Page 73 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)
Joey also had a controller, while Lynn and Lucy were near the food. It didn’t surprise Mal that Danny immediately disappeared from his side to inspect the provisions laid out.
“You started without us,” he complained, even as he filled his plate.
“Just a practice round, Spark Plug, relax,” Dom said, frowning when her character, who looked impressively like her actual self, was killed by a sniper. “Damn camera…”
“Plus, we have to rotate in, unlike the girls,” Joey added.
Heists could only have four-person teams, Mal had learned, and they had seven men, four women, once Oz showed up. Lucy was the one who’d suggested a gender split.
“Boys can have the first real round,” Stella said, dropping onto the sofa between Lucy and Lynn. “Oz should be here by then.”
Everyone traded out except Priestly, leaving room for Danny, Mal, and Andre to take up controllers. Mal sat in front of Danny’s chair, making it easier for Danny to lean down and explain the mechanics from time to time.
Mal picked it all up quickly enough, playing the role of fake prison guard trying to help Priestly’s character escape, while Andre was on demolition and Danny was their pilot.
Although it was Mal’s first time playing, they succeeded in the mission with a higher score than the practice round, causing Danny to reach toward Andre to enact their ritual of slapping hands forward, back, and ending in a fist-bump.
“Girls’ turn!” Lucy rubbed her hands together.
“What about Oz?” Joey asked. “He’s missing all the fun.”
A nearly inaudible pop signaled the teleporter’s arrival as he settled on the sofa beside Lynn. “I call next round,” he said.
Mal was too busy enjoying the way Danny’s pout made his face even more adorable than usual to care that the women’s team obliterated their scores .
“This is why we don’t let them play,” Danny said.
“I thought only Stella was the ringer,” Mal eyed the group.
As it turned out, Lynn had gotten the highest individual score, and it didn’t surprise Mal at all that Dom and Lucy were naturals.
They played several more rounds, ate far more food than was necessary, other than for Danny who kept putting more away, before finally the men’s team called uncle and they decided to end the night with a movie.
“Does this fulfill your needs for wanton destruction and thievery?” Danny asked, arms draped over Mal’s shoulders as the others put the game away.
Mal leaned up to peck Danny’s lips. “Sure, Sparky.”
Danny’s phone rang as soon as they parted, and he took a moment to look around the room, since so few options were left for who could be calling him. It turned out to be John.
“Hey, Dad,” Danny said, swinging his leg over Mal to stand and step away from the general chaos of the room. Mal pushed to his feet to listen in. “He what ?” Danny spun around with wide eyes. “Hang on, let me put you on speaker.”
Mal’s instant fear was Ludgate, but thankfully, it wasn’t about him this time.
“Like I said,” John’s voice filled the room, “Dunkirk broke out. No uniforms have spotted him yet, but I got an anonymous tip that someone saw him heading toward Haven. Figured I better inform you before sending any of the boys in blue. Carla working tonight?”
“No,” Danny and Oz said in unison, then Danny finished, “she’s home, but he’s probably looking for her. We’ll handle it, Dad. Don’t call anyone in unless we tell you to.”
“It never ends,” Mal muttered once Danny hung up and the general mood of the evening had been squashed.
“Could always just kill ‘im,” Dom said.
“While I would have agreed with you once, Dom,” Mal twisted a smile at his friend, “that would bring his father’s wrath down upon us and go against the new code.
What we need is to keep locking him up until he’s such a discredit, he’ll be seen as more of a liability to his father than any help.
Then the next time he’s out, if he’s ever out again, dear old dad will take care of him for us. ”
“So we should have Zeus hand-deliver him to the police again?” Priestly suggested.
“Maybe not yet,” Mal said as a plan started to form. “Hand-deliver him to his father first, with a warning.”
Danny shook his head. “I don’t think Zeus should be talking to mob bosses.”
“Who said you’d be doing it?”
“But how are you gonna catch the guy?” Andre spoke up.
“ Without causing any major property damage,” Lynn added.
Mal contemplated that, taking in everyone in the room, and finally settled on his sister. When it hit him what to do next, he couldn’t help but grin. “I got just the thing.”
R
There was a time when the thrum of lightning surrounding him, the city blurring and then becoming telescopic in its distinction as he shot across an impossible distance faster than the human eye could catch, made Danny feel happier and more complete than he ever thought possible.
Now things were so much better—even tucked into a dark corner at Haven, where they’d entered from the back to keep an eye on Dunkirk until they were ready to make their move.
It was just Danny, Mal, Andre, and Lucy, with Priestly on comms back at the morgue and the others all on standby.
“If this doesn’t work and I pass out, carry me home nicely,” Lucy said to Andre, dressed in an impromptu dress of Lynn’s she’d borrowed from the station lockers that was admittedly a little too tight on her curvier frame.
She finished putting on her lipstick, then immediately sipped on the drink she had with the antidote in it. Dunkirk wouldn’t get the same luxury.
“You sure you don’t mind doing this?” Danny asked her.
“You kidding? Honey, I’ve been itching to try out this knockout lipstick since I got it. ”
Danny turned to Andre, whose brow hadn’t smoothed out once since they’d arrived; he’d insisted on being in the field for this, even if all he was doing was keeping an eye on Lucy. “And it doesn’t bother you ?”
Andre looked startled, like he hadn’t meant to display his displeasure. “No way, man. She’s having far too much fun with this. Plus, it’s just a kiss. I get all the real kisses,” he said, only to remember that Mal was standing right there. “I mean…”
Rolling his eyes, Mal ignored him, while Lucy laughed and Danny shook his head. The Titans would be doing the handoff to Dunkirk’s father. Danny was only there if they needed him.
Dunkirk had ordered a drink at the bar, deciding to bide his time to see if Carla showed up or maybe to wait it out to con info from the bartender or overhear something from a patron. Now was their chance.
“Showtime,” Lucy said, almost leaning forward to kiss Andre for luck before she remembered her lips were poisoned and bopped him on the nose instead.
“Just remember, he knows you,” Mal said.
“Please. Like that’s ever stopped me before.”
Andre moved to a closer booth, while Danny and Mal stayed in the corner to keep hidden.
Mal’s eyes were like a hawk on Dunkirk, the cause of so much grief and trouble.
Even if Ludgate had ended up as the greater threat, Dunkirk had still given Mal one of his scars—and more than enough to Carla and Michael.
For that alone, Danny would always despise the man.
And for being the reason Mal hadn’t been there that day when Danny needed him.
From where they sat in the booth, Mal faced the bar while Danny faced Mal.
He hadn’t asked if Mal was okay with Lucy doing this, because he knew the answer.
Of course he wasn’t. Dunkirk was a reflection of Mal’s father, and that carried with it an ache Danny could never fully relate to.
He could only be there, like Mal was there for him.
Growing enamored with the way Mal’s jaw twitched and his eyes followed the scene as it progressed, Danny watched closely the man he now associated with home and a lazy afternoon—Mal in his ballcap and black-framed glasses.
“What?” Mal asked after a few minutes of observing .
“Nothing. It’s just…nice. Working together like this.”
“We work together every night, Sparky.”
“I know. But tonight feels like just the right kind of déjà vu. Know what I mean?” He reached forward and stole a fry off the plate of food Mal had ordered for appearances.
As Mal looked down at the positions they were in, at the burger and fries, even at which booth they’d chosen, the harsh expression on his face melted just as Danny had hoped.
This was where they’d sat out of costume for the first time.
So much had gone wrong since that day, but they’d survived and come out the other side stronger.
Dunkirk was a terrible reminder for Mal, for both of them, but it was just one more thing they could face together.
Leaning forward, Mal rested his fingers on Danny’s outstretched hand. “One of these days we’re gonna manage a proper date at this place.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Danny rubbed his foot along Mal’s leg beneath the table. Mal straightened, not from the contact, but because his eyes darted to Lucy again, ready to jump into action as events started to move forward. “I think our brand of date night is just fine.”