“Watch a lot of porn, do we?”
“God, no.” She snorted, stepping out of the way. “Much prefer to read it. I can picture the main characters however I like. Sometimes I see myself and sometimes I just like to watch.”
It took everything in me not to let out a tortured groan and shift as my pants become uncomfortably tight. It was like she could tell because a smirk grew on her face.
“It’s nice to be able to picture the love interest as whoever I want.” Her eyes trailed over me slowly. “Anyway, shall we get to work?”
“That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?” Did my voice sound normal? Fuck I hoped so. I couldn’t remember why I was here; my mind was too busy assaulting me with visions of Violet on her knees with my hands tangled in her hair, putting her wicked mouth to good use.
Not good.
She grinned. “Cool, I’ll grab plates.”
We spentthe rest of the afternoon going back and forth. She wanted something that wasn’t easily crackable, and I wanted something super complicated so she’d have to reach out to me—often. I came up with something in the middle but I didn’t share it yet. I wanted the excuse to keep all her attention on me. We spent the next two weeks meeting almost every day. I would have gone longer, but by the end of week two, she had over twenty phone numbers.
Half of them were people I’d never spoken to in my life. Her name and reputation were spreading like wildfire. I didn’t think it would when I gave Weave her information. Sure, I had fun. But I didn’t think so many of the other villains would want to spend their free time with dying children.
Then he spent two hours at the hospital on 56thwith one of the older patients. She was sixteen, battling leukemia, and she was ahugefan of him.
When Violet mentioned he was visiting, I made it my business to be there. I didn’t think he was a threat, but I was worried the police might do something stupid—like trying to raid a hospital full of sick kids and get someone killed.
They tried. An Emergency Response Team—better known as ERT—showed up in tactical gear with their semiautomatic guns ready to storm the hospital. Violet hit the panic button that locked every door and window except the emergency room door. Then she stood in front of the entire ERT squad and told them to take their guns and shove it.
The captain had gotten right in her face trying to intimidate her but my girl didn’t scare easy. (Not your girl. Someone you barely know.Again, semantics.)
“Over my dead fucking body,” she’d said.
“You kiss your momma with that mouth?”
If she had looked at me the way she looked at the captain, I would have been scared for my life. Murderous, like she was a second from snapping his neck.
“Get. Out.”
And he did.
A week later, Hemlock visited 65th. You bet your ass I was there for that one. I wasn’t letting that poison weasel anywhere near her without supervision.
The same captain came storming through the emergency room doors, demanding she let him pass. She held her ground again. No matter how much he leered and threatened, she just kept telling him to shove it.
My favourite was her closing line.
“Look, dude, you barge in here with your guns not taking no for an answer so how about this? I’ll take your gun and fuck you with it, then I’ll let you pass. I promise I won’t pull the trigger but, you know, sometimes accidents happen. No? Oh come on, it’ll will only hurt a little and you probably won’t die.” She paused as he turned an unnatural shade of red. “You hear how dumb that sounds right? Good. Get lost.” She gave him a fake smile and waved as he stormed right back out.
That was the moment I knew it was more than curiosity. I was falling—hard.
By the beginning of November, she had forty-five villains contact her. Her reputation spread farther and farther, reaching other cities, even other countries. Every new person was another stress for me.
I thought the circle would stay small; I thought it would be easy to protect her. But she was getting more and more attention. Not just from the villains but from the police and media outlets too. Everyone was talking about her.
Weave set her up with an encrypted burner phone like the rest of us had. He went to her apartment on a regular basis to do bug sweeps. I thought he was being overly paranoid, but he found one after Hemlock’s hospital visit.
Eva was giving me more and more shit. I wasn’t sleeping, I was barely eating, and I certainly wasn’t focused on the plan or the list. I was too busy worrying about Violet being targeted, kidnapped, or killed.
It didn’t help that she was jumped by an attempted mugger nearly every night. After the incident with Arthur, I’d been walking her home as much as possible. Sometimes I missed her coming out of the hospital and caught her along her route; other times I missed her completely and ended up stumbling across her as she was taking out her would-be-assailant.
She teased me every walk.
“What’s the point of walking with me if I just get jumped anyway. You never even help.”
