Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 169266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 846(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 846(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Despite that, I pour myself a glass of ludicrously expensive Scotch and appreciate the burn as it goes down, even though it won’t do a thing to fill that carved out feeling in my chest. I’m about to zip off the top part of my Vanguard suit when my watch beeps and glows green.
I put the drink down and let out a long exhale before I tap the screen. A holographic image of Julia pops up from my watch.
“What’s up, doc?” I ask dryly. “Making sure I go to bed on time?”
She gives me a smirk.
“Yes,” she says without missing a beat. “Making sure you’re not staying up with people you shouldn’t be staying up with.”
I keep the smile fixed to my face, though I feel darkness creep in around my vision. It gets like that sometimes, like my blood turns black and starts seeping through the rest of my system, and with it comes a sense of rage and doom and destruction that threatens to take me over completely. I’ve never let it. I’ve also never voiced this phenomenon to anyone—why would I, when they’ll tell me it’s stress and PTSD from oh so many things and insist I need another psych evaluation? I get enough of those as it is.
“Please remind me the last time that happened?” I say.
“You know we don’t keep tabs on you like that.”
Uh huh.
She continues, clearing her throat. “What you do with your personal life is your business, but when it starts to affect your job, that’s a different story.”
When I first became the nation’s superhero, I got a little carried away with the celebrity lifestyle of it all—he money piling up from sponsorships, the instant fame, the worldwide recognition, not to mention the power of being the one entrusted to help clean up a country crawling out of the Dark Decade.
I was also single and felt the need to sow some wild oats. A few of the first women ended up blabbing to the press about my wants and needs, which, luckily, remained tame at the time (in my opinion, anyway), and after that, the NDAs came into effect for everyone I snuck into my penthouse. But it wasn’t long after that I realized fucking a different person each night, even when sworn to secrecy, was compromising things. I could never be my true self with them, never expose my darkest needs and desires, and never have a relationship.
So, I stopped, focused on my role in the world instead. It’s gotten easier to shove my needs aside. I’ve gotten used to shoving down every raw, dark part of me until I’m a completely sanitized version of myself.
“You do remember what we agreed to?” Julia goes on. “The journalist will arrive in a couple of days, and you’re going to be on your best behavior for her. Tell her everything she needs to know.”
Right. The journalist.
Mia Baxter.
Someone whose face keeps flashing through my dreams in the middle of the night.
“Everything?” I repeat.
“There are no secrets, Nate. You know this.”
Bullshit.
“You can be an open book,” she adds. “Let her see the real you. Talk about your past. Let her see inside your life. The quicker you do that, the sooner she’ll be on her way.”
“She was abrasive,” I point out. “Rude, even.”
I don’t need to mention that her being rude turned me on a little.
“Rude is fine,” she says. “I know you have nothing to hide.”
“And what about you?” I ask. “I know you have plenty.”
The projection of her raises her chin. “She won’t get very far with Global Dynamix. We’ll feed her exactly what she needs to see, along with some admitted mistakes so she can feel she got a scoop. A little good PR goes a long way for us. We aren’t out of the woods yet with this country. The polls say most people still distrust us.”
I wish she wouldn’t lump me into the ‘us.’ I only became Vanguard after President Vasquez clawed us out of the last decade.
“Got it,” I say, ready to switch off the call.
“Oh, and Nate?” she says quickly. “Even though you should be honest with her, do not expect her to be honest with you. I’m still not sure what her motives are.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, is she a journalist getting the best story? Is she a journalist who is going to write a hit piece no matter what?” She waits a beat. “Or is she even a journalist at all?”
“What else would she be?”
She chuckles softly. “Oh, sweet summer child. That’s the saying, isn’t it? Never lose your naivete. You know how many competitors we have looking for the inside scoop and then some. To weaponize our tech. Be yourself but watch her closely. Anything odd, you report it to me right away. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s actually working for a rival like Titan or even Chimera in hopes of stealing ideas.”