“But The Man,” Pelham said insistently, speaking the words as if they were a title. “Texting.”
Reece’s phone chimed. He pulled it out of his pocket.
Grayson:Pretty cocky coming from an empath who’s gonna wind up back in my handcuffs.
Reece’s lips pinched together. That arrogant dick—
Eton shouldered Pelham so hard he stumbled, just as the thirtysomething shopper started flipping clothes so aggressively they flew off the rack.
Keep it together, Reece snapped at himself, jamming the phone back in his pocket. He straightened up and turned toward the door. And as he did, his gaze went through the store windows, to the tall figure in jeans and a tan coat outside the coffeehouse on the sidewalk. The man was staring down the street, turned at an angle that hid his face, but there was absolutely no mistaking the all-too-familiar silhouette that Reece had once had under him and over him in the F-150’s back seat.
“Shit.”
Reece dove behind another rack, this one of neon-yellow hoodies, eyes wide and heart pounding.
“See?” Eton said. “The Man.”
“Next time saythe Dead Man.” Reece was already pulling out his phone. OfcourseGrayson was here at the board of directors meeting. Stone Solutions and AMI had an incestuous relationship, and the Dead Man was right in the middle of things. AndofcourseReece had fucking missed it, because corrupted empathy could figure out where Wayne Smith was likely to be, but a stolen moment in a truck hadn’t changed Grayson’s immunity to empathy.
And now he wasright fucking there, those same broad shoulders that had filled the cozy truck cab, the same strong body that had been less than an inch from Reece, all his to touch until even empath gloves and that Dead Man armor couldn’t hold back Evan’s physical desires—
Pelham abruptly pointed at the doorway. “Love!”
“What?” Reece followed Pelham’s gesture, and his eyes landed on a couple suddenly making out in the store’s doorway. He winced; no question which emotion he was projectingnow. “Son of a bitch.”
He pushed through the circular rack of hoodies and out the other side, not stopping until he was disappearing through a curtain at the back of the store. He ducked into a dressing room and slammed the wooden door, taking deep breaths as he smashed out a text message to Alex and Cora. This was fine; everything wasfine. He could handle this—
The dressing room door suddenly opened, revealing Eton. “The Man left.”
“Oh,” Reece said a little weakly. “Good—”
Eton suddenly made a snarling noise and turned away. A moment later there was a loud clattering, maybe the rack of clothes at the dressing rooms’ entrance, followed by several shouts.
Shit. The thralls were not doing well at all. And Grayson was literally overhead, at the board of directors meeting in the AMI offices on the sixteenth floor. If things in here got out of hand, he’d be part of the responding team.
His phone chimed again, two messages simultaneously.
Cora:Don’t take on the Dead Man alone.
Alex:Get out of there. Leave the thralls.
There was another shout, this time a woman, and the sound of shattering glass, like the thralls had broken the three-way mirror. Reece quickly darted out of the dressing room. Eton and Pelham were at the end of the hall of dressing room stalls, grappling with each other. Reece could run now, leave them here to cause chaos.
And murder, the little voice in his head said.Because they’re not going to stop at chaos. There will be murder.
A woman screamed, running out of her dressing room in an AMI T-shirt as Eton and Pelham crashed into it.
Reece didn’t care who died in here. He didn’t care—
But he was already moving. He slammed the dressing room door shut on Eton and Pelham, grabbing a chair meant for a waiting patron and jamming it up under the handle to keep them in there. At the same time, he reached through the tumult of emotions inside him for the fear he’d felt the first time he’d realized Evan Grayson was the Dead Man.
And as he strode through the curtained archway back into the store, he let it go on purpose.
Around him, the AMI erupted into chaos. People began to scream and stampede for the door, knocking down shelves and racks, leaving AMI merchandise shattered and trampled underfoot.
Reece grabbed a hoodie and an AMI-branded selfie stick off the floor as he joined the crowd, cutting through the cash wrap and out on the street. How long did he have until word of the chaos reached the AMI offices upstairs and they sent the response? Probably four, maybe five minutes, and then Grayson would be heading straight for Eton and Pelham.
Unless Reece could redirect him.
