Alex looked at Aisha, and it was like being sized up by a tiger deciding whether to eat you. But then he stepped back, away from the glass. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Cora,” Aisha said.
“Detective St. James is here and she’s almost reached this room,” Cora said to Alex, not looking at Aisha. “My last fight with her didn’t go well anyway; let her have these two.”
Aisha tried to sit up.“Cora!”
But Cora and Alex had disappeared.
The tires screeched as Reece pulled the truck up in front of the high-rise, drawing looks from Vancouver pedestrians just as Grayson came sprinting out the high-rise’s front doors. He jumped into the passenger seat and slammed the door so hard the truck rattled. “Drive, Reece.”
Reece was already pulling away from the curb and back into the thick throng of downtown traffic.
Grayson shifted in the seat. “Did you just forget to use your turn signal?”
“I didn’tforget.” Honks erupted as Reece cut across three lanes to take the first turn. “I have other priorities.”
Grayson’s eyebrows went up. “It’s the law in Canada too.”
“You came barreling out of that building running from two dozen pissed-off office lackeys caught in my anger projection! Getting you away from all of them is my only concern right now.”
Reece jammed his foot on the gas and darted through an opening in the traffic, missing a Skyline by inches as he whipped the truck into an alley. A minute later, they popped out onto the next street.
“Oh.” Grayson didn’t seem to know what to do with that. He sat back in the passenger seat, then immediately sat forward again. “Go straight at this light.”
“I know where I’m going,” said Reece. “Don’t backseat drive.”
“Howdo you know where you’re going?”
“I looked at the city maps last night while you were sleeping.”
Grayson turned to stare at him.
“It helps to be familiar with the roads when navigating a city.” Reece barreled through a red light, ignoring the fresh honks as he ran the tires up onto the sidewalk to cut around a line of cars waiting to valet at a hotel. “You can pay more attention to traffic.”
He took the next left, then reached down to the door. A moment later, there was a small chime.
“What did you just do to my truck?” Grayson said.
“Saved my seat position to your memory seats.” Reece glanced over to find Grayson still staring him down. “Don’t give me that look. I saved it to spot two.”
“Oh, spottwo, how considerate.”
“Hey now,” said Reece. “I think we can both agree that in this partnership, I own the sarcasm.”
“Yeah? I own thetruck.”
“Just think of how much easier this will be for all the times that I’ll be driving,” Reece said breezily, ignoring that. “But make sure you put it back in position one next time you drive, because I think you’re too tall to even get in the truck where I have it right now.”
Grayson sat back, then immediately sat forward again, shifting to put more weight on his left shoulder. “Are you still angry?”
“No.” Reece gave him a tentative smile. “I know the MPGs are bad, but damn, your truck is fun.”
“All right,” Grayson said, a little grudging. “Enjoy yourself.”
Reece took them out of town and onto the highway. They drove in silence for some time, Grayson on his phone, flipping through screens, texting who knew what to who knew who as the city flew by. Eventually, high-rises gave way to smaller buildings and ungodly expensive houses. On their left, the bay was a choppy dark gray under pale gray clouds, the mountains rising out of the ocean into snowcapped peaks.
They passed a sign for a hiking trail, and Grayson suddenly seemed to realize they’d left downtown well behind. “Where exactly are you going?”
