“You don’t want Stone Solutions to come for you,” Easterby whispered tightly. “I can send the police—”
“No.”Faces flashed in Jamey’s mind, people she would never want to hurt.
“Who’s Liam?” Easterby said, and Jamey realized she must have said his name out loud. “Never mind, I’ve got a lock on your phone.” Easterby’s voice was warped, like she was balancing the phone against her shoulder. Computer keys clicked in the background. “You’re pretty far from any cities. Maybe it’s safe to wait for Grayson—”
“It’s not.” Far above the trees, the night was finally giving way to the thin dawn. Jamey blinked and saw flecks of red in pale gray light. “You know what empaths can do to their thralls?”
“Yes, but—”
“I’m already faster and stronger than most people.” Jamey blinked again, and more red spotted her vision. “Cora’s empathy is still in my blood. Think what I could do to innocent people.”
Easterby’s voice dropped to the barest whisper. “The people who will come from Stone Solutions are not innocents. They’re going to come armed—guns, Tasers, chains.”
“If Stone Solutions doesn’t come for me,” Jamey said, “someone else could find me. And Aisha, I don’t want to hurt anyone.” She raked her sleeve over her eyes again. “Send a team or I’ll call 911. I know Stone Solutions will intercept the call anyway.”
Easterby swore. “All right,” she whispered tightly. The computer keys were clacking again, even faster. “All right. But you owe me an empath’s phone number after this. Doesn’t have to be your brother’s, but you do have to get it for me, because I don’t get out much and my coworkers are corpses.”
Jamey snorted. There was a thundering in her ears, like a stampede, and it was getting louder.
“Hang in there.” Easterby sounded very far away. “It’s going to be okay, stay with me—”
But the words were swallowed up by the roaring in Jamey’s ears as the dawn drowned in red.
“Ouch.”
The pain was the first thing Reece became aware of again, his head pounding like a bass drum as he cracked open one eye. There was a gray cloth roof-liner above his head, faintly matched by the thin gray light of morning. His hands were cuffed on his stomach and there was cushioning underneath him.
He let his head fall back to the fabric beneath him. “This isn’t the Dead Man’s truck.”
“Empath’s awake.”
Reece leaned his head to the side, seeing two men he didn’t recognize in the front of what seemed to be an SUV. “Did you drive with me on your back seat?”
The men ignored him. The one in the passenger seat touched his earpiece. “We’re parking now—”
“You didn’t even buckle myseat belt?”
“Shut up,” said the driver.
“You could have had to slam the brakes,” Reece protested, as the two men climbed out of the front, leaving the doors open. “And I would have flown forward and hit the windshield and put both your lives in danger, and then you might have swerved and then hit someone else—”
The door at Reece’s feet opened. “Let’s go,” said Passenger.
He reached in, grabbed Reece, and yanked. Reece went flying out of the SUV, cuffed hands too clumsy to catch himself, and hit the pavement hard enough to hurt. The next moment, the man had Reece on his feet again, clutching his arm in a bruising grip with a hand covered in thick black material that was too familiar.
“Are you two wearingempathgloves? There’s no way you’re empaths.”
“You’re right,” Passenger snapped. “But you are, and we’re not stupid enough to touch you without protection.”
“There’s a sex joke in there somewhere,” Reece muttered.
They frog-marched him toward the building, and Reece recognized where they were: the back of the Stone Solutions high-rise, where he’d snuck in through the service elevator. Had that really only been hours ago?
Driver had a gun out and on Reece. Reece ignored him. “Where’s my sister?” he demanded, as Passenger pulled him toward the other door, the one labeledNo Admittance.
“We told you to shut up,” said Driver.
Reece ignored him. “Where’s Agent Grayson?”
