“Evan!”Reece lunged against Jamey’s grasp. “Evan, she’s lying, getdown!”
Grayson dove into a skiff just as the dry dock doors burst open in a hail of gunfire and thundering boots.
Reece was bodily lifted off the ground as Jamey threw him into the closet boat and jumped in alongside him. “Shut your eyes,” she ordered.
“But—”
She shoved his head to the floor of the boat.“Don’t. Look.”
Gunshots echoed off the fiberglass sides of nearby boats. Had someone been hit? Reece tried to lift his head. “Is everyone okay—”
She shoved his face back down. “I said don’t look.” This time, her hand stayed on his neck, keeping him in the boat. “It’s a SWAT team. Maybe more than one.”
Reece’s stomach plummeted.“SWAT teams?”
Gunfire and shouts surrounded the boat, fury in every hard voice.
Jamey ducked down next to him. “Jesus, there’s at least fifteen of them.”
Fifteen. Shit. “Buthow?” Reece whispered. “Where did they come from? How did they find us?”
Jamey shook her head helplessly. “No idea. Stone Solutions wouldn’t have sent them—although they’ll probably show upnow, since the fuckers spy on everyone.”
Another round of gunfire echoed through the dry dock. Someone cried out. Reece felt the ricochet like the echo had left cracks in his bones, phantom pain breaking out over his skin like burns.
Jamey peeked over the skiff’s edge, then ducked down again. “What a fucking mess—they’re fighting Grayson and each other.Why?How can Cora control this many? She didn’t touch anyone.”
“It’s not control, it’s p-projection.” His voice broke, and he realized he was shaking, the only steady point Jamey’s strong hand on his neck. “She’s projecting her own anger, that’s why I felt it. Officers already tense before battle—they can’t resist, she lit them up like a match to gasoline.”
“And if she does manage to touch them, she can thrall them.” Jamey’s tension was palpable. “And Grayson’s going to be holding back, trying to spare their lives.”
More shouts came, louder, closer. “She’s got other plans for us,” Reece whispered. “She’ll enrage them and thrall them and send them all after Evan.”
“Fifteen SWAT officers, armed and devoted and furious—he can’t fight all of them.” Jamey pulled their foreheads together. “I need to help him.”
“Jamey—”
“I can help Grayson stop all of the SWAT officers without killing anyone, but only if I know you’re safe.”
“But—”
“Listen to me.” Reece had never heard Jamey so serious. “You can’t watch. The violence, maybe the death—that might be one of the triggers that could start the corruption in you.”
And Reece understood. “Like in March.” Their eyes met. His lower lip trembled. “Corrupt me further, you mean.”
“I meant it the way I said it.” She lifted her hand off his neck. “Keep your head down. If you want me to protect you, to help Grayson, to make sure no one else dies, youhaveto stay down.Promise me.”
He swallowed. Then he nodded.
She leaped from the boat. Reece curled into a tight ball on the floor of the boat and pulled the hood of the sweatshirt over his head. A second later came the sickening crack of bone against bone; some unfortunate SWAT soldier on the receiving end of her fists.
He screwed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the gunshots, the shouts, bones breaking. But did it matter if he heard it? If he saw it? He was corrupted already.
And he’d spread it to Cora when she read him. Jamey didn’t know that part, didn’t know all of this was his fault.
I can help you, he’d said to Cora, right before Jamey appeared.
And it hadn’t been a lie.
