“I don’t think either of us count on luck.” She reached for the glovebox and the .44 Magnum Grayson had given her.
But his hand wrapped around her wrist. His grip was gentle, but Jamey could feel his hidden strength, unnatural as her own, like he might be the first person she’d ever met who could match her in a fight.
“You can’t.” His skin was cool as his eyes bored into hers. “Not in front of your brother.”
And a piece of the puzzle finally fell into place. “Because it might trigger the corruption in Reece.” She didn’t make it a question, but Grayson gave a curt nod anyway. Her breath left her in a rush. “What causes it? The gun? The violence? Death?”
“We don’t know all the ways, and I’m not about to let people run tests on empaths to figure them out. But we do know one way.” He let her wrist go. “Dr. Easterby showed you the handcuffs in the engine room. And you said you found gurneys at the pulp mill. Did you smell blood?”
Jamey recoiled from the implication. “You think Cora was taken there?”
“Maybe. Maybe not just Cora.”
“By who?” Jamey demanded. “Jason Owens?”
“I’m gonna find out,” he said, low and gravelly. “That’s another part of my job.”
Jesus. “But why would anyone everwantto corrupt an empath?”
“Sometimes people just want to see if they can make a monster,” Grayson said quietly. “But in this case, there was tens of millions of dollars in anti-empathy funding at stake. I’d guess Dr. Owens was looking for a surefire way to convince Senator Hathaway not to withdraw her bill. He thought he’d take the sweet, sunshiny therapist, the very therapist whose kindness and empathy was weakening support for the bill, and use her to show Senator Hathaway what Stone Solutions is really defending against.”
Corrupting an empath on purpose for money. Pure evil. It sounded like motive to her, but not Owens’ motive alone. “He was far from the only person who’d lose if that bill doesn’t pass.”
“I know. And the webcam in the engine room makes me think he wasn’t working alone.”
Easterby’s words came back to her:Grayson’s not a villain. He takes down empaths, when he has to. But when he can save them, that’s what he does. “How does Reece fit into this?”
“I sent your brother to you because I thought you’d hide him, and I thought that’d be enough to keep him safe. But then Dr. Easterby’s team found Owens’ body, and I found the smashed camera on the boat, and I realized that Owens probably had a partner, someone out there who might still decide to target another empath.”
She glanced at him. “Could it be the Whitman person Reece went after?”
“Could be,” said Grayson. “Or it could be someone else. I’m not scratching any suspects off the list, and I’m not gonna quit until everyone behind this has been found and stopped.”
She considered him. “So you really have been trying to protect Reece?”
“Protecting the world from empaths means protecting empaths from the people who want to corrupt them.” Grayson’s features were just visible in the dark car. “All day I’ve been trying to make sure the most insidious thing your brother can do is backseat drive. Even if he’s perfected it to an almost superhuman level.”
Jamey snorted. “I bet Jason Owens’ missing phone would tell us who he’s been working with.” She opened the driver’s door. “Any leads?”
“I would have told you if there were,” Grayson said, as he opened his own door.
“You have to think about it like Reece,” she said. “You’ve got a high-level Stone Solutions guy with evidence incriminating someone else. What does Reece think about the people at Stone Solutions?”
Grayson hesitated, his hand on the passenger door. “He thinks the only thing that scares them more than empaths isme.”
Jamey snorted. “Well, maybe you’re the answer then. Most crooks don’t want to take the fall for their cronies. Maybe Owens knew he was going to be killed by an empath, and he wanted something even scarier to go after his partners. And maybe he thought that was you.”
Grayson appeared to be thinking that over as they came around to the front of the car.
“So what’s our plan?” she asked.
“I could use some bait.”
“Not a problem.” She took a step forward.
“Detective.”
She looked over her shoulder at Grayson.
