Alex pushed his glasses up his nose, peering at the spreadsheet as he slid the bar along to show more data. Reece leaned closer.Suggested Approach, the next column was titled, and there was more writing in the box next to Jamey.
Leverage St. James’s enhanced strength and healing to prolong the process, potentially inducing a more powerful corruption in Davies—
“Jesus Christ,” Alex muttered. “Is this—”
“Suggestions for how to torment our loved ones to see how it would twist us?” Cora said. “Yes. And it goes into more detail in the next columns.”
“You’re fucking kidding.” Reece could barely hear himself over the ringing in his ears, could only just sense Alex’s and Cora’s matching rage over the fiery burning of his own skin. “Stone Solutions came up with this?”
“Maybe, or maybe these columns were added by Victor Nichols from Polaris,” Cora said in disgust. “Seems like his style.”
“And here’s my row.” Alex tapped the screen. “Whoever came up with this shit, they must’ve been compiling these ideas for a while, because the scientists at the bunker actually tried a couple of these suggestions on Evan—”
Reece shoved away from the table. He heard his name but ignored it, hastily retreating from the kitchen before his anger could escape and set off the new thrall—or worse, the neighbors. He scrambled down the hall into his bedroom and slammed the door shut for good measure.
They didn’t get their slimy hands on Jamey, he reminded himself as he leaned against the door, blood pressure so high he could barely think.Stone Solutions, Polaris, those creeps who had Alex in Texas—they didn’t hurt Jamey.
That was true.
But theyhadhurt Evan.
Fresh fury was coursing through him, fists clenched so tight they hurt. Reece forced himself to take a breath. Held it. Let it out, more slowly. Did the cycle again. And a third time, until the rage threatening to boil over had finally receded to a simmer.
He slid down, all the way, so he was sitting on the floor, his back against the door, still breathing slow and deep like therapy had taught him ages ago for his panic attacks. He would get himself under control. He would. Hehadto.
Corruption had a way of amplifying rage until it was clawing at his skin to get free.
He leaned his head back, resting it against the door, and closed his eyes. He just needed to get enough control over his anger to be sure he didn’t flip the neighborhood from HOA to MMA. Even he could handle that.
His phone chimed.
Don’t look do NOT look whatever that is it’s not going help you calm down—
Too late. Reece had already pulled out his phone.
“You have got to befucking kidding me.”
The words burst from him out loud as he stared at the picture Grayson had just sent: a photo clearly taken in the parking garage where Reece had sublet Liam’s studio apartment, of the studio’s assigned parking spot. And parked in that spot was Reece’s Smart car, the hatch up and the tailgate down so that the engine was clearly visible—thenewengine, which took up a sizeable chunk of the back of the car and had the wordHayabusaclearly stamped across it.
A text accompanied the picture.
Grayson:Since my rental is out of commission I got a new ride. What do you think?
Reece ground his teeth together and smashed out his response onto the keyboard.
Reece:What the FUCK have you done?
Two minutes went by, Reece’s blood pressure ticking up point by point as he stared at his car. Then another text popped up.
Grayson:Just a little upgrade.
Reece’s fingers flew over the keys.
Reece:You put one of the world’s fastest motorcycle engines in a SMART CAR. That is a mod people do because they CAN not because you SHOULD.
And I KNOW you didn’t think to upgrade the stock brakes along with it. Meaning you turned my car into a 300+ horsepower DEATH TRAP.
His phone chimed again immediately.
