“Griffin!” Finley cried. She moved to attack the automaton, but Sam stopped her. “Wait. Griff’s got a plan.”“How do you know?” she demanded.Sam and Jasper both looked at her with bemused expressions. “Griff’s always got a plan,” Jasper informed her, as though it was absolute fact.”

“Moments later Griffin had Finley in the carriage, and Jasper sat on the seat across from them.“What’s the matter with her?” he asked Griffin.Griffin shook his head. “Nothing. She’s just two personas struggling for dominance in one body.”The cowboy’s eyebrows shot up, but his expression was sympathetic. “Poor little thing.”

“Griffin had to get to the bottom of these automaton attacks. He couldn’t ignore them just because Finley Jayne posed such an intriguing problem in such a pretty package.And she was pretty—even when off her rocker. In that respect, she was every bit as dangerous as Aunt Cordelia seemed to think.It was a good thing, then, that he enjoyed a little danger now and again.”

“What's the matter with her? [Jasper] asked Griffin.Griffin shook his head. 'Nothing. She's just two personas struggling for dominance in one body.'[Jasper] ... Poor little thing.”

“And then Finley seized the spindly metal arm attached to her throat. A normal human would have no hope against such strength, but Finley was not normal. She snapped the arm at the elbow joint and then ripped the offending hand from her neck.Holding the arm by the hand and wrist, she used it to beat the automaton....”

“It would take little effort for her to hurt him right now. She could hurt him badly.But Griffin King could hurt her, as well, and he hadn’t. Instead of using force or violence against her, he used patience and understanding. She had no defense against that.When he let her go, she was shaking. Tears filled her eyes as she turned to her mother who stood staring at her in horror.“My sweet little girl,” her mother whispered. “I didn’t know. I would never…” Her words faded into a choked sob. Finley crossed the short distance between them on quivering legs and wrapped her arms around the shorter woman. She didn’t care if Griffin or his nasty aunt saw her tears. If anything was worth crying over, the discovery that her father had made her a monster had to be one.”

“Jasper waited until the man was gone before asking, “You ever get tired of folks puckerin’ up to your backside?”Griffin faced him with mock gravity. “Yes. It is deuced tiring, people doing whatever I wish. Makes my life so very disagreeable.”