Page 22 of Villainous Rise

Three months of pretending I didn’t care and telling myself I hated him, that he meant nothing and I’d moved on.

And all that time, he’d been there. Watching. Sending food when I was too exhausted to cook or remember to eat. Coffee when I’d been up all night with nightmares. Little comforts that had kept me going on my worst days.

The sob that tore from my throat sounded like it belonged to someone else. It was raw and broken. I pressed my hand against my mouth to muffle the sound, not wanting Dawn to wake up and find me like this.

What kind of game was he playing? What did he want from me?

Cipher thought he could just pull my strings from the shadows and watch me squirm. He loved his secrets. He loved being the one with all the power.

I wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hand. My phone sat on the floor where I had dropped it.

The deadline for my answer to Alliance PR was tomorrow morning. I didn’t need to wait that long.

Cipher wanted to play games. He wanted to blindside me at the arena, he wanted to be the one in control.

Let him see how it felt to lose that control.

Let him turn on the news and see me on the arm of a Hero.

My fingers stopped shaking as I typed out a single sentence and sent it to Havoc before my fear could stop me.

I’ll do the PR campaign with Valor.

Let him sit in the shadows and choke on the sight of me belonging to someone else.

CHAPTER 5

CIPHER

I leaned against the balcony railing, swirling the whiskey in my glass while scanning the crowd below. The ballroom sparkled with enough wealth and power to make any self-respecting League member salivate.

Retiring Nemeses always drew the elite. A reminder of what waited at the end of the rainbow if you played your cards right.

If I managed my new contract with Havoc exactly as I planned, this would all be for me eventually. A legendary Hero and his ultimate Villain taking a final bow while the cameras flashed and the syndication rights multiplied.

I had already secured the coveted Nemesis status. The ink was barely dry on the paperwork, but my trajectory to Arch Villain was officially locked in. I just had to survive Havoc’s particular brand of chaos and a history-making legacy was mine for the taking.

But I hadn’t planned on attending this specific circle jerk of mutual admiration until I’d spotted it on Havoc’s schedule. And where Havoc went, Annie followed.

I had fucked up by showing up at the Nexus. The look on Annie’s face when she’d seen me, like I’d personally reached into her chest and ripped out her heart all over again, hadn’t exactly suggested a warm welcome. Maybe I should have gone incognito like I’d initially considered.

No. Absolutely not. Fuck that.

I didn’t hide in shadows, except when I stalked Annie through security cameras, but that didn’t count. Surveillance was different from cowardice.

If I saw her in person, I would be fucking visible. I didn’t skulk.

My jaw clenched as I remembered Menace’s monumental screwup. The idiot had let it slip to Annie that I’d been the one sending her food. All that careful anonymity shot to hell because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut for five goddamn minutes.

Annie had skipped lunch today. Again. I’d sent her favorite sandwich from that little place on Seventh and she hadn’t touched it.

Fuck.

That’s exactly what I’d wanted to avoid. The food wasn’t supposed to be from me. It was just supposed to be there. No strings, no reminders of everything that had gone to shit between us.

I took a long swallow of my drink, enjoying the burn. I wish I didn’t like Menace so much. Then I could kill him without feeling bad about it. As it stood, I might actually miss his stupid fucking face if I did.

I drained my glass, signaling a server for another.