Page 43 of Grim

After a long moment, Ghost spoke, voice low. “You’re… different around her.”

Grim’s jaw tightened. “How’s that?”

Ghost shrugged, not looking at him. “You don’t scan the room as much. Not like you usually do.”

Grim didn’t respond.

Ghost shifted his weight, almost awkward. “It’s not bad. Just… noticed.”

Grim glanced at him. “You notice everything.”

Ghost huffed a quiet breath — not quite a laugh. “Had to. Growing up.” He kicked at a loose piece of gravel with the toe of his boot. “My dad always said if you don’t watch people, you get blindsided.”

Grim understood that too well.

Ghost finally looked up at him, expression open, earnest in a way that made him look even younger. “She makes you calmer. That’s all I meant.”

Then he nodded once — respectful, almost deferential — and slipped away again, silent as a shadow.

Ledger stood in the doorway of the war room, tablet tucked under his arm, jaw tight in a way Grim didn’t like. Ledger didn’t get rattled. Not unless something was wrong.

“Got a minute?” he asked.

Grim followed him inside. The door clicked shut behind them.

Ledger pulled up a map: county roads, traffic cams, timestamps. “I’ve been tracking Reaper movement since La Luna,” he said quietly. “They went dark.”

Grim frowned. “Dark how?”

“No bikes on the usual routes. No sightings near the mill. No chatter on the channels I monitor.” Ledger tapped the screen, zooming in on a cluster of red dots. “But three hours ago, a Reaper bike showed up here.”

A rural road. Empty. Out of the way.

“Then here.” Another dot. Closer to town.

“And here.” Right near the hospital.

Grim’s jaw flexed. “They’re scouting.”

Ledger nodded once. “And they’re not being sloppy about it. They’re avoiding cameras, sticking to blind spots. This isn’t random.”

Grim stared at the map, a cold weight settling in his gut. “They’re hunting.”

Ledger didn’t argue. “Yeah.”

Grim exhaled slowly, the kind of breath that felt like a warning. “Who?”

Ledger hesitated, just a fraction. “I don’t know yet. But it’s not us they’re circling.”

Grim’s stomach dropped.

The hospital. The ICU. Reyes. Sophia.

Ledger’s voice dropped. “Whatever they’re planning? It’s soon.”

Grim didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

Ledger looked up at him, eyes sharp behind the glasses. “You feel it too.”