Suddenly, all five elevators began to descend.
St. James swore as she and Grayson stumbled back, both cocking their guns and raising them.
The lobby was silent save for the hum of the moving elevators. Grayson watched the floors tick down as the elevatorspassed 10, then 5, then 2. Then the elevator doors were opening all at once.
“Get down!”
But St. James hadn’t needed to say it; Grayson was already at her side, both of them diving behind the receptionist’s desk as security guards poured out of the elevator with bellowing roars.
“I think we found the extra security. Some of them, at least.” St. James was on hands and knees, crawling around the side of their desk shelter to peer around the corner. “Jesus Christ. Are all of them thralled?”
Grayson chanced a look around the desk’s other side. Eight security guards were rampaging through the lobby like a uniform-clad wrecking ball. One guard yanked theProtect American Mindsposter right off the wall and swung it like a hammer into the nearest television, shattering the screen. Another guard sent a white leather chair smashing into the wall, while two more guards picked up the glass coffee table together, swung it back, and then launched it straight into the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
Grayson and St. James both ducked back behind the desk as the window shattered. “They’re going to find us.” St. James had her gun out in front of her. “Do we dive in?”
Grayson readied his own weapon. “On your mark.”
St. James nodded once. “Now.”
They burst out together from behind the desk. Eight heads turned in their direction, but Grayson and St. James had the advantage of surprise and clear minds. Two guards rushed straight for Grayson, but he was faster, blocking one with an elbow and landing a right cross punch to the other that sent him into the wall.
On his left, St. James had squared off with a man twice her weight, ducking an oncoming blow and following it up witha kick that put him on the ground hard enough Grayson heard his skull hit the tiles.“Evan.”
Grayson levered an oncoming guard over his shoulder and into the white leather chair behind him, then turned in her direction.
St. James had planted her foot on the guard’s chest. “Look at him.”
Grayson’s gaze went to the guard. Then he paused. Under the raging fury, there was a spark of clarity in the man’s eyes.
“Is he not actually thralled?” St. James was staring into the guard’s face. “Just pissed off?”
“Projection?” But over the din, Grayson heard more engines pulling into the parking lot.
St. James must have heard it too, her gaze going to the shattered windows. “The cavalry’s here.”
“It’ll be a SWAT team. Or three,” Grayson said.
“Come on then.” She was already running, leaving the guard on the floor. “We’ve got to find the empaths first.”
A different guard lunged after her. Grayson sent him staggering across the lobby and caught up to her.
But as they approached the elevator bank, he heard a sound from down the hall. “This way.” He sprinted in the direction of the noise, past the conference rooms, and burst through the door of the first-floor security room.
“Don’t shoot!”
Grayson drew up short, so suddenly that St. James bumped into him from behind.
A familiar-looking security guard was cowering under the desk, knees drawn to his chest. “Don’t shoot,” the guard said again, rocking back and forth. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, don’t shoot. Please. Please. I’m so scared. I’m so scared.”
It took Grayson a moment, but then he placed him: Wayne Smith, the head of security who’d once caught Reece in thedirector’s office in Research and Development, back when Reece had still been a violence-averse pacifist incapable of self-defense. He’d been rough with Reece, leaving him bruised and bleeding before shoving him in a storage closest.
Grayson had had some opinions about that. And while the pacifist empaths couldn’t hit back, the Dead Man sure could.
St. James moved past Grayson into the room. She crouched down, glancing at the lanyard around Smith’s neck. “Mr. Smith.” She gripped his shoulder. “Mr. Smith, what’s going on?”
Smith didn’t seem to hear her. “I’m so scared,” he whimpered. “So scared.”
Grayson joined her on the floor next to Smith. “This is the guard that roughed your brother up before.”
