Page 33 of Lovesick Titan

“No, sir,” Danny frowned. It was too early in the day for him to even guess.

A sigh slipped from Shan’s lips as he slapped the folder down in front of Danny. “This.”

Peering at it, Danny saw no markings. It wasn’t a case file. Understanding that he was expected to open it, he slowly did so and felt sick the moment he saw what was inside.

It was a photograph. A still from security footage. From inside Mal’s apartment.

If it had been any other shot, any other time, Danny would have thought it was Ludgate who sent the picture. But this was from yesterday. This was of the exact moment when Mal had Danny pinned to the door, holding him tight and kissing him roughly while Danny clung desperately to him in return.

Mal had sent the photo. He’d kissed Danny just for this moment—to capture proof of Danny Grant harboring a felon.

“You’re suspended,” Shan’s voice broke into the haze of Danny’s downward spiral. “Pending investigation.”

Chapter8

It had to be something memorable, something Zeus wouldn’t be able to resist. Dom kept going on about how she was owed a painting, and Mal could provide—by hitting the main Olympus City Museum as a follow up to the failed attempt on the diamond. An anniversary of sorts, both of the mess with Ludgate, if Mal managed to pull this off Monday night, and of the first real encounter between Prometheus and Zeus almost a year ago.

Mal had broken into the museum to steal a priceless artifact, and Danny, for all his newly budding power and cute quips, hadn’t been able to stop him. Danny had made things fun from day one, more challenging, more interesting. Their banter was playful, never serious in those early days, never personal. But so much had changed in a year. In six months. In the past few weeks.

Mal worked furiously at the safe house worktable, old blueprints from that initial heist spread out before him. It was a risk to assume the museum hadn’t changed any of their security since then, but Mal didn’t care about anonymity. He wanted to be seen.

“Mickey?” Lucy’s voice broke into his intense focus.

“Ya called us?” Dom was with her. Good.

Mal had chosen the smallest of his safe houses for this because he didn’t need much planning; he needed speed and efficiency. Thankfully, he’d already been able to do away with the gauze around his hand, though the flecks of indents in his knuckles from the glass remained.

“Time to make up for what was denied you, Dom,” Mal said, barely glancing up from his work. “We’re striking while the mood ishot, just the way you like it. Have a seat. This one’s going to take some careful planning.”

No response came. When neither of them moved to take one of the other stools around the worktable, Mal looked up with impatience. He couldn’t take a break now; he needed them as focused as he was. But they stood across from him on the other side of the table, Lucy’s hip cocked and arms crossed; Dom wearing a potent frown.

“What?” Mal snapped. So he hadn’t slept much last night. So he was harried and rushed. He wasn’t being careless, he was being prudent. This couldn’t wait. Timing was the most important thing to make sure none of the wounds he’d inflicted healed. The photograph being delivered to Captain Shan was only step one. If he wanted Danny to really pay, then he couldn’t give him a moment’s reprieve.

“What’d he do to you?” Dom asked with a grim once-over of Mal’s hunched form.

No. Mal was not talking about this. He wasnevertalking about this. “I asked you here to help me with a heist. You want to help—stay. You want to waste time distracting me, I can do this myself.”

Looking down once more, he returned to the blueprints. If he wanted to avoid the police beating Zeus to the scene, the least amount of potential alarms was along the north wall, which would make getting to the paintings a bit of a trek, but they’d have their pick of them before making a grand exit to trip the alarms and get Danny to try to stop them during the escape plan.

Dom and Lucy still hadn’t moved.

“Things were going so well,” Lucy said, too sympathetic for Mal’s mood right now. “If that’s suddenly changed, Mickey, I want to know why. Dom won’t tell me shit about what she knows, so you better give mesomething.” The sharp impatience that entered her tone made Mal glance up. Her eyes were pitying through her frustration. “What happened? Tell us. Last I checked, you weren’t above admitting you’d fallen for Zeus, so what changed?”

Everything.

“Yeah, well Spark Plug wasn’t above bein’ anidiot,” Dom said, earning a scowl from Lucy as she glanced between them. “How much more of an idiot was he yesterday?”

Even if Mal wanted to confess the hurt to a willing ear, he didn’t want that to be Lucy, couldn’t bear to see her pitying him any morethan she already was, and it couldn’t be Dom. Dom would want to kill Danny for what he’d done. Too black and white about everything—if he hurts you, he dies. As much as Mal wanted to see the kid suffer, he didn’t want that.

“Doesn’t matter,” Mal said, firm and direct. Shaking off his urgency, he stared each of them down to make sure they understood. “Bad idea all around, just like you warned me, Dom. It’s over. This has nothing to do with that. Ludgate got the diamond and Zeus interrupted our fun getting the rest of the loot, so now we’re making up for it. Simple as that.”

“Bullshit,” Lucy said. “Something happened, and now you want to hurt him for hurting you. That doesn’t sound like anything’s over, Mickey. Just that you’re upset and not thinking enough to plan with a clear head. So if you want my help, you’re gonna have to tell me a helluva lot more.”

No. If Mal stopped to talk about it, to think about, he’d lose the momentum of his anger, and he wasn’t ready to face what lay beneath it. That’s why he hadn’t slept. Every time he closed his eyes, the grief started to choke him. The only way he could hold himself together was to push forward and break Danny down until all the power was his again. Until he won. Until he was back on top and couldn’t be toppled. Then the pain would get overshadowed by satisfaction and victory, and he could move on.

Mal turned to Dom. “You gonna help me or stand there?”

Lucy scoffed at being ignored.

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