A thrill shot up Danny’s spine at hearing the more theatrical voice Cho used as Prometheus.
Rashid was still inching toward the shotgun. Cho noticed as well and subtly shook his head. This could get messy fast, but Danny knew he was faster.
Cho was faster too, apparently.
Rashid vanished beneath the counter. The robber turned his gun toward Cho, but Cho charged forward to intercept the kid’s swing and caught his wrist in his left hand, while his right hovered in front of the young man’s face like a threat. Danny never had to move a muscle.
Pulling himself and the robber down just as Rashid rose from beneath the counter and fired over their heads, Cho was up again the next moment as if he’d been expecting that. He backed the kid against the counter while Rashid looked on in horror at having nearly taken Prometheus’s head off.
The robber’s gun clattered to the counter with Cho pinning him, the chill of his touch on the kid’s wrist seeping into his jacket, making him hiss. Cho ripped his mask off with his other hand, icing the fabric in the process so that it crumbled like snow to the floor when he dropped it. Fifteen, all right. Maybe seventeen at most. And terrified.
“I won’t be seeing you in my neighborhood again, will I?” Cho said low and dangerous.
Even the kid’s breath came out frosted. He shook his head as he quivered beneath Cho’s weight and frigid touch.
“Good.” Cho stepped back, raised both hands while receding his ice until almost none of it remained, and gestured at the door.
The kid took off without looking back, leaving his gun behind.
“Rashid,” Cho put his hand on top of the handgun before Rashid could reach for it, “what did I say about being so trigger happy?” He spoke more like chiding a child than a grown shop owner, and the man dutifully set his own gun aside. “Thank you. And be more careful next time. I’m rather fond of my face. Now—”
“Sir, I have something for you, sir,” Rashid spoke quickly.
“Rashid, I don’t—”
“Please, sir, please,” Rashid said and ducked through a back door before Cho could protest further.
Danny realized he still stood where he’d stopped when they first entered. He’d barely even felt the breeze of the kid run past him, he was so focused on Cho and how flawlessly he’d handled the situation, like there was never a moment when he didn’t have complete control, even when things went south.
Cho looked back at him expectantly, and Danny took a few careful steps forward as he considered the building rush of—he didn’t know what he was feeling right now, but he knew it felt good. And exciting. Anddemanding.
“It’s not as if I’m one of the good guys,” Cho said, like he needed to excuse his behavior.
Cho was a villain. Danny couldn’t forget that. But he skirted the line between vile and virtuous enough that Danny could skirt the line too.
He set the bags on the counter. “Let’s go back to your apartment.”
“I have one more stop after this.”
“Skip it.”
Moving into Cho’s space to make sure he was being very, very clear, Danny met Cho’s curious stare without blinking.
“I want you tofuck me,” he said, low and quiet and rough. “Right. Now.”
Cho shuddered. Swallowed visibly. And eyed the tease of skin at Danny’s collarbone where his shirt opened.
Rashid came back and Danny stepped away, reclaiming the bags so they could make their exit. The cashier had a bottle wrapped in brown paper—wine or whiskey or something—that he handed to Cho with a flutter of words in that other language. This time, Cho didn’t try to reject the gift.
“And Rashid, if you really want to make this up to me, do me a favor. Give Teresa at the liquor store a message for me.” He mentioned Dunkirk again, said he needed to know the moment anyone spotted him.
“Of course, sir, Mr. Cho, sir,” Rashid said with a dip of his head.
“Thank you.”
They left the shop swiftly after that and Cho led them into an alley. His building was only a block or two down, but once they were safely out of eyesight from anyone on the streets, Danny grabbed hold of him around the waist and lightning jumped them straight to his apartment.
Chapter14
