My gaze flitted across the room, seeking out Callum, who was holding a glass of champagne and talking easily to the other guests. “No, I don’t think so.”
“You two are very happy together, aren’t you?”
He looked up to see me gazing at him. His face broke out into a big grin.
I smiled too. “We are.”
Callum and I stood outside the padded cell where Hayden was being kept. I’d been summoned by one of the orderlies.
Callum and I were both concerned with the amount of information that Hayden knew, and to try to keep a lid on it, I’d asked the orderly to contact me if Hayden ever said anything about knowing the identity of Vigil. I’d said it was for a story, of course, and I’d given the orderly some money.
The orderly had called me not ten minutes ago, saying that Hayden was raving about knowing who Vigil was under the mask.
Once Callum had heard that, he’d insisted on coming along.
We peered through the glass square window in Hayden’s door. It was fairly large, and we could see his entire room clearly. I guess that they weren’t particularly concerned about privacy here.
Hayden was twirling around in the middle of the room, hugging himself. He’d suffered a fracture to his skull when Vigil had slammed his head into the floor, and there had been a lot of swelling on his brain. Doctors weren’t sure if there was damage to his brain, or how extensive it was. With injuries like that, it was a waiting game.
But Hayden had recovered enough to be placed in Chilton, at least until his trial.
The evidence against him was overwhelming. There was no doubt he’d be found guilty of his crimes as The Phantom.
Abruptly, Hayden stopped spinning.
He stared at us through the window. His head had been shaved, and his hair hadn’t quite grown out yet. He was sneering, giving him the look of a psychotic baby bird.
“Hello,” he said, his voice muffled through the glass. “I have a secret.”
He didn’t seem to recognize us. Or if he did, he wasn’t letting on.
“You do?” I said.
He nodded. “Do you want to know what it is?”
“I would like to know that,” I said.
Hayden grinned, his lips pulling back from his teeth—making his smile more of a grimace. “It’s about Vigil.”
“Is it? What do you know about Vigil.”
“I know who he is under the mask.”
My heart sped up. I turned to Callum, who’d gone white. We’d had a discussion about this. He decided it wasn’t the end of the world if Hayden unmasked him now, considering that he had retired, put up his mask and costume. He didn’t have any reason to be Vigil anymore.
His brother Hayden was contained. He no longer hurt any girls.
And he didn’t have problems with me in bed anymore. At first, we’d had a few missteps, but I’d been right. All he needed was practice.
So Callum said it was okay if Hayden told. But I could see now that he really didn’t want that to happen.
“Who is he?” I asked, looking straight at Hayden.
“Underneath his mask, Vigil is…” Hayden spread his arms wide. “Erik. The Angel of Music. The Red Death.” He laughed like a hyena, throwing back his head.
Callum and I exchanged a look.
“Vigil is the Opera Ghost!” crowed Hayden.
He’d confused Vigil with the title character from The Phantom of the Opera. He’d lost it. He was completely out there. Crazy.
“Well,” I said. “He’s clearly confused.”
“Clearly,” said Callum, looking relieved.
I awoke to the noise of my window opening.
I sat straight up in bed.
Vigil climbed inside, dark as a shadow, lithe as a cat.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered.
“I just busted some criminals,” he said. “Thought you might want to write an article about it.”
I clutched my covers tight. “I thought you retired. I thought that you didn’t need to catch anyone except The Phantom.”
He crawled up the bed, snatching the covers away from me. “Well, I’ve been thinking about that. And… I don’t know. It just seems like maybe this city could still use someone like me. And I kind of miss it. So, tonight, I just thought I’d put the costume back on for old time’s sake.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Can’t you see the headline? ‘Vigil Returns’?”
It did have a certain ring. “Well, okay. I guess that makes sense. And I think Henry might like that story.”
He grinned. “Good.” He ran his hand over my bare thigh, all the way up to the edge of my white t-shirt. I still liked to sleep in that. It was comfortable. “Don’t you ever wear actual clothes that cover any meaningful parts of your body, Cecily?”
I slapped his hand away. “I thought you wanted me to interview you.”
“We could call it that if you want,” he said, putting his hand back, sliding it up over my belly.
I gasped.
“Shh,” he said. “You’ll wake up your roommate.”
I ran my hands over his shoulders, encased in their black spandex. “Well, I have to admit, I kind of missed the costume.”
“Admit it,” he growled in my ear. “The mask turns you on.”
“The mask turns me on,” I breathed.
“You know what turns me on?”
“What?”
“You,” he whispered, and his gloved hand traveled higher to close around my breast.
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Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels Page 78