“Your sister never checked in with him last night like she promised,” said Grayson. “He paged me through the police scanner.”
“Pagedyou?” Wow. Liam had sought out the Dead Man for Jamey. “And you told him to come to Stone Solutions and bring the whole department with him?”
“It didn’t take any convincing. He’s a brave one, and I get the sense he’s all the way in with Detective St. James.”
Reece watched Liam watch Jamey. “Yeah,” he said, with a tiny smile. “Yeah, I think he is.”
“Well, now you’ve got each other, and you’ve got Mr. Lee.” Grayson pushed off the truck. “And I better—”
“Don’t move,” Reece snapped, gratified when Grayson actually stilled. “You got hurt for me. You came tosaveme. How can you claim to be some kind of dangerous empath hunter—how can you be called theDead Man—when you did something like that?”
Grayson leaned back on the truck. After a moment, he said, “You know what I really am now.”
Reece bit his lip. “Stone said an empath changed you.”
Grayson nodded once. It almost seemed like he wasn’t going to say anything more, but then he said, “My brother.”
Reece’s heart stilled.
“Alex became corrupted. I tried to get him help. I asked the wrong people.”
“Evan—”
“It’s not a story an empath would ever want to hear.” Grayson’s eyes were fixed on the scene in the sky. “Just know there are worse people than even Mr. Stone out there, and I try to make sure they stay in the shadows.”
Reece swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I thought you didn’t have feelings.”
“I don’t. But I have memories. And I see Alex’s ghost in every empath I meet.” Grayson finally looked at Reece. “So now you know the truth about the Dead Man. He’s not really a hunterora specialist. He’s vengeance.”
Vengeance. Maybe, but not only. “Protection,” Reece murmured. “For the world, and for us.”
“That’s a very empath way to put it,” Grayson said. “But if you like.”
Reece met his eyes, and this time, the blankness didn’t make him want to look away. “Then who’s Evan Grayson?”
“Gone,” Grayson said simply. “Evan Grayson is the real dead man. I have my memories, but the man I once was might as well be six feet under, because there’s nothing of him left.”
Grayson said it with no hint of sadness or regret.
Because of course he did.
Reece’s heart twisted. He leaned in closer. “You know I can’t hear it when you lie,” he said quietly, “but I think you might have just tried to tell one.”
Grayson was the one to break eye contact that time.
They stayed in silence for a several moments, watching the platform with Jamey get closer to the ground and Liam moving in to meet her.
“We’ve leaked some select details to the press,” Grayson finally said. “Hathaway’s murder is being pinned on Stone. Your sister’s getting the credit for catching him. She’ll be off suspension before lunch.” He held a business card out to Reece. “But if she’s done with the force and ever looking for another job, tell her to get in touch.”
“You want her to be the Dead Woman?”
“Never.”
Reece accepted the card, plain white with only a phone number and a single word:Vanguards. “This wouldn’t happen to be for some kind of new, Dead Man–led super-secret spy team?”
“Wouldn’t be a secret if I answered that.” Grayson pushed off the truck again. “So here we are. A whole day’s gone by, the real perps found, but I’ve still got the same problem I’ve had since we met.”
“What’s that?”
