She’s ill-positioned to see the tilt of his brows that marks him making note of his narrow window to get in there and pilfer before she’s had the presence of mind to take inventory. Thanks, Val. And Holden, for that matter.

“He thought highly of you.”

An elephant threatens to crowd into the room with them in the pause before he anchors away from it with a well-timed pat. His voice is even. Quiet. Assurance without ire.

It isn’t as if he was wrong.