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Chapter One

Griffen

I hated my desk This office had been mine for the better part of a decade It should have felt like hoet in the field I did my job, didn’t slack on the paperwork, but I never felt truly alive sitting behind a desk

Now, it looked like I’d be stuck here for the rest of my life

Fucking Andrei Tsepov and his fucking idiot goons I should be glad it was just a bullet to the shoulder More than a few ht I could have beenIf a bullet from an AR-15 had hit my shoulder I would have lost my arm

One shot froun and I’d been down Shoulder wounds are a lot more complicated than people think The bullet had nicked an artery and torn through liga the way

Hours of surgery, weeks in a sling, followed by ood as new

Almost

For a guy with a regular job, alh For ht fucking arht have the reaction tiht arm would always be a fraction too slow

No matter how much I wanted to be in the field, wanted the adrenaline and the rush, I wouldn’t risk a client’s life to soothe o

I was grounded I’d have to find a way to live with that

I’rew up in a fae and betrayal, es I’d walked ahen I enty-two, resentful and angry, but once I’d tasted the freedom of life away from my family, I’d made a decision

I wasn’t going to let the bullshit get me down

There’s always a bright side, always a reason to laugh I’d never give in to hate I’d seen what happened to people who did that, seen the way it sucked the life fro them dried-up, bitter husks

That wouldn’t be me That would never be me

For fifteen years, I’d ed to hold on to that, always ready with a s And now this Holed up in ht Gru at my friends, the friends who’d become my family

I kneas being an asshole I tried to sreat, but we all kneas a lie

Everything wasn’t fucking great Everything was all fucked up

A buzz sounded on my phone Alice at the front desk I picked up the handset and winced as I heard myself bark, “What?”