Page 81 of The Villain

“A romance?” Tera gets a happy smile as she watches me.

“I’m a carbon cutout for a henchman,” I shrug.

“No you aren’t,” she giggles. “You’re special.”

“Real special,” Trevor smirks and Max laughs.

Asher pops his neck. “It’s getting late, son. Time for bed.”

I check the time and nod. “Yeah. You should be in bed already, old man. Don’t forget to use that mint cream on your knees so you can get out of bed tomorrow.”

“Holy shit, he’s actually funny!” Max crows.

“Later, sis,” I laugh.

“Good luck, Shade!” She calls after me happily.

I make it into the parking lot to find a lot of bystanders hovering around.

“What’s going on?” I ask the first guy I see, wondering if I should wait for things to die down before I leave.

“I watched the whole thing,” the blond guy looks over at me with an oddly wide grin of delight. His aqua eyes are so bright they’re almost glowing. Good contacts.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yup! She enjoyed the whole thing. It’s nice to see people have fun at work, isn’t it?”

I smirk, “I guess so. What did the mystery woman do? Beat up someone?”

“No,” he leans closer to me, intently staring into my eyes. His smile never wavers, it keeps getting creepily wider. “Slashed tires. Totally destroyed car. Chef’s kiss, I approve.”

“Oh, shit.” I start chuckling before I can think better of it. The guy leans back with an approving nod.

“It’s good that you’re finally laughing about it. Try to have a good night, Human. You’ll be ok. The book is almost over.”

I turn back to him only to find him gone.

What a fucking weirdo.

“Shade!” Andi shrieks at the top of her lungs with rage.

My good mood drops as I race to her. When I see what she’s furious about it comes right back. I laugh so hard I have to brace my hands on my knees.

“Did you do this?” Ira asks in a deadly tone.

“Fuck,” I gasp in a breath.

“She didn’t,” Andi says with a pout. “Tell me she didn’t, Shade.”

“Guess you should have left her alone,” I choke out as I straighten. Chef’s kiss, indeed.

“And that one?” Brody jabs a finger to a car that’s been totaled. I suck in a breath with a wince at the distraught man screaming to his friends about the damage.

“Ouch. What did he do?” I mutter.

“Matthias wants to speak to her. I told him you would set something up,” Ira informs me.

“Over four tires,” I scoff. Can’t he see how fucking ridiculous that is?

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