Page 34 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

“I’m Zeus.”

Shan stared at Danny, unmoved.

“I am ,” he insisted, pressing a hand to his chest.

“Grant…” Shan dropped his eyes to his desk.

“I can prove it.”

“No, don’t—”

Danny lightning jumped to the other side of the desk off Shan’s right. The captain didn’t even flinch, just turned to Danny with a sag of his shoulders and prominent scowl. Maybe he was in shock.

“Want to arrest the vigilante, Captain?” Danny spread his arms. “I won’t run.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Shan barked, as intimidating as ever, despite just now learning that Danny was the Elemental who regularly saved Olympus City. “All of this, for Cho ? You’re going to throw away any remaining shred of plausible deniability I had for that crook?”

Danny’s jaw dropped as Shan stepped into his personal space.

“Of course you’re Zeus. I’m not an idiot. I was actually a detective before I got this position, if you can believe it. Not that you’ve made any effort to make figuring out your identity a challenge.”

“But I…” Danny floundered for what to say. “How…? W hen…? ”

Just like Danny was used to from the captain, Shan faced him unimpressed.

“Had about a dozen confirmations this past year, but even if I hadn’t…

” He leaned forward, causing Danny to lean slightly back.

“Funny how your cell phone disappeared when IA patted you down. Yo u said you left it at home. You also said you were only ten minutes away, already headed to the station when I called you on it.”

Danny’s stomach flipped. He’d been in such a rush, so frazzled that day, he hadn’t realized…

“Grant, what are you doing?” Shan finally leaned away. “Why all this mess over Cho?”

Actually having Shan understand and realizing he’d been aware all along that Danny was Zeus let all the air out of his resolve. Now he had to be honest about so much more than his identity.

“The picture isn’t fake, is it?” Shan said quietly.

Danny shook his head, staring more at the captain’s shirt than his eyes. “No, sir.”

“Is it because he knows you’re Zeus? Is he holding that over you—”

“ No ,” Danny’s eyes shot up, “I told you, it’s not like that.”

“Then what is it like?” Shan’s hands found their customary resting place at his hips.

“He’s helping you with Ludgate, fine. But you’re sleeping with him?

Zeus is harboring a fugitive?” He shook his head as he stared down at the photograph of Mal.

“I haven’t shown this to anyone yet, knew there was more going on, but I didn’t think…

” His face was pinched but not angry. Danny didn’t think he’d ever seen the captain look so conflicted.

“You got me in a box here, Grant. Do you realize the position you’ve put me in? ”

“Captain—”

“At least tell me why? Why Cho? You’re the one who helped us put him away.”

“I know…”

There was so much grief wrapped up in their beginning, even before Danny ruined things with his awful plan to make Mal fall in love with him, but somehow it had still been so much fun—Zeus and Prometheus.

Mal wasn’t like Thanatos or any of the other criminals Danny faced.

He had style and a plan and a way about him that excited Danny.

But more than that, he’d given Danny hope that someone could change, that anyone could change and be better than what they expected of themselves.

“It’s a long story, Captain. There are so many reasons. But I guess the only one that matters is…” Danny smiled, small and maybe a little sad as he met Shan’s gaze. “I’m in love with him. ”

Shan turned away like that was the last thing he wanted to hear right now.

“I don’t compromise cases for him,” Danny said quickly. “I hid the comms because I was there that night; it was Ludgate at the museum. Prometheus protected me.” Sure, Mal had been about to steal the diamond himself, and Danny had maybe decided to let him, but he never said he was thinking clearly!

“You mean last week ,” Shan said. “This week it was just Cho.”

“And Helios. But Mal gave his half of the paintings back.”

Shan’s nose scrunched in disgust, maybe for the half of the paintings that hadn’t been returned, maybe for Danny calling Mal ‘Mal’ . “What are you expecting me to do here, Grant? Let Cho get away with his past? With his crimes? Theft, murder—”

“He didn’t—”

“It doesn’t matter!” Shan slammed his hand down on the desk. “He’s a criminal. He broke the law. The exceptions we make for Zeus can’t be made for everyone. They shouldn’t even be made for you! But the world is falling apart around us with all these Elementals going rogue. The city needs you.”

Danny nodded because he knew Shan was right, he understood what he was saying, but if nothing was black and white, then maybe nothing should be. Maybe the trick was to never settle for a routine or expectations but to make each decision as it came.

“Part of this city…maybe all of this city, needs Prometheus too,” Danny said and wouldn’t back down when Shan groaned and tried to turn away again.

“He never knows anything about my life as a detective. The comms were the only time that’s ever happened.

He’s bad news, maybe, but he’s trying to be better. He is .

“I’m supposed to be the good guy,” Danny’s voice cracked, enough to make Shan pause, “but I’ve been doing nothing but bad lately. If anyone deserves to be an exception, it’s Malcolm Cho. He’s saved me more than once. He’s just trying to do it again.”

Danny nodded to the scattered evidence on Shan’s desk, and the captain’s eyes swept over it all with recognition dawning when his gaze fell upon the original photograph.

Liu and Anderson thought Danny was helping Zeus.

So did anyone else who’d learned of this and saw the evidence.

But Shan had a new photo, and he’d just heard Danny confess enough to land his ass in jail anyway.

Danny had been prepared to accept that sacrifice, he’d accept any sacrifice to protect Mal, but it seemed no one in his life was willing to let him make it.

Slowly, methodically, Shan placed the new photograph back into its folder and closed it. He snatched up the bags of evidence, even Danny’s phone. Grabbing the folder to join the rest, he pushed the bundle into Danny’s arms.

All limbs and flailing surprise, Danny accepted the items while struggling to right it all and keep from dropping anything.

“This can go away quietly, Grant,” Shan said, his face a stone mask and voice stiff.

“But you get caught again, if he gets caught again, I can’t brush this under the rug a second time.

” A touch of sympathy, of something so much deeper than the frustration Danny was used to from the captain, broke into his expression.

“You love him? Zeus loves Prometheus? You think he’s worth that? ”

A day that could have ended with Danny in cuffs had turned out unexpectedly brighter and ended better than he could have guessed. Not because of his own efforts—in fact, he might have made things worse if Shan hadn’t been so understanding—but because of Mal.

“He is. Better than me most days. Other people just don’t get to see that. I know this is asking a lot of you, sir. I won’t ask again. I won’t ask for anything else. Just…let Zeus worry about Prometheus.”

Shan shook his head, but the crease in his brow betrayed a fondness that Danny didn’t think was his imagination. “Just make sure you both bring in Ludgate.”

The smile dropped from Danny’s face, and he clutched the items in his arms all the more tightly. “You have my word, Captain. We will.”

R

This could be good, Hades told himself. This could be better.

Having Zeus and Prometheus built back up only to tumble to the ground that much harder would make their downfall all the sweeter.

It didn’t matter if they had Shan swayed, if Zeus was safe from prison, and if Prometheus’s neighborhood was back off the radar.

They thought they could thwart him, but they forgot too easily.

Hades wasn’t only in the mirrors they paid attention to.

Keeping him out of Zeus’s hideout, out of his home— no , no, that didn’t deter him.

Hades could be anywhere. He could be everywhere.

So when the moment was right, with the right mirror, and after the right amount of time to think they might be free of him, that was when he’d make his move.

R

Danny destroyed both photographs but kept the comms. Mal deserved to get them back this time, along with the goggles he’d yet to return. With his burner phone safely tucked away, he used his real phone to let everyone know that the danger had passed.

Andre was ecstatic, Lynn calm but encouraging, and Stella and John agreed that while a celebration didn’t seem appropriate, family dinner was a must—Andre and Lynn included.

“How about this weekend, kiddo?”

The levity in John’s voice made Danny smile as he talked with him, walking down the streets of Olympus City at a casual pace.

He stopped at an intersection to wait for the blinking walk sign.

“I’d like that, Dad. How about Saturday?

But don’t forget I have a supervillain to worry about.

” Crossing the street finally, Danny nodded to the people he passed.

“I thought there were two supervillains you were worrying about,” John said, a hint of leading in his tone that wasn’t at all subtle.

Even if Danny hoped Mal might give him another chance, he didn’t expect it.

Keeping Danny out of jail just meant Mal forgave him enough not to hate him or wish him ill.

“He saved me, Dad. In so many ways. I just want to see him again. To thank him. To make sure things between us end better than they were before, even if we never…” Danny paused and took a breath as he looked down the street at Mal’s building quickly approaching .

“Just do me one favor, Danny,” John said.

“Anything, Dad.”

“Don’t forget how much you’re worth. Whoever you love, whoever you want to spend your life with someday…”

Danny’s cheeks flushed at the thought.