The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) (20 page)

“I was thinking of you,” Gordon says.

I hold up my hands. “I have
lightning
! I could have just zapped him in the first place! Which I was going to, if you hadn’t gotten in the way. And saying, ‘Hey, son, could you zap that bad guy over there?’ before you jumped into harm’s way would have been way easier than trying to communicate silently because there’s a gun pointed at you!”

“Actually... I wanted you to escape out the back and call the police.”

“Wow. And here I thought you didn’t want anyone to end up
dead
.”

“I acted out of instinct. It’s my job to protect people.”

“So, you thought I was too dangerous to do anything? Is that it?” That better not be it. I get that he doesn’t trust me to use my lightning power without hurting people, but... Okay, no, I don’t get it. And if he tells me he’d rather risk his freaking life than let me use my villain power, I’m going to seriously lose it. “Don’t tell me you were scared for that guy.” I point to the robber on the floor.

Gordon looks me in the eye. “Damien, I honestly just didn’t think about it. I’m not used to having someone around who can...”

“What? Kill people?”

He sighs. “Who can take care of themselves in a dangerous situation. I thought you’d... I don’t know what I thought. But you’re my son—I’m supposed to protect you, not the other way around.” He looks down at the robber on the floor. “I hate for any situation to come down to violence, but—”

“If you even try to say you wish I hadn’t done that, or that I could have hurt somebody—”

“—you did good.”

“Oh.”

“And...” He looks away, kind of guiltily. “I might have judged you too harshly before. About what happened with that superhero last semester.”

“You what?” I blink at him. “That must be the crazy talking. I know you just almost died, but don’t say anything you don’t mean.”

“Damien, I
do
mean it. What you said about your situation being similar to Riley’s...” He takes a deep breath and puts a hand on my shoulder. “You were right.”

Those three little words I’ve been waiting to hear. And it might just be the adrenaline, but I feel really good. Like maybe we understand each other better than I thought. “Thanks, Dad,” I mutter, not wanting him to know just how important it was to me that he said that.

The guy on the floor twitches. He seems pretty out of it, but he manages to look up at us and say, “I did it for the Truth.”

The warm, happy feeling disappears and my blood runs cold. My mind races, thinking maybe I misheard him. Even though I know I didn’t.

Confusion spreads across Gordon’s face. “That’s a strange thing to say. The truth?”

“The Truth will be heard,” the robber guy mumbles, his voice partially drowned out by approaching police sirens.

“What truth?” Gordon asks.

“He’s pretty messed up,” I tell him, kind of hating myself for it. And for how quickly the lie comes out of my mouth. “He probably doesn’t know what he’s saying.” His eyes look kind of unfocused, so he really might not. Even if I do.

Some guy who knows about the Truth tried to rob this superhero diner. He could have shot Gordon, or me. And maybe there is something to what Kat said, about how I should warn him. But maybe Grandpa has a good explanation for this. This guy might not actually be associated with the Truth at all. I should find out, before I blow Grandpa’s secret.

Except that, after everything we’ve been through today, it feels wrong to keep this from Gordon. Not saying anything after all this is kind of like lying to his face. But then the police rush in, asking Gordon what happened and who stopped the bad guy. And he beams at me, all proud and stuff, and says, “My son saved everyone. He’s a hero.”

So I swallow back any doubts I have about not telling him what I know. Because Gordon isn’t disappointed in me for once, and the last thing I want to do is screw that up.

He thinks I’m a hero. So why remind him that I’m a villain?

“T
HAT’S NEVER GOING TO happen again,” Grandpa says on the phone Saturday. “You have my word.”

I’m sitting on my bed up in my room, because of course I can’t have this conversation downstairs where someone might hear me. Even though it’s kind of freezing up here in the attic. It’s so cold, I actually have on my Heroesworth sweatshirt I got for Christmas, because all my other coats are in the hall closet by the front door.

“How did it happen in the first place?” I ask him. “Because that’s two days in a row now I’ve had a gun pointed at me, no thanks to you.”

“Damien. You have my sincerest apologies about that. The first time was necessary, but the second... That shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t sanction that. You think I’d do all this work and get villains organized to stand up for their rights, and then blow the whole thing by having my guys go out and commit petty thievery? We’ve got better things to do than that.”

I’d like to believe him. I
do
believe him, as far as them having better things to do goes. “It was a superhero diner.”

“So?”

“So, I think it was more than petty thievery. I think it was a hate crime.”

He laughs at that, as if that couldn’t possibly be what happened. “One of those tourist traps? They’re just for out-of-towners. Real superheroes don’t eat at places like that.”

“My dad was there!” And me. Not that I picked that place or anything, but I can still do the math. He doesn’t think I’m a real superhero. Or he just doesn’t want me to be one.

“I’m sorry,” Grandpa says grudgingly. “But I promise we didn’t have anything to do with it. We’re not responsible.”

“Then who is?”

“Some idiot who got it into his head that being pro-villain means being anti-superhero. You know how it is—I tell my guys about the Truth and bring them in on it. Then they bring in their guys, and so on. That’s how I’m building this organization, with people I can trust. But I can’t always control who
they
trust, and somewhere down the line someone made a mistake. They trusted the wrong guy, and he not only flew off the handle, using the Truth as some excuse for a robbery, but he pointed a gun at
my
grandson. You don’t get much stupider than that.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t have control over everyone in the Truth.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“But how can you be sure this won’t happen again? No one got hurt, but they could have, and—”

“I’m taking care of it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you have nothing to worry about.”

I’m thinking over my answer to that when there’s a knock at my door. “It’s me,” Sarah says on the other side.

I tell her to come in. Then I tell Grandpa I have to go.

“Wait a second,” he says. “I want you to know what a great job you did yesterday. You shouldn’t have had to be in that situation, but that guy would have tried to rob that place whether you were there or not. And because of you, everything turned out all right. No one got hurt, and no one found out about the Truth.”

“Are you praising me for being a hero?” I motion for Sarah to have a seat on the bed.

“The way I see it, you kept our secret from getting out too soon. Thanks to you, villains still have a chance to be heard. So you can call that whatever you want, but I know what you’ve done for villainy. Think about that.”

I don’t promise him anything. I just tell him I have to go and hang up.

“Are you okay?” Sarah asks me.

I slip my phone in my pocket. “You mean because I stopped an armed robbery yesterday?”

“You said this was an emergency.”

“No, I said it was urgent.”

“That means it’s an emergency.”

“It means I needed you to come over here right away.”

“Like an emergency. And you never want to hang out on Saturdays, because that’s when Kat comes home. So I figured it must have been something really serious.”

I roll my eyes at her. “Kat’s stuck at school this weekend. I mean, not that I can’t hang out with you even if she’s not. But I called you here to talk about the future.” I stand up and clear my throat, holding my arms behind my back.

Sarah’s forehead wrinkles. “I don’t think you should drop out of Heroesworth. You don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“What? Who said anything about dropping out?”

“I just figured, because your mission went so badly...”

“It was
one
mission, Sarah.”

“I know.” She sounds relieved. “That’s what I’m telling you. So don’t give up. You still have a future, and you never know what could happen.”

“I was talking about
your
future.”

“Oh.” She looks away and picks a piece of fuzz off my new comforter.

“Yeah. Because your so-called ‘award-winning’ boyfriend informs me you’re going to college after high school is over.”

“He hasn’t won yet. He was just nominated. You know that.”

“Focus, Sarah. He said you were going to college, but I’ve called you here today to rethink that decision.”

“But—”

I clear my throat. “Exhibit A.” I point to her. “You’re already successful in your chosen field. What can some school really teach you, anyway?”

Sarah’s expression sours. She scoots back onto the bed and draws her knees up. “I’m not successful. I keep hurting people, or almost hurting people.”

“Someday you’re going to get over that and realize you’re not a maniac. And don’t think I’ll be above saying ‘I told you so,’ because I’m not.”

“And it’s not my chosen field. They don’t really teach gadgetry at college, but I was going to maybe do robotics. Except now I’m not. Because...” She splays her hands out in front of her, palm up, and studies them. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I might do math instead. Or art history.”

“Art history? Sarah, you can’t major in art history.”

“You can. I checked. All the schools on my list have it.”

“That’s not what I meant.” I sigh and sit down on the bed with her. “You’re not interested in art history. And you’re really good at making things.”

“Things that explode.”

“Well...” She’s got me there. “That’s not the only thing you’re good at. I think going to college would be a waste of your talents. Not to mention a waste of time that you could be spending as my sidekick instead. Why put all that money and effort into school when you could join the working world right off the bat? With, you know, your dream job.”

Sarah looks at me like I’m crazy. “My dream job isn’t being your sidekick.”

“We’ll work on a new title.”

“It’s not even a job. We don’t get paid.”

Right. I was hoping she wouldn’t notice that part. “Riley’s going to join the League, but I’m still going to be here for you.”

“You don’t want to be alone, you mean.” She gives me this skeptical look, like she’s got me all figured out. Which maybe she does.

“Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. This is about you, not me. I’m just telling you that even if Riley’s going to abandon you and join the League, you can still count on your best friend. Which is me.”

“Joining the League isn’t the same as abandoning me. Riley wouldn’t do that.” She pauses. “He’s not abandoning you, either.”

I wave that away, dismissing it, as if it had never even occurred to me. “I don’t care what he does with his life. We’re not even working together anymore—I don’t need him.”

“You say that, but you failed your mission and then got kicked out of class.”

“I didn’t fail the mission. But even if I did, it was Amelia’s fault. And I only got kicked out of class because our teacher is a letterist bitch.”

“So you don’t care that Riley might be getting an award? For work he did without you?”

“Where are you getting this stuff? Of course I don’t care.”

Helen shouts from downstairs, her voice muffled. “Damien! You have a visitor!”

Yeah, I know. She’s a little late with that. And why can’t she just text me?

“I’ll admit that me and Riley made a good team,” I tell Sarah. “But so do the two of us.”

“You don’t need my gadgets anymore, since you have lightning.”

There are footsteps on the stairs. I guess because I didn’t shout back at Helen that I heard her, so now she’s coming to tell me in person.

“Don’t reduce yourself to just being about the gadgets, Sarah. All Riley can do is turn invisible, but I still find ways for him to be useful.”

Sarah’s eyebrows jump up. “That’s not how he puts it.”

There’s a knock at the door. “I heard you!” I shout at Helen. Then, to Sarah, I say, “It’s not your gadgets that are important. Maybe I don’t need them anymore, to attack bad guys. But I do need
you
.”

The door opens. I’m about to tell Helen that I said I heard her—I didn’t say to come in. But it’s not Helen standing there. It’s Kat.

“Kat!” I jump up from the bed. I don’t know why. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think it will make me look excited to see her, which I am. But I’m pretty sure it just makes me look guilty. Even though I haven’t done anything to be guilty for. It’s not a crime for me to hang out with one of my best friends. “I thought you weren’t coming home this weekend.”

“Our teacher extended the deadline for our project, so I thought I’d surprise you.” She bites her lip, glancing back and forth from me to Sarah, looking hurt. “You need her?”

I swallow. “It’s not what it sounds like.”

“Really? Because it sounded like you were talking about doing superhero stuff together.”

“Oh. Well, then it kind of is what it sounded like.”

“He was just upset,” Sarah says, “because he’s not going to have anyone left after everybody graduates.”

“
Sarah
.” I say her name through clenched teeth. “You’re not helping.”

Kat glares at me. “Nobody, Damien? Seriously?”

“I, uh, didn’t mean you. I mean, I thought you’d have something else to do, after you graduate, and you’re not a superhero, so—”

“Neither is she!”

“I know, and of course I want to work with you, too. It’s just... Sarah’s my sidekick, and you’re going to Vilmore. You can’t waste that on doing superhero stuff. Plus, your dad would kill you.”