Hunger finally drove Dani from the guest room. She tiptoed downstairs. Maybe she could grab some food while he was busy with something or other, and they could avoid the inevitable awkwardness. She’d spent most of the night tossing and turning, mentally castigating herself for taking advantage of Kevin. There could be nothing between them, for so many reasons. But in a moment of weakness she’d given in to desire. No, worse than that – need. Wanting something and not taking it, that was easy for her. But needing, no, she didn’t like that. Not one bit. Mostly because she couldn’t afford it. The longer she stayed in Point Sable, the more likely it was that she would be found. She didn’t want him caught in the crossfire of that kind of mess.
Kevin rounded the corner just as she approached the kitchen, causing them to nearly collide. She jumped back, looking everywhere but at him. So much for sneaking a bagel and slipped back upstairs.
“Good morning.” His voice was a caress she didn’t want to like. “Sleep okay?”
It was easy to lie while staring at a spot on the wall. “Yeah, you?”
“No.” He didn’t elaborate.
Damn it. Why the hell did she ask him? She skipped her gaze from the wall to his chest, thankfully covered by a soft green t-shirt, the floor and then a brief glimpse of his face. That was a mistake.
His vivid blue eyes burned with a greater intensity than usual. “Look.”
She threw up a hand. “No.”
“No what?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. There’s nothing to talk about. It was a thing that happened, and it was really great, sure, but there’s no sense in making too much of it.” Did she really say great out loud? It was the truth. Hell yeah, it was the truth, but maybe he didn’t need to know that.
He nodded and lowered his head. “I was going to go with amazing but great works too.” He gave her a sly look under his long lashes, full lips twitching slightly with a repressed smile.
Dani steeled herself against the temptation to cover those luscious lips with her own. “This is not a good idea. I mean, one time was okay, but, you know.” She stopped, because she didn’t know. Didn’t know what she was saying, or doing.
Kevin raised his head and drew in a deep breath. “We’re both adults. I knew the score. If you don’t want it to happen again, I’ll respect your decision.” He stepped to the right as if to pass her, getting oh so close but not touching. “Just know my bedroom door is open for as long as you’re here.” He paused, and the warmth of his body heat threatened her resolve. “Should you decide you do want it to happen again.”
She cast her eyes downward, staring at his hand which hung inches from her side. His fingers twitched and she knew he wanted to touch her. All she had to do was say something, turn her body toward his, make the slightest move that spoke of desire and he would have her against the wall in seconds. She blinked, and an image of him pinning her to the wall filled her vision.
But it brought up a tangle of emotions that she didn’t expect. Desire, yes – after last night, that was a given. Confusion and fear and even a little guilt mixed with it. Quickly the guilt bloomed into something bigger than the rest, bigger than everything else in her head. What right did she have to even a moment’s happiness? Dani moved away, unable to meet his eyes. She balled her hands into fists and made her way to the kitchen.
He didn’t follow.
After a quick breakfast she barely tasted, she returned to her room and dressed. She found her phone and opened it to check the hashtag but the battery had died, so she plugged it in and went in search of another device.
Kevin sat at his desk, reading something on the screen of his laptop. An open notebook sat by his elbow and he dangled a pen from one hand. She watched him for a long moment, unsure of how to approach him after so clearly rejecting him earlier. They were both adults, as he’d said himself. Maybe the best thing to do was just move on.
Besides, she needed a sounding board. “I think I might have really screwed up, showing those Russian girls’ pictures around so much.”
Kevin swiveled his chair around. “How do you figure?”
She shrugged. “Put too much attention on them, maybe. They’re already running scared. If they hear about some woman looking for them, they could just assume I work for the traffickers. Go even deeper underground.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Me neither.” She moved further into the room but didn’t sit. Too restless to be still. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“What do you want to do?”
“You know what I want. Stop the Russian. Help those girls.”
“You may have to make a choice. You don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t either. I’m as new to this whole sidekick thing as you are to the superhero thing.”
Dani threw her hands up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
“We need to look at the whole picture, and you need to decide what’s more important to you.” He rose and headed for the kitchen. “I’m going to make some coffee. Want some?”
“Yeah.” She was no hero, super or otherwise. He had to know that. “What would you choose?”
He answered without hesitating. “Find the girls and get them to safety.” He disappeared into the kitchen.
Her first instinct was to take out a killer. His was to help the people in danger. Sounded to Dani like that made Kevin more the heroic type.
Several minutes later he returned with two cups of coffee. He set his on the desk and picked up the notebook. “Bratva means brotherhood. It’s what Russian organized crime call themselves.”
“Brotherhood.” Dani snorted. “How fucking special.”
“They’re international, they’re into everything illegal you can imagine, they believe in loyalty, and they’re deadly.”
“I don’t suppose you have names and addresses, huh?”
“Nikolay Volodin. He owns a lot of property in Lincoln Heights. Been arrested on various charges but nothing sticks to him. What little I can find online suggests he’s the head of Point Sable’s Bratva.”
Dani sipped her coffee. “Still nothing on the guy I’m looking for?”
“Without a name, I don’t know what else to do other than the image search that already turned up nothing.”
“We need contacts in the South Side. I tried to make one but I screwed it up.” It might be worth it to approach Housecat again.
“I know someone who’s played poker in Lincoln Heights. Maybe he can get me into a game.”
Alarm focused Dani’s restless energy into a near-panic. “No. No, you can’t do that.”
“Sure I can.” Kevin grinned. “I’m a hell of a good poker player and I’ve got plenty of money to throw around.”
“You said it yourself, these people are deadly. You can’t take a risk like that.”
“Why not? Because I don’t have superpowers like you?”
“I don’t have superpowers. I have enhancements. It’s science, not.” She struggled for words. “It’s not mystical woo.”
Kevin placed his cup on the desk and came to stand less than a foot in front of her. “You may be enhanced, but it’s still a risk for you to do this.”
“Yeah, but it’s a bigger one for you. At least I got nothing to lose.” The words sounded pathetic to her ears but it was the truth. She had nothing. Nothing to lose, and maybe nothing to give. All those experiments to make her stronger, faster, alter her DNA and implant tech in her body and brain, even the training and education the lab had given her, and none of it had helped her figure out how to be a worthwhile person. None of it made up for the worst decision she’d ever made in her short, stupid life.
Dani blew out a breath and met his gaze. “The research you do is great. Giving me a place to stay, helping with a new ID. All of it. It’s way more than you should have done.”
“Dani.”
“No, let me finish. I may not know what I’m doing, but I do know that putting you in the path of Russian mobsters is wrong. Promise me you won’t do that.” She took his hand and squeezed. “Promise.”
Kevin raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, still rough and red from her last fight. “Keep it up and I’m going to start thinking you like me.”
“The food’s good here.” She pulled away, but took her time about it. “Have you checked the hashtag lately?”
“Feel the need to beat somebody up?” He gave her a teasing smile then retrieved his phone from the desk.
“You know how it is. Got an itch, might as well scratch it.”
He looked up from his phone, an unreadable look in his eyes. “Take a look at this.”
Dani hurried to his side and took the phone. He’d enlarged a tweet from a user named djhousecatmd – her new friend in Belmont, Housecat.
Hey #cabrinighost i got a girl wants to see u again. u know where.
Kevin said, “What’s that about?”
She told him about the club in Belmont and its owner.
“You think one of the girls from that night wound up with him?” Kevin took his phone back, his fingers sliding over hers in what felt like a deliberate caress.
“Either that or some kind of trap.”
“Let me go with you.”
“Hell no.”
“What if you need to get out of there in a hurry? I have a really fast car. I have more than one really fast car.”
Damn it. He had a point. She didn’t know Belmont like she knew Cabrini. As fast as she was, lack of knowledge like that would still be a disadvantage if she had to make a run for it. “Okay, but you’re not parking too close. And you’re keeping your ass in the car.”
He raised his hands, palms facing out. “My ass goes where you want it.”
Getting him further involved was a bad idea, for multiple reasons. But if he was sitting in his car in an alley in Belmont, waiting for her, then that meant he wouldn’t be doing something really stupid, like trying to get himself into a poker game with mobsters. Definitely the lesser of two evils. “We’ll head out at nightfall.”
“I’ll go find some clothes appropriate for a sidekick.”
“If you wear tights, I’m leaving you here.”
Kevin glared at her as he left the room.