Page 107 of Grim

The same kind that lived under her skin now.

“Maddox,” she said again, stronger this time.

His eyes snapped open, wild, unfocused, terrified.

Sophia didn’t flinch. Didn’t pull away. Didn’t let him drown in it.

She turned in his arms, cupping his face with trembling hands.

“Hey,” she whispered. “You’re here. You’re with me.”

His body reacted before he could stop it. His eyes locked on hers. His body went still — then sagged, like the tension had been holding him upright.

Sophia slid her hand down to his chest, mirroring what he’d done for her.

“Breathe with me,” she murmured.

Grim inhaled, shaky and uneven. Exhaled, rough and strained.

She matched him, slow and steady, grounding him the way he’d grounded her.

His hand came up, covering hers, holding it against his chest like he needed the contact to stay tethered.

“I’m here,” she whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Grim closed his eyes.

For a moment, they just breathed, two broken rhythms finding a shared one.

Sophia didn’t know who moved first.

Maybe it was her. Maybe it was him. Maybe it was both of them, pulled together by something neither of them had words for yet.

But she ended up in his arms, her head tucked under his chin, his arms wrapped around her, their legs tangled under the blanket like they were trying to take up as little space as possible in a world that had taken too much from them.

Grim’s breath warmed the top of her head. Sophia’s fingers curled into his shirt. Their hearts beat unevenly, but together.

The lamp stayed on. The shadows stayed back. The nightmares stayed quiet.

For the first time since she’d been taken, Sophia slept without falling.

And for the first time since he’d found her, Grim slept at all.

Chapter 36

Grim

The clubhouse still smelled like smoke.

Not the sharp kind, the old kind. The kind that clung to walls and memories. The kind that settled into your bones.

Grim parked his bike beside Sophia’s car and watched her climb out slowly, carefully, like every movement cost her something. She wrapped her arms around herself as she looked at the building: the blackened siding, the boarded windows, the piles of debris stacked along the fence line.

Her breath hitched.

Grim stepped closer, not touching, just close enough that she could feel him there.

“You don’t have to go inside,” he murmured.