Page 82 of Grim

Viper stood slowly, turning toward him with a look that could kill. “This better be good.”

“It’s the Saints,” the man said, voice shaking. “They hit the truck. The whole shipment. Gone.”

Viper froze.

Then he exploded.

“WHAT?!”

The man flinched. “They took the women. All of them.”

Viper’s face twisted with fury, a rage so violent it made Sophia’s blood run cold. He looked like a man seconds away from tearing the world apart with his bare hands.

“Those bastards think they can steal from me?”

He turned back to her, eyes blazing with hatred.

“This is your fault.”

Sophia’s breath caught. “I had nothing to do with—”

“You’re going to pay for what they did,” Viper snarled. “Every. Last. Bit.”

He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. Sophia gasped, tears springing to her eyes.

“Please…”

“Shut up.”

He shoved her chair over. It crashed to the floor, the impact rattling her bones. Her shoulder screamed in pain as she hit the concrete.

She struggled to breathe, her cheek pressed against the cold floor, her wrists trapped beneath her.

Viper crouched beside her, voice low and venomous. “You’re leverage now. And when the Saints come for you — and they will — they’ll learn what happens when you cross me.”

He stood and barked an order. “Untie her and put her in a cage.”

They dragged her out of the room and into the night air, crossing a short stretch of cracked pavement still inside the compound. Another door. Another lock. Another building in the maze the Reapers called home.

Sophia’s heart stopped.

Sophia had spent her whole life keeping people safe, her brothers and her patients and anyone who needed her. Being trapped, unable to help anyone, felt like having her purpose ripped out of her.

“No, no, please.”

Two Reapers moved in immediately. One grabbed the chair and jerked it upright. The other sliced through the zip ties with a knife, the blade so close to her skin she felt the cold metal kiss her wrists.

The moment her hands were free, they yanked her up by her arms.

Her legs buckled. She stumbled, dizzy and disoriented, but they didn’t slow. They dragged her across the room like she weighed nothing.

Sophia kicked and twisted and fought, but she knew how strong these men were. She’d seen the aftermath of their violence in the ER. She knew exactly what they were capable of.

“Let me go!” she cried, voice cracking. “Please—!”

They didn’t even acknowledge her.

They shoved her through a metal door into a long, narrow corridor lined with cages welded into the walls.