Page 18 of Heart Stopping
Judging by the expression on her face, I hit my target right in the centre. There was no one she could talk to about the things she was doing. No one she could confide in who wouldn't run off to the cops in a heartbeat.
"You don't have to do this alone," I said softly. "We have the same goals. We want the same thing. Saving the world, one asshole at a time."
"Why?" she asked, her chin raised, eyes glittering in the light of streetlights and passing cars.
Why?" I frowned.
"Why do you do it?" She seemed to be caught right in the middle of backing away and giving in to her need to open up to someone. I couldn't tell which way she was leaning. I didn't think she knew either.
"Come to my place and I'll make you a coffee," I said, all sincerity now. "I'll tell you my story and you can decide if you want to tell me yours. If nothing else, you'll get a good cup of coffee. What do you say, love?"
She closed her eyes for a moment or two and exhaled slowly. "Fine. But only because I'm curious about you."
"Funny, I'm curious about you too," I said. And a lot of other things as well. This was about more than listening to her come, although that was a part of it. I'm only human after all.
"I'm sure you are," she said, her tone dry again. "Let's go then."
"Has anyone told you you're romantic?" I said, trying to keep a rein on my sarcasm.
"What could be more romantic than suggesting you try my pizza with special toppings on it?" she asked. "I wouldn't make that offer for anyone else."
"Does the aforementioned 'anyone else' know what they're eating?" I couldn't help asking.
She cast me a sidelong look that clearly said no, they didn't. "Shouldn't you be repulsed?"
"When you think about it, you're doing a service for the world," I said. "Save a pig, eat an asshole. And by asshole I mean…actually, both kinds." I slid a glance back her way.
"I figured you meant that," she said. "But you're right, I've probably saved a whole bunch of pigs."
"Do you eat…pork yourself?" Did I really want to know the answer to that?
"I'm not going to tell you all my secrets at once," she said.
"Right," I said slowly. "I'll tease them out one at a time as we go along."
We stepped out onto the street as a taxi cut off a car. When the light turned red, both drivers got out of their vehicles and started to yell at each other.
"Why don't you look where you're going?" one yelled.
"Fuck off, asshole!" the other yelled back. She dove back into her car as the light went green and drove off around the corner.
I loved this city.
"If only they knew, hmmm?" I smirked in their direction.
"They don't want to know," she said.
"That's the problem, isn't it?" I asked. "No one wants to know. Everyone is happy to look the other way when bad things happen."
"Not everyone," she said.
"No, not everyone," I agreed. "Not you and me. Not all heroes wear capes, right love?"
"I wouldn't call us heroes." She stepped over the contents of a spilled trashcan, grimacing at the contents.
"You're not squeamish, are you?" I teased.
"Of used diapers? Absolutely I am," she said. "They smell like they've been there for a week."
