Page 46 of Villains Series

THIS AFTERNOON

THE ESQUIRE HOTEL

“VICTOR sent you a message,”

said Serena, brushing her fingers over Sydney’s stick figure in the drawing. There was a fleck of brownish red on the corner of the paper, and she wondered whose blood it was.

“Are you going to send one back?”

She watched as the answer climbed up Eli’s throat.

“I don’t know how,”

he said under his breath.

“He’s here in the city,” she said.

“So are millions of other people, Serena,”

growled Eli.

“And they’re all on your side,”

she said.

“Or they can be.”

She took Eli’s hand, drew him up from the chair. Her hands slid around his back, pulled him close until his forehead rested against hers.

“Let me help you.”

She watched his jaw clench. Eli couldn’t resist her, not really, but he was trying. She could see the strain in his eyes, in the space between his brows, as he fought the compulsion. Every time she asked a question. Every time she gave a small order. There was a pause, as if Eli were trying to reprocess the command, twist it until it was his. As if he could take back his will. He couldn’t, but she loved to see him try. It gave her something to hold on to. She took it in, savored his resistance. And then, for his sake, she forced him to bend.

“Eli,”

she said, her voice, even and unmovable.

“Let me help you.”

“How?” he asked.

Her fingers slipped into his front pocket, and drew out his phone.

“Call Detective Stell. Tell him we need a meeting with the Merit PD. All of them.”

Victor wasn’t the only one in the city. Sydney was here, too. Find one, and they would find the other—the drawing told them as much. Eli stared down at his phone.

“It’s too public,”

he said, fingers punching in the numbers even as he struggled to think.

“It makes us too public. I haven’t made it this long by standing in spotlights.”

“It’s the only way to flush them out. Besides, you shouldn’t worry. You’re the hero now, remember?”

He laughed drily, but didn’t say no again.

“Do you want a mask?”

she teased, pulling the glasses from her hair and sliding them back onto his face.

“Or will these do?”

Eli ran his thumb over his phone, hesitating for one last moment. And then he connected the call.