Page 36 of Lovesick Titan

“I’ll tell you later. Just make sure there’s nothing they can use against us.”

He thought the hardest part would be coming clean to John as soon as he hung up. The sharp stare and tight purse to his father’s lipsas they drove, the purposeful silence waiting for Danny to justspeak. But what made it worse was that even after he explained, no tiptoeing around it—“The captain has a photograph of me kissing Malcolm Cho. We’ve been sleeping together for almost a month, and now they know I hid evidence for him”—John didn’t even yell, just sounded hurt and disappointed, which only made it worse.

Danny was so tired of being a disappointment to everyone.

“Once they prove that picture is authentic, even if they didn’t have other evidence, which they do, the second they close the investigation, they’re coming to arrest you,” John said as he shut the door behind them into the house with more force than necessary. “Four years jail time for felony harboring. Not to mention hiding evidence.”

Laying a hand on the back of the couch to steady himself, Danny slowly turning to face John. “Technically—”

“Oh give it a rest,” John shook his head. “It’s over, Danny. You can’t protect him or yourself. Why would you throw your life away to sleep with Malcolm Cho?”

Danny heard a familiar intake of breath from Stella before Joey’s voice followed it, “What?Whatabout Cho?”

He and Stella had just come out of the kitchen. Stella must have come over after Danny and John left. Of course they were both there. Of course they’d overheard. Of course everything had to erupt into the open before Danny could get a handle on how his life was unraveling.

Leaning against the back of the couch with his father at his right in front of the door and Joey and Stella walking in from the kitchen at his left, he felt surrounded and suffocated. “Why, Dad? Why would Isleepwith Malcolm Cho and risk losing my job?” Danny said, no longer caring about keeping secrets. His secrets had been laid bare and he was going to pay for each and every one of them.

“Because it felt good, that’s why. Becausehefelt so good.” Danny stared forward at nothing as he remembered the past several weeks and everything he’d lost. “Because I love him. Ilovehim. He was worth the risk, any risk. And I ruined everything.”

A moment of stunned silence passed before Stella said, “Cho’swho you’ve been seeing?”

“You knew about this?” John snapped.

She frowned at him but didn’t say more.

“When it started,” Danny kept his gaze unfocused, “I only slept with him to mess with him. To have a good time to distract myself from everything going wrong in my life, so I could get a good laugh out of throwing him away when he fell for me. He found out I was using him. I fellin lovewith him and changed my mind about hurting him like that, but now he knows it started as a lie and he hates me for it.”

“So he’s going to ruin your life?” John growled.

“I don’t care.” Danny pushed away from the sofa.

“Danny—”

“I don’t care!” He whirled on John, angry and ashamed and so exhausted. “How am I supposed to fight this, Dad? The picture he sent to the captain is real. I did stash that evidence. Not because he asked, but because I wanted to. To protect him. I know where he is, and I’m not going to tell them. I’m guilty.”

“You could still turn him over and save yourself.” John stepped forward. “If he sent that picture to Shan, then you don’t owe him anything.”

But I do.“He knows I’m Zeus. He’ll—”

“Why should they believe him? We can—”

“I’m not doing that, Dad. I’m not fighting this.” Shaking his head, Danny moved forward to the landing of the stairs and clung to the banister.

“You’re willing to go to jail for him?” John said with distaste on his tongue, but Mal wasn’t the one he should be cursing. Danny was the bad guy. Danny was the problem.

Every day he was a bigger and bigger danger to everyone. Even Joey had accepted Danny into his life, when Danny was the reason several times over that people needed saving. Now the same was true for Mal. And if Ludgate targeted Mal too...

Danny wished he could stay away from them. Wished he could disappear and save all of them the trouble he caused. Starting up the stairs, he kept John behind him and avoided Stella and Joey’s stares as he said, “Maybe I deserve it.”

“Danny…”

Ignoring the pleas that followed him as he bounded up to his room, he could have used his powers to jump away faster and lock his door to shut them all out, but he didn’t have the strength. Instead, he trudged upto his room slowly and went to sit amidst the tangled mess of covers on his unmade bed.

Before he’d had even a minute to sulk alone, a gentle knock came at his partially open door. Danny knew without looking up that it was Stella. Once again, he’d kept something from his best friend, not for her sake, but to protect himself.

He sat with his hands folded between his legs and stared at them as she crossed the room and sat beside him. She didn’t say anything for several moments, just reached over and placed her hand over his.

Danny didn’t feel like crying anymore. He didn’t feel like anything. But the touch of her hand and her presence at his hip still made him feel better. He didn’t deserve to feel better, and as that thought swirled through his mind, he almost pulled away.

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