KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Neverseen 79 (Grady POV)

Grady did not like the way Keefe Sencen looked at Sophie.

Or the way he was inching closer to her as they talked.

Or the way he'd given her a necklace.

She was too young to be getting jewelry and attention from boys--especially Keefe Sencen.

That boy was trouble.

Okay, fine, he seemed like a nice enough kid--a little rebellious, a little incapable of taking things seriously, but...

Still.

Any boy who looked at Sophie like that was trouble in Grady's book.

Especially since she seemed to like it.

Edaline had all but forced Grady to leap back to Havenfield without Sophie, and was already back in the house, apparently doing a better job than Grady of pretending she wasn't curious or worried about what those two were getting up to.

But then...

It hadn't been very long, just a few minutes really, when Sophie leapt home.

Grady was still in the pastures, because he'd been trying to distract himself with work, so he saw her the moment she appeared.

And crumpled to the ground sobbing.

What did that idiot boy do?

Grady ran to her and pulled her into his arms. "Sophie? Sophie, kiddo, what's wrong?"

And when she told him--between sobs--he couldn't believe his ears.

He'd had his doubts about Keefe, but this?

Without another word, Grady led Sophie inside, calling for Edaline as he helped her up to her room.

And left just long enough to contact the Collective, Grady's blood boiling as all the implications of what that boy had done began to sink in.

He'd tricked her. Flirted with her, given her a necklace, played nice, gotten her to trust him.

To confide in him.

And then he'd stolen from her.

And run off to join the enemy.

The ones who had tried to kill her.

The ones who had killed Jolie.

And Grady had fallen for it again. Just like he'd fallen for it with Brant.

He'd trusted Keefe--maybe not with Sophie's heart, but with her life.

And Keefe had proved untrustworthy on both counts.

It was with a horrible sense of history repeating himself that Grady ushered the Collective through the door and up to Sophie's bedroom.

He wanted to hail Elwin to check her over, but she insisted she hadn't been harmed at all.

And she didn't seem to be hurt...physically.

But he hadn't seen her this heartbroken since...well, since she'd accidentally found out that they'd cancelled her adoption.

Not one of his finest moments. It was actually one of his deepest regrets, even now that they had moved past it.

He listened as Sophie told the Collective what had happened.

She'd stopped crying, but she looked completely heartbroken. Grady had known they were close, but for her to react like this...clearly Sophie had been in deeper than he realized.