Faye found me passed out under a pile of cats, blankets, and cracker crumbs with Food Network still blaring in the background three hours later. "You look terrible."
"Thanks," I said wryly.
"Do you still feel dizzy?"
I must have looked worse than I thought if I actually seemed sick. Maybe I was sick. Heartsick.
"I had a bad day at work." Then I remembered I should tell her about Jon. He was my cover after all. This was entirely for her benefit. "Except when I got asked out by this guy, Jonathan."
"What!" Faye squealed. "You never go out! He must be pretty special to have tempted the likes of you."
"He's really nice." I made my voice sound dreamy like women in those chick flicks Faye made me watch with her. "He's tall and handsome and has beautiful green eyes. You'd like him."
"Lori! This is amazing news! When's the date?"
I knew Faye would be excited but she acted like I'd just been elected president or won the lottery. It was just a date. "Friday. And I don't know what we're doing, he said it's a surprise."
"You'll have to tell me everything!" she exclaimed happily before launching into a story about an interaction with a cute guy in one of her classes.
I had no clue how I was going to pull off girly excitement and gush about the date. I had never been that kind of person, even before…I cut myself off. I'd had enough nightmarish thoughts for the day. But I had to do it to keep Faye from being suspicious. Maybe the trick to hiding my crimes was acting more like an average person. I still needed to work out something more concrete with Nick and whoever the cat burglar was, but this couldn't hurt.
I had to convince Faye more than ever that I was just a regular, normal young professional with a social life. I could put more hours in at the shelter, too. Jam pack my schedule so it would seem impossible for me to commit crimes. Have rock solid alibis, character witnesses, the works. That could be part one of the plan.
Should I clue in Nick? Tell him to act more normal? I wasn't sure what he was like outside of work but if he was on his own so often with his family gone…maybe he could benefit from pretending too. It couldn't hurt to bring it up. If he called back.
I continued to listen to Faye talk about her day until my phone rang. I pounced on it and noticed Faye staring. I flushed. "It's Jonathan."
She smiled indulgently and waved me off. "Answer it! We can talk more later."
I returned the smile gratefully and retreated to my room. "Nick! What's going on?"
"The Tiger is dead," he began miserably. "It seemed perfectly natural. The internal bleeding started up again due to an agent I put in the IV but due to the severity of his injury and the undetectable nature of the agent I gave him no one should suspect anything but…"
"But people are already looking for that sort of thing. It's okay, you'd already done it. I just think we should lay low for a while and figure out our next step."
"Do you have any ideas?" he asked nervously. "I've got nothing and I'm afraid this last one will be the one that ruins me. I really hope your roommate doesn't find out!"
"I'm sure it's only I matter of time," I said ruefully. "We can deal with it though. Right now our focus should be finding Mystery Person Two."
"Does that make me Mystery Person One?" Nick teased.
I scowled. He'd known me for exactly one day and thought it was okay to tease me? "Oh, shut up. I put a lot of effort into finding you. I just don't know where to start looking this time."
Now his tone was all business. "I did a bit of research using the information you gave me. The only companies that have been hit are ones where CEOs pay themselves extra at the expense of their overworked employees. The really interesting bit is, upon further digging, I discovered that several local cancer research organizations received very large anonymous donations right after the burglaries. It looks like Mystery Person Two is a Robin Hood for cancer patients."
"So what do we do, just hang around on rooftops next to big businesses every night and wait for Robin Hood to show up?" I demanded. "That's a horrible plan."
"I'm not hanging out on any rooftop," Nick said flatly. "I'm terrified of heights." A pause. "Do you regularly hang out on rooftops?"
"Yes," I admitted reluctantly. I wasn't sure I wanted him knowing what I was capable of. He didn't even know what kind of victims I had, just that I got rid of people who needed to be gotten rid of.
"What do you even do?" he asked incredulously.
I bit my lip, torn. "Could we discuss that later, in person? My roommate is doing homework in her room but you never know when she might butt in."
"Oh. Yes, of course. Well I thought, maybe not every night, but we could watch the news and you could do surveillance in the week after a story about it breaks."
"Notice how this plan has me doing all of the work."
"You're the one who brought me into this," Nick reminded me. "Aren't you in charge?"
In charge? I'd never been the one to be in charge. That was…that was Cindy's job. I was the shadow. The follower. I was happier that way. "Do I have to be?"
"Well, I am mostly following your lead. You seem to be on top of things."
I almost cackled. On top of things? I'd never been less on top of things in my life. "Are you sure you're a doctor?"
"I'm not a doctor, I'm a surgical tech. Less schooling. I wanted to spend time with my family. My girlfriend got pregnant when we were undergrads and I wanted us to both be there for our baby. We got married a few months later," he said matter-of-factly.
I was completely thrown by this information. How could he talk about the family he lost so cavalierly? "You're able to talk about them."
"You seem surprised," he chuckled. "I suppose you don't talk about your sister much, do you? Well, I think the best way to remember them is to talk about them. I was lost for a while. I went to therapy. I got help. I had done a lot of healing before I embarked on my mission to rid the streets of the monsters who destroyed my family. I couldn't have been so rational otherwise."
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Here I was, hardly able to think about Cindy and Nick was able to talk about both of the people he loved and lost without breaking down. I had never gone to therapy for what happened. And I couldn't go now. Opening up my head to a shrink would be tantamount to a confession.
"I'm impressed," I said honestly. I couldn't think of what else to say after that declaration.
"You're very secretive, you know that? I guess it doesn't really matter. We're allies, not friends."
"Right," I said absently. Other than Faye, I didn't have friends. I didn't need them. What I needed was an ally and I'd found one.
"I'll keep my eyes peeled on the news. You should too. And if you roommate says anything new about—us—anything at all, you have to tell me. Understood?"
"I know," I said irritably. Just because he was older and male didn't mean he had the right to be condescending. "I brought you into this with the intention of keeping you in the loop."
"I do appreciate it. Really. You've given me an edge up."
"You're welcome," I sniffed.
"Take care of yourself, Lori." The phone disconnected and I sat there marveling at how much healing Nick had accomplished. Considering what he had been through, he was downright cheerful. However, he was still going around offing gang members, so there was that to consider. Someone who had truly healed probably wouldn't have bothered coming up with such a risky revenge plan. But who was I to judge? I hadn't healed at all.