My Vigilante Valentine

Chapter 12

12

don’t make me regret this

The crowd at the candlelight vigil stood in somber silence, the flickering glow of their candles casting a soft, golden light over solemn faces. The air smelled like wax and burning wicks, but beneath that, there was something heavier.

A grief that settled into the cracks of the city, lingering like an unwanted presence before seeping into the very fabric of the night.

I stayed on the fringes, my hood up and my hands buried deep in my pockets.

I wasn’t here to be seen.

I was here because Luna was here.

And because, after an entire afternoon of trying to ignore her voice in my head, I already knew I had no choice but to say yes.

Her ultimatum in that storage room had echoed in my mind, refusing to be silenced. Even the version of Luna that lived in my head was unrelenting, demanding the answer I wasn’t sure I was ready to give.

Thankfully, she hadn’t given me a deadline or tried to argue her case again. Instead, she’d let me sit with it, and because I was a man who gave credit where it was due, I’d admit that it was a smart move.

Because now, standing in the middle of all this loss created by one horrible villain… the answer was obvious.

Yeah, sure, I could say no.

I could pretend like keeping her out of this was for her own good, and in some ways, maybe it was. What if her plan didn’t work? What if I failed to protect her, and then I only had myself to blame?

A chill burrowed itself deep in my bones. There was no way I’d let that happen.

But if I said no to her plan, then what?

As determined as I knew Luna Wilde to be… she’d find another way.

Only instead of fake dating me so I could keep her safe, she’d probably ask some other guy to help her play Nancy Drew.

And if they got themselves killed in the process? If something happened to her because I wasn’t close enough to stop it? Wasn’t fast enough to make it in time?

Those thoughts alone practically made my decision for me.

A hand brushed against my arm, and the fleeting touch sent a jolt of awareness through me. It was gone as quickly as it appeared, so brief it could’ve been an accident if I didn’t already know better.

Luna .

She didn’t look at me. Just kept her gaze on the front of the crowd, her grip steady on the pair of white candles in her hands.

I leaned in just enough that only she could hear me. “Seeing this isn’t making it any easier to accept your plan.”

She didn’t even blink—didn’t acknowledge me in the slightest. She just kept staring ahead, jaw set, back straight.

I sighed, shifting my focus back to the vigil, my hands clenched in my pockets.

Chris was somewhere nearby. I hadn’t spotted him yet, but I knew he was here. He’d texted Luna earlier to make sure she was coming.

He probably wanted to check on her, the way people did when bad things happened.

Historically, I didn’t do things like that. Not only did I not have anyone worth doing it for, I also didn’t know how.

But being here, staying close, and making myself available in case Luna needed anything?

That, I could do.

The names of the latest victims echoed through the night, spoken aloud by someone at the front of the crowd. There was a beat of silence, then a soft murmur as candles were lifted higher, swaying slightly in the breeze.

Luna exhaled next to me, a barely-there tremble in her breath.

It made something in my chest pull tight, though, because I knew it wasn’t just grief that I detected in that whisper of sound.

It was that stubbornness. That determination mixed with her strong will.

I knew then, as sure as I knew my own name—both of them, in fact—that she would do this with or without me.

And I wouldn’t let her do it alone.

The vigil carried on, voices weaving together in hushed remembrance, but I was already planning the next conversation we needed to have. Because after this, we weren’t just going back to the coffee shop to tell Chris about my secrets so he’d hopefully help us with the phone.

We were telling him that, starting now, Luna Wilde was my fake girlfriend—making us nothing more than bait on the hook of a killer.

It would be a dangerous game.

A completely desperate play.

And then? The real work could begin.

The candlelight vigil left a hollow ache in my chest. As comfortable as I was within Wilde Brew’s familiar setting, even being here couldn’t easily chase it away.

Luna unlocked the front door with shaky fingers, and the urge to reach out and steady her hand was almost overwhelming.

But I kept my distance, knowing that what she needed right now wasn’t comfort.

It was action.

When we made it inside, Luna flipped on minimal lighting, causing the usually bright and airy shop to be clouded with pools of amber and shadow.

“So, are we gonna talk about why you brought me to a closed coffee shop? Because if this is your way of telling me you two are dating, I gotta say—the cloak and dagger routine seems a bit unnecessary.”

Luna shot him a look that could’ve curdled milk. “Really? Little soon for dagger jokes after tonight, don’t you think?”

“Gallows humor.” He shrugged. “Now, answer the question.”

“About us dating?” Luna asked. She turned to me as if seeking my help, but when I only lifted a single brow, she rolled her eyes. “Chris, that’s not why we’re here.”

“Good,” he said, bringing an upside-down barstool off the counter so he could sit. “Because it’s not like that would be breaking news after the two of you spent like three hours in the storage room this afternoon.”

Luna gaped at her cousin. “Excuse you, it was not three hours!”

“You’re right. Closer to five.”

“Right, and you say I’m the one who has no grip on the passage of time.”

I watched this exchange with equal parts fascination and dread.

Their dynamic was... interesting .

Could I go from living in the shadows, only having my blades to keep me company to suddenly being trapped in cousin bickering 24/7?

Luna threw up her hands. “We’re here because we wanted to tell you that Jax is The Blade, and we need your help hacking into this phone that we think might be connected to the Valentine Villain.”

My brows nearly flew off my forehead.

Well. That was one way to do it.

Turned out, the unpredictability that was Luna Wilde might just be worth the headache of their bickering.

After all, she bickered with me, and I wasn’t too sure that I minded it.

Chris blinked as he processed Luna’s dramatic revelation.

Once.

Twice.

Then, his lips curved into a slow grin that was eerily similar to the one Luna used when she was about to say something that would drive me nuts.

“Huh,” he mused, stroking his chin. “I guess that explains a lot about his vibe.”

“I’m right here.”

He turned to me. “I know you are. And now that I’m looking closer, it’s very Bruce Wayne meets... actually, no. I think I’m picking up on some Winter Soldier energy.”

I couldn’t help it. A short laugh escaped. “You two are definitely related.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” they asked in unison, which only proved my point.

I crossed my arms, leaning against the counter. “Just that you both have an unhealthy obsession with comparing me to fictional characters.”

Chris’s eyes narrowed, studying me more carefully. “I’m actually not convinced you aren’t fictional.”

“Do I look fictional?”

“ Very ,” Luna replied without hesitation.

Chris wrinkled his nose at her, then turned back to me. “So, it’s true? You’re actually him?”

“I am.”

“Prove it.”

Luna stepped between us, hands on her hips. “He doesn’t have to prove anything. I’ve seen it myself. Multiple times.”

But when they both turned to look at me again, I was no longer standing in the same place they’d last seen me.

“Hey,” I said from behind them, my hand arcing in a short, sarcastic wave.

Chris sucked in a sharp breath, but Luna just rolled her eyes. “Okay, and there’s your proof.”

“But how did he do that?” Chris asked as I ambled back to my original position like there was nothing to see here.

“The same way he did it that day at the bank,” Luna replied.

Chris nodded to himself, my minor flex apparently working its magic on his skepticism. “So, that was you who saved us?”

I nodded once.

And though I did a good job at keeping my expression neutral, I internally recoiled as the memories of that day came flooding back.

The fear in Luna’s eyes when those men had burst in.

The way she’d tried to joke her way through it.

The moment she’d first seen me in action.

“That was you,” Chris repeated softly, like he was piecing together a puzzle. Then his eyes snapped to mine, sharp and assessing. “How? I mean, the way you move... it’s not normal. What’s your origin story?”

I fought off a snort as I glanced at Luna, surprised to find her watching me as if not intending to touch that question with a ten-foot pole.

Not in a bad way, like there was anything wrong with my story.

It was more that I could tell she was deferring to me. Letting me decide who got to know my story, and letting me be the one to tell it.

Whoever said knowledge was power obviously hadn’t met Luna. She didn’t seem at all interested in holding what she knew about me for ransom, and that was just another reason she was becoming so very…

Tolerable .

“That’s a longer story,” I finally told Chris, “and one you don’t get to hear. Not yet, anyway. You’re either in, or you’re out, purely based on what you know right now.”

Chris’s face went from mildly curious to completely baffled, and his gaze darted between Luna and me. “But she gets to know?”

“She does.”

“Why does she get to know, and I don’t?”

“What are you, five?” Luna cut in.

And even though I wanted to crack a smile at that, Chris’s question bounced around my brain hard enough to leave dents in the interior drywall.

It was so loaded with implications that I wasn’t ready to face… but, really, even if I had no intentions to give voice to it, the answer was pretty simple.

Because she was Luna.

Because somehow, she’d made me want to let someone in for the first time since the accident—and maybe even before it.

And because from the moment I’d walked into this shop, she’d gotten to me in a way no one else ever had.

In good ways and bad. I was still making up my mind.

Finally—and perhaps most importantly, considering how often I felt like an oddly fortunate freak show—because she made me feel...

Human .

“Are you in?” I asked instead, tracking the way Luna inhaled sharply, her chest rising with the motion, only to freeze there like she was holding her breath.

Chris had better hurry up with his answer so she didn’t asphyxiate due to her sheer stubborn will.

“I’m in,” Chris replied.

As Luna exhaled, I did too.

“The phone,” I said by way of response, holding out a hand toward Luna. She brought it over without a second’s hesitation, and I nodded my thanks before handing it to Chris. “Can you crack it?”

Chris nodded like a bobblehead, his eyes lighting up at the challenge.

And just like that, the tension broke.

Luna clapped her hands. “Perfect! And while you work on that, Jax and I can figure out the logistics of our fake dating plan.”

I groaned. “ Luna ?—”

“No,” she cut in as she stepped up with her finger aimed at my chest. “You don’t get to ‘ Luna ’ me right now. Not after what we saw tonight. Sam and Fatima were our friends in high school and my regulars here. They came in every Tuesday for their graduate work study dates, and now they’re gone because some psycho decided that the act of being in love was punishable by death.”

I stared down at her finger, conflicted.

Not only had she pointed it at my chest, but she’d stabbed it into my chest at various intervals during that tirade as punctuation.

The speed—and method—with which I would’ve handled that behavior from anyone else was enough to make me laugh out loud.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I just kept staring.

First, she made me fall in love with cookies that included more sparkle than cookie dough, and now I was letting her invade my space whenever she pleased, literally pushing my buttons the way no one else would dare?

Who was I, and what had this terrifying little woman done to me?

“Nothing to say?” she asked, her hands on her hips now.

I opened my mouth to reply, then shut it, only to repeat those steps a few more times.

“Jax, you’re gonna fake date me so we can catch this guy, and you’re gonna like it,” she said, and the wide grin she gave me was about ninety percent feral. “Now, can we please get started on the logistics?”

Chris’s head snapped up from where he’d been diligently digging into the phone. “Wait, fake date to do what, now?”

“You don’t wanna know,” I warned.

But it was too late.

Luna was already pacing, her hands moving as she talked. “Think about it. The Valentine Villain targets couples who are openly affectionate. Hand-holding. Canoodling. Kissing in a candlelit corner booth at the most romantic restaurants in town. All of his victims were seen doing those very things—either on security cameras or on social media—the night they were killed. So, if we want him to put us on his hit list, that’s what we’ll have to do.”

My throat was lined with concrete.

I glanced at Chris. He was staring at Luna, slack-jawed and frozen in place.

Yep .

That was about how I felt, but since I wasn’t the one hearing this plan for the first time, I had a feeling my shock was for an entirely different reason than his.

Plus, Chris was her cousin.

I highly doubted that the look on his face was the result of imagining what it would be like to hold hands with Luna, canoodling and kissing in a candlelit booth.

Nope. That metaphorical movie reel was playing only for me.

“Why do you look so shocked?” Luna asked Chris. She flicked a glance my way, but I must’ve masked my thoughts well enough because her attention returned to her cousin. “What better way to draw him out than to be the most sickeningly in love couple in Slate Harbor?”

At this rate, The Valentine Villain wouldn’t be the one to take me out.

No, that honor would go to Luna and her ability to put dangerous ideas in my head.

“You know…” Chris started, doing a little Luna-like pacing of his own now, “That’s actually not a terrible idea.”

I shot him a betrayed look.

That was it. If any of us survived our first mission, my first order of business would be disbanding this team.

Democracy. Pfft.

Who needed it?

Not I.

Chris shrugged, sending me an apologetic look that was about as useful as a broken parachute. “From a strategic standpoint? It really does make sense.”

“Thank you,” Luna preened, clasping her hands in front of herself and doing a little dance.

I swallowed. That really shouldn’t have been as cute as it was.

Desperate now, I dug deep, trying to find the guy I was before these people had turned me into such a sucker.

I couldn’t find him.

“I knew you’d be on my side,” Luna said to her cousin, giving him an angelic smile before tossing me a glare.

Chris shifted, and my eyes slid over him in a careful assessment.

Uh-oh.

Luna better brace herself…

“But…” Chris trailed off, and I internally fist-pumped the air.

Called it.

He stepped forward, sheepish now. “Lune. You know I’d back your play no matter what the game was. I’ve been doing it since that summer you went full Sherlock Holmes over a runaway cat that you were hiding in your bedroom.”

I tilted my head at Luna, lips pursed.

She waved me off.

“What’s your point?” she asked Chris with a sigh.

“My point, favorite cousin, is that while your plan is really smart, it’s equally dangerous.”

Chris looked at me, and I dipped my chin. “Couldn’t agree more.”

Luna threw up her hands. “Really? You’re both idiots. I don’t need either of you to go all overprotective caveman on me right now.”

“It’s not that simple,” Chris argued. “This is about keeping you safe.”

“And what about keeping everyone else safe?” she challenged, but this time her wrath was directed at me. “What about the next couple this guy targets? What if we could stop him before that happens?”

I tucked my lips between my teeth.

At the vigil, I’d wanted nothing more than to support her while she did what she could to bring this guy down.

I knew having her back was the right thing to do.

Truly, it wasn’t until she started painting a picture of what our fake date would actually look like that I slid back into the “no” camp.

And that?

Well, that wasn’t cool, no matter which way you sliced it.

Luna—1. Cavemen—0.

“Jax,” she added, softer now, “you’ll be right there. Nothing bad will happen to me with you around. I trust you.”

The faith in her voice was the final nail in my coffin.

She trusted me completely… and that was terrifying.

What if I failed?

What if I wasn’t fast enough? Strong enough?

What if?—

“Earth to Jax,” Luna sang, waving a hand in front of my face. “I can literally see you spiraling into worst-case scenarios right now. Stop it.”

I caught her wrist, gentle but firm—just like my next words. “Just tell me you know this isn’t a game, Luna.”

“I do,” she whispered. And she didn’t pull away, just stared up at me with those bright, determined eyes. “I was at that vigil too. I lit candles. I heard people crying. This is real, and I want to help put a stop to it.”

Chris cleared his throat. “She’s not going to let this go. I’ve known her my whole life. When she sets her mind to something...”

“It’s happening,” Luna finished with a grin.

“I’ve gathered that,” I ground out. “So, fine. We’ll do it. But that means we do it my way.”

Luna’s face lit up like I’d just handed her the keys to the Batcave.

And, great. The superhero references were rubbing off on me, now.

“Don’t make me regret this,” I added for good measure.

She bounced on her toes, practically vibrating with excitement. “You won’t. I promise. This is going to be amazing. We’ll be the most convincing fake couple ever. People will write songs about our epic love.”

“Luna.”

“Right, sorry. Getting carried away.” She mimed zipping her lips, but her eyes still danced. “Totally professional fake girlfriend from here on out.”

Chris snorted. “This is gonna be entertaining.”

I shot him a look. “Get back to the phone.”

“On it, boss.” He gave a mock salute, then turned away.

But as I watched Luna practically skip toward the storage room, muttering something about making a list of romantic activities that would attract a serial killer, I couldn’t help but wonder what I’d just gotten myself into.

And why—despite every logical reason not to—was I looking forward to finding out?