka nodded, then climbed into bed, Boris in hand. Angelo waited while she got the pillows and blankets situated to her liking.
"You good?" he asked.
She nodded but didn't look very sure of her answer. Well, he was going to have to go back into the living room at some point. It wasn't like he could crawl into bed with her-as much as he would like to. Shit. He shouldn't be having thoughts like that. She needed to feel safe and protected right then, not have some guy pawing all over her.
"Good night, Minka." He smiled as she snuggled into the blankets a little deeper. "I'll see you in the morning."
He flipped the light switch but left the door open. On the way to the living room, he stopped to snag a blanket and pillow from the linen closet in the bathroom. Man, his buddy had seriously bought into the whole wedded bliss thing. The Landon he used to know would have been satisfied with a stack of army-green wool blankets and those striped pillows that shed feathers all the time. Then again, if he and Ivy did stay there occasionally to make the place look lived in, Angelo was pretty sure she wouldn't have been down with that.
He took off his T-shirt and jeans, then flopped down on the couch in just his boxer briefs. Damn, he was beat. Before stumbling on Minka, he'd been humping through the mountains of Tajikistan for nearly two months straight. He hadn't slept on anything more comfortable than a pile of leaves, and the couch felt damn good.
He ran his hand through his long hair, then folded his arm behind his head. Thinking about the team made him wonder when he'd join up with them. It was obvious Minka had developed an attachment to him because he made her feel safe. Angelo didn't have a problem admitting he felt a certain attachment to Minka as well. But he was Special Forces, and SF lived in the field.
Angelo muttered a curse. Where had that thought even come from? He'd known Minka for a little more than twenty-four hours. It wasn't like they were going to start dating anytime soon. Shoving that thought aside, he rolled onto his side when movement behind him made a tingle run down his neck. He instinctively reached down for his weapon, then realized he didn't have one-and that the movement behind him had to be Minka.
She stopped beside him, wordlessly gazing down at him, her eyes glowing with the slightest tinge of red. Through the dim light coming in through the window, Angelo could see her standing there in her yoga pants and tank top, clutching Boris to her chest, her face tense.