“I’m always worried where you’re concerned,” I said simply. “But not because you can’t handle yourself—because the world doesn’t deserve you.”
She froze. Absolutely froze.
Then her voice came out tiny and stunned. “That’s… that’s a lot, Voodoo.”
“Firecracker,” I said, “everything about you is a lot. That’s the point.”
She pressed a hand over her eyes, breath shaking, halfway between a laugh and a cry. When she lowered her hand again, she looked lighter. Brighter. Braver.
“So,” I said, “modeling, huh?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
“Then we’ll prep for it. We’ll talk to the guys. Start the background safety net. Maybe keep your first gigs low-profile. Controlled. Choose photographers and designers who won’t sell their own mothers for a headline.”
Her smile grew, hopeful and full. “You really think I can do it?”
“Grace,” I said, letting her name land softly but firmly, “I think you can do anything you decide you want.”
She stared at me like she couldn’t quite believe I meant it.
But I did.
I meant every damn word.
“Voodoo?”
“Yeah?”
She settled her hand over mine on her thigh.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” I asked, even though I already knew.
“For not making me feel… fragile.”
I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “Never fragile,” I murmured. “Just precious.”
She turned her gaze back to the mountains, sunlight catching in her hair, and I knew, clear as the constellations she’d memorized last night, she wasn’t breakable. Not anymore. She was rebuilding.
A woman we’d follow her anywhere she wanted to go. Even into town for French doors that cost more than my first car. A future she was brave enough to want? That wasn’t even a question.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
ALPHABET
By the time Voodoo’s truck rumbled back up the long gravel drive, I’d already run four different search sweeps, two encrypted message threads with overseas contacts, and one deep-dive scrape on every Syndicate affiliate who’d so much as sneezed in the last twenty-four hours.
Nothing. Again.
Goblin nudged my boot with his nose and I reached down to ruffle his ears. He leaned into my hand, warm and solid, reminding me I washere, not buried in the digital dark again.
But Amorettewasn’there. That part hit me every damn day.
Three months back at Base, and the trail felt colder by the hour. Even so, I kept digging, because I wanted to look Gracie in the eye and mean it when I said,I did everything I could to find her sister.
