Page 50 of Grim’s Angel

Grim’s silver eyes close for one beat.

“You will give Lock every password, account, and message connected to Rivers,” I continue. “Then you will sign a statement describing what you did. I won’t lie to protect you from whatever happens next.”

Alan stares at me as if I have become a stranger.

Perhaps I have.

I hope she stays.

Striker takes him to another room.

Lock spends the next two hours working through Rivers’s drives while Torch catalogs the paper contracts and passports. Grim remains beside me, but his attention refuses to settle. He paces to the window, checks the gate feed, and returns to stand behind my chair with one hand resting at the base of my neck.

The touch anchors both of us.

“I found the buyer certificate,” Lock says.

The room tightens.

Torch closes the blinds and locks the door.

Lock mirrors his laptop to the large screen on the wall. Lines of encrypted data appear, followed by a document bearing the broker’s seal.

“The payment came from a private holding company called Aster Crown,” Lock explains. “Its registered controller is Anthony St. Valecourt.”

The hand at my neck disappears.

I turn.

Grim has gone completely still.

Striker notices, but surprise never reaches his face.

Torch looks between them. “Prez?”

“Keep reading,” Grim says.

His voice carries a warning I do not understand.

Lock enlarges the certificate. “Anthony St. Valecourt is listed as the purchaser and sponsoring party. He was not the intended spouse.”

My pulse pounds against my throat.

“Who was?”

Lock scrolls.

The screen changes to a legal identity record.

Intended spouse: John St. Valecourt.

A photograph loads beneath the name.

Grim looks back at us from the screen in a formal military portrait, younger and unscarred but unmistakable. The same hard mouth. The same silver eyes.

Nobody speaks.

Grim is John St. Valecourt.