“Well, yes,” Charles admitted. “But you see, I take pride in correctly predicting the tides of public opinion, and I feel that Seattle may still need a little more nudging in the right direction.”
Lennox was pretty surethe right directionwas just another way to saysupporting the big anti-empathy senate bill, but he liked his paycheck enough to keep his mouth shut.
“I’m afraid Victor will need to wait one more day for the rest of his guests,” Charles went on. “He’ll understand that the weather simply doesn’t permit us to deliver them yet anyway.” He cleared his throat. “We will be moving them to a different location, however. Prepare the vehicles.”
“Yes, sir,” Lennox said. Whatever the boss man wanted.
Grayson had been right: Reece had found the maintenance vents comfortably big enough to fit him. He crawled the length of the old EI building on hands and knees, then kicked off the metal cover at the end and ducked out onto a landing in the fire stairs. He used Grayson’s flashlight to make his way down the stairs to the ground floor and the exit, his empathy on high alert for any sense of others’ emotions moving in his direction.
But as he stepped outside, he was still alone. Twilight was falling, giving him cover as he darted across the parking lot and into the trees, the jumble of emotions in the facility behindhim fading with distance as he hurried back to the truck he’d carefully parked offroad, where it wouldn’t be seen.
He levered himself up into the truck and slammed the door, then blew out a breath.
That had been easy.
He went to start the engine, then paused.
That had beentooeasy.
He sat back against the driver’s seat, gaze going out the windshield to the darkening trees. More than two dozen people arriving together, all of them itching for a fight, and yet none of them had chased him? None of them were following, none searching the grounds?
No. There was a much more likely explanation.
Reece had never been the target.
He put a hand over his mouth, where his lips still tingled from their brush with Grayson’s.
You have to get out of here, Grayson had said.
Whatever Grayson had heard, he’d thought it meant danger to Reece. Reece had assumed that meant the newcomers were from Stone Solutions.
But if Reece hadn’t been the target, then maybe it wasn’t Stone Solutions that had arrived. But then who had Grayson heard—
Do you want to be a lab rat?
Reece’s eyes widened.
Not Stone Solutions.
Polaris.
And ifReecehadn’t been their target—
You know something you ought to tell me?Grayson had asked.
Aw, baby, Reece had said.You really got to accept that I’m never gonna tell you shit.
Son of a bitch.
Reece was scrambling back down from the truck before he’d realized he was moving.
What are you doing?some part of him screamed.You know what Nichols is capable of. You have to get out of here.
Reece was already back in the tree line, gaze on the parking lot as he scurried along the edge. He could feel the people again, little suns of emotion up ahead.
Grayson hadn’t known what Reece was talking about when he mentioned the maps in Traynor’s office. If Polaris hadn’t come for Reece, if Grayson had been the target all along, then maybe someone else had put them there, to lure him to Port Angeles.
And Grayson had had no idea he was in danger because Reece had refused to talk to him.
