Page 23 of Villainous Intent

Annie was the first interesting person I’d met in years. I needed her personnel file. I needed to find the cracks in her pristine, rule-following armor so I could slide my fingers inside and pry her open.

Privacy was a privilege and Annie Bishop had just lost hers.

The command center thrummed with activity, screens flickering with feeds from around the city. One covered the Obsidian-Dread aftermath, the smoldering rubble still visible along with the telltale glint of cleanup crews working through the night. Chroma Bay, always healing just enough to bleed again.

“Number Fifteen,” I called out. “Status report.”

Number Fifteen straightened, his expression shifting to something resembling nervousness. “Sir, the Syndicate is requesting an urgent meeting regarding the, uh, Keeper incident.”

“What?” I froze mid-stride. “What Keeper incident?” I demanded, noticing that the operations floor had gone suspiciously quiet. Several henchmen hunched over their stations, looking focused on whatever they were pretending to do.

Number Fifteen tapped a few commands into his console and the main viewscreen shifted to a recording from the Super News Network.

My masked face filled the screen and the headline hit like a punch to the gut.

“VILLAIN TURNS HERO?”

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Number Fifteen’s fingers flew and the feed loaded.

It showed Annie falling and my stomach dropped right with her. I could hear the wind screaming past my ears as I’d lunged after her. The cameras shouldn’t have caught that. They shouldn’t have caught me.

Harry fucking Bronson, one of the damn personalities for the channel, came on the screen. “During today’s disastrous, rain-filled fight between Obsidian and Dread, even more sparks flew when fan favorite Villain, Cipher, appeared to save a female spectator.” Bronson had his stupid shit-eating grin on as he continued. “Cipher isn’t known for his heroics. Quite the opposite. I wonder if his ratings will take a harder hit than the building he saved the mystery woman from?”

The feed cut to the rooftop after I’d saved her, to my arms locking around her waist.

The camera had captured it all in high definition. The way her wet clothes clung to her skin, outlining the curve of her hip, the dip of her spine. The way her hands gripped my armor.

The footage zoomed in on my hand spread over her lower back, my fingers digging into the wet fabric, pressing her flush against me. It looked like I owned her.

I slammed my fist onto the console and the glass spiderwebbed under the impact.

“Who authorized these angles?”

“A civilian drone,” Number Nine said. “They sold the footage to SNN.”

The clip looped. My hand on her back. Her face turned up to mine. The rain plastering us together.

Millions of people had watch this. Millions of people were looking at the way her body molded to mine and consuming a moment that belonged only to me.

At least the footage froze just as my head dipped toward hers. The embrace was there, but the kiss remained unseen. If the world had seen the way she opened for me, the way she tasted like rain and ruin, I would have had to burn the news station to the ground.

My ratings ticker in the corner was fluctuating wildly. League segments plummeted but the civilian numbers were skyrocketing. The public loved the spectacle and were eating it up. They loved watching the monster catch the girl.

“Turn it off.”

The screen went black, but the image was burned into my retinas.

The League had strict rules about these things. Heroic acts were forbidden without proper motivation. You didn’t save civilians. You didn’t save Keepers.

And I had absolutely no villainous justification for catching Annie Bishop. Except for the fact that I had wanted to touch her and see if she was as soft as she looked. That wasn’t a justification the League would accept.

“Sir, the Syndicate call is coming through now.”

The main screen switched on and five hooded silhouettes appeared, back-lit to obscure any identifying features. The Syndicate in all their ominous glory.

“Cipher,” the central figure began, their voice distorted to an inhuman growl. “Would you care to explain why you’re trending as ‘Villain With a Heart’ across social platforms?”