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He looked down at the splattered blood on his arms. But those same splatters had faded away, revealing the illusion along with it.
He surged through the crowd of day commuters, pushing through them and ignoring their savage curses and angry shouts. He had to get on the train. The doors were closing when he alighted, barely fitting between the closing gap. His breath heaving and his brain spinning, he tried to make sense of the unexplainable.
Sienna had tricked him!
The train moved forward, almost sending a little old lady off her feet as she hobbled along the carriage aisle, her frail body hunched over a walking stick. He caught her arm and helped to balance her as he led her to the nearest seat, her silvery hair that was caught up in a bun outlining her bright blue eyes. “Thank you, kindly. You’re a true gentleman. May your life be blessed.”
He smiled and squeezed one of her crêpey hands. “You’re welcome, madam. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
He stalked down the aisle with its crowded seats, Sienna nowhere to be seen. Had she pulled another disappearing act? She wouldn’t have had time to disembark, she’d still been in her seat when he’d sprinted for the carriage.
There were three seats with empty spaces next to a single passenger. He frowned, his stare roving over the three single commuters. Wouldn’t any one of them notice if the woman beside them suddenly disappeared?
Not if she used mind control.
He rubbed a hand over his temple, fighting off a dull ache that might soon become a significant headache. Little wonder with the trauma he’d endured. He might have been an assassin a long time ago, but it didn’t make him heartless. Sienna’s faked death had affected him deeply.
He stalked back down the aisle, sliding into the first empty seat next to a middle-aged, balding man in his business suit. The man looked out the window, studiously avoiding eye contact or having to make small talk.
That was fine by Gray. He left the empty seat and strode past three more sets of seats and onto the next empty aisle seat. A young, blonde woman looked at him, her blue eyes opening wide as he nodded and took the vacant seat next to her.
Fuck.
He was running out of options.
“I love your tatts,” the blonde said with a glint of interest in her stare.
He looked down at his striated arms. “Thanks. They’re a...work in progress.”
“They’re perfect just exactly how they are,” she purred.
He smiled, not even a little bit interested in the blonde’s attentiveness. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he murmured abstractedly, before he took to the aisle again to claim the last empty seat farther down.
Not that there was a whole lot of seat to claim. An obese man, his belly hanging out of his too-small white T-shirt, took up three quarters of the double seat, his thick thighs spread apart so that few people would feel welcome or want to share the space.
Gray stopped, the train click-clacking in a gentle swaying rhythm. “Is this seat taken?”
The obese man looked up at him, his fleshy top lip curling. “Does it look empty to you?”
“Is that a rhetorical question or are you asking to be offended?”
The man’s jowls quivered. “Move along, mate, find another seat.”
Gray shrugged. “Sorry, no can do.”
He swung into the narrow space available on the seat and landed on warm, feminine thighs. A barely audible gasp, which wouldn’t be heard by any human, filled his ear.
Got you!
He immediately pushed back onto his feet and stood in the aisle, grateful that Sienna wasn’t fighting back or trying to kill him in front of all these humans. It was bad enough that she was still invisible to him and every other passenger, which meant he’d look like a crazy man talking to thin air. “You’re coming with me.”
Her breath huffed out, and the obese man shuffled way over to his side of the seat, his eyes bulging as he replied, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Gray looked at the other man, then lifted his hand and pressed a finger to his brow. “You don’t like my offer?” He snorted. “Would it help if I said I was diagnosed with mental issues?”
“It might explain some things,” the man said, pushing even further into the window seat.
Gray smirked as he reached for Sienna’s arm and drew her out of the seat and into the aisle with him, the obese man heaving out a relieved breath. Gray marched Sienna with him to the end of the carriage, then pushed through the single door into a small standing area where people entered and exited the carriage through nearby sliding doors.
