Page 14 of Villainous Rise

I took the tablet and scanned the document with growing horror. My eyes caught phrases like “romantic interest angle” and “public courtship narrative” and “leveraging Bishop’s appeal as the human element.”

The tablet nearly slipped from my suddenly numb fingers.

“No. Absolutely not.”

They wanted me to be Valor’s handler for the press, but they also wanted me to pretend to date him. To be his arm candy. His human accessory. Complete with staged public appearances and “candid” photos of us gazing adoringly at each other. There were actual specifications for how close I needed to stand to him during photo opportunities.

“No,” I repeated, stronger this time. “I’d rather eat glass. Radioactive glass. While being set on fire.”

I thrust the tablet back at Havoc and looked around my office. It was the perfect cage I’d mistaken for safety. I’d spent years living by Alliance rules, clinging to their structure because I thought it would protect me from the Halcyons and Ciphers of the world.

But the rules I worshipped were just bars on my cage.

“You can’t possibly be okay with this.” My voice cracked.

I shoved up from my chair and paced the small confines of my office, bumping into the edge of my desk and barely feeling it. The pain seemed distant compared to the hot ball of panic expanding within me.

“It’s not my decision, Annie.” Havoc’s voice was uncharacteristically gentle. “The Aegis decided it. PR thinks Valor needs humanizing, and you’re...”

“Expendable? Convenient?” I laughed, but it was humorless. “Why me?” The absurdity of the situation made my head spin. “There are dozens of Keepers who would kill for this assignment. Give him someone who actually wants to be on camera. Someone who will happily soak up his golden glow and bat their eyelashes for the press.”

“You have natural defenses,” Havoc said quietly. His eyes flicked to the metal cuff on my wrist before meeting my gaze again. “His persuasion powers would make anyone else compliant and they’d end up worshipping him by the end of the first day. The Aegis knows you are the only person, except maybe me, who can stand next to him all day and remain completely unaffected by his powers.”

“I won’t do it.” I crossed my arms, my nails digging half-moons into my biceps. “I’m a Keeper, not a prop for some overgrown man child with an ego problem. I didn’t spend years training to be arm candy for the Alliance’s newest PR project.”

For just a moment, Havoc’s expression slipped, and I caught a glimpse of the same outrage I was feeling. He looked like he wanted to blast something into oblivion—preferably whoever had come up with this plan. But then he took a deep breath.

“You did it for Cipher,” Havoc said quietly. “Alliance PR was impressed with how you handled yourself at his side. They thought the optics worked well.”

“That was different and you know it.”

“It wasn’t that different. You were looking for a rogue, but he needed you for the hit his ratings took with the Syndicate when he saved you.”

“But I wasn’t his girlfriend! I -,” I bit back the words that almost tumbled out. What would be the professional term for ‘fuck toy’? Personal entertainment system? Disposable emotional outlet?

I shook my head.

“What exactly does Alliance PR think they saw when I was with him in public?” I asked, genuinely curious about what delusion they were operating under. “Because Cipher and I didn’t exactly have the type of relationship on camera that the Alliance would want for one of their Heroes.”

“They saw what they wanted to see, Annie, a Villain showing his human side.”

“That’s not what the public saw it as and you know it,” I said but the fight was draining out of me. The day had already been too long and I didn’t have the bandwidth for this level of fuckery. “The thing with Cipher was completely different and at least I had the benefit of anonymity. This is asking me to degrade myself, my actual self, professionally. To pretend to be romantically involved with a colleague I’m supposed to be managing.”

I stared at Havoc, my heart pounding with a mixture of anger and disbelief.

“Is this my fucking career now?” I finally asked. “Posing as a girlfriend for ratings? Because no. I’m a goddamn Keeper, Havoc. I deserve better than that.”

A sharp knock interrupted my spiral into career despair. The door opened to reveal a courier in the Tower’s blue and gold uniform, holding a large paper bag that smelled like heaven if heaven were made of garlic and butter.

“Food delivery for Ms. Bishop.”

I accepted the bag, peeking inside to find containers of pasta from Marcello’s, my favorite comfort food spot downtown.

I set the bag on my desk, the aroma of garlic and cheese momentarily distracting me from my impending career doom. “Is this your way of softening the blow? ‘Sorry you have to pretend to date a walking shampoo commercial, here’s some carbs to cry into?’”

Havoc frowned, his silver eyebrows drawing together. “I didn’t order this.”

“Simmons, then?” I pulled out a container of fettuccine alfredo still hot enough to fog the plastic lid.