Grayson:That truck title is still in MY name.
Grayson:And why would I trust you with MY truck when you were happy enough to leave Mr. Smith wrecked?
So theyhadfound Smith. Probably questioned him, maybe even learned a few things thanks to Reece leaving him un-thralled.That knowledge only stoked the anger in Reece’s chest as his fingers flew over the tiny phone keyboard.
Reece:Is that supposed to make me FEEL something? Guilt? Regret? Make me run crying back to you for help?
Reece:Don’t get me confused with the empath you thought you knew. Everything’s changed for me.
Reece:But YOU are exactly the same. You think you’re so untouchable, so unknowable, and your arrogance is your biggest weakness. I will run circles around you while you keep believing you’re too special to fail.
Reece’s phone went off again immediately.
Grayson:None of this is about me. I made you a promise: that there was nothing you could do that I couldn’t stop. And one thing hasn’t changed: I’m gonna keep that promise.
Reece’s eyes narrowed. Grayson and his promise could go straight to—
“Reece?” Alex had poked his head into the garage. “You still in here?”
Oh great. Reece could feel the telltale prickles of projection along his skin. Alex and Cora had probably felt his irritation with Grayson all the way in the house.
“Cora is having Eton and Pelham guard Traynor,” Alex said. “I mean, he’s not gonna wake up on that dose he’s on. But she’s nothing if not tactical,” he added admiringly.
Holt Traynor, the director of the Empath Initiative, wastheir “guest” at Owens’s house, sedated from medication they’d stolen when Alex had broken Cora out of the Polaris empath prison. Traynor had signed off on who knew how many empath experiments—maybe even the ones that had been run on Alex and Evan Grayson—and had once plotted with a still-missing scientist, Victor Nichols, to murder Evan.
At that thought, another flare of rage went through Reece. He forced it down. He should have let Traynor kill Grayson. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with the Dead Man now.
Like hell you should have, a voice in his head immediately said.No one touches Evan. THAT hasn’t fucking changed.
Reece closed his eyes, forcing himself to get control of his emotions. “I don’t know how you can stand letting Traynor live,” he confessed. “After what he did to you and your brother.”
Alex leaned on the door frame. “I don’t intend to let him live,” he said, no sound of a lie in his words. “But I think he’s still going to be useful. After all, Traynor can’t be the only one who signed off on what happened in that bunker. And he sure as hell didn’t predict how it went down.”
That was true. No one could have predicted that Alex would transform his brother into the perfect emotionless weapon against empaths.
“You’ve never explained how you made Evan the Dead Man.”
Reece hadn’t realized he was going to ask the question until it had left his lips.
The garage seemed to have gone extra quiet. Then Alex tilted his head. “No, I haven’t,” he acknowledged. “But surely it occurred to you that I haven’t told y’all for a reason?”
Reece frowned, trying to connect the dots. “Victor Nichols was trying to duplicate him,” he said slowly, in realization. “It’s all in that manual on that flash drive we stole, everything except what you actually did, because no one knows.”
“And it needs to stay secret,” Alex said. “The last thing we want is more Dead Men.”
Reece nodded slowly. “But can youundo it?” he asked, again before he’d meant to.
“No,” Alex said simply, without any hint of a lie’s discordance. “I can’t undo it, and neither could you. For all intents and purposes, Evan’s transformation is permanent.”
It was the truth.
“Speaking of that flash drive,” Alex said, “I think it’s got that whole list of other empaths on it. We should take a look.”
Reece cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he made himself say. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
Alex nodded and disappeared back into the house. Reece’s fingers had gone very tight on the phone.
He forced himself to take a calming breath. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that Grayson was permanently the Dead Man, that he would never have another emotion again. It was good, even. He and Grayson were enemies now, and they would stay that way.
