Oh no. “Not now,” he muttered under his breath, uselessly twisting the key.
Grayson looked at the dashboard, then at Reece. “Why won’t your car start?”
“You know your way around handcuffs but not the sound of a dead battery?” Reece climbed out of the car and went around to the passenger side.
When Grayson didn’t move, Reece tapped impatiently on the window. Grayson lifted a hand, paused, then cracked the passenger door instead. Reece probably needed to fix that window. “You leave your lights on or something?”
Somethin’. Reece huffed. “Of course not. Sometimes batteries get old and they don’t hold a charge very well.”
“Oh,” Grayson said, like this was news.
Reece gestured at him. “Any day now.”
“Why am I going back out in the cold? We don’t all have empath blood keeping us warm.”
Reece pointed at the footwell. “That’s where the battery is. You don’t have to get out, just twist—”
Grayson swung the door open, forcing Reece back, and was out of the car a moment later without so much as brushing Reece’s arm.
Not even chancing contact outside of the gloves, it seemed. Reece left the passenger door open and went to the hatch at the back.
Grayson followed and hovered behind him. “So do I buy you another battery?”
Reece grabbed his emergency jump starter, sending a plea to the universe that it had enough juice left for a second jump. “No.”
“What about another car?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Your car can’t cost a whole lot to replace,” Grayson said. “I’m not sure I’m convinced it even is an actual car. How come your overprotective big sister hasn’t bought you a new battery?”
“She has,” Reece grudgingly admitted.
“But you still use the old one because...”
“Because I won’t put the new one in until I’ve finished paying her back and she doesn’t know how to install it herself and I hide my keys so she can’t—you know, just because you don’t have facial expressions doesn’t mean I can’t tell when you’re judging me.” He tried to slam the hatch, which only closed with an unsatisfying snick.
Grayson reached into his pocket where he kept his phone. “I can have a new car here in—”
“No. I have the emergency charger; it’s my compromise with Jamey.” And if ever there was an emergency reason to use it, it was to keep the Dead Man from buying him a freakingcar.
Reece hooked up the cables and had the car running just a couple minutes later. Grayson watched the whole procedure with a curiosity that confirmed he’d never had to jump his own battery in his life.
As soon as Reece had the cover back in place, Grayson got right back in the passenger seat and firmly shut the door. Reece put the now-drained charger back in the hatch and then hesitated.
It had been hours now and Cora still hadn’t called him back. Did she know she’d succeeded, that Hathaway had been going to withdraw the anti-empathy bill? Even if new senators took up the bill, even if it passed after all, Cora deserved to know.
But his gaze stole to Grayson sitting in his passenger seat.
Cora had tried to help him yesterday. It’d be poor thanks to put her on the Dead Man’s radar, especially when the Dead Man thought an empath was responsible for Hathaway’s death.
Reece did pull out his phone, but he called Jamey instead.
“Liam told me about the picture on theEyes on Empathsblog,” she said, without preamble. “He’s drafting a statement calling it amisunderstanding.”
Reece sighed. “He shouldn’t waste his time,” he said, as he slammed the hatch with more success this time. “I’m a menace who can’t keep his mouth shut; I have it all coming.” No lie in those words. Reece sighed again.
“But you’re also my brother. He understands it’s hard for an empath to hide their feelings, and he told me that no matter what your mouth says, your heart’s in the right place.”
