Of course he knew how to care for someone else. He'd shown it hadn't he? But of course there she was again telling him all the ways he was a terrible man and she could never love someone like that. And of course this was a Caroline from before the hybrids or the witches, before expression took a hold of her friend. And the museam patrons were watching them, of course they were.
He stepped up closer to Caroline, his voice low but with that air of dangerousness that to those that knew of it tended to mean, run. "Do you want me to tell you why he's on the run. Your boyfriend? I mean I'm sure Matt will fill you in but it's much simpler my way. Actually Matt, I'm aware you're probably drowning in vervain but me and Caroline, we need to have a chat, so why don't you take your little mortal self on out of here and home while you can."
Dismissed, he turned away from Matt, eyes fixed only on the blonde.
"He tried to kill me, he betrayed me, turned my hybrids against me, then gloated about it. In what possible way was I going to ignore that? And I showed him mercy. Because of you Caroline, I gave him the mercy of allowing him to run, I gave him a headstart rather than hunting him down before he had the chance to leave the town. So don't tell me I don't understand what it is to care about other people." She was a fool if she didn't see it, if she didn't understand that the only mercy Tyler had for what he'd done was because she herself had asked it of him.
Of course this was drifting far too much into teritory he hated. He'd admitted enough to her for one day. And he was not about to be called pathetic by the one woman who he thought one day might actually understand him.
"I suggest you think about your choice of words carefully, love. And remember who you're talking to."
She had to know what he was capable of, she'd lived what he was capable of, and Matt knew, that look in his eyes, the desire to leave before it escalated, he was smarter than he looked, but Caroline, she was passionate, and while he admired it, as he did so much about her, it needed to stop.