Chapter Thirty-One
On the next episode of Love Versus Logic, an empath and an undercover operative must choose between their destinies and their passionate romance. Can they find a
way to be together? Or will they have to leave each other behind yet again?
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For most of his life, Reece had been drawn to the bustle of the city, the buzz of emotions from the countless people surrounding
him. But he’d spent plenty of time in Washington’s parks tagging along with nature-adoring Jamey, because her happiness when
hiking or camping had more than made up for the sweat and mosquitoes.
With his dead phone charging, he drew on those memories and the truck’s navigation pane to find his way east through the mountains,
away from the hidden laboratory until he picked up narrow, snow-buried roads meant for trailheads and campgrounds. Eventually
he connected with a bigger road that led to 101 and from there wound his way over to Bremerton.
Grayson furrowed his brow as they passed through the city center. “Are we heading to a ferry terminal?”
“I want nothing to do with I-5 after snow.” Reece brought the truck around the curve of the road and headed for the water. “This will take us straight downtown.”
“But—”
“And there’s food on the ferry. And coffee.”
“Oh.” Grayson settled against the seat. “Next time, lead with that.”
Despite the weather, the terminal was bustling with a good crowd of morning commuters on their way to Seattle, and Reece had
to pull the truck into a short line to buy tickets.
“And now I get to have a crisis of manners,” Grayson muttered as Reece finally rolled up to the ticketing booth. “I oughta
pay for the ticket and buy you breakfast, but you stole this truck from me, and I don’t have a wallet.”
“The mighty empath hunter, forced to rely on an empath.” Reece held up a credit card. “Oh, how the tables have turned.”
He lowered the truck window, then had to lean way out the window to reach the woman in the booth. She took the card and promptly
shut her own booth window.
Grayson raised an eyebrow. “I know that card’s not yours, sugar.”
“That’s sugar daddy to you. And don’t insult my manners.”
“Your manners are fooling around in the back seat, then buying your date ferry coffee with a stolen credit card?”
“Hey now,” Reece said. “I’m going to buy you food too.”
Grayson leaned forward, looking around Reece at the woman who was swiping the credit card. “Do I want to know whose name is
actually on that card?”
“Traynor’s.”
“You’re charging our ferry ride to Director Traynor? I shot him.”
“Yeah, but he tried to kill you first,” Reece said. “Twice.”
Grayson pursed his lips but sat back in the seat again.
A moment later, the booth’s window opened. Reece collected the card and drove forward, following the staff’s directions into a long row of vehicles as they were loaded onto the ferry’s car deck.
From there, they took the stairs up to the passenger deck and found the galley. As the ferry got underway, they bought a collection
of bakery items, protein bars and drinks, taking it all to one of the small booths.
While they worked their way through breakfast, Grayson was looking out the ferry windows. “I don’t remember the last time
I was on a ferry. How long’s the crossing?”
“Barely an hour.” Reece tilted his head, watching Grayson watch the ocean. Grayson had mentioned once that he used to love
camping. Did he even know that his eyes always seemed drawn to the view?
There were words that needed to be said between them, a what the fuck happens now conversation. But Reece didn’t say them, because his own gaze kept darting from Grayson to the other passengers.
It was so easy to thrall security in that laboratory, the voice in his head pointed out.
It had been. And it had felt good to finally let loose. But Reece didn’t need more thralls right now.
This ferry can hold two thousand people, and it’s more than half full. You could take your pick for your thralls on board.
Reece’s gaze wandered to a man in a suit, barking into his phone loud enough that everyone could hear his conversation as
he carried his coffee toward the lounge. Reece’s skin prickled, the black lighting crawling over him like electric centipedes.
That guy’s probably an asshole. You could start with him. Find a couple more.
Reece forced his eyes back to Grayson. He was still the Dead Man, and while he might accept that Reece had done what he’d had to do for a rescue, he’d probably be a lot less willing to let Reece walk off the Bremerton ferry with a new army of emotional slaves.
Evan’s touch doesn’t knock you out now.
He can’t stop you anymore.
Reece cleared his throat. “You want to go up to the top deck?”
“Outside?” Grayson glanced back at him. “It just snowed.”
“I could use the fresh air,” Reece said, and it wasn’t a lie, which probably said a lot about how much he needed to get some
distance from people, or maybe how much time he spent skulking indoors.
“Suit yourself,” Grayson muttered as they got to their feet.
The air at the top of the ferry was icy cold, but the view was unbeatable, and they were the only ones out on the deck. Reece
watched as Grayson’s gaze went to the waves of the sound, the distant green hills, the endless gray sky, and finally settled
on the distant Seattle skyline where it waited on the horizon. After a moment, Grayson leaned on the railing, gaze still on
Seattle. “So what’s our plan when we dock at the pier?”
Reece shrugged lightly, like he hadn’t been ruminating on that same question. “We’ll be right downtown. I could take the truck,
and you can walk off the ferry.”
“Or,” said Grayson, “you could give me back my truck, and I can drop you off somewhere.”
Reece side-eyed him. “And is that somewhere a corrupted empath prison?”
“I might settle for your secret empath lair.”
Reece scoffed. “Nice try. But if I were giving up the location of my secret empath lair, it’d be to take you prisoner. And I’d have the courtesy not to throw you in some dungeon; I’d just keep you chained naked to a bed.”
“I’m sure Alex would be thrilled with that,” Grayson said dryly.
That drew a huff from Reece, edged with something that was almost a laugh.
He leaned on the rail next to Grayson, close enough that their arms pressed together.
It was better up here. He could block out all sensations from other passengers, the crisp fresh air and the quiet settling the corruption enough he could ignore its hunger.
“We could go back to the studio apartment,” Reece said. “And I could try to fuck you over to the dark side.”
“I should not be tempted by that,” Grayson muttered. “Maybe I should try to fuck the bad out of you.”
Reece shivered as a frisson of desire went through him. “You’re more than welcome to try,” he said meaningfully. “And if at
first you don’t succeed, you can try and try again.”
Grayson snorted. He pressed his shoulder and arm more firmly against Reece and then didn’t pull away. “You cold?” Reece asked.
“Yeah,” Grayson said. “But you’re warm.”
They stood together at the rail, watching as Seattle came closer, sprawled out in front of them and getting bigger with every
passing minute.
Eventually Grayson nudged him. “I wouldn’t put you in a dungeon.”
Reece glanced up at him. “No?”
“No.” Grayson was still watching Seattle. “I mean, I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you. But then, I’ve never known what
to do with you, so why should that change now?”
The corner of Reece’s mouth turned up, but then the trace of a smile slipped off his face. “Nothing else has changed either.
We’re still enemies.”
Grayson turned his head toward him. “No chance of that changing?”
The black lightning sent warning sparks across Reece. “You’re the one who’s always believed corruption is permanent,” Reece pointed out. “And even if there somehow had been a trace of my pacifism left, I’m pretty sure it’s gone after my stunt in that laboratory.”
“You were saving me—”
“Next time I might not be,” Reece warned. “Corruption isn’t just a bad mood, Evan, and it’s got its hands on my throat—” He
broke it off with an angry shake of his head. “I’m dangerous to you and everyone else in Seattle. I don’t believe that’s going
to change—and I don’t believe you’re going to give up being the Dead Man.”
Grayson’s gaze darted to Seattle, then back to Reece. “No,” he admitted. “I’m not.”
Reece wrapped his hands around the railing, feeling the cold under his bare palms. “You’re an empath hunter. I’m a corrupted
empath. And we’re going to have to say goodbye, just like we always do.”
Grayson nodded slowly. They fell quiet again, the space between them filled with the rumble of the ferry’s engine. The air
was wet, the cold droplets occasionally dotting Reece’s face.
Grayson finally spoke. “Keep the truck for now. I’ll walk off the ferry.”
“I get the truck?” Reece frowned. “You heard me say I’m still corrupted, right? You’re not getting me mixed up with your Care
Bear again?”
“It’s not a mix-up.” Grayson folded his arms on the rail. “You keep telling me you’re not the same empath, but I don’t see
your dark side and your light side as separate. You’re Reece. All of you.” He turned his head toward Reece. “And I might have a bullet scar, but you gave up more than that for me. Maybe
you’re dangerous as hell now, but you’re never ever gonna hurt me.”
Reece tightened his hands on the railing.
Grayson shrugged. “So maybe we just need to tweak the name. Do you think Danger Bear has kind of a ring to it?”
Reece huffed again, and this time it sounded even more like a laugh. “Evan.”
“Beware Bear.”
“Evan.”
And Grayson leaned down just as Reece stretched up on his toes, and they were kissing at the ferry railing in the shadow of
Seattle, the skyline and their inevitable goodbye looming ahead of them.
Too soon, there was a chime that echoed through the ferry. “We will soon be arriving at Colman Dock, Pier 52. Drivers, please
make your way to your vehicles.”
Grayson pulled back just a bit. “Guess you should head to the truck,” he said, his words ghosting over Reece’s lips.