No.
No, bleeding eyes were things that happened in nightmares, not real life.
Reece moved toward Braker but Nolan grabbed him by the hood, yanking him back. “What’s happening to him?” Nolan demanded. “Was it something you did?”
“How could it be?” Reece snapped. “An empath couldn’t hurt him if we wanted to!”
Lie.
Reece drew in a sharp breath. “Empathy can’t hurt him.”Lie. “I can’t hurt him.”Lie. His hand went to his mouth.
How was he lying? What the hell part of him could possibly believe that wasn’t the truth?
The EMT was shining a light in Braker’s eyes and muttering quick words into her headset, calling for backup. Nolan still had Reece’s hood in his fist. “If you didn’t do it,” he said tightly, “can you fix it?”
Reece’s gaze stayed fixed on Braker’s bleeding eyes. Maybe Reece was the problem. Maybe part of him thought his empathy wasn’t controlled enough for catatonia—that he was still too fractured since March.
And if his empathy could somehow hurt this poor man—
He rapidly shook his headno. “And don’t ask me to try.”
Nolan dropped Reece’s hood, his hand going to the small of his own back, where Jamey kept her handcuffs. “Listen, kid—”
The EMT shoved between them, scrambling for something in the cabinets. Reece seized his chance. He darted for the stairs and leaped for the door.
If empathy could hurt Braker, Reece was going to put his out of reach.
As Jamey was running up the dock, Taylor was coming down, paper cup in hand. She skidded to a stop. “Who screamed?”
Taylor blinked. “I didn’t hear anything.”
She strained her ears but the screaming had stopped. There was nothing to hear but officers in the parking lot and the soft lapping of waves against yachts. Taylor was looking at her questioningly. Taylor—and only Taylor. “Where’s Reece?”
“I was coming to ask you that.” Taylor held up the paper cup. “I got his coffee.”
“Coffee.” Jamey took a breath through her nose. “Did he ask you to get that for him?”
“Yeah, he did,” said Taylor. “And then he disappeared. I looked everywhere, but he’s not in the tent, he’s not in the parking lot—”
“Tell me you didn’t tell him about the witness.”
Taylor’s eyebrows drew together. “He didn’t already know?”
Jamey scrambled past him. Taylor chased at her heels, coffee cup still in his hand. “Jamey—”
Distantly, she heard the ambulance door smack the side of vehicle, sneakers on concrete, and then, most tellingly, the soft purr of a fuel-efficient engine.
And as she crested the top of the ramp and looked to the marina exit, there was nothing left to see but a pair of vanishing Smart car taillights.
And the turn signal. Of course.
She was nearly to her own car when Nolan came tumbling down from the ambulance. “Detective!”
She spun on her heel and met Nolan head-on. “What happened?”
“Yourempath brother—” He stressed the words. “—fled a crime scene. The EMT says he told Braker he was an empath and our only witness started screaming bloody murder. No pun intended.”
Jamey looked to the marina entrance where Reece’s car had just disappeared. “He ran from someone who was screaming?”
