“Yeah, but I’m guessing that was due to your help.” There was a hint of censure in his voice.
“Had to. Can’t lose you or her,” she said. He closed his eyes, but she didn’t dare. “Thank you.”
He pulled back, opened his eyes, and studied her for a long, uncomfortable minute. Finally, he said roughly, “You’re welcome.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and then held her close. “I want to make you promise that you won’t pull that shit again.”
Her heart ached, but she couldn’t lie to him. “I wish I could.”
His arms tightened as he sighed. “I know.”
She burrowed in, relishing the way his warmth chased away the lingering chill. For a long moment, they just held each other. She tilted her head so she could see his face, then she reached up to brush her hand along his jaw.
She held his gaze when it met hers, and a slightly hysterical part of her bubbled up. “Still love me?”
Startled humor lightened his eyes and eased some of the worried lines in his face as his lips curved. “Yeah, I do.”
Chapter 22
Grayson
By the time Grayson pulled into his condo, the sun was doing a slow slide behind the Spring Mountains, leaving a colorful trail of reds, oranges, and purples in its wake. Although he was physically tired, his mind was anything but. He put the car in park and left it running so the AC could beat back the day’s heat and then turned to Cass, who was curled up, asleep, in the passenger seat, her glasses at an awkward angle. She’d dropped off almost before they’d left the hospital parking lot.
Grayson couldn’t blame her—it had been a hell of a day. He let his head drop back against the headrest and closed his eyes. He just needed a minute, maybe two, to get a grip on things. As soon as he was certain Cass wouldn’t slide back into a cascade, they had rushed a groggy Sofia to Santos Medical. Swanson met them, briefly introduced the two-person private security team he’d brought in, and then informed them that Elias was already in surgery because the shard of glass that had pierced his side had caused serious internal bleeding. While Cass got Sofia checked in to a private room, Swanson shared with Grayson that the EMTs had lost Elias once on the ride in. Fortunately, Cass missed that bit of news as she was busy with Sofia’s doctor, who wanted the younger woman to be medically monitored as she drifted in and out of consciousness. The attending had grilled Grayson on the curse as she examined Sofia, eventually reassuring Cass that Sofia’s reaction was well within expected norms. The younger woman simply needed rest, mentally and physically.
Once the doctor left, Cass asked Grayson to sit with Sofia while she took Swanson to the hall and caught him up. She was gone awhile, dealing with the family lawyer and the curious authorities, so Grayson called Zane. He updated the Hound on what they had walked in on and mentioned Rhea’s disappearance, hoping Zane would find a usable trail. Zane promised to dig deep and fast but couldn’t guarantee he would find anything. On Zane’s end, he had the mess at Incantanto well in hand. He’d managed to identify the dead mages, who were known mercenaries, and set Candace on tracing their payments through a maze of ghost accounts. He was still tearing through Russell Seagraves’s life, searching out any connections to the Cabal and the Ambroses. He told Grayson he had a faint scent he hoped would grow into something more substantial. It wasn’t much, but it was something for Cass to hold on to when she returned to the room and paced the floor, worrying about her father, sister, and mother.
They spent the afternoon waiting for news on Elias. Waiting for Sofia to fully wake up. Waiting for Zane’s updates.
Tense hours later, when the surgeon finally showed, it was to share that the team had stopped the bleeding and Elias was stable, his chances for recovery good. Once he was cleared from post-op, he would be moved to the adjoining room. That was followed by a call from Zane, informing them that Candace had managed to track the mercenaries’ payment to an account buried deep within Burton Entertainment, the same group that held partial ownership of Incantanto. Adding that piece to the phone call Elias had told Cass about, Grayson knew a visit to Cole Burton was up next.
So did Cass, who had no intention of waiting to confront him. That led to an argument as Grayson wasn’t keen on letting her get close to the man without knowing what they were walking into. Especially not after his close call with Sofia’s curse. You could only tempt fate so far, and Grayson was pretty sure the odds were not in their favor. Not to mention that Cole Burton was not someone you accused—not without solid proof, and all they had were suspicions.
By the time they were ready to leave the hospital, he’d gotten Cass’s reluctant agreement to follow his lead, but Grayson wasn’t an idiot. Just because she’d given in didn’t mean she wouldn’t try going around him. He couldn’t blame her. No matter how complicated her relationship with her mother was, there was no doubt in his mind that Cass would do whatever it took to save Rhea. Hell, she’d almost killed herself saving him and Sofia.
As he blinked his gritty eyes open and loosened his white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel, he realized he was still angry about that. Gods, she scared the shit out of me. That ugly fear still clung, and he needed to get over it.
He’d been working the curse, making his way through the layers and trying to keep Sofia from slipping further away, when his instincts whispered that he was missing something big. Urgency and caution collided and then things seemed to shift, like a lens slipping into place, crystalizing the details into an unmistakable path. He hadn’t questioned his sudden insight, knowing, on some level, that this strange clarity was Cass’s doing. He simply moved faster, quicker until Sofia was safe. Then he came back to find Cass sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, body twitching, and eyes an eerie ghostly white, and he knew with sickening surety that he was losing her to a cascade. He couldn’t explain what had happened next, only that everything in him had reached for her and wrapped her tight, refusing to let her go as she was dragged further and further away. An echo of that panic beat at his temples even now. Maybe if she hadn’t reached back, they both would have been lost, but he was just grateful she’d held on.
But if I hadn’t caught her when I did… if I’d taken longer with Sofia…
That didn’t bear thinking about. He scrubbed his face with his hands and turned to their more immediate problem. They needed a reason to see Cole and find out if he was involved. Grayson couldn’t make the pieces fit. Yes, Burton was a client of Pythia, but he was heading toward a council seat. Why would he risk all of that to go after Cass’s family? What were they missing? The answers were there, somewhere, and would take time to find. He just didn’t think time was on their side.
Cass stirred, opened her eyes, and blearily looked around. “We’re here?” She rubbed a finger under one eye, knocking her glasses to her lap.
He shook off his thoughts, grabbed his phone, and turned the car off. “Yeah, let’s head upstairs.”
She put her glasses back on, undid her seat belt, got out of the car, and met him on the sidewalk. Together, they went up to his condo. She was checking her phone as he powered down the security wards, opened the door, and nudged her inside.
“Anything?” He closed the door, threw the lock, and reactivated his wards.
“No. No ransom demands, no nothing.” Frustration made her voice tight as she paced into his living room. “I can’t wait for a call that may never come, Grayson.”
“I know.” He tossed his keys onto the counter.
She went to the glass doors that led to his balcony and stood there, staring out through the open blinds, her back stiff, her shoulders rigid. “I need to talk to Cole,” she said with a hint of belligerence.
“I know,” he repeated and started a text on his phone.
“What are you doing?”
