He was angry on a scale he couldn’t understand, and that was the point of his silent treatment. He had to figure out why it made him want to destroy the walls with his bare hands at the thought. The Vigilante was the biggest secret in town. He was bound to be surprised to discover his identity. Or more accurately, her identity.
“Slow down, Luke. Your head is bleeding again.”
What he thought was sweat from the simple effort of walking turned out to be blood. Head wounds were tricky, but he was quite certain this was only a minor gash. Good thing, as it was evident there wasn’t a chance in hell anyone would come looking for them.
For the first time since he’d started walking, he discreetly glanced at Sloane. He wasn’t the only one in bad shape. There was a bruise blossoming on her cheekbone, and she was holding her middle, her breathing still labored.
“If you need to rest, say so. Don’t put it on me.”
Blue bruises shone brightly in the dim light, and she clenched her jaw for a second before she spoke again. “I think we both need to rest a minute. And think about our next move.”
Another surprise, a point they could both agree on. Luke carefully lowered himself to the ground as Sloane used the wall in front of him to slide herself down.
He was sweating abundantly now, but even if he dreamed of ditching the smelly coat, he preferred to keep his temperature up. Another effect of blood loss was thirst, but he couldn’t focus on that, not now. He needed to divert all his energies to his brain cells.
“There’s less dust here, more air.”
Luke looked around, although there wasn’t much he could see past the flashlight’s beam. “We should be approaching an air vent.” He wiped at his forehead and didn’t have to look to know his hand came away covered in blood.
Without a word, Sloane unfastened her suit. It was more complex than it appeared, and from the way it covered her body, he now better understood how he could’ve been fooled. The pieces were assembled to make her appear bulkier than in reality, drawing attention away from her chest and more to her shoulders. Only her height could’ve been a sign, but not all men were six-feet tall. Combine everything with speed and shadows, and there was no way to know if it was a man or woman.
With the top layer of her suit opened, she took a blade from her boot, deftly cutting off the bottom half of what seemed like a gray sports top before handing him the piece of fabric. “I would help you put it on, but you don’t seem to want me near you for the time being.”
As she settled back, with her bare midriff showing, his eyes lingered on the soft expanse of skin revealing a wealth of bruises. The woman was contradiction incarnated, and he suspected he didn’t know the half of it, though he was smart enough not to toss back the makeshift bandage and used it to cover his gash.
In the meantime, Sloane had slid the blade back in place and leaned against the wall, her eyes closing. Pale as she was, she almost glowed against the dark background, her hair forming a halo of color around her head and down her shoulders. He remembered how she felt under his hands, soft but hard, yielding but strong, all at the same time. She would have to be those things and much more to be the Vigilante. How could she do it, night after night, risking her life? What motivated her? What was in it for her?”
More questions that made him want to snarl. He must have made a sound because her blue eyes shot open.
“Can you hear something?”
Luke shook his head. No noise, apart from what they made.
“Why did you lie to me?” The question was out before he could stop himself, but he was almost bursting at the seams holding himself back. If he didn’t find a release valve, he might go mad.
Her shoulders drooped a little. “What would you have me say? Please help me, I’m the Vigilante? I didn’t even know if I could trust you with our mission, let alone confide in you. There are very few people who know of our existence, let alone our identity.”
“Why now? Why reveal yourself to me here?”
Sloane winced and touched her sternum. “The voice modulator. One of the bullets must have damaged it, and I couldn’t speak clearly anymore. Without it, you would’ve recognized me anyway, so I didn’t have a reason to hide my identity,”
Fists clenching hard, Luke laughed, filled with sarcasm. “So I see. It’s not because you trust me that you removed your mask. It’s because you didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
This time, he got a reaction out of her when she tensed. “We’ve known each other for less than a week!”
“And you asked me for help! I’m pretty sure you and your friends, whoever they are, must have checked everything about me before you even set foot on campus.” Now his anger had gained momentum as she reacted to him, fueling the fire that was burning his common sense.
“Not that much. We were searching for someone with knowledge of the tunnels and your name came up. I was so eager to meet you that I went to the university. I didn’t even know what you looked like. I expected a paunchy old man.”
He gaped at her. “Paunchy?”
“Yeah. Lucian Radcliffe. Add ‘the third’ after it, and it’s the poshest, most pompous name I’ve ever heard.”
This was utter lunacy. “Maybe it would’ve been preferable for you to have found an old, white-haired scholar as your informant. Although you may have needed to find another way to seal the deal aside from fucking him on the kitchen floor! Is that one of the services offered by the Vigilante or was I just lucky?”
He knew he’d struck a chord when she rose to her knees, ready to retaliate. “You think so little of me?”
His voice escalated to a roar. “I. Don’t. Know. You!”
Silence descended between them, and just when Luke thought Sloane would jump at his throat, she reined herself in instead. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Her words remained suspended in the tunnel for a moment, enough for him to regain his calm, or at least, some of it. “I come from the corps. It’s ingrained in me to trust my teammates. When you came to me as Sloane, I wasn’t sure. I know from experience how empty words can be. The Vigilante, when he, you, saved me outside my apartment, I could relate. There was no way to hide, not your intentions, not your true purpose, and that encouraged me to agree to work with you. I told you I didn’t want to be played and that if that was the case, you’d need to find someone else to help you. I told you, and that was the moment you should have revealed you were the Vigilante. Not fuck me on the floor.”
At that moment, Luke expected the entire truth, or another lie. He could deal with keeping secrets. There were so many of them he kept from his time in the Marines, so many missions and Intel he would carry to his grave. One more wouldn’t make a difference. Bottom line, he wanted to help, but not without getting the facts straight and deciding for himself if he could live with the consequences.
Sloane hesitated, which didn’t bode well, and until she opened her mouth and spoke, he had no idea what she would say.
“I... went to you in the kitchen, not to sway your decision or to get your agreement, but because the thought of tasting your mouth and your skin had been gnawing at me since I’d first met you. You could’ve said no to this mission and I would’ve walked away. I don’t use sex as a tool or a weapon. It is too... intimate. Human interactions are already complex enough without adding emotions into the mix. Especially since I’m not good with them to begin with.”