Page 121 of The Beast

“No. Don’t draw him into this. I’ll tell Leo you need to crash at Grimm Tower. Harper’s staying there, too, I think.”

I nod. “Great. Perfect.” I sling my purse over my shoulder, then head for the door, wondering if the man I love is still in there, or if the beast has finally won.

I’m at the door when his voice stops me.

“I’m doing this for you.” The words are raw. Ragged. “To keep you safe from him.”

I turn. Look at him standing there in the wreckage of our morning, beautiful and broken and so lost it makes my heart crack open. Still naked. Still furious. Still the man I love, even when I want to shake him until his teeth rattle.

“So far, yeah, maybe. But don’t you dare say that vengeance and murder are for me. That’s not a gift, and it’s not love. And I wouldn’t want it if it was.”

I look him up and down. “If it’s really all for me, then prove it. Choose me over vengeance. Choose us over blood. Because I won’t build a life wondering when the darkness is going to swallow you whole.”

I wait, giving him one last chance to say the words I need to hear.

He doesn’t—and I walk out the door, navigating this underground maze until I climb a set of stairs and slip out through one of the basement exits, happy to avoid going through the hotel.

I stand there for a moment, blinking in the brightness, letting my eyes adjust. Atlantic City spreads out before me—the boardwalk in the distance, the ocean beyond, seagulls wheeling overhead. Normal life. Regular people going about their regular days, completely oblivious to the underground empire beneath their feet.

I take a breath. Then another.

And then I start walking toward Grimm Tower, leaving the beast and its master behind.