My Vigilante Valentine

Chapter 24

24

no matter what

The lights of the city filtered through my open windows when I opened my eyes, and for once, I didn’t immediately jump back into vigilante mode after my afternoon nap.

Instead, I let myself enjoy the quiet moment, thinking about how different everything felt now that I wasn’t alone in this fight.

Having a team—having Luna—had changed things. Changed me.

Even with The Valentine Villain still out there, even with our trap set for tonight, I felt... lighter.

More focused, somehow, even though losing my focus was what I was initially afraid of.

Maybe it was because I was no longer carrying the weight of the city on my shoulders alone. Or because having people I cared about made doing what I did even more important.

Sure, I still worried. But Luna could handle herself, and more importantly, I trusted her to follow instructions and work together to keep each other safe when it really mattered.

I reached for my phone to check the time, knowing I needed to head back to the shop soon for the party.

But the second I saw the screen, my stomach dropped.

Three missed calls from Luna…

And a text that made my blood run cold.

Luna: He knows who you are. He knows we’ve been trying to trap him. I’m coming over. Something feels wrong.

The timestamp showed it was from less than an hour ago—while I’d been sleeping.

If Luna had come over... where was she now?

I was on my feet in an instant, and then, there—by the door. A splash of red caught my eye, and I moved closer, my body tensing as I recognized what it was.

A vintage Valentine’s Day card.

One of his calling cards.

The paper was aged, yellowing at the edges, and my hand shook as I picked it up. Inside, written in an elegant script that seemed to mock me with its formality:

Love makes us weak.

Let me prove it.

I think she’ll last longer than

most before the fear sets in.

Come find her where

broken hearts go to die.

-VV

The card crumpled in my fist as rage surged through me—hot and violent and all-consuming. But beneath it was something worse.

Fear .

Cold, paralyzing fear that wrapped around my chest like a vice.

Luna…

I burst out of my apartment at my full, enhanced speed, the hallways blurring around me as I raced out of the building.

The streets were empty at this hour, which was good because I didn’t bother to hide my abilities as I blasted over to Wilde Brew like a freight train.

Let them see. Let them wonder. Let them post their blurry photos on social media about the shadow that moved too fast to track.

None of it mattered if she was?—

No .

I wouldn’t finish that thought. I needed to stay tactical.

The Marine in me knew that emotions would only cloud my judgment, but the man in me?

The one who’d woken up to find that creepy Valentine—smelling faintly of something chemical—under his door?

That man wanted blood.

Movement caught my eye at the shop, and I screeched to a halt in front of a panicked Chris.

He was already outside, his usual tech-wizard demeanor replaced by terror.

“Tell me she’s with you,” he called out the second I came into focus. “Her phone’s off, but it last pinged near your building, so I thought?—“

I held up the card, and his words died in his throat.

“Is that…? When?” he demanded. “How?”

“Found it under my door just now. You were the last one to see her. What happened?”

Guilt flashed across his face. “We figured out he knew who you were. She said she was going to tell you what we found, and I?—”

“What did you find?” I cut in.

I couldn’t let him finish that sentence. Not if it meant hearing him say that he’d let her go off alone.

Now was not the time to react to that.

I couldn’t get distracted by misplaced anger at Chris when the one I actually wanted to kill had Luna somewhere else.

“He’s been watching all of us.” Chris’s voice cracked. “I found surveillance photos. He knows who you are, Jax. Everything about you, going back way farther than all of this. But mostly? He knows about the two of you , what you mean to each other. I kept digging after Luna ran outside, and there’s stuff on there that makes me think you two are the whole point. You tried to stop him?—”

“With her by my side,” I finished, the words coming out through clenched teeth. “Show me.”

Chris nodded, and we hurried into the shop. I needed to see it for myself in case there were any clues as to who this psycho was or how I could stop him.

Luna’s cheerful Valentine’s Day decorations mocked us as Chris pulled up the photos on his laptop, and each one was like a knife to the gut.

The two of us together, looking at each other like...

Like we were in love.

Because we were.

And now he had her, all because I’d let myself believe I could have this—have her —without consequences.

“The card,” I said, grabbing it back from Chris. The smelly paper crinkled in my grip. “Where broken hearts go to die. What does that mean?”

Chris’s fingers flew over his keyboard with the kind of speed that would’ve impressed me any other time. “Give me a second. Cross-referencing with known locations that could be tied to Valentine’s Day, hearts, The Valentine Villain...”

I paced, every cell in my body screaming at me to move, to search, to do something .

But the tactical part of my brain—the part that had kept me alive through countless missions—knew better. Rushing around without a plan would only put Luna in more danger.

She’d kill me herself if I got myself hurt trying to save her in that way.

“Wait.” Chris’s typing intensified. “There’s an abandoned cardboard factory on the east side. Paper goods—and it says right here a company once used it to make Valentine’s cards before they went under. Could be?—“

I was already moving. “Send me the location.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No.” I turned back, letting him see the darkness I usually kept hidden. The killer inside that the serum had enhanced along with everything else. “He knows who I am, which means he’s prepared for what I can do. I need you running tech, like in practice. Be my eyes and stay in my ears.”

He hesitated only for a second before he nodded resolutely. “I’ve got your back.”

“I know.” I started to leave, then paused. “Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“If anything happens to me...” The words tasted like ash. “Get her out. No matter what.”

His expression hardened with determination. “Nothing’s going to happen to either of you.” A ghost of his usual snark appeared. “Now go get our girl. And Jax? Make him regret this.”

I didn’t need to be told twice.

Luna was waiting. And this time? This time, I wouldn’t hold back.