Page 57 of Lovesick Titan

“Please. Like that’s ever stopped us before.”

“Stella.” Danny snatched her wrist before she could reach the exit and pulled her toward him. “I love you so much right now.”

She turned and had her arms around his neck before he realized how much he needed a hug. “I love you too. You’re my best friend, Danny. I’ll always love you. I’ll always need you in my life. And I’ll always be there when you need me. For every hard to confess truth and every terrifying horror movie I drag you to that means you’ll wake up at three in the morning and text me how much you hate me.”

Danny laughed because that had definitely happened more than once. He squeezed a little tighter before he let her go. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Though I am leaning toward horror movie. It’s the middle of the day. Can’t be too bad, right?”

Trailing after her as she headed out the door, Danny said again, “I love you. But you’re also a little evil.”

R

Hades threw the suit he’d stolen from Zeus across the mirror world, where it struck the side of a mirror looking into Pronto’s front windows and crumpled to the floor without a sound. All his preparation and Zeus had slipped out of his grasp at the last second.

He should have made his move Monday night, in Zeus’s bedroom while he was at his lowest. He’d considered it, but he thought he had more time, thought Zeus would crack further under the pressure, thought Prometheus would cut him out completely, but none of those things had happened. Zeus had gone around playing Good Samaritan yesterday, and Prometheus might have ruined everything with the stunt he’d just pulled.

Hades had ways around what Prometheus was trying to do—they weren’t getting out of this that easily—but the time for waiting for the right moment was over. Zeus was still weak, still vulnerable, even if the reflections in his home were off limits now like the ones at the precinct. He’d be easy to break, regardless of him having a few good days.

What Hades wanted now was to make sure Prometheus was broken too. He’d originally only planned to ruin Zeus, maybe kill Prometheus or get him thrown in jail after usurping his throne, but now this was personal with both of them. Hades was going to bring them to their knees.

Cracking his neck, he rolled his shoulders and took a breath as he reached down to retrieve the black Zeus suit—his treasure, as if it had been made especially for him. He could make this all work in his favor. Make it worse for them. Make them suffer, no matter how they tried to protect themselves or each other.

This city was his, and they were going to learn that the hard way.

R

It was 4PM when Danny and Stella got out of the movie, and while Stella had said she didn’t have to go back to work, Danny insisted. He had a message on his burner phone waiting for him. It was from John telling him that Captain Shan wanted him at the precinct ASAP, which had been sent twenty minutes ago while Danny’s phone was turned off for the movie. Great.

Smiling at him supportively, Stella didn’t try to convince him again that he should fight the investigation. The jig was probably up now. Maybe they’d found something else. Maybe IA had been led to the electronics shop in Mal’s neighborhood after all but everything had blown up in Danny’s face instead of deflecting onto Zeus. Maybe the picture of him and Mal kissing was all Shan and Internal Affairs needed to arrest him and they’d only asked him to come in politely to minimize a public scene.

Regardless, Danny didn’t feel hollow about it. He didn’t feel empty or numb. But he didn’t feel scared or angry either. Some of that peace had settled in his chest because he’d done everything he could to protect Mal, and maybe now Mal would finally believe Danny and find some peace for himself.

Shan must have done a good job of keeping things quiet about the investigation because no one who saw Danny walking through the precinct gave him any sideways glances, just smiled or went about their business. Then Danny passed Liu and Anderson, but while he expected cold stares, Lieutenant Liu offered him a small smile that was almost apologetic.

“Get in here, Grant. Close the door,” Shan ordered like he had the other day.

Danny complied without a word and moved to sit in the chair across from him. His cell phone, the comms, the photograph, they were all spread before Shan in numbered plastic bags. The nerves Danny hadn’t felt before surged up in him now. This was it. They didn’t need any more days to know that he was guilty.

“Here.” Shan picked up the bag with Danny’s phone in it and chucked it at him across the desk. “Hard enough getting a hold of you most days. You’re still suspended for the rest of the week without pay. But I expect you back to work on Monday.”

Danny’s eyes flashed up from the bag to look at Shan, whose expression was a cool mask. “Sir?”

“Can’t get out of something like this with zero punishment. You still misplaced evidence.”

“Misplaced? Sir—”

“But considering you did all of this to protectZeus,” Shan said pointedly, “the mayor is willing to be lenient. So don’t push your luck.”

“But sir,” Danny couldn’t this go, “what about the photograph? I never denied—”

“Are you listening to me, Grant?” Shan’s eye twitched with impatience. “We know everything. The comms led us right to him. Considering your father’s involvement with Zeus on several cases, it wasn’t a surprise to learn you’ve been helping him behind our backs, but enough is enough. Once the team finished authenticating the photograph, it wasn’t hard to figure out Ludgate was the one who doctored it.”

“Ludgate? You think…” Danny couldn’t form the words, couldn’t finish his thought because the picture had beenaltered, made to look fake, but by who? Andre? No. He’d promised he wouldn’t.

“The combination of footage from various sources is practically superhuman,” Shan said, picking up the photograph’s evidence bag next and tossing it toward Danny. “Would have to be a composite from Ludgate given what Zeus has told us of his abilities. We get it, Grant,” he said with a subtle shift of sympathy in his expression. “It’s over. Ludgate was trying to get you out of the picture for helping Zeus, and you couldn’t come clean without implicating Zeus yourself.”

No, that wasn’t what happened. But as Danny picked up the photograph to examine it, he could see the signs, the differences that proved the photograph was fake, even thoughthatwas what had been doctored. The job was flawless, such a perfect alteration that it still seemed believable as real but couldn’t be authenticated as anything but a forgery. If it hadn’t been Andre…

---