Page 32 of Grim

He turned right. The car turned right.

Sophia’s pulse quickened. “Maddox…”

He didn’t correct her this time. “Hold on.”

He took a sudden left, tires gripping hard. Then another. Then another.

He mapped the streets automatically, the way he used to map villages overseas — exits, choke points, blind corners. His hands moved before he thought, muscle memory from a life he didn’t talk about.

He wove through side streets with practiced precision, eyes sharp, body coiled tight.

The car behind them tried to keep up, then sped up.

Sophia’s breath hitched. “They’re still…”

“I see them.” He cut through a residential street, then a narrow alley, then a sharp turn that made Sophia grab the door handle. The tailing car clipped a trash bin, swerved, and disappeared behind a row of houses.

Grim didn’t relax. Not yet. Soldiers didn’t relax until the world stopped moving. He watched the mirror for a long moment.

Then exhaled. “Lost them.”

But the tension didn’t leave his spine. Losing a tail didn’t mean losing the threat — not in the places he’d learned to survive.

Sophia’s hands were tight around her bag. “You think that was…”

“Yes.”

She swallowed. “We should go to the police.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because they won’t do shit until someone gets hurt.” She hated that he was right.

Grim turned the car around, heading back toward the main road.

“We’re going to the clubhouse,” he said.

“No, we’re not,” she said, her voice sharp.

His head snapped toward her. “Sophia…”

“I have a shift,” she said firmly. “People are counting on me.”

“This is about your safety.”

“And this is about my job,” she shot back. “I’m not abandoning my patients because someone might be following me.”

Grim’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “You don’t understand what these men are capable of.”

“And you don’t understand what I’m capable of,” she said quietly. “I don’t run.”

He stared at her for a long moment.

Then something softened in his expression, respect that was reluctant and heavy.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Hospital it is.”