Page 78 of Not All Himbos Wear Capes

Captain Masculine.

Oh, it’s fucking on.

CHAPTER35

BUTCH

Xander’s going to be so angry with me.

The first reason was that I hadn’t been completely honest about what I was up to last night.

Vortexio literally dragged me home in a tornado after what happened in Biggs’ office and then invited Gemstonia Lincoln and her family over for another painfully formal dinner. I’d shocked everyone by refusing to go downstairs until my father swore to me he hadn’t killed Xander. However, he refused to discuss our relationship any further before stalking away.

My mother then surprised me by discreetly slipping me my phone, saying she’d distract our guests while I called him. She was also unusually quiet during dinner, although I caught her glaring at my father over her chicken cordon bleu.

It looks like both of us are rebelling lately.

Luckily, no one mentioned marriage, not that I would have been included in any backroom deals between our parents. It was a small mercy that—as of now—I wouldn’t also have to tell Xan I was engaged to someone else when I revealed my identity.

That might actually be worse.

The second reason he would be upset was that Ihadn’tgone straight to his apartment when I returned to Big City, although that wasn’t entirely my fault. Father had escorted me back to Biggs Enterprises this morning, then met privately with my boss for an hour before I was invited into the office.

And ordered to kill Doctor Antihero.

As I gazed out over the Bay from my cliffside perch, my thoughts inevitably drifted to Xander. His fury over my contract with Biggs—over how uninformed I’d been in my own life—had made me question everything.

Since I was young, I’d believed heroes were inherentlygood,and that Biggs Enterprises only had Big City’s best interests in mind. Now I realized I’d blindly followed orders I should have been questioning and trusted the wrong people—including my own parents.

Just because I was tolda villain was evil didn’t make it true. Yes, Xander’s family was legitimately terrifying, but his brother, Wolfgang, had actually kept an eye on me, presumably in case their mother attacked. I couldn’t even fault Signe Suarez for being suspicious when I arrived at her home, especially after I’d wiped the Stricklands from the face of the earth only a few days earlier.

I never even asked to see the evidence against them.

The realization that I’d been used as a mindless weapon to murder other supes—often unprovoked and possibly unjustified—destroyed something inside me.

What if Xander can’t look past everything I’ve done?

Adding to my current distress were the abrupt orders to eliminate Doctor Antihero. It was because of monitoringhimI’d started to suspect heroes and villains weren’t that different. I never actually saw Antihero doing anything nefarious, and if Biggs hadn’t insisted he was a villain, I wouldn’t have assumed he was.

He seems just like me.

I tensed as Antihero himself drifted into view on one of his high-tech WaveRunners. He hadn’t noticed me yet, so it would be easy enough to incinerate him with a fireball or swoop down like a bird of prey and throttle him with my bare hands.

But I don’t want to.

Antihero finally spotted me, and I calmly waited for him to escape again. When he continued staring at me instead, I slowly raised a hand, assuming any movement on my part would send him running. Again, he didn’t flee.

He drove straight for me.

My jaw dropped as he gunned the WaveRunner up onto the beach before jumping off and stalking to the base of my cliff.

Does this guy have a death wish?!

“Get theFUCKdown here! Now!” His voice was distorted by his mask, but something in his tone had me scrambling to my feet.

I hesitated after that, gazing down at him while trying to get my jumbled thoughts in order. He did not like this one bit. Further proving he had serious balls, Antihero snapped his fingers and impatiently pointed to the sand in front of him.

Yes, Daddy.