Maybe, if Reece could just get to Cora, he could stop this.
He lifted his head. He could still feel Cora’s battle fury against his skin. He could keep his eyes down, follow the emotion like a thread and find the source without ever watching the violence around him.
He scrambled out from the boat. He moved down the row, darting from boat to boat, eyes fixed on the ground. Cora would feel him coming, but if he could just get close enough for touch—
Suddenly, there she was, not hiding at all but openly coming his way, flanked by two SWAT officers. Their expressions were blank save for devotion, and he could hazard a guess who they were now devoted to.
Cora grinned. “You’re coming for me.” She spread her arms in welcome. “Come get me then.”
I can save you.
It hadn’t been a lie. Reece broke into a run. He had to try—
Jamey was faster.
She leaped over a boat and crashed into Cora before she and Reece could touch. A second later, the two women smashed down onto the concrete.
“Jamey!”Reece’s shout of horror echoed around the dry dock.
No, no, no—Cora’s words hadn’t been for him, they’d been for Jamey.
Reece found new speed in his body, lunging for his sister.
But Cora’s two thralled SWAT officers grabbed him, holding him back. “No, let me go!” Reece yanked uselessly against their hold.“Jamey!”
Cora and Jamey rolled over and over on the concrete, Cora finally coming out on top with both of her hands on Jamey’s face. Jamey’s eyes were wide with shock.
But then Cora gasped, her hands clutching her head. Her face contorted and she fell off Jamey, and Jamey turned on her side and retched.
Reece gasped and Jamey looked up.
Reece’s heart stopped in his chest. Something was creeping into Jamey’s eyes, something that wasn’t his sister.
Jamey made a noise that wasn’t at all like herself either. She shut her eyes, shaking her head like she was trying to clear it.
Cora curled in a fetal position. She groaned in pain before her eyes rolled back and she passed out. The SWAT officers holding Reece slackened their grips and he broke free, sprinting toward Jamey.
“Stay back!” Jamey’s ragged order stopped him in his tracks. She was still on the ground, one hand up to stop him. Her face was screwed up, her body shaking. “Reece—”
She blinked, and he saw it—red in the corner of her eyes.
And then she was on her feet, sprinting for the dry dock doors.
“Come back!”
Reece lunged after her, too fast, his stupid legs a trembling mess that buckled under him. He tumbled to the ground, a burn searing his palms as they slid out in front of him on the concrete.
He pushed up, ignoring the pain in his hands, planning to shove himself to his feet—
But giant boots were in his way, and the gun in his face wasn’t a tranquilizer.
“Nowyou’re under arrest,” said the Dead Man.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Do not make the mistake of thinking an empath can be rehabilitated. When they reach that point, they can only be stopped.
—classified training manual, Stone Solutions’ internal enforcement team
