But maybe he ought to tell Director Traynor at the Empath Initiative.
Traffic moved forward just a little, and Grayson moved with it.
What was EI gonna do differently, though? If Traynor knew what was going on, he’d send the agency’s biggest weapon—and that was the Dead Man. Nothing would change.
Except Traynor would want to hand Reece over to Polaris. Reece might have Polaris in his future, if the corruption ever set in all the way, but he didn’t belong there now. Not when he was still the sweet pacifist who’d nearly been kidnapped last night, yet ran and hid in Grayson’s truck just now so he wouldn’t risk anyone else getting hurt. Who’d saidmaybe it can be just the two of usto the Dead Man.
So no. Grayson couldn’t tell Traynor either.
He eyed the traffic. He could hit the shoulder and pass everyone, but there wasn’t gonna be anything they could do tonight, and Reece needed time to wake up anyway. They’d get in to Vancouver when they got in, find somewhere to get a toothbrush and a change of clothes.
Find a hotel room for the two of them to share, sleeping only feet apart as they had last night. That would be fine. Wasn’t like Grayson had spent the night hyperaware of Reece in that too-big Texas hoodie, soft and trusting and almost close enough to touch.
Grayson forced his fingers to loosen on the steering wheel.
It’d be just fine.
From Lake Sammamish, Jamey pulled into a rest stop to think, sitting in Liam’s car and taking in the snow-dusted evergreens. She’d sent Grayson and Aisha both the pictures of Stensby’s car, including the suitcase and the pen from the airsoft course. No one had heard from Stensby all day and all leads seemed to stop at the smashed cruiser.
Her phone beeped with a new text from Grayson.
Seems like the airsoft manager might have been the one chasing Reece in the Hellcat last night. We’re following a lead to Vancouver.
We. Jamey raised her eyebrows.
Jamey: Reece is going with you to BC? Where the Mysterious Facility for Corrupted Empaths is located?
Grayson: Yes. But I’m not taking your brother there.
A straight answer. Interesting.
A cardinal was hopping through the branches, bright red against the white snow. He chirped, and his mate chirped back.
Another text came in from Grayson.
He’s not my prisoner. He’s free to go anytime. He said he wanted to come with me today.
And now Grayson wasexplaininghimself to her, like he wasn’t the Dead Man with an empath, but a good Southern boy promising to have his date back by curfew.
Also interesting.
But Grayson could go from gentleman to ruthless killer in a heartbeat. If he thought Reece was a threat, Grayson wouldn’t hesitate to lock him up with the other corrupted empaths where he couldn’t hurt anyone.
Which was, of course, exactly why Reece trusted him and wanted to be with Grayson.
She watched the birds hop from branch to branch. If she was being fair, she probably ought to acknowledge that whatever complicated person he was now, Grayson could have easily already taken Reece up to the BC facility, left him there, and never looked back. And he hadn’t done it.
What he had done was taken a bullet for Reece.
She looked back at her phone.
Jamey: Take care of him.
Grayson was following the trail from the airsoft course, and it seemed like Stensby’s path was twisted into that trail. It couldn’t be coincidence that the airsoft manager had gone after Reece the same night Stensby had lured Jamey out of town and Grayson was supposed to be across the country investigating the murder of Marie Pelletier—who hadn’t gone to Burlington at all, but was supposed to be in Prince Rupert, where Aisha was now headed.
Jamey ran a quick flight search from Seattle to Prince Rupert, scanning through the list with a frown. She should have realized her options would be slim; past Vancouver, the rugged network of mountainous islands that made up the British Columbia and southeast Alaskan coasts were vaster and wilder than most people realized, the towns smaller and more remote. Prince Rupert was a decent hub for the area, and you were still lucky to get one direct flight a day out of Vancouver.
After a moment, she texted Liam.
