Page 34 of Forged in Flames (Made of Steel 2)

I rested my head against the vigilante's chest. He heard me scream. And he had stepped in immediately. I breathed in his cologne. "Where are you taking me?" I whispered.

"The only place I can keep a proper eye on you."

He's taking me to his secret lair.

Chapter 15

Sunday

"How much of that conversation did you hear?" I asked. I wasn't sure what the vigilante knew about my past. Don. The abuse. Any of it.

"Enough."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means your friend squandered his opportunity."

"Of what?"

The vigilante didn't reply.

"Of having me?"

"No, not of having you." His hands seemed to tighten around me. "Of deserving you, maybe. But that wasn't what I meant."

"I can walk, you know. I'm not injured."

He looked down at me. "I know. But you

're in shock."

I stared into his eyes. I wasn't really in shock. Honestly, I was used to lies. I was used to being in pain. Maybe he just wanted an excuse because he liked having me close to him. Maybe he was as insane as me. I heard a clanging noise and realized he was walking up a fire escape.

After several minutes of climbing, we stopped outside of a window. The vigilante reached out his hand and pressed some numbers into a keypad. There was a whirring noise as the window began to rise.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting. I had pictured him as a sort of Robin Hood superhero, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. That would mean he knew what living in poverty was like. His lair would be a rundown building in the slums of the city. But something like that wouldn't have a touchpad that operated a fancy door-like window.

He carried me into a room bathed in total darkness. The sound of his shoes on the floor was the only sound in the room. He slowly lowered me to my feet, in such a way that my arms stayed wrapped around his neck after my feet touched the ground. I breathed in his exhales. They were so much sweeter than oxygen. I was pretty sure I could live off of his breaths.

"Why are you doing all this for me?" I asked.

He pressed his forehead against mine. "I'm only here because of you. You created me."

"But what about the bank robbery? And the random muggings you stopped? That has nothing to do with me."

"Help yourself to anything in the kitchen," he said, ignoring me, as he let go of my waist and stepped back. "Athena. Lights on."

There was a clicking noise and suddenly I could see him again. I squinted my eyes at the blast of illumination.

I was still adjusting to the brightness when he added, "I'll be back soon."

"Where are you going?"

"I have to go back for Eli."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't get to interrogate him yet. Don't break anything while I'm gone."

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