Page 14 of Lovesick Titan

After setting the burners on low, Mal crossed the room to his computer desk. He pulled up the program from Priestly and searched the video footage for just after he left the apartment. As he did, the feeling that he wasn’t alone only grew stronger, insistent and infuriating. Then he heard a creak of the floor.

Mal dove to the right out of his desk chair, landing with a wince as his shoulder jammed downward but avoiding the lunge from Dunkirk as the man crashed into his computer desk.

R

“Hey,” Danny said, crouching down to be eye level with the boy and setting the box of donuts on the floor. He could see around the kid into his apartment, door left open, a TV on, the clear outline of a woman asleep on the sofa—his mother. “I don’t think your mom would be too happy about you going out to play while she’s napping. Wouldn’t she worry?”

The boy clutched his Prometheus doll in both hands and stared at his feet. “Not s’posed to talk to strangers.”

Danny smiled. “Good, that’s…a good rule. But I’m actually a friend of…well…his.” He pointed to the doll. The kid obviously knew who lived in his building. “I’m on my way to see him. My name’s Danny. Do you like playing villain?”

“He’s not avillain.” The boy’s eyes snapped up with fire in their depths. “He helps people!”

“Oh yeah?” Danny knew that now, but he wondered what insight this boy of no more than ten years old might have. “Have you seen him help people?”

“Yeah,” he said indignantly, a pout playing at his lips as he glared at Danny. “He helps my mom with the groceries sometimes. If they’re too heavy. And…and he chases off bad people from the neighborhood. And he saved us from my dad one time!”

The smile dropped from Danny’s face. “Why did he need to do that?”

“Coz. My dad’s not very nice. He hurt my mom. When she started getting big with my sister, she said he had to stop or he’d hurt the baby. So he started hurting me instead.”

Danny’s fists clenched at the thought of any father treating his family that way.

“But Mom said that was enough. So we ran away. We came here to stay at the shelter, but Dad followed us and…” He trailed, his eyes widening as though he finally realized just how much he was divulging to a stranger. “Are you really Mr. Winter’s friend?”

Mr. Winter.That was probably the name on the lease, like Mal had given at the coffee shop once. It was easy to let a little of Danny’s smile back in, for the boy’s sake. “I promise. Janey, from the bakery? She gave me these leftover donuts to give to him.” He tapped the top of the pink box on the floor. “We’ve known each other a long time now, me and…Mr. Winter. Tell me. What happened when your dad followed you to the shelter?”

R

Mal rolled away from the chair and sprang to his feet before Dunkirk had time to recover. He would have been faster any other week, but his reflexes were slowed from the injuries still healing after Ludgate.

Dunkirk pulled back from where he’d smashed into the computer. He wore a trench coat and ball cap in dull colors, likely a disguise to hide and watch Mal—watch the neighborhood, looking for Carla.

Mal’s stomach twisted as he wondered when he’d last checked on her. Had Dunkirk gotten to her first? Were she and Michael safe?

Swinging his hands up to blast the bastard with ice, his sluggish response meant that Dunkirk got exactly what he wanted, especially since Mal realized too late that he was carrying power dampening handcuffs.Shit. He slapped the cuffs on Mal’s wrists before even a light mist had been released. Then Dunkirk reached inside his jacket to pull a knife.

Unable to use his powers, Mal kept Dunkirk in his sights and started a slow backpedal. When Dunkirk charged, instead of fleeing, diving aside, or standing there to take the blow, Mal charged back at him, surprising the other man and ramming his shoulder into Dunkirk’s chest. Then he pulled his knee up into Dunkirk’s stomach, narrowly missing the first harried swing of the blade.

Dunkirk stumbled but squared his footing, a skilled hand-to-hand fighter who knew how to brawl with the best of them, and surged forward once more with a mad push at Mal. Despite the way Dunkirk hunched from the blow to his stomach, he slashed out with the knife again.

Turning only fast enough to take the brunt of the swipe with his arm, the knife cut deep into Mal’s tricep. He cringed from the pain but didn’t pause. Backing up, swift as he could, he watched Dunkirk for every tell he could decipher, debating his options—charge again, risk going for his amplifier, or wait. He had seconds to decide.

“Give it up already, ya damnfreak,” Dunkirk sneered at him.

Charge it is.

R

Danny could hardly believe the story the young boy—Michael—told him. And yet he also could. A tale of violence and sadness and terrible circumstance that had befallen a poor woman and her child—and her unborn child. All because one man thought himself in the right to beat them whenever he was angry or unhappy or justfelt like it.

Of course Cho brought them to the abuse shelter. Of course he went in guns blazing, with Helios and Gaia at his side. Of course he nearly froze Sean Dunkirk on the spot. Now Danny knew why Cho had been so adamant about knowing Dunkirk’s movements; he was worried the man would come after this boy and his mother again.

When they’d needed someone, anyone to have their backs, Cho had intervened and helped them find a new home where they could be safe.

“Thank you for telling me that, Michael. You better get back inside so your mom doesn’t worry when she wakes up, okay? Don’t make it harder on Mr. Winter to watch out for you. He can’t be everywhere all the time, so you have to be smart and help him out by protecting the ones you care about on your own. You watch over your mom while she sleeps. She’s gonna need your help when the baby comes, right?”

Michael looked down at his feet again. “Yeah, I know.”

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