“Destruction or wall, it’s still permanent.”
But Alex only rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you exactly what I told Reece: It’s permanentfor all intents and purposes.”
Grayson shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“I can’t break it; no empath can,” said Alex. “The only one who could tear it down is you—but you never, ever will.” He leaned forward. “Don’t you see? Because to break it, you’d have towantto—and you’re no longer capable of feeling that emotion.”
Memories from that West Texas bunker rose, and Graysonlet them: standing in a cell with Alex, wiping blood off his face, the pain in his body still not a match for the pain in his heart.
Do it, Grayson had said to his brother.Whatever you need to do to make me stronger, do it. I will get us the fuck out of here, Alex, I swear it.
I don’t want to feel anything anymore anyway.
“You’re my brother,” Alex said more quietly. “I know I’m not the brother I used to be, but I wanted to get you out of that bunker. And maybe part of me thought giving you relief from the pain almost walked the edge of mercy.”
I don’t want to feel anything anymore anyway.
Alex would have heard that Grayson was telling the truth.
He shook his head, burying the memories, for now at least. “What do you need me to do about Charles Stone?”
“Find him.” Alex jumped up to his feet. “I know that slimy bastard is here, probably just outside the stadium where he’s safe, gloating that his plan worked. I’m worried that he might have found Reece.”
Grayson stilled.
“Stone will be ready to run, will probably have both his car and his helicopter waiting. Find him and stall him. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Who’swe?” Grayson asked.
But Alex was darting back up the stairs. Grayson had a choice: Chase upstairs after Alex and bring him into Stone Solutions with the other empaths, or do what Alex had asked of him and head downstairs to look for Charles Stone.
He didn’t hesitate, and a moment later he was running down the stairs, heading for the street level.
Chapter Thirty-Three
We could have labored for years and never engineered an empathy defense as effective as the Dead Man. A man without a heart, yes, but even more valuably, a man with no wants or desires of his own.
He has become a weapon who can never wish to be anything but a weapon.
—Two-year-old confidential memo from Stone Solutions to the Empath Initiative
Grayson sprinted down staircases and back to the main doors, darting out onto the sidewalk and the street where police cruisers and unmarked SUVs lined the curb. He hurried past them, rounding the corner, and ducked beyond a barrier, into a narrower street that looped around and under the raised expressway between the football and baseball stadiums. Here the street was blocked off, empty save for a grouping of vehicles by the loading door: three black SUVs, a black Maybach, and an unmarked van like the ones used by Stone Solutions’ Kirkland hospital. Around the vehicles stood eight or nine men in black gear from head to toe, their firearms in their hands, not their holsters.
As Grayson came up on the group, the backdoor of the Maybach opened.
“Ah, Evan!” Charles Stone stepped from the car. “I was just about to send a team to find you.”
But Grayson’s ears were picking up another voice from farther away.
“Let mego.”
His gaze went toward the parking garage and the street-level door. A moment later, four men emerged, dressed in the same head-to-toe gear as the other Stone Solutions responders, and between them they were frog-marching Reece out of the building and toward the vehicles.
“I think the three of us are long overdue for a conversation, don’t you?” Charles said, his tone conversational but with an unmistakable hint of menace underneath.
Grayson’s gaze stayed on Reece. He was a head shorter and at least a hundred pounds lighter than any of the men dragging him down the sidewalk, still wearing the oversized fleece pullover from the truck, his face flushed with anger and his sweaty hair sticking to his forehead.
“What I think,” Grayson said, eyes still on Reece, “is that your men should get their hands off Mr. Davies.”
