Nothing had changed in Grayson’s face. He had the same blank expression, same unreadable eyes. He was still the Dead Man.
But he understood. And it had been so, so long since Reece had anyone but Jamey understand.
Reece grabbed his chopsticks before he looked at that thought any closer. “But you’re not really dead,” he said, because Graysonwasn’t.
“Living dead, maybe.” Grayson set his now-empty plate to the side. “Like those zombies of yours.”
Reece toyed with the chopsticks for a moment. “I’ve never actually seen a zombie movie,” he confessed. “Because of the, you know. Brain-eating and stuff.”
Grayson picked up his own chopsticks. “I know, Care Bear.”
Reece snagged a soy sauce–soaked roll, welcoming the burn of wasabi in his nose. “If I talk to you—bigif—how do I know what I say won’t get me back in handcuffs?”
Grayson took a roll off the same plate, his arms long enough to easily reach Reece’s side of the table even though their legs never seemed to bump. “You don’t.”
Reece rolled his eyes.
They ate for a few moments in silence, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one. The restaurant was quiet, the lights and music low. The tables and booths were far enough apart that only quiet murmurs could be heard from the others, and no one was paying attention to them. It was probably the calmest moment Reece had had all day.
He stole a look across the table. Maybe he couldn’t read any emotions on Grayson’s blank face, but like Grayson’s voice, the sight didn’t make him feel worse anymore. And maybe he couldn’t talk about hearing lies, but maybe Grayson would explain the new horror Reece had discovered today.
Reece bit his lip, then said, “I don’t like the thought that the kil—you know, the person behind what happened to Senator Hathaway. That it could be an empath. The thought of an empath without empathy, it’s—it’s terrible.”
“Shattered your world to find out?” Grayson didn’t say it with judgment, just patient as ever.
“Yeah,” Reece admitted. “You and Jamey are telling me there’s an empath out there with a jacked-up version of our abilities but not our pacifism, and theyhurtsomebody.”
“I didn’t want to tell you.” There were no emotions Reece could read from Grayson’s flat voice, but it didn’t seem smug. If anything, he seemed apologetic. “I think it’s better that empaths don’t know. There’s nothing you can do to help; it only hurts you to know it’s possible.”
Reece turned the chopsticks over in his hand. There were delicate flowers carved into the metal. He didn’t want to tell Grayson he was right, that maybe blissful ignorance would have been better. “I don’t understand how it could happen. Is it another mutation that makes an empath born that way?”
“You don’t want that answer,” Grayson said.
“Yeah, I fucking do,” Reece said sharply.
“Are you glad you know what the killer is?”
“This isdifferent.”
“No, it isn’t.” Grayson said it like it was the final word. “I guard a lot of secrets for a lot of good reasons. And you’re undoing all the work we just did bringing that blood pressure down.”
“You drive me crazy,” Reece said hotly, and oh hey, not even a lie. “You had me in cuffs but you let me go. You know I have insight but you wouldn’t let a Stone Solutions scientist find out. You won’t tell me anything but you’ll talk me down. I can’t tell if you’re my friend or my enemy.”
“The Dead Man doesn’t have friends,” Grayson said. “So maybe you got an answer out of me after all.”
The fancy metal chopsticks clattered against the plate as Reece threw them down and stood.
Grayson lazily tilted his head. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Bathroom,” Reece snapped. “Am I allowed to do that without the press reporting on it or the Dead Man creeping over my shoulder?”
Grayson picked up his beer. “You got three minutes.”
“Whatever.”
The restaurant’s restroom was down the same short hall that ended in a swinging kitchen door. Inside, Reece rested heavily against the marble counter with the shiny sink faucets, putting his back to the mirror so he wouldn’t have to look at his own wrecked face.
It had been a hard day. Hard week. Hard month after month, since March. Grayson was right, Reece didn’t like being this isolated, but he was in no state to be around others and hadn’t been since March. The thought of another read made his stomach roil.
