“You won’t throw up again. You’ll get used to me. Like riding a bike.”
“Or living next to a landfill.” Reece set the bottle down, the plastic crackling under his gloved hand. “Are you saying empaths always throw up the first time they meet you?”
“Some empaths. Not all of them.”
“But if you knew it could happen, why didn’t you approach me slowly in the first place?” Reece demanded.
“Because I didn’t expect vomiting fromyou.”
Grayson’s eyes and face were blank as stone. Reece still had no idea what any of it meant. “Yeah, well, next time be more careful,” he said irritably. “You just made me puke in front of a million cameras.”
“Closer to a dozen, but if you’re well enough to exaggerate you’re well enough for me to come in.”
Grayson stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. Reece’s stomach twisted over on itself, but Grayson was right: he was adjusting to the other man’s presence and the nausea was subsiding.
Reece still could barely stand the sight. “What’swrongwith you? Your eyes—and your face—”
Jamey cleared her throat. “There’s actually nothing wrong with his face. I mean. I’m just saying.”
Reece gave her a withering look.
“Did you think the Dead Man was just going to be a cute nickname?” Grayson said.
“I didn’t think the Dead Man was going to be real at all,” Reece shot back.
“Haven’t you heard?” Grayson said. “I’m just a story; a bogeyman dreamed up to scare empaths onto the straight and narrow.”
Reece startled. The sarcasm should have turned to a lie’s discord in his ears; should have soured the sugar-sweet accent. But Grayson’s drawl had stayed melodic as ever. “That’s not right.”
“Your words. Not mine.”
“I know, I just—” Reece snapped his mouth shut as the puzzle pieces abruptly slotted into place.
Whatever it was about Grayson that stopped Reece from picking up emotions when looking at him, he likewise couldn’t find them in Grayson’s voice. Just like he couldn’t see Grayson’s feelings in his eyes or face, Reece hadn’t heard the lie in Grayson’s words because hecouldn’t.
But Grayson’s gaze was still on him, so he buried his shock. If Grayson didn’t know Reece could hear everyone else’s lies, Reece was going to keep it that way. He scrambled for something to say. “I’ve just heard stories about you from other empaths. Wild stories.”
Grayson tilted his head. “Like what?”
Reece’s heart was starting to pound. “That if we don’t keep our empathy to ourselves, you show up in the middle of the night and we disappear, leaving only a cover story behind.”
“That’s just a rumor,” said Grayson, and Reece felt better right up until Grayson drew the blinds on the door. “I can show up any time of day.”
Reece drew back.
Jamey drew her gun.
Reece world’s tunneled to the weapon.“Jamey.”
Jamey’s hands never wavered as she aimed between Grayson’s eyes. “It wasn’t Reece.”
Grayson could not have seemed less concerned to be staring down the barrel of her gun. “You’ve guessed.”
Reece barely heard their voices over his own heartbeat thundering in his ears. “Jamey—”
“I suspected.” She cocked the gun. “You showing up confirms it.”
Cold sweat broke out on Reece’s forehead as phantom pain spread through his chest, the way a bullet might tear through flesh, pierce an organ, shatter bone.“Jamey.”His voice cracked on her name.
