Chapter 35
Chapter thirty-five
Mandie
Ilay on my side. Teddy’s arm was draped over my waist like a heavy anchor. His breath was warm against the back of my neck. It was steady and even, the sleep of a man who had finally stopped running.
I should’ve pulled away. I should’ve rolled out of bed, grabbed my clothes, and walked out before he woke up. But the weight of his body pressed against mine kept me still. The scent of sweat and sex still clung to the sheets.
My gaze flicked to the chair in the corner.
His suit was there, folded neatly. The fabric was dark, but a faint pulse of gold threaded through it.
It wasn’t just a costume. It was a second skin.
It was what turned him into Quantum Knight.
The man who could bench-press a truck. The man who’d spent months lying to my face.
I exhaled through my nose. "Does that thing glow because you like the attention?"
Teddy’s fingers twitched against my hip. His voice was rough with sleep. "Depends on who’s paying attention."
I turned my head just enough to glare at him over my shoulder. "Cute. But I’m not asking for a poetry reading. I’m asking why your suit looks like a gold disco ball."
He shifted, propping himself up on one elbow.
The sheet slipped lower to expose the ridged planes of his stomach.
His chest was bare, marked only by the faint scar above his collarbone.
I’d traced that scar with my tongue last night when he’d pinned me to the mattress and whispered things I wasn’t supposed to want.
"Nanotech circuits," he said, as if it was obvious. "Activated by neural impulse. Strength, speed, durability. It's enough to lift a car or jump forty feet straight up."
I rolled my eyes, but the corner of my lips twitched. "Convenient. And here I thought you were just really committed to your gym routine."
His thumb brushed the tattoo on my forearm. "I am committed. But even I have limits."
I huffed a laugh, then sobered. "How’d you afford it? Last I checked, ‘trust fund baby’ doesn’t usually cover ‘billion-dollar super suit.’"
Teddy’s smirk deepened. His brown eyes darkened with something that wasn’t amusement. "Well, it started as a trust fund when I turned eighteen. It is a lot more now."
I turned fully onto my back. I crossed my arms under my breasts, aware that the tank top I’d thrown on had ridden up to expose the ink snaking over my ribs. "You’re telling me you’ve been sitting on more money this whole time?"
He leaned in, his shoulder brushing mine.
"I’m telling you I took what I had and turned it into more.
There was Crypto. Tech investments. Strategic acquisitions.
" His fingers trailed up my arm to trace the lines of my tattoos.
"I didn’t just build the suit, Mandie. I used my money to build the Keystone. The jet. The whole damn operation."
I stared at him. The cutting-edge tech. The fact that he’d assembled a team of superpowered misfits without batting an eye.
"You’re a billionaire? You have to be, to afford all this."
He shrugged. "Give or take."
I let out a slow breath. "And you never thought to mention this?"
Teddy’s expression didn’t change, but his fingers stilled on my skin. "Would it have mattered?"
I opened my mouth, then closed it. "Actually, not really. I knew you were rich. I just didn't know you were rich rich."
It was then one of the cleaning bots came into the room, beeping. This one was covered in black with gold pipe cleaners to make out the circuits. On the head was a face drawn with a permanent marker. Eyes crossed and tongue hanging out.
We both looked at each other.
“Craft project,” I said.
“I see the resemblance.”
His hand closed over mine to press my palm flat against his skin. His heartbeat was steady beneath my fingers.
I pulled my hand back to put a fraction of space between us. "What else haven’t you told me?"
Teddy’s gaze dropped to my mouth. "Nothing that matters."
"Bullshit."
He exhaled, low and rough. "The suit has a self-repair function. The Keystone is powered by a fusion reactor I ‘borrowed’ from a black-site military project. And I may or may not have a private island in the Caribbean."
I blinked. "Oh, I know about the island."
"Really?"
"Yeah. The guys took me there.”
"What?"
"Yup. Built a little superhero theme park for me."
"Those knuckleheads," he muttered, shaking his head.
"You never built me a theme park. And for that, I hate you."
His smirk returned, slow and satisfied. "No, you don’t."
"What else are you hiding?"
He didn't answer. The smirk vanished.
"I know you," I pressed. "I know when you are hiding something. And it isn't just from me. You are hiding something from the whole team."
"We are going to need a drink for this one." He got off the bed and walked to the wine cabinet built into the wall. He opened it and paused. "Where's all the wine?"
"I was here for forty-five days."
"But there were eighty bottles in here."
"I repeat. I was here for forty-five days."
He rubbed his face and raked his hands through his hair like he was desperate. "Alright. We do this without alcohol."
He sat back down and he told me everything.
I mean everything. His childhood. His parents. The origin of the nightmare we were living in. The shock of it all left me speechless until he finished the very last word.
I just stared at him.
"You have to tell the team," I said finally. "They need to know this."
The look in his eyes told me he really didn't want to. But he knew it was necessary.
We walked out into the common room together. The others were already there, scattered around the couches, tension radiating off them in waves.
"Great, you guys haven't killed each other yet. There is still hope," Johnny joked from the armchair.
I ignored him. "Teddy has something he needs to tell you guys."
Teddy took the floor. He fidgeted with his fingers, looking like he wasn't sure he could do this. I knew he could.
"I know a lot more about what is going on than I've been telling you,” he started. "I know who Capital Punishment is. I have known for a long time. It’s Victor Scarpetta."
"Wait." Matt frowned. "Isn't that Mandie's boss? The guy we keep seeing on TV?"
Teddy nodded. "Yeah. That is him. But it's worse than that. There is an ancient power source. Have any of you ever heard of the Elamites?"
They all shook their heads.
"It was a civilization in ancient Iran. We are talking super old. Not many people have heard about it. Victor was always an asshole. He screwed over some business partners, but they were able to push him out before he got the upper hand. He wanted revenge."
"That sounds like him, alright," Roger noted.
Teddy continued. "He heard about this ancient power the Elamites believed in.
He took it seriously. He went into the Zagros Mountains looking for it and found a tomb for Inshushinak, the Elamite Judge of the Dead.
He touched a seal made of black bitumen.
" Teddy swallowed hard. "That living tar didn't just cover him. It hollowed him out and filled him with the Kitin. That is their law of absolute, brutal order. He calls himself Capital Punishment because he believes he’s the only one left with the authority to pass the sentence.
To him, there is no mercy. Only the execution. "
"Who the fuck does he want to punish?" Donovan asked.
"Anyone who has ever wronged him in the past. And I do mean anyone."
"How do you know all this?" Sebastian asked. It was the most important question.
Teddy took a deep breath. He looked at me for a second, gaining strength, then turned back to the team.
"He is my father. My biological father."
The room froze.
"That is some Darth Vader shit," Johnny whispered.
"I didn't really know him growing up. He was never a father to me. In fact, my mom never even talked to him." Teddy fought back tears. "He raped her. That is how I was conceived."
The silence in the room turned suffocating.
"My mom sued him," Teddy forced out. "She used the money to set up a trust fund for me. Then she took her life when I was twelve. I have been following Victor ever since. I wanted revenge. I built my own fortune, my own set of skills. Finally, I was ready for my revenge. But he suddenly got these powers. It made him stronger than any superhero in the world. My suit was useless against him. At least alone.”
"Shit," Matt muttered. “That’s why you needed our help.”
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you guys before.
I just… I am not good at this. I am not as good as Johnny, handling a father as a supervillain.
Victor is a piece of work. That scar on his neck?
It came from the knife my mom used to defend herself.
When I graduated high school, the bastard sent me a copy of Frankenstein, like he was gaslighting me to think he was Dr. Frankenstein and I was the monster. ”
“Bro, that is way worse than my dad,” Johnny said.
"This next part I don't know too well," Teddy admitted. "The tomb gave him his powers, but to reach his full potential, he has to collect eight different items from around the world. The tomb only reveals the location of one item every sixty days. He has six so far."
He looked around the room, his face grim.
"If he gets two more, I don't think we can stop him. He is obsessed with power. He will enslave anyone.”
The weight of Teddy’s confession hung in the air like a storm front, thick, electric, suffocating.
I sat on the couch, arms crossed, feeling the eyes of every man in the room.
The others were scattered like debris from an explosion.
Roger leaned against the wall. Sebastian perched in an armchair.
Johnny sprawled on the couch, squeezing his stress ball like it owed him money.
Matt was a silent mountain in the corner.
Donovan stood near me, a shadow against the sleek furniture.
Teddy stood shirtless, his suit folded neatly on a chair. He looked like he’d just run a marathon and won, but the faint scar on his chest rose and fell with his breathing.
I exhaled through my nose, tapping my fingers against my arm. The room was too quiet. We’d just been hit with the kind of revelation that should have had alarms blaring.
Then Teddy opened his mouth.
"I know you’re all sleeping with Mandie," he said. His voice was casual. Like he was commenting on the weather.
My head snapped up. The room froze.
Johnny’s stress ball hit the floor with a dull thud. Roger’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. Sebastian paused mid-steeple. Matt’s jaw tightened. Donovan didn’t move, but I felt his gaze on me, heavy and unreadable.
I stared at Teddy, my brain short-circuiting. Did he just—?
"And honestly," Teddy continued, glancing around the room like this was a standard debrief, "I don’t mind."
Silence.
Then—
Johnny burst out laughing. It was sharp, bordering on hysterical. "Oh, come on," he wheezed. "That’s your big follow-up to ‘my dad is a superpowered psychopath’? ‘Hey guys, by the way, cool if I share my ex’?"
Roger choked on air, coughing into his fist. "Jesus, Teddy. You’ve got timing."
Sebastian tilted his head, dissecting the statement like a fascinating specimen. "Unexpected. But not entirely illogical, given the circumstances."
Matt grunted, rubbing a hand over his beard. "You’re tellin’ me you’re fine with this?" he asked, voice rough. "After everything?"
Teddy didn’t flinch. He met Matt’s gaze, then mine. There was something raw in his eyes, pain, pride, surrender.
"I’m not an idiot," Teddy said softly. "You are all capable men. And she is the most beautiful woman any of us has ever seen. You were all stuck here together for weeks. It was inevitable." His gaze flicked to me, and the mask slipped. "I’d rather she were with people I trust than out there alone."
My chest tightened. Goddamn him.
I cleared my throat, deciding to reclaim some ground. "Alright, let’s just make one thing clear. You guys are on my roster. That is all."
"Oh, come on," Roger teased, elbowing me with a grin. "You like us."
I couldn't help but smile. "Maybe I like you all a little bit." I pointed a finger at Teddy. "Except for you."
I grabbed a throw pillow and launched it at his head. He caught it easily, a genuine smile breaking through his exhaustion.
"That is fair," he admitted.
"So," Johnny said, sobering up. "How do we stop your crazy bio-dad from becoming an all-powerful god?"
Teddy slumped into a chair, the pillow resting on his lap. "We need to fight better as a team, that's for sure. It is my fault we aren't cohesive. I kept too many secrets."
"Mandie has been helping us," Matt rumbled. "Team-building exercises. Playing games. Talking."
"Yeah," Roger said, his voice dropping an octave. His eyes darted around the room, landing on me with a heated look. "But we all know which team-building exercises were our favorites. The ones where we really got along."
The air in the room shifted instantly. The tension wasn't about the impending apocalypse anymore. It was about something else entirely.
Johnny sat up straighter. "Are you really suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"
Roger shrugged, but his grin was predatory. "Chemistry is chemistry."
Donovan stepped forward, his voice quiet but firm. "If we do anything like that, we need to hear from Mandie first."
The room went silent again, waiting. Five pairs of eyes locked onto me. The leader. The soldier. The speedster. The genius. The monster.
I didn't hesitate. I shot my hand up like a missile.
"I volunteer as tribute!"