Draven helps me unload at checkout, but when I reach for my wallet, he insists on paying for the groceries. I try to fight him on it. Owing a villain doesn’t sit easy with me. But by the time I get my debit card out of my wallet, he’s already handed over the money.
A hundred and fifty dollars. In cash. Of course. We’re lying low. Under the radar. I stare at my debit card with horror. I almost messed everything up. I don’t think our visit to the lab raised any red flags last night, but there’s no guarantee the guards won’t mention it to Mr. Malone. No guarantee that he won’t start putting the pieces together and trace back through our digital trail. After all, my house didn’t get ransacked for nothing, and the last thing I need is for the heroes to know where I am or where I’ve been. Or worse, who I’ve been with.
Jeremy is adamant about leaving no tracks. Avoid cameras, keep cell phones powered off, and above all else, don’t pay with credit. I should know better.
“Thanks,” I mutter as we walk to the car.
Draven looks genuinely perplexed. “For what?”
“I almost ruined everything back there. I didn’t think about using cash.”
That’s not like me. I’m the planner, the one who thinks about every detail from every angle. The one who doesn’t make mistakes. But ever since Draven broke into the lab, ever since my life turned upside down, I seem to be making blunder after blunder.
It makes me feel like I don’t know myself anymore. Like this whole situation is turning me into someone I’m not.
Three days ago, I was an ordinary girl in a superhero world. It wasn’t ideal, but it was tolerable. It was normal. It made sense. Black was black, and white was white. Good was good, and bad was…bad. Villains were bad.
Now, everything is topsy-turvy. Nothing makes sense. And as for life being black and white? I feel like I’m drowning in a million shades of gray. Like the suits of the Ray-Ban brigade.
I don’t know what’s right anymore. How can I when I might be falling for a villain? And he might be falling right back?
But I have more important things to focus on right now. I have to find my mom. Stop them from torturing Deacon. Figure out how to stop what I’m beginning to think is an entire hero agenda—not just one project with one villain, but a massive program that spans decades, has had countless victims, and involves bugging the house of the League’s most prominent scientist and then kidnapping her. That’s a pretty big freaking agenda.
I don’t know how we’re going to do what we need to, or what’s going to happen after. Who knows. My whole life could fall apart completely. But I can’t stress about that now. There are too many other things at stake.
“Don’t worry about the debit card,” Draven tells me as he transfers the bags from the cart to the van. “You did fine.”
“No. I didn’t. If you hadn’t been here—”
“But I was.” He stops and looks me in the eye. “And I’m going to keep being here. I’ll save you from mistakes; you’ll save me from mistakes. That’s how this whole partner thing works.”
“Partners?” I repeat, rolling the word around on my tongue, trying to decide if I like the way it feels. Turns out I do—maybe too much.
“Partners,” he reiterates. “Unless you lock me in a refrigerator again. Then it’s every person for him or herself.”
“Are you still stuck on that?” I demand with a roll of my eyes. “I already told you, it was the most logical—”
“No.” He leans forward so his face is only inches from mine. His beautiful blue eyes glow with intensity and determination as he stares me down. “It really wasn’t.”
Eight hours ago—hell, eight minutes ago—I would have argued that point with him. Would have told him I only did what I needed to keep everybody safe.
But after everything that has happened, standing right here, right now, breathing the same air as him, working on the same side as him, it’s impossible for me to form any other thought. Impossible for me to do anything but stare at Draven and wonder what it would be like if he leaned forward just a little and—
I cut off the thought. I mean, seriously, what am I even thinking? That I want Draven to kiss me?
I flash back to the intensity when he said he didn’t like that guy looking at me. My heart beats faster. It gets harder to breathe.
A part of me is screaming that this is impossible. He’s a villain. He’s dangerous. He left me tied to a lab table. I can’t trust him. I just can’t. I shouldn’t…
Then again, I locked him in a refrigerator and he still wants to be partners. That has to count for something. Right?
I don’t know anymore. I focus on Draven’s lips and think about what it would be like to kiss him. He shakes his head as if he’s waking from a trance. Then he steps back and slams shut the back door of the van.
“Time to go,” he says.