When the old keeper forgot one latch, the 400-pound silverback reached through the steel

moved across his face before he covered it with a tired smile.

“Not now, Win,” he said. “I’m trying to work.”

Winston stayed where he was. His dark fingers slipped through the protected-contact openings, not far enough to grab, only far enough to hook around the edge of Tom’s sleeve. It was not an embrace in the human sense. There was steel between them,continue reading …