“For now.” His calm tone only made her angrier.
She took a step closer, jabbing a finger toward his chest. “What happens if I leave? If I try to get away from you?”
Grayson caught her wrist before her finger could make contact again. “Don’t test it,” he warned. “I don’t know how the bond works yet. Neither of us does. For all we know, breaking it could kill you.”
Her breath caught, and her heart hammered against her ribs. “Kill me?”
“The spell was designed to keep you under control. To make sure you can’t run. It’s only logical there would be consequences to trying to sever that bond.”
Cora wrenched her arm free, stumbling back a step. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was.”
She pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to keep her thoughts from spiraling. This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be happening. She’d been working at the bakery just last night, teasing Laila about their late hours. And now she was… What? Magically tied to some stoic black ops operative with a hero complex?
Her throat burned, and she blinked rapidly, refusing to let the tears come. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“I know. But it’s where we are. My job is to protect you until we figure out how to fix it.”
Cora laughed, a short, bitter sound. “Protect me? You think I need protecting?”
“Yeah,” he said finally. “I do.”
She opened her mouth to argue, to tell him she’d been taking care of herself just fine, but the words stuck. Because for the first time since she’d woken up bound and powerless, she wasn’t entirely sure it was true.
Cora barely had time to process the weight of Grayson’s last words before a sound from outside shattered the fragile silence—a low growl followed by the distinct scrape of claws on the pavement. Grayson’s posture snapped to attention, with every muscle coiled like a spring, and his hand darted toward the table to grab a knife she hadn’t noticed before.
“What is it?” she asked, dropping her voice to a whisper, even as her heart climbed into her throat.
“Trouble.” His eyes flitted to the bolted door, then back to her. “Stay here.”
Cora snorted. “Yeah, not happening.”
Grayson shot her a glare that was somehow more infuriating because it wasn’t even angry. It was calm, cold, and maddeningly sure of itself. “I’m not asking.”
Before she could argue, the heavy thud of fists—or claws—slamming against the door made them both turn. The metal groaned, and a low voice followed, slick with disdain. “Grayson Kane. Open up, or we come in.”
Cora froze. That voice. Theodore Voss. The smooth-talking auctioneer who had sold her like she was cattle. The name alone made her blood turn to ice, but hearing it here, outside the supposed “safe house,” was somehow even worse.
Grayson didn’t waste time on shock. He crossed the room in three quick strides, grabbed her arm, and yanked her toward the far door. “Move.”
“Wait,” she hissed, trying to plant her feet even as he dragged her forward.
“It’s Voss,” he said tightly. “And he’s not alone. Go.”
She stumbled after him, nearly tripping on her own feet. “You’re telling me the guy who auctioned me off is here? Now? Why?”
“Sounds like he figured out who I am,” Grayson said. “The wire transfer I used to buy you wasn’t exactly straightforward. I couldn’t exactly use my personal bank account, so routed it through a series of shell accounts. It was enough to get past their initial checks, but someone on Voss’ side must’ve dug deeper.”
“Why would they even check? It’s not like you walked out without paying. Money is money.”
“Because it didn’t add up,” Grayson explained as they hurried down the hallway. “The account wasn’t tied to a real business, and I used laundering routes to mask the source. Those routes are good for a while, but at the end of the day, Voss’ people are going to want to know who they’re doing business with. They must’ve traced it back through the layers.”
“And now they know?”
Grayson nodded grimly. “Once they realized it was a setup, it wouldn’t have been hard for them to figure out who I really was.”
“Wait, if they know the transfer wasn’t legit, then…then they’re not going to send the potion, are they?”
