"IT LOOKS LIKE," he said, his voice rough with something that might have been hope, "you're going to have to help me stay human a little longer."
His words lay between them like an unbuilt bridge, daring them to cross, burdened with truths that touched far more than the present dilemma.
Mailah's hands tightened on his shoulders, her fingers finding the tension knotted there and working at it with unconscious gentleness. "Shouldn't we have plan? Because if you're thinking of doing something heroically stupid—"
"I have contingencies," Grayson interrupted, surprising himself with how steady his voice sounded. "Kieran may think he holds all the cards, but I didn't survive three centuries by being naive about business partnerships."
Something shifted in Mailah's expression, a calculating gleam that reminded him uncomfortably of his own predatory instincts. "Are you going to kill him?"
