“I’m not giving you his number. But I might consider giving him yours. Is that good enough?”
Over-dramatic sigh. “Maybe.”
“How did you find Avalanche?”
My attention snapped to Candice, face scrunching in confusion.
“You’re not spying for your dad are you?”
“Oh god no. Fuck that.” She looked horrified. “He’s an asshole. Sorry. He managed to get into my head enough as a kid that I ask cop questions. Forget I asked. Please.”
“What’s he like? Avalanche, I mean.”
What the fuck, Jessica? Since when are you Chatty McGee?
“Nice, I guess. He made Scarlett’s day so that’s good. Like I said, I don’t really know him. He’s nice to look at, though, that’s for sure.”
There was a murmur of agreement before Maddy—bless her—managed to change the subject. I mostly just listened while the girls talked shop. I could kind of follow along, but there was a reason I became a volunteer and not a doctor or a nurse—I didn’t do blood, or bones snapping, or anything like that.
I did have fun, though. It had been a few months since we’d all been able to get together and hang out like this. As much as I hated to admit that Amber was right…
Amber was right. I needed this.
It was the first time in two months that I hadn’t spent every waking moment thinking about Avalanche. Maybe with some more time and space I would get over it and move into something professional.
I just needed to get?—
My phone buzzed. My actual phone, not my villain burner. Every single person that would text or call me were in this room. What the fuck?
Unknown: We’re watching you.
I stared at the text with my eyebrows furrowed. What the flying fuck did that mean? I’d received some weird ass messages—that was why all my accounts were private. But this…
Unknown: You’ll be ours soon enough
Unknown: Not even he will be able to stop us
I blocked the contact but kept the text chain. I had no idea who the fuck thesewepeople were or whohewas, but I’d worry about that in the morning. I could call Weave and see if he could trace the texts. This didn’t feel like some nut job trying to scare me.
This felt like I managed to get myself into trouble.
Real trouble.
13
THE VILLAIN
I never should have toldanyone I had fun. I never should have given The Weaver her number or let her name be passed to any of the other villains. If I had known that every single moment—waking and not—of my life would be consumed with worrying about the silly little volunteer that tracked me down, I never would have walked into the hospital. I never would have met that little girl. And I certainly wouldn’t have let myself get sucked into Violet’s orbit.
She hadn’t answered a single one of my calls in eleven days. But she was talking to everyone else so I was trying to take a hint. I wasn’t doing very well. I spent most of my days in the bar with Eva before heading for the hospital to make sure Violet made it home okay. She hadn’t had a mugger go after her since she was arrested, but I still went, worried the one time I wasn’t there was the one time she’d need me.
I thought about knocking on her door a hundred times. I knew the second the words left my mouth they were stupid.I think you’re reading too much into it.What an asshole thing to say. A very untrue asshole thing to say. But I couldn’t tell her why I cared because this whole thing was dangerous enough. Spending as much time with her as I was, was a dumb thing to do. Catching feelings was an even more dumb thing to do.
Letting her push me away sucked though. Eva was talking to her every day, laughing over memes they sent each other. Every time she even mentioned Violet, I got grumpy. My sister wasn’t letting me hear the end of it.
It all came to a head earlier today when Violet called to invite her out for drinks, insisting she had to come. Eva told me she’d kill me if I she saw me there, even used my full name.
Matthew Austin Winters, I swear to god if I catch a glimpse of you I’ll string you up by your neck. Leave the poor girl alone.
