Grayson held the phone, gaze on the screen and the image of Reece beaming at the camera in the bear hat. That empath was gone. Why was Grayson even holding on to the picture?
He opened Settings, his thumb stretching for Delete.
But instead of hitting it, his thumb slipped to the bottom of his screen, and he opened his text messages instead.
Grayson:Message received. Don’t bother coming over. I’ll find you.
He sent the text to Reece. He looked at the picture again for a moment, the dark hair visible as a fringe under the bearhat. He raised his gaze back to the window, and for a moment almost thought he saw a snowflake in the falling rain.
The twenty-second floor of Stone Solutions’ headquarters in Bellevue had once been Cedrick Stone’s personal CEO suite, with a large entertaining area, a corner office, a private staircase from the roof’s helipad and enviable views of Mount Rainier. After Alex Grayson’s break-in and arson, however, Vivian Marist had been forced to have an eighteenth-floor conference room converted into a temporary CEO’s office. With any luck, the board of directors would see fit to make her position as interim CEO more permanent, and she could remodel Cedrick’s office to her tastes.
So far they’d kept the head of security’s death out of the papers. It had to stay that way. No one could know that in this very building the night before, Stone Solutions had yet again been breached by the very empaths they were supposed to be protecting the public from.
No secret lasted forever. It was inevitable that someday the truth about empaths would leak. But when it did, Stone Solutions had to appear to be an impenetrable force capable of defending the innocent. Otherwise the public would look for another champion. And that would be terrible for share prices.
She stepped off the elevator and to her door. But as she opened it, she stopped short. Charles Stone was already there, pouring coffee into a Stone Solutions mug from the carafe that had been left for her on the mini-fridge.
And he wasn’t alone.
“Vivian!” A strikingly handsome man held out his hand to her, tall and broad-shouldered, with lovely deep brown eyes in a face that appeared sun-kissed but was likely the highest quality bronzer. He was in his early fifties, but if he was hiding gray in that thick, dark hair, it was expertly done.
What the hell was Lucien Braun doing here?
“Lucien.” Marist expertly smothered her shock as she shook Braun’s hand. “This is a surprise.” Her gaze darted pointedly to Charles.
“I simply had to share the good news,” Charles said as he handed the mug to Braun. “I realize we have some unexpected business to deal with this morning, but when does business ever go as expected?”
Marist did generally expect business to go without the murder of their head of security, but she forced a smile instead. “And what’s that?”
“It will be formally announced this afternoon that the governor has picked a replacement to fill Hannah Hathaway’s senate seat for the remainder of her term.” Charles gestured at Braun. “And we could not have asked for a better man.”
Marist froze.
“No one could ever replace Hannah,” Braun said, hand on his heart. “I just hope to serve the people of Washington how she would have wanted—particularly on matters of empathy.”
“He’ll be backing Hannah’s anti-empathy bill,” Charles said. “And of course, Stone Solutions will be backing Lucien.”
“I see,” Marist said delicately, her gaze going to Charles again. “Well, of course allies arevery important.”
Charles twitched, what would have been a wince on a man with less emotional control.
A too-loud ringtone, bright and perky, suddenly cut through the room. “That’s the governor now,” Braun said, glancing at his phone without turning off the ringer. “My apologies, is there a place I can take this?”
Charles pointed to the door that led to the small adjoining room that held Marist’s desk. Marist kept the irritation off her face as Braun disappeared into her temporary office. As soon as he’d shut the door, however, she snapped her gazeback to Charles and spoke in a heated whisper. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“Lucien is perfect for the job.” Charles wasn’t meeting her eyes. “Whip-smart, camera-ready and firmly on our team.”
Had Charles lost his mind? “He isn’t even a politician—”
“He’s more than ready for politics. He’s been our best lobbyist for a decade,” Charles said. “His law firm has gone international now; it’s one of the governor’s biggest donors.”
“But I bet American Minds Intact donates more,” Marist said pointedly.
Charles twitched again. That blow had struck home. “I realize Lucien has something of a reputation,” he said, clearing his throat. “And it’s natural to be concerned about that following him into the senate. But everyone has their vices, and really, when you look at the greater scheme of things, a fondness for beautiful women is quite forgivable—”
“Not to Beau Macy, it isn’t,” Marist said.Because Beau will never, ever forgive the man who had an affair with his wife, she didn’t have to add. Charles knew. They’d all been there at the raucous party where Stone Solutions’ preeminent lobbyist, Lucien Braun, and Beau Macy’s wife, Adele, had fucked the weekend away on Cedrick’s yacht.
“We cannot lose American Minds Intact, Charles,” Marist said. “And that means keeping the AMI president as an ally.”
