But his empathy was faster, on fire at the thought of touching Grayson, reaching for him, desperately wanting—
And then everything was black.
Alex huddled behind one of the couches in the Stone Solutions’ luxury box, Cora at his side. The other ten empaths were in a tight knot in the center of the room, some of them sniffling.
“I don’t understand why Stone Solutions would do this.” On the couch on the other side of Alex, Mireya Gomez was curled in a tight ball, her head in her hands and her face stained with tears. Dawson Jones was next to her, also looking crushed. “Why would they want to hurt anyone?”
Alex exchanged a covert glance with Cora. They’d kept their heads down during Charles Stone’s broadcast, but if Charles spent any time watching the camera, they’d be recognized.
They had to act.
“We still have our phones, and the spreadsheet of all these empaths from the flash drive,” Alex said under his breath. “The one with their trigger points.”
“We do,” Cora acknowledged. “What are you thinking?”
“Can you cut the camera?”
She nodded. Their captors hadn’t bothered to do anything complicated; they’d set up a webcam in the middle of the room and warned the empaths that if they cut the feed, they’d be forced to watch each other bleed.
The pacifists had been whimpering putty after that. Alex and Cora had added another tally to their list of reasons their captors were going to regret this night.
Keeping behind the furniture, Cora snuck across the room on hands and knees, and pulled the plug on the webcam.
As the red dot faded from view, Alex stood up and cleared his throat. “Hey, y’all,” he said, finding a sympathetic tone. “How are we doing?”
Dawson and Mireya exchanged a look with each other and the others. “Not very good.” Mireya sniffed. “You’re one of the two who joined us at the pulp mill, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” Alex palmed his phone. “I know this is bad. But I’m afraid things might get a lot worse.”
Dawson furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
Alex held up his phone. “I have a copy of a spreadsheet created by Stone Solutions,” he said quietly. “It has all of our names, and the names of our loved ones—and a plan for how to kill our loved ones in the most horrible way possible.”
The room went instantly, deathly silent.
Alex glanced at Cora. Her eyes were haunted, the way they always were when the loss of her fiancé hurt fresh.
“Cora and I have a story to tell you about Stone Solutions, and the people we loved most in the world,” Alex said. “It’s not a very nice story. But maybe if you hear the story, you can decide to protect the onesyoulove before the same thing happens to them.”
Wake up.
Come on.
Evan needs you.
Reece’s fingers twitched. That was the velvety warmth of skin and muscle under his hand, under his cheek and his body, with no clothes blocking the way. Grayson underneath him, heartbeat in his ear, his breaths gently rising and falling under Reece’s head. His arms were a soft weight on Reece’s back, their legs tangled together with one of his feet tucked under Grayson’s calf.
The voice in his head rose again, even more insistent.
Stay awake—
But before he could stop himself, Reece had spread his hand so that his whole palm and fingers rested flat on Grayson’s chest, as much contact as he could get. His empathy was already leaping from his control again, seeking, reaching.
And everything was—
Gray?
Reece’s eyes popped open. But he was seeing nothing but black with his eyes, nothing but gray with his empathy. Reece’s hand scrabbled against Grayson’s chest, like he could cling to the physical sensation of warmth under his palm and fingers as he spun through a night fog, gray over black, unconsciousness looming like a tidal wave—
