Grayson gaze darted to the cuff. “No flinch that time. That’s not a lie, then—you really believe that.” He shook his head. “Bad idea, believing in me. Look where it got you.”
Reece curled his hands, nails biting his palms.
Grayson’s face gave nothing away as he said, “Any final words? It’s you, I know you’ve got them.”
Reece stubbornly looked away.
“Suit yourself. I’ve got some.”
Reece couldn’t stop himself from looking up at him, the blank hazel eyes and expressionless face that had somehow grown familiar in a short time.
“I’d be dead without your warning,” said Grayson. “You gave yourself away to save my life. And I ought to say thanks.”
“Manners?Now?” Reece rattled the handcuff. “Don’t bother. I don’t want your thanks.”
Grayson shrugged. “I cost you your freedom. Can’t blame you for regretting it.”
Reece watched him walk away, toward Cora. He wished he could say something biting about how he should have just let Grayson die.
But he was tired of lies.
“I don’t regret it,” he whispered to himself, as he slumped against the boat. “Your life was worth the price.”
Grayson stilled, and too late Reece remembered he had the same too-good hearing as Jamey.
Then a new voice cut through the dry dock. “Hands up, Agent Grayson.”
Shit.
Agent Nolan emerged from behind the forklift, his gun up. “Didn’t hear me come in, did you?” he said bitingly. “Too busy fighting the SWAT team? Or is the great Dead Man in too much pain to pay attention?”
Reece’s gaze shot to Grayson. Reece hadn’t seen any pain on his face, but he should have remembered he never sawanythingon Grayson’s face. And it was so obvious now that Reece looked for it, how Grayson was favoring one leg, hunching around his ribs.
“I’ll heal,” Grayson said flatly. “How about you put that gun down, Agent Nolan? You don’t look well.”
Nolan laughed, a mad edge to it. His eyes were suspiciously red-tinged. “On the contrary. I can finally see my path to revenge. You’re a dead man, Dead Man.” And he laughed again, unsteadily.
A sickening shiver went down Reece’s spine. Like the SWAT team, this was rage too, but colder, a vengeful and calculated fury. “Did Cora get to you?” Reece said in horror. “Or is this what her projection did—”
“Shut up!” Nolan’s snarl echoed off the dry dock. “I’m going to kill you too, empath.” He gestured with his gun at Grayson. “I’m just taking down the biggest monster first.”
“Wait—” Reece automatically moved forward, only to jerk against his handcuff.
“Not the time, Care Bear,” Grayson said, his eyes on Nolan.
“I’m going to help—you said I’m corrupted, maybe I can project too—”
“Reece,stop.” Grayson’s drawl was quiet but unmistakably an order. More loudly, he said, “Agent Nolan, put the gun down.”
Nolan laughed again. “Make me.”
Reece squinted as something new flashed on Nolan’s chest, a small red dot, like a laser pointer—
Ohno.
“Evan,” he whispered, body freezing up. “Evan, his chest—”
“I see it.” Grayson glanced up at the boats, then back at Nolan. “Agent Nolan, we have been surrounded by a Stone Solutions team. If you make a move against me, they’ll kill you.”
