Chapter 5

Grace stepped straight in front of me. "Talk? You have some nerve showing up here."

Charles ignored her and just looked at me.

There was too much in that look, exhaustion and irritation and restraint, and a flicker of panic he did not know he was showing.

There had been a time when a look like that would have softened me.

This time, all it did was make me tired.

"Go ahead," I said.

"Not here," he said.

"Three minutes," I said, glancing at my watch. "Say your piece, then go."

He swallowed hard, like he was trying to keep…