Page 55 of Lovesick Titan

“He didn’t try to kill himselffor you,” Vaughn said. “He did it because he’s messed up about himself and what he’s worth. You wanna know when he was most okay lately? When the two of you were together, because he could be something with you that he couldn’t be with the rest of us.Unmasked. I didn’t get that until recently. We tried to be there for him, but you’re what he needed. And he still needs you. You’re not toxic, it’s just a toxic situation that got out of hand. And if it can’t be salvaged then it can’t be, but do you really not even want to try?”

What Mal wanted was to run for the door. He suddenly empathized with every time Danny had come to that conclusion, but he didn’t have the luxury of teleporting. “Danny’s said his piece. I told you I’m not gunning for him anymore.”

“He needs more than that. He needs your help. He’s still not fighting the IA case.”

“He’s been doing something,” Mal snapped. “He went around the neighborhood today making sure no one who knows his face talks to the police. Told…” He glanced at Lucy. “Told ourengineerto say he made those comms for Zeus instead of me. He’s covering his tracks to protect the people here, but that still helps him too.”

“Not enough,” Vaughn said. “There’s still the picture. That’s worse than the comms because it proves he knows where you are. They haven’t found anything else, but if they get a judge in a bad enough mood, as long as he refuses to give you up, he could still go to jail and he’ll never be a detective again.”

“So fix it,” Mal growled. “You have the ability to do that. Make the picture look fake.”

Vaughn shook his head. “I can’t go behind his back. There’s been too much of that lately. But you’re the one who sent the picture. You could—”

“If you’re expecting me to give myself up—”

“That’s not what I’m asking. Danny would never want that. But fixing this can’t come from me. He needs to know you forgive him. Then he’ll be able to let this go.”

Mal’s throat felt thick and closed up from staying tears. “And what if I don’t forgive him?”

“Then you’re an idiot,” Lucy said.

Mal turned a heated glare on her, but she didn’t look smug. Her smile was caring,loving,yet somehow that stung worse. “You’d take his side?”

“I’d take the side that means you get to be happy.” Reaching across the table around his neglected food, she took his hand. “Because yeah, that plan of his, it was a shitty thing to do, but he just wanted to get back at someone who’d hurt him. Someone he thought abandoned him and betrayed his trust. And then, despite all that, when he actually got to know you, learned the caring idiot older brother figure you are, who only risks people when he knows they’ll be okay and only ever killed someone who deserved it, he threw his plan out the window.

“You’ve missed each other and lied to each other and screamed at each other, but somewhere in there, the truth was in the nights you spent together. If he’d known you better before he thought up his plan, it never would have crossed his mind. If you’d realized sooner he wasn’t going to suddenly reveal a monster beneath his mask, you never would have retaliated the way you did. Not just from being angry. If that was the kind of man you were, I would have pushed you to the breaking point plenty when we were kids. And in present day,” she grinned as she gripped his hand tighter.

“He wasn’t in the right, Mickey, but neither were you. If you’re going to hold this over him when he just wants to make up for it and be the good person you always thought he was, aren’t you being the same hypocrite you believed of him? Because you don’t think you’re worth loving, but he does. And he doesn’t think he’s worth loving, but you love him anyway. If you could start over with all of this behind you, wouldn’t you want to?”

Mal tried to pull his hand back to wipe away the tears filling his eyes, but Lucy held firm. This was too bare, too open for her and Vaughn to witness of him, in public even if no one else was watching. But he couldn’t escape and he didn’t want to lie.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We had a good thing going. An understanding. A…rhythm. I’d trade today for last week in a heartbeat, but how could I ever trust him again?”

“How did he start to trust you?” Lucy said, both the little girl who’d always swayed him and the grown woman who amazed him every day. “Time. Experience. Just being with the real you for a while. I’d never tell you to give him another chance if I thought for one moment he would ever,everhurt you again. In fact, I’m pretty sure I still owe him a punch to the face on principle. Though it sounds like Dom covered that already.”

“Dom—” Mal’s eyes widened. “What?”

Lucy chuckled but Mal didn’t find it funny. He’d missed more about last night’s heist than he realized.

At last, his sister let his hand go. “Just think about it, Mickey, before you throw your happiness away.”

Mal couldn’t believe they’d done this here. In front ofVaughn. He pressed his thumb and index finger to his eyes to ward off any stray tears, and again he had to wonder, what had Danny done to him? But he knew the answer.

Danny made him feel wanted and worthwhile for being nothing more than what he was. With Danny, Mal could be unmasked too, and he didn’t want to lose that. He just didn’t think it was something he could ever have again.

“Ready for the bill?” Carla walked over to the table, setting down a simple container for Mal’s leftovers—leftovers he likely wouldn’t eat, but he imagined leaving them in the fridge anyway for reasons he couldn’t admit.

“Put it on my tab, Carla,” he said, staring at the box. Then he pulled on his best smile before looking up. “And whatever they have too. I’m heading out but these two still need to eat.”

Vaughn looked startled while Lucy smirked. They hadn’t meant this as a date, but they might as well have one.

“I’ll get an extra menu,” Carla said with a kinder smile for Vaughn before walking away again.

“Mickey…”

Mal stood from the booth, fingers dragging along the tabletop. With an elegant finesse, he swept the contents of his plate into the box. “I won’t promise anything, but I won’t let him go to jail for me, either.” Nodding once to a smiling Lucy, Mal turned and headed out the door.

Chapter14

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