Ronan woke a few hours later, pale but steady, insisting on hearing everything I'd learned before agreeing to a single additional decision about what came next. I told him about the voice in the engine, about the Broker, about Tobias and the scrapyard two counties over, watching his expression shift from exhaustion to sharp, focused attention with every new detail.
"You shouldn't have touched that bike alone," he said, though the reprimand came without much force behind it, more habit than genuine anger at this point.
"I know. I did it anyway. We both know that's probably going to keep happening."
Something that might have been a tired, reluctant smile crossed his face. "I'm starting to understand that too."
We spent the remainder of the morning going through Eleanor's ledger page by p
