Reece had more questions, but he let it go for the moment and crawled into the truck, awkwardly maneuvering over the center console until he was in the passenger seat. The hillside was close outside the window as he grabbed his seat belt and buckled it. It was warm in the truck’s cab, cozy and familiar, and he shamelessly turned on his seat warmer and cranked it up. “What about my car? It’s not going to be towed to Tacoma again, is it?”
“No.” Grayson slid into the driver’s seat in one graceful movement, pulling the door shut with a thud. “Mr. Lane has a cousin with an auto-repair shop in the Central District.”
“He does?”
“Did you think folks call him Diesel for his muscles?” Grayson had his phone in hand. “Your car is going to their shop. I want someone I can trust looking it over.”
That was a relief. The overhead light went off, darkening the truck cab so they were lit only by the glow of the dash and control panel. “I don’t know what happened. I check everything weekly—”
“Officer Stensby punctured your brake fluid and sabotaged your brakes.” Grayson was still typing in his phone. “And now he seems to have disappeared.”
“Oh.” Reece wrapped his arms around himself. Up ahead, the police car was still parked on the shoulder, lights whirling under the streetlamp. He hadn’t liked Stensby either, but Jesus. At least Reece hadn’t tried to kill him. “So was the guy in the Hellcat his friend or something?”
Grayson looked up from his phone and over at Reece. “Hellcat?”
“At McFeely’s.” Reece gestured up ahead. “Is that cop about to come up here and ask what’s going on?”
“No. I took care of that,” Grayson said, because of course he had. “What happened to you at McFeely’s?”
“I know you said to stay, and I swear I was listening to you, but that guy could have hurt Ben or Diesel or the others, so obviously I had to—”
“Reece.” Grayson’s voice was still as dead as his nickname, but he’d pitched it quiet enough it wasn’t jarring. “Were you in danger?”
Reece hesitated. He looked over at Grayson. “I—”
I was being followed but I can’t tell you because I think you only want to protect me because your brother changed you like I changed Jamey and I sent other people into a panic on accident and I definitely can’t tell you that either—
“No.”Lie.Reece forced a smile. “No danger. Ignore me, I’m shaken from losing my brakes.”
Grayson’s gaze lingered on him for just a second more. Then he reached for his door panel.
All around Reece, there was a chorus ofsnicksas every lock in the truck engaged.
Reece’s mouth fell open in outrage. “Did you justlock me in?”
“Sure did,” said Grayson, in the exact same tone of voice he’d used to ask Reece if he’d been in danger. “Because I’m the Dead Man, and you’re an empath lying to me.”
“I’mnot—”
“You just flinched again because you hate the way lies sound,” said Grayson, which was gallingly true. “So yeah, you’re lying to me, and you’re hiding something, and I haven’t forgotten you’re walking a fine line between pacifist and killer and I’m the last thing between you and the rest of Seattle. And this is reason number million and one that no empath could ever want evenhypotheticalhate-sex with me: I will never be safe for you.”
Reece looked away, out the windshield, watching the swirl of the cop car’s lights.
“I’ve got a city to protect, seat-warmers, and no ability to feel impatience,” said Grayson. “So the next move is yours, Reece.”
Reece blew out a long breath. He should be furious. He should be terrified. But the part of him that had been wound tight since he’d learned about the concept of corruption had loosened, just a little.
He didn’t want Grayson to be safe for him. He didn’t want Grayson to fall for his lies.
Reece was dangerous; he wanted the Dead Man to be even more dangerous than he was.
“There’s been this guy hanging around my building,” he said, the truth spilling out of him at barely a whisper, but Grayson would be able to hear it just fine. “He turned up at McFeely’s tonight. He wanted me to go with him, and he pulled out a gun, and my memories of what I almost did to you came flooding back.”
“What did that do to you?” Grayson said, still quiet and still patient.
Reece swallowed. “I don’t know, exactly. But the next thing I knew, he was just as scared as I was, and so were the other people nearby.” He let his head fall back against the headrest. “So I ran.”
“Why?”
