Page 37 of Devil’s Candy

I wave my hand. “No more than normal.” Then I look at Rock…

“Fuck it,” he says and walks over, opens the door and climbs into the passenger seat of the car.

With a salute, I turn toward the driver’s side.

Rock looks even more ridiculous than me in an Accord.

“Seat belt,” I mutter as I buckle mine.

“For fuck’s sake,” he grouses even as he buckles the belt.

“Pull your hood up. Our goal is not to be seen.”

Rock looks over at me then. I know he’s starting to understand. “Won’t the police be more suspicious with my hood on my head?”

“In an Accord? I doubt it. And no one else will recognize you either. Put on sunglasses. I have a spare pair in the glove box.”

“That’s why you drive this car?”

“Did Killian not explain? We want to escape everyone’s notice. Cops. Pedestrians. Criminals.”

He grunts. “But my GT3 rips. You’re telling me this thing is going to get you out of a jam?” Rock sneers at the plain dashboard.

I scoff. “How many times have you needed to make a high-speed getaway?”

He doesn’t answer.

“You drive that car for your vanity, and you justify to yourself that it’s for your own safety. But the truth is, this car will enter a stream of traffic and disappear. You don’t have to go fast. You go silent. Don’t lead with your ego and you will be amazed at how much more you can accomplish.”

He scratches at his jaw. “Killian says a lot of the same things.”

“Does he?”

“You two are a lot alike.” He clears his throat. “I thought I wanted to be a shadow, like you are, like he is, but I can’t seem to let some shit go…”

Deep down, Killian and I likely both started in the same place. Observers. “Do you like to watch first or hit first?”

“Watching makes me feel like shit.”

I turn to him as I pull out of the alley and into traffic. “What do you mean?”

He shrugs. “When I was a kid, I could feel people’s emotions like waves in the air. They made me weak.”

“Hmm,” I say, studying the man I thought I understood. “And now?”

Rock has real potential if what he says is true. He’s strong, he’s a good fighter, and he strikes the right notes of fear. But what I thought was emotional unawareness is actually masking. Can he pull the mask away and retain his toughness?

“Sometimes I let them back in. When I do, they overwhelm me still.”

I give a curt nod. I can sense movements but not feelings. Feeling other people’s fear, anxiety, sadness would be a tough tightrope to walk. “You have a gift if you can learn to use it.”

He looks over at me. “Killian said that too.”

I don’t actually need the reminder that Killian is a younger, maybe stronger version of me.

I focus back on Rock.

“What am I feeling right now?”