“But we can get him back.” Alex held out the phone again. “There’s a reason I’m onEyes on Empathsthis morning.”
Reece took the phone. On-screen was an article dated that morning, titled in Gretel’s signature exuberant style.
BOD Meeting Moved to AMI—What’s Going On at Stone Solutions??
“So they had to move the board meeting to American Minds Intact because of our break-in?” Reece scanned the article. “But if the board is going to be at AMI—” his eyes closed, his corrupted empathy automatically leaping up to make connections for him “—then they’re going to want all the security they can find, just in case we show up again. Which means Smith, because a different man might stay home today to recover, but Smith is so derisive of the whole concept of empathy, he won’t even have it for himself. He’ll be there.”
He opened his eyes to see Alex and Cora nodding along. “He’s going to be tougher to get to now, though,” Cora said. “We’ll need a plan.”
The black lightning brought an answer. “Grand larceny,”Reece said. “AMI’s offices are in a high-rise, but there’s an AMI storefront at street level. Instead of trying to infiltrate a conference room on the upper floor, I bring Eton and Pelham to rob the store. Security comes down. I pick off Smith.”
“You saidI,notwe,” Alex pointed out.
“Because this is my fuckup,” Reece said more tightly. “I’m the one who left Smith un-thralled. I’m going to do it right this time.”
Cora and Alex exchanged a glance. “Eton and Pelham won’t do well away from Alex,” Cora pointed out. “Thralls have limited lives anyway, but the farther they are from the empath they’re devoted to, the faster they start deteriorating.”
“True,” Reece said lightly. “But maybe turning two deteriorating thralls loose in an AMI store sounds like a damn fine time.”
“Well, now I don’t want to miss it,” Alex said wryly.
“Come on,” Reece said, pleadingly. “You two keep looking for the warehouses and ships. I have a lot of practice fucking things up, but let me fix this.”
Alex and Cora exchanged another look. “Okay,” Cora said, sounding like it was against her better judgment. “But promise you’ll call us if Stone Solutions brings in the— Ugh. Speak of the devil.”
Reece followed her gaze up to the television. On-screen was an advertisement for Stone Solutions, children and puppies running in slow motion across a meadow with fake mountains generated in the background. Curved text scrolled over the screen:Protect our minds. Protect our future.
“This has got to be the fourth time this ad has played,” Alex said, sounding bored. “At least Gretel would never believe we can emotionally controldogs.”
Reece took a breath through his nose.
Alex glanced his way. “You’re good, right?”
Reece blew the breath out, too hard. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Uh-huh,” Alex said skeptically, sounding far too much like his brother. “You do remember if you project anger, there are thralls here now, and they’ll start fighting?”
“Iknow.” It was fine. Reece was fine. He’d grown up having his shows interrupted by worse Stone Solutions commercials than that. And maybe it never really stopped stinging, but he wasn’t that helpless pacifist anymore.
The on-screen text was still scrolling:A bill in Congress would mean safety measures around empathy: Tell your representatives that you support S.B. 1437.
Reece’s jaw tightened. On second thought, maybe he and his hair-trigger temper shouldn’t be watching this. Alex was going back to his phone and Cora’s gaze had returned to the laptop, so Reece took the moment to slip out of the kitchen, back to his room.
As he closed the door behind him, his eyes went to the phone that still sat on the nightstand. Before he’d realized what he was doing, he’d picked it up, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling up his last text message to Grayson.
Reece:Stop jerking off to your own hair and pay attention: I am not your Care Bear anymore. Don’t you get it, Evan? I’m the bad guy now.
Grayson had responded early that morning.
Grayson:If I were someone else, that threat might be scary.
Grayson:But I’m still the Dead Man. So maybe you’re the one who doesn’t get it, sugar, because handling bad empaths? Handling YOU? Kinda my whole job.
Reece’s fingers were already moving.You weren’t complaining when I handled YOU in the back of the truck—
Fuck, no, DELETE. Jesus. Reece threw the phone across the bed like the bad decision enabler it was.
Whatever treasonous cell in his unhinged brain that had always gleefully ignored common sense in favor of panting after Grayson had unfortunately survived corruption intact. But it didn’t matter, because Reece was going to ignore it. Going to put Stone Solutions and Grayson both firmly out of his mind and plan a robbery.
