Grayson stood jaw tight on the curb of the roadside. He gripped Tessa’s phone so tightly it was a wonder the glass didn’t shatter in his palm. Roman’s name. Again and again. Thread after thread.

It was a pity he couldn’t open the phone and look at the nonsense they had been discussing. Grayson’s teeth ground together until his jaw ached.

So Roman knew. Roman always knew. And Roman—coward that he was, hadn’t wasted time. He had paid her off and scrubbed the records. Tried to erase every trace of the child that carried Thorne blood.

He thinks he can buy her obedience. He thinks he can erase me? He...