Page 14 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

Sneering, Dom kicked the newly formed icicle across the roof. “Whatever you say, boss . Wouldn’t wanna upset Zeus.”

She only called him ‘boss’ when she was being an ass.

Dom didn’t mind Mal’s truce with the city’s hero, she saw him as entertainment more than a threat, but that could change on a dime if Zeus got in the way of her fun.

Maybe Mal should have weighed his options a bit longer before deciding to confide in his friend.

“Relax. Just tryin’ to rile you,” she said. “I don’t care who you fuck, just so long as it doesn’t interfere with the job.”

“It won’t.”

“Sure, sure.”

“It won’t ,” Mal said with finality. At last, Dom left things alone. Finished her coffee. Lit a cigarette with a flick of flame from her thumb. Sat still and quiet as they continued to watch the museum.

They lasted the better part of an hour before Dom spoke again. “We gonna get breakfast or what?”

Snatching Dom’s empty coffee cup before it could get tossed into a corner of the roof, Mal stacked it with his own. He’d find a garbage somewhere along the way. They’d done enough recon for this week. “Fine. But for all the grief you’ve given me this morning, you’re buying.”

He plucked the cigarette from her hands before she could snuff it out. Making a show of distaste at the habit with a wrinkle of his nose, he froze it until the embers fizzled with a hiss, then dropped the stick of ice into the stacked cups.

Dom smirked and stole the cups back from him to burn them to ashes. “You’re the boss.”

?

Danny stood in the middle of the main test center at Virgil Labs.

He’d arrived late, exhausted after investigating the place the night before as Zeus.

He hadn’t slept much. He rarely slept these days, though he supposed he conked out sooner than usual thanks to his success with Cho.

He’d definitely gotten some relaxation in, even if it had been interrupted.

“You waiting on something, kiddo?” his dad asked from the doorway, where he’d just finished interviewing the technician who’d discovered the break-in.

They’d both been assigned to this case—together. Usually, Captain Shan kept them separated, but after Rick died, Danny refused to work with anyone else, and his father’s partner had retired last week.

It should have been a good thing, an excuse to spend time together, even if it was work, but most days Danny had trouble looking his father in the eyes. John definitely had trouble looking in his.

Danny took after his mother. Lightning leaning. Red hair. John was blond, fading rapidly to white at his temples, with Light leaning, bright teal eyes. He used to have the sunny disposition to match.

“There’s nothing to find, Dad. I went over everything last night in my…other work clothes,” Danny said under his breath, even though the closest uniform was in the next room.

He’d only tried to keep his Elemental status from his family for about a week after he Awakened.

He’d wanted to hit the streets right away as Zeus, to avenge Rick and make a real difference.

Knowing he couldn’t keep that from his family forever, he’d eventually come clean, confessed the truth, and they welcomed his transformation with open arms.

Now his mother was dead too.

“I went through every inch of this place and couldn’t find a single stray hair or fiber,” he said. “Having CSI dust for prints is going to reveal nothing but the people who work here.”

“But if we don’t get those prints, Shan is going to have our heads for slacking,” John said with what Danny could only interpret as a strained smile.

Everything between them was strained lately.

They’d lived around each other rather than with each other for the past six months, passing in the hallways at home and at the precinct with minimal conversation.

Danny forced a smile of his own. “What all is missing anyway?”

“Anything that would fetch a price.” John consulted his notepad.

“Whoever broke in did their research. Nothing stolen could be easily mass produced or accessed elsewhere, only things worth something. And anything that was worth something is gone. The sheer amount is…well, they’re saying it would’ve taken a dozen men to carry out everything in the timeframe we got. ”

“Which is why it would benefit everyone if we caught these deviants sooner rather than later,” Samantha Virgil’s sharp voice interrupted them as she entered from a side door.

Dressed primly in a dark jacket and pencil skirt, not a hair or spot of makeup out of place, the presence of the Virgil Labs CEO made Danny instinctively straighten. “Dr. Virgil,” he said with a nod.

“Detective Grant. Detective… Grant . No offense to you gentlemen, but I’m not very happy to see you at the moment.

” She looked at the sparse room with a pinched brow.

At a glance, the state of the labs didn’t scream break-in, since nothing was knocked over and not a single pane of glass on the door or cabinets had been broken, but nothing much of anything rested on the counters or inside the cabinets either. “This one is going to hurt us.”

Danny looked around the room in sympathy before turning back to her. “We’ll find whoever did this, Dr. Virgil. Something’s bound to turn up.”

“One would certainly hope so,” she said.

“I’ll join you in your office in a moment,” John gestured her toward the main door, “so we can finalize anything we haven’t covered yet and get out of your hair.”

“Anything on surveillance?” Danny asked once she had left.

“We’ll bring it all back to the station to watch there.

I’ll let you know once we have the recordings.

” John tapped his pen against his notepad.

“See what else you can find here, huh? No one leaves no evidence behind. Maybe your partner in crime can catch something you missed.” He nodded over Danny’s shoulder.

Danny turned to see Andre entering with his CSI kit. “Hey,” he greeted him. “You know my report from last night. Gonna have to think outside the box on this one.”

“My specialty,” Andre grinned. “Grant and Grant on the case, huh? Whoever hit this place doesn’t stand a chance.” He patted Danny’s arm and smiled wide at John before moving into the next room.

Responding with barely suppressed lethargy, Danny unintentionally prompted his father to linger at his side.

John often tried to initiate conversation outside of work, to get Danny to open up, to steer things back toward normal between them, but it always fell flat.

Danny Awakening, becoming Zeus, facing Thanatos, was the reason his mother—John’s wife —was gone.

There was no more normal, not after how much darker Danny had allowed things to get in the aftermath.

A stiff silence stretched between them before John finally reached over and squeezed Danny’s shoulder. “Hey, I know that Camouflage guy was a tough one the other night, but you seem more relaxed. Other than having to deal with this mess,” he chuckled.

Danny wasn’t about to tell his dad the specifics on why he was more relaxed. “Yeah, I was trying to enjoy some time off before the call came in last night.”

“Sorry, kiddo. No rest for the righteous, huh?”

Danny was fairly certain that wasn’t how the quote went. But he sensed his window closing to confess to his dad that he really did need a break, that he needed to talk, that he was floundering and hurting and didn’t know how to explain what was wrong.

Doing that would only worry John though, when he was still going through his own grieving process. Besides, Danny was handling it. A few weeks with Cho would be all the ‘rest’ he needed.

Letting his father pat his shoulder once more, Danny watched him walk away without either of them saying another word.