Page 24 of The Tower (Billionaire Brothers Grimm #1)

Sixteen

Darkness Falls

S he’d bolted.

Outside the Renfort Hotel, Liam Grimm clenched his fists and forced himself not to spew a litany of swear words out into the glittering Manhattan night. But he couldn’t keep from spewing them in his head.

Damn Leo. Damn Ruby.

And damn Sasha most of all.

Thankfully, Leo had called—interrupting a meeting at a nearby bar where Liam was delivering some key intel to a client.

He’d ended the meeting quickly, then focused on Leo’s summary of the idiotic conversation he’d shared with Ruby.

Liam still didn’t understand how the conversation had twisted around to Rebecca’s death.

For that matter, neither did Leo. Apparently, the youngest Grimm had once again been thinking with his dick instead his brain.

Par for the course, but at least he’d had the sense to call Liam and fess up.

And now Sasha was out in the world, unprotected, and probably terrified to return to him.

And any minute now, one of her father’s goons would find her.

“Dammit, Leo, if he gets her …”

Leo, of course, couldn’t hear him, but he knew the stakes. Which was why they were both out scouring the area, trying to pick up Sasha’s signal.

He glanced at his phone screen. Nothing.

Fuck.

He’d been less than a block from the hotel when Leo had called, swearing that it had only been minutes since he realized his mistake. Liam had burst into the hotel, bullied the clerk into showing him the security feed, then watched in horror as Sasha raced down the hall to the emergency exit.

There were no cameras in that stairwell, but the alley camera caught her plowing through the back door, once again in her tee and leggings with her feet bare.

He had to find her. She was the fulcrum for all his plans. And the damn subdermal tracker that her father had inserted into her shoulder would lead Victor Reed’s goons right to her unless Liam got there first.

Unfortunately, all the electrical noise in the area was messing with the tracker, seemingly bouncing her location here and there and back again so that all Liam knew was that she was in the area. It could take ages for him and Leo to find her. But at least it would be just as hard for Reed.

He couldn’t even hope that she’d leave the area for somewhere with less electrical interference, like a nearby neighborhood. Because as soon as she did, Reed would be able to pinpoint her. So would Liam, of course, but then it would be a race. And if Victor’s goons won…

Fuck.

His phone vibrated in his back pocket, and he pulled it free to read the message: Got eyes on her.

Relief poured through him like fine whiskey, but he couldn’t savor it. A visual was good news, but he wouldn’t relax until he’d gotten her safely back to the hotel without anyone tailing them.

In less than a heartbeat, he’d mapped Leo’s location and was sprinting in that direction. Just three blocks away but getting closer to a residential area. And she had no idea how much danger she was heading for.

Once he had eyes on her, too, he followed her for a block, with Leo repositioning himself ahead of her, just in case she decided to run.

When she reached an intersection and stopped to wait for the signal, he zipped up beside her and took her arm.

The moment he felt her skin beneath his fingers, relief crashed over him with such force he almost stumbled off the sidewalk. He told himself the relief flowed from the certainty that losing her would mean losing his power over Victor Reed.

But that was a goddamn lie.

“Do you honestly think I want you dead, you damn little fool?”

Her eyes went wide, and her lips parted, but she only shook her head. Not in negation, but in confusion. “I don’t—I don’t know.”

Tears clung to her lower lashes, and he wanted to kick his own ass. “Dammit,” he snapped, hating that she had it so wrong. “That would make me like your father. And other than my own, there is no one I less want to emulate. Do you believe me?”

She nodded.

“Then let’s move, because he’s close.”

“What?” She winced as she hurried to keep up with him in her bare feet. He scooped her up, ordering her to put her arms and legs around him so they were chest to chest, and he was carrying her like a curvaceous monkey.

“I don’t understand,” she said as he signaled to Leo to keep watch as they moved back toward the Renfort. “My father? How did he find me?”

“You left the damn room, Princess. I told you not to. The second you burst into the stairwell, you pinged for him.”

“Pinged,” she repeated, and he could practically hear the wheels churning in her head. “He’s tracking me?”

He saw the horror spread over her face, and his heart twisted. This woman deserved one hell of a lot better than Victor Reed.

When she looked up at him, her eyes were pleading. “Please tell me you’re lying. Making up stories so that I’ll hate my father even more.”

“I’m sorry, Sasha.”

She blinked, settling a bit in his arms as if the use of her real name was all the evidence she needed.

“Tell me how.”

“There’s a device embedded in your left shoulder. It emits a signal. He was locked on.”

“Was?”

He almost smiled. Even terrified, the woman was bright.

“The signal’s toast at the moment.”

Her brows drew together, creating an adorable crease above her nose. “Why’s it toast? That seems pretty convenient.”

“Not convenience or coincidence. Planning.”

He turned the corner onto the hotel’s street.

“I can walk. It’s just a few blocks.”

“Your feet have been through hell,” he said. “I should carry you the rest of the way.”

“Oh.” Her breath whispered across his cheek. “If you want to.”

“The least I can do.”

She looked up at him, mischief dancing in her eyes. “After essentially kidnapping me? I guess so.”

“I believe you’re confusing a kidnapping with a rescue. For that matter, it wasn’t either. It was transactional. I help you. I get paid.” He let his hands slide down as he spoke so that he was holding her up by her ass, not her waist. “Everything, Princess. Or have you forgotten?”

“I haven’t.” The voice that had been warm turned cold again. He told himself that was good. He had no intention of falling for Sasha Reed. He’d use her. For sex. As a weapon. Any way necessary to bring Reed down.

Beyond that, she was just cold comfort.

“Good.” He kept his voice flat. Transactional. “Because I’ve barely begun to collect my payment.”

She nodded, seeming to look everywhere except his eyes.

A half block later, she looked up. “You were going to tell me why they aren’t tracking us.”

“They can’t. Not electronically, anyway. And I’ve seen no sign that they have a physical tail. Check my back pocket. See if I have a text.”

She reached around him, then tugged out his phone. She unlocked it by putting it in front of his face, then tapped the screen. “You have a text from LG. He says it’s all clear. Your brother Leo?”

“He was helping me find you.” He drew a breath. “I don’t want you dead, Sasha. Far from it.”

She emitted a strangled little laugh, then nodded. “Good to know since I don’t seem to have much choice at the moment.”

He forced himself not to smile. He did enjoy this woman.

He felt her chest rise and fall as she drew a deep breath, then released it. “How did my father insert a fucking tracker? For that matter, when?”

“I don’t know when. All I know is that it pinged when we were in the elevator in Grimm Tower.”

“Pinged?”

“The elevator scans for weapons and certain devices. It pinged on you the moment we arrived.”

“You’re saying my father just pulls up an app on his phone and he can find me? Like I’m a kitten who got chipped by the vet?”

“Something like that. It emits a signal that someone tuned into the proper frequency can pinpoint. I have a device in my pocket—and another one in the hotel room—that dampens the signal, essentially spreading it over a ten-mile radius with no single point that’s stronger than another.

“So I’m safe now unless my father’s goons actually see me? And I was safe in the hotel up until I left the room?”

She shivered, glancing around the empty street as if the shadows themselves might lunge for her.

He cocked a brow. “I did tell you to stay put.”

“You could have told me why.”

“I shouldn’t have had to. The terms of our agreement don’t require me to explain myself.”

She scowled, and he had to force himself not to smile at her consternation.

“And here we are.” He eased her to the ground as the doorman waved them in. He followed her over the threshold, feeling surprisingly empty without her weight clinging to him.

In the elevator, she pressed her back into a corner. “My father killed your mother. You already told me your goal is to destroy my father. Killing me would cut him pretty deep.”

Her words hit him like a physical blow, and he drew a sharp breath. “I want your father to burn for that. But not you.” He crossed the car in one long stride, standing so close he could feel her stuttering breath on his face. “You’re as much a victim as I am.”

She hugged herself, her eyes bright with unshed tears. When she spoke, her voice was so soft he had to hold his breath to hear. “I’m tired of being a victim.”

Her words stung, and even though he knew he wasn’t the cause of her pain—not that particular pain, at any rate—he felt the weight of it inside him. “After the hearing, you won’t be.”

He took her hand as the elevator doors opened. “Right now, I’m taking you back to the room.” He started to draw her toward him, but she stayed firmly in the corner. “What if I say no?”

He drew in a breath, then let it out slowly, willing himself not to lose his temper. She didn’t understand the danger. She was a kitten. New and scared. And until she was tame, he’d have to earn her trust over and over and over.

“If you say no,” he said in a low, steady voice, “then I walk away, and your father’s goons are on you in less than two minutes.”

“You won’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because my father killed your mother, didn’t he? That’s why you want to bring him down. To expose what he’s done to me. And to her.” The smile she flashed belonged to an innocent little girl, but her eyes were cold and calculating. “And you need me for all of that.”

“Do I? I have your blood. I’ll have Dr. Chen’s report soon. Release that to the press, and I think your father’s downfall is imminent.”

She said nothing, but he saw strength in her eyes.

When this had first started, he’d expected her to be a frail little thing— the embodiment of the princess persona that was the hallmark of Reed Cosmetics.

A woman who’d been so broken by her father that she was strong only in her own imagination but lacked the courage to find strength in the real world.

But she was so much more. Somewhere along the way, she’d become more than a lever.

She’d become a partner, albeit a sometimes reluctant one.

And for a man who’d lived his entire life completely alone despite a sea of brothers and staff, that was an uncomfortable and surprisingly pleasant realization.