Page 40 of Grim’s Angel

The boy smiles for the first time.

His mother squeezes my hand before they leave. “Thank you.”

The words follow me after the door closes.

I came to Roseburn Falls believing my life had narrowed to one terrible bargain. For the first time since Alan revealed the auction, I remember that I have skills no contract gave me and a future that exists beyond the man waiting at a Vegas hotel.

Grim finds me reorganizing Razor’s supplies.

He leans against the doorway, filling it. “You look at home.”

“Your labels are a disaster.”

“Razor keeps half the town alive with that system.”

“Imagine what he could accomplish if he knew where anything was.”

Grim’s mouth moves at one corner.

“Razor says the boy stopped shaking once you started talking to him.”

“He was scared.”

Pride warms Grim’s expression as though calming one frightened teenager is an achievement worth celebrating.

He reaches for me, pauses, and waits.

I close the distance myself.

His arms settle around my waist. The clubhouse continues beyond the room, boots crossing the hall and engines moving through the yard, but the circle of his body feels private.

“Did you find anything?”

“Lock traced one of Rivers’s corporate cards to the motel near the bus station. Hound pulled the exterior camera footage. Alan arrived there in Rivers’s car last night.”

My stomach drops. “My brother is here?”

“Unless someone borrowed his face.”

“Are they still at the motel?”

“Hound is confirming before we move.”

“I want to confront Alan.”

“No.”

The answer comes too quickly.

I step out of his arms. “A contract cannot buy my obedience, but sleeping with you gives you the right to demand it?”

Regret crosses his face. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“It is what you said.”

“Rivers may be using your brother as bait.”

“Then explain the risk and let me decide whether to face it.”