Page 73 of The Villain

“No, I came to tell you that I confirmed Athena’s story.” His jaw pulsed. “Her account hasn’t been accessed since the deposit; I have the recorded call where she asked the bank to freeze it because of suspicious activity and worried it was her almost ex-husband trying to stall the divorce.”

I tried to swallow but self-loathing swelled in my throat. Of course, Rob had told Ty to confirm the information. Like we all needed more proof that I was the fucking villain here.

“Yeah.” I stood. “Is that it? Because we have a lead I should be exploring.”

It was early-fucking-o’clock in the morning, but what the hell. Crime didn’t sleep. At least if I went to Ivans’s house this early, I wouldn’t be tempted to go back to my cabin and sit there and wait for her to wake up.

I grabbed my jacket off the back of the couch where I’d thrown it last night, my brain too scrambled to think about anything but her. The feel of her. The taste of her.God, I was so fucked.Like Lucifer imprisoned by Persephone in his own hell.

“No, it’s not.” He grabbed my arm, meeting my surprised stare. “I’m worried about you.”

My jaw locked. “Don’t be.”

Harm was the leader of our unit—the president of our Vigilante club—but there was something about Ty that was like a father to the rest of us. Maybe because he was a little bit older than the rest of us, or maybe it was this—the way he stepped in when the rest of us took something too far. Like his duty extended beyond justice, but to take care of the rest of us, too.

“Like I said, you’re failing at hiding your feelings for Athena in an impressive way at this point,” he rumbled and then lowered his voice. “You need to stop punishing yourself for Amira.”

“Dammit.” I pinched the bridge of my nose like I could cut off the memories. “How I feel about Athena has nothing to do with Amira—Athena knows about Amira. She knows…” Too late, I realized what I’d revealed.

“You told her?” He gaped at me.

Last night was the first time I’d spoken that story out loud since…since it happened. The guys—the unit knew what happened, and Rob knew because Harm had told her, but that was it. I’d never told anyone about Amira who hadn’t been there—been a part of the fallout—until Athena.

“I had to.” I brushed him off. “After the way I treated her, she needed to know why.”

“Bullshit.”

I fought to remain unfazed. “Why else would I tell her?”

“Because you care about her,” he said simply like it was just one more of his unbreakable facts.

“Of course, I do?—”

“Because you want her to care about you.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m trying to keep her away from me.”

“And you’re doing that by staying with her in your cabin into the middle of the night?”

Shit.I hissed out a breath. Of course, he saw. He saw everything.

“What do you want from me?” I said, my voice thick.

“For you to stop punishing yourself. Ryan would want it, too.”

“I’ll stop when you do the same. Just because you’re better at hiding it doesn’t mean I don’t see that we carry the same weight.” The words were out before I could stop them, but there was nothing I could do to take them back, no matter how the sudden wounded expression on his face made me want to.

Ty hadn’t only lost Ryan. After we came home, he’d signed on for one more mission with his oldest friend and mentor, and that mission had claimed his life, too.

Ty stepped in front of me. We were similarly built and matched in size, but there was an invisible weight to him—something that was both a shield and a weapon the way it protected him and wounded me.

“If I had someone who cared to fight for me—who gave me peace—I would,” he said, his voice low.

“She doesn’t—” I exhaled deeply and protested once more. “She doesn’t give me peace; she doesn’t even know who I am.”

His head lowered. “She might not know your full name, but you just told me she knows more about you than any of us.”

“No, she knows what you know.”

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