Far From Broken Read Online Free PDF Page A

extension of her arm. He took a moment to marvel at the doctor’s miraculous ability to connect flesh and bone to metal in such a way that the rest of Callie’s body was able to communicate with the new parts so perfectly.
    Jasper understood the mechanics behind it only to a certain extent. The doctor had explained that he’d spent many years in the development and experimentation of biomechanical organisms so small they were visible only by means of magnifying glasses. After surgically attaching the patient’s new limbs, these organisms were injected into the bloodstream and left to travel throughout the body, somehow carrying messages back and forth between the limbs and the brain, allowing the patient, Callie, to control the replacement hand or foot, or even the eye, the same as she controlled her other body parts.
    Apparently, they also enhanced her ability to heal and gave her strength beyond that of three grown men.
    Very gently so as not to wake her, especially now that she seemed to be resting more easily, he reached for the skirt of Callie’s cotton nightdress and drew it up slowly. A low groan escaped his lips at what was revealed to him.
    Both her legs were comprised of metal and hinges and gears from just above her knees, all the way down, including her feet. He clenched his jaw tightly, trying to examine them with an emotional objectivity. He was able to acknowledge that they were as much a marvel of modern engineering and medicine as her hand and eye. In fact, there was a certain beauty and symmetry to the way they had been fashioned. As much as possible, they looked just like Callie’s own legs had looked before the attack—slim, proportional, strong.
    A wild, primal rage clawed up his throat, threatening to explode. As grateful as he was to the doctor for giving his wife back her legs, her hand, her eye… none of it should have been necessary.
    If he had kept his promises, it wouldn’t have been.

Chapter Four
     
    Jasper had arrived home weeks later than he’d promised, sporting a barely healed scar in his side, a growling stomach and a boatload of regret and anger.
    His bloody retrieval mission had very quickly turned into a royal mess and exploded in his damned face. It hadn’t been as simple as it sounded. He should have known. They never were.
    Something had been wrong almost from the very beginning, when Murphy told him their contact insisted on meeting in a derelict, out-of-the-way French cottage in the middle of nowhere. But he’d kept trying to convince himself he hadn’t been set up.
    Until the first shot nicked his arm, and the second got him in the side.
    A hailstorm of gunfire had followed, hitting the ground around him from all sides. Surrounded and outgunned, getting out with his life had been a miracle. He’d limped to the safe house at Amiens, forced to lie low to heal and make sure he wouldn’t be followed when he finally risked coming back home.
    Callie would be angry, but she could never stay mad at him for long. He tapped his chest where the long, slim box in the inside pocket of his jacket rested, hoping he’d chosen the right bauble to ensure his acceptance back into her good graces sooner than later.
    He was surprised when young John didn’t meet him halfway up the drive to take Silver to the stables. Jasper continued on alone. He tightened his hold on the silk scarf he carried with him always, although now it was stained with his blood.
    Inside the stables, he rapped on the door before ducking his head into the small room adjoining the stalls. He shrugged when he saw nobody sleeping in the cot, a little irritated at having to rub the horse down himself when all he wanted was to hurry into the house to see Callie. If he found that rascal had been in one of the maids’ beds, he was going to invent a towering pile of particularly dirty chores to keep him busy instead of underneath all the women’s skirts.
    Once inside the house, he started to get worried when there was