Five life sentences.
I felt my breath go out in literally a whoosh.
Then I changed the damn channel as fast as I could as my stomach churned.
It didn’t mean anything. He could escape. He had before.
But what if he didn’t? What if he was one less person to worry about now?
I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d learned the day before.
Alex hadn’t come back, and I’d turned on the news to see that he’d been helping deal with a nuclear reactor. It wasn’t the first time, or even the tenth time, one of the Trinity had dealt with nuclear issues, so I knew the radioactive gases and radiation didn’t harm them, fortunately. Or at least not in the same manner or level it did humans. I was planning on asking him one day how that worked exactly. Did it affect him a little and just make him weak instead of blatantly killing him? Or were their bodies just that amazing that they repelled all that toxic stuff outright? My money was on that.
On the bright side, Selene had shown up and taken me to Robert and Agatha’s house for dinner, and I’d been reassured that the man known as The Centurion really was terrific and sweet. He had a polo shirt and khakis on, and just looked like… a hot uncle.
I knew all about hot uncles now.
For one moment, I’d thought about asking Agatha about that vision, but I’d kept my mouth shut. The more I’d worried over it, the more I’d realized and then come to accept the fact that it didn’t matter. It didn’t change anything. Having these feelings for Alex was the equivalent of having a crush on a celebrity.
That you knew and lived with.
And kissed.
Or maybe a boss at work.
What his grandmother wanted didn’t change his heart or his desires, even if we’d made out. Attraction wasn’t love, and I couldn’t go too crazy with my thoughts or feelings, that was a damn fact. Alex Akita was a pro football player in the National Football Organization, and I was the best player on the pee-wee team.
But the problem was that no matter how much I tried to convince myself that was the case, no matter how much my brain recognized the truth, the rest of me was hung up on the things I couldn’t have.
Including the little bit of relief that I wanted to experience at the possibility that scumbag might be behind bars for the rest of my life.
And that was what upset me the whole day.
All those fucking things I couldn’t have…
So that morning, I’d woken up to a quiet house and, after breakfast, focused on the one thing that was so difficult it wouldn’t let my mind stray: I worked on my Japanese.
It wasn’t until early in the evening when I heard the door open and shut, then felt the faint hum of Alex’s power coming from the doorway a heartbeat later.
“Hi, Lexi,” I greeted him as I popped another Cheeto into my mouth and chewed slowly.
“What’s wrong?” was the first thing he asked.
I paused as I took another one out and eyed the puffy orange snack. “Why do you think there’s something wrong?” I asked, even though I knew the damn answer.
“Because I can smell it.”
Exactly what I’d thought. I put the snack into my mouth and took my time eating it.
As much as I’d tried not to think about it, that was literally all I’d been able to focus on every time my mind strayed: how unfair shit could be. I couldn’t remember a single thing I’d tried to learn. “Nothing bad. I shouldn’t have watched the news. It’s no big deal. I’ll be fine. How are you? Are you okay? How did it go saving humanity from being poisoned with radiation?”
That buzz of power heightened in the room, and I turned to see where the hell he was. Alex was halfway in the kitchen, still in that incredible charcoal suit and cape, looking like some mythological god from another planet. A savior of civilizations.
He was incredible. His skin seemed to glow even brighter than usual, every bone and angle in his face was more pronounced than before. No part of him seemed like it could be real.
If I’d tried to look away, I wouldn’t have been able to. No way.
And I couldn’t help but peek at his mouth for a split second. Remembering I’d kissed him. Those lips. That face.
Alex crossed his arms over his chest, his expression a sober one.
I gave him the best smile I could dig up, which didn’t say much.
Then he huffed as he headed toward the pantry. He tucked something under his arm, opened the fridge, and pulled a Dr Pepper out. And in the next blink of an eye, he had pulled out the chair beside me, plopped his cookies with chocolate candies in them beside the bag of chips, and sat in it at the same time he opened the tab on the drink and took a big sip.
Those incredible eyes met mine, and he held the drink out.
I watched him right back as I took it and swigged it too, setting the can between us. Then I turned the bag toward him, watching as he reached inside and grabbed a handful. I ate more, and we swapped the drink before he pulled out a handful of cookies, handing me two.
Was this how he wound down after Trinity business, I wondered?
I’d barely finished my cookies when he crossed his arms over his chest and flattened me with a few sentences. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. The only thing that can injure me is my grandmother, I told you that. I burned my suit and changed so I wouldn’t risk bringing anything home with me that can hurt you, otherwise I would’ve gotten back sooner.”
I blinked.
He kept going. “But so we’re clear, you being upset about something is important to me,” he told me. “Just as important as saving people from a nuclear meltdown.”
I hadn’t seen that shit coming.
Not by a mile. “Just as?” I echoed.
He tipped his chin down, those eyebrows flat on his smooth forehead. “More. What’s wrong?”
More?
Some small part of my brain wanted to deflect. To change the subject because I didn’t want to talk about it, not with him, not over something so petty that I thought I had already moved on from. Something that shouldn’t have upset me. I should have been throwing a fucking party or something.
But last night, while I’d laid in bed, I had wanted to talk to him. I’d wanted him to grunt at me and tell me not to cry.
Hot, sticky tears filled my eyes. I wanted to ask him to repeat himself.
But he didn’t need to.
I’d heard what I heard.
“Well, that means a lot to me.” My damn voice was wobbly. I eyed him sitting there, The Defender and Superbutt and Alex all in one. “It means everything to me. I just… you have enough going on. I don’t want to drop shit on you. You don’t need to hear me being upset over things I should let go.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but I managed to lift my finger and point at him.
“No, I’m not done. I don’t want to, but you know what? I’m going to.”
Both of those dark eyebrows rose in what wasn’t exactly surprise, but maybe… relief?
“I don’t think I can teach online anymore,” I told him first.
He dipped his head knowingly.
“You already knew that?”
“I couldn’t think of a way for you to do it without them eventually finding you. You had notes and books in your office, it’s too much of a trail,” he replied, watching me closely. “I didn’t want to make you sad and crush your dreams.”