I kept watching him.
“Touch is important. I just don’t welcome it from everyone.”
I eyed him cautiously. “What? You’re fine with it from me now?”
He didn’t even think about it. “Yeah.”
Did he have to look so innocent? Why did this have to be when he had the least grumpy face on? I couldn’t trust this version of him.
I didn’t want to.
“One more question.”
He said nothing.
All righty then. “Just so that I know and don’t put my foot in my mouth. You said it was your family’s fault why you were grouchy. Will you tell me what happened?”
He didn’t want to tell me. I could see it on his face, but he settled back onto the floor in front of me, crossing those long legs. “My uncle and grandfather came by while you were gone buying your things.” Then he scowled. “I’m not going to get mad about you being nosy.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Why? Because you are too?”
That got his mouth to twitch just a little bit. “They’re on my case about making a decision I’ve been putting off.”
Dramaaa.
I’d watched way too much reality TV to not instantly be sucked into what he was saying and what he wasn’t. Plus, this was Trinity family business.Trinity business. I couldn’t believe it was even a thing, much less that I was here because… well, because somewhere down the line in my family tree, someone had once been like him. It still didn’t seem real, and I wasn’t sure it ever would.
“What do they want you to do?” I asked. “An environmental campaign?” I eyed him. “Smile in pictures?”
The look he gave me was exactly what I expected.
“They want you to be nice, don’t they?” I whispered, trying to antagonize him.
“You want to be number 21, don’t you?” he deadpanned.
I smiled at him just a little bit. “I’m number 20 now, no take backsies,” I told him with a straight face. “And I don’t know what they want you to do, but I know if it was really important, you would. Bitching and complaining the whole time, but you would. I guess it isn’t that important then, huh?”
Alex moved to lean against the dresser behind him and crossed his arms, his eyes briefly flicking lower than my face before going back up.
Did he just look at my boobs again?
“I’m considering retiring.”
Say what?
“After what happened in the fire….” His Adam’s apple bobbed, referring to the big fire that I’d heard about a dozen times already.
It had been this apartment fire that had gotten out of hand, and he hadn’t been able to save everyone unscathed. It had happened over a year ago. I had actually been in the same city that day. I had been checking my PO Box. Everyone had gotten out, but some people had gotten hurt in the process and the victims were trying to sue him, even though there wasn’t anything concrete to actually sue because no one knew their names. Except a very, very select few, from what I was starting to learn.
“I didn’t want to do this anymore. They made me take a break to think about it,” he told me, his voice level like it was no big deal.
But that was a fucking lie because I could feel his power rising from his skin, from him.
“I was just about to go on it… I was on my last duty… when I met you. I haven’t had time to think about it, and they want an answer,” he explained.
Well, that was a lot more information than I’d expected.
But he wasn’t done, and his power kept rising, pulsing like the Godzilla movies I’d watched, right before he laid radiation waste on another monster’s ass. “I know there was nothing else I could have done.” He tipped his face up toward the ceiling, and I watched him take a deep, deep breath that made his chest rise and suddenly fall. A totally unnecessary breath. “I can be replaced. I’m going to be eventually. I was never supposed to be one of the faces anyway.”
