“You.”
Reece furrowed his brow. As they waited for the elevator, he could feel all eyes on him. Grayson’s stare was the weightiest of all.
“Are you planning to elaborate?” he finally said, trying to pretend the picture of him vomiting at Grayson’s feet wasn’t still flashing on the lobby’s flat-screen TV.
“In a moment.” Grayson had a pen in hand and was toying with it.
Reece’s mouth opened in outrage. “Did youstealthat from Adams’ desk?”
“No,”said Grayson. “I’m just borrowing it. I’m gonna leave it here.”
“You’re notborrowin’anything,” Reece said. “Put that back—”
He was cut off by the ding of the elevator. As the doors opened, Grayson put his arm out like a reflex, gesturing for Reece to go in first.
Apparently you could take the boy out of the South, but not the Southern chivalry out of the boy. Man. Dead Man. Reece went in, leaning against the elevator wall as Grayson followed. “You hold elevator doors for everyone?”
“Your city took my sun. You can’t have my manners too.” Grayson hit a button and the elevator suddenly screeched to a halt.
Reece stumbled at the unexpected stop and only just caught himself on the elevator wall. Then Grayson jabbed the pen up over his shoulder, at the back corner of the elevator, and glass shattered.
Reece’s eyes widened. “What did you just do?”
Grayson leaned against the elevator wall. “Got rid of the camera.”
“Youwhat?”
“I need to know if I’m going right back to Mr. Adams’ office and I don’t need an audience for this conversation.” Grayson fixed Reece with a considering scare. “What did you learn that you don’t want to tell me?”
Reece stiffened. “Nothing?”Lie. He tried not to wince.
“Please. I do know I’m the Dead Man, sugar. Of course there’s stuff you’re not gonna tell me.”
Reece adopted the most guileless, wide-eyed expression he had. “How could there be? I didn’t touch him and my empathy doesn’t work without touch.”
Lie. He bit his lip.
Grayson’s face, of course, gave nothing away. “None of your empathy works without touch, huh?”
“Nope, not at all, never has.”Lie lie lie. Reece added some innocent blinks, for good measure.
“And how much of it works without,” Grayson cleared his throat, “sexual flexibility?”
Reece’s cheeks flushed hot. He was doomed to regret that press statement for the rest of his life. “There’s this thing called sarcasm. I’ve discovered it doesn’t always translate well in print.”
“Or government offices.” Grayson looked perfectly comfortable against the stopped elevator’s wall, unlike the way Reece was fidgeting on his feet. “You’re not adding Mr. Adams to that pack of emotional minions, but if you learned something that could help this investigation, you should share it.”
Reece huffed. “Even if therewasmore I’m not telling you—and I’m not admitting anything—I’d have good reason to keep it quiet. If I tell you something you don’t want to hear, you might stick me wherever it is you stash empaths who step out of line. So you think I’m going to trust you?”
“I wouldn’t,” said Grayson, “if I were you.”
Well,thatdidn’t make Reece feel better.
“But then, if I were you,” Grayson added, “I also wouldn’t want to take a chance that more people could die while I dragged my feet to keep myself safe.”
Reece swore. “Ihatehow well you know empaths.” He thought over what he’d seen and what he could say without revealing too much to the Dead Man. “Adams thinks very highly of Cedrick Stone.”
Grayson waited.
