"One more thing, Garrett." I drop all joviality. With my wolf's newfound attraction to a human, I'm suddenly not so certain about my own stability. "If I do ever go moon mad, promise me you'll protect Sam. And bring your whole pack in to stop me. Whatever it takes."
"Whatever it takes," Garrett vows. The silence hangs cold and serious between us. We both hang up without saying goodbye.
I drum my fingers against the desk, the warning a weight in my chest. Garrett did the right thing, bringing up moon sickness in the most tactful way possible. It irks me that it took this reminder to make me back off Kylie. The animal inside me is dangerous and just looking for a moment of weakness so it can break free.
No more tests of my control. No more games like today. I have to stay away from Kylie. For her own good.
I open my laptop, ready to immerse myself in work, when the chat pings.
Batgirl4u: Hey
For a second, I catch my breath, thinking I've found my nemesis at last-Catgirl, the hacker who broke my code years ago.
But no. It's Batgirl, with a B. And it's on our intranet, the private network my employees use. Except I only allow connections with my executive team. Which means I've been hacked.
King1: Who's this? I type, although I can guess.
Batgirl4u: Who do you think?
I shake my head. King1: Cute trick, kitten. But if you have time to hack our intranet, I need to get Stu to give you more to do.
Batgirl4u: Just proving my worth. You could send me that code you wanted to show me
The cursor blinks at me.
This isn't a good idea. I want to watch over her, but I can't. Today, I had a weak moment. I have too many of those around her. Like it or not, I am dangerous. Deadly. She thinks I'm not a villain.
She's wrong.
I power off my computer. Time for another run.
~.~
Kylie
After an hour waiting for King's reply, I power off my laptop and head home. I shouldn't have taunted him like that. I was showing off and, if I'm not careful, he might connect the dots some day and figure out I'm Catgirl.
Infuriating man. One day I think he's going to bend me over his desk and fuck me senseless, the next he's throwing me out of his office. Then he's back to flirting. And then he ignores me online. I can't keep up.
"Holy mixed messages, Batman," I mutter as I close my front door and pull off my heels. One thing's for sure, I'm not wearing these shoes for him again.
"Mémé? You home?"
A note on the table in my grandmother's loopy scrawl tells me she's run to the store, so I pick up the mail, pulling out the large manila envelope with no return address. I pry the flap with my thumb and rip it open.
A thick packet of papers emerged, with a typewritten cover letter.
Oh fuck.
My heart stops beating.
We know who you are, Catgirl, and have the proof to put you away.
To ensure our silence, you have twenty-four hours to install the code on this thumb drive into the main drive of SeCure.
If you do not comply, if you corrupt the files on the thumb drive in any way, or if you speak of this to anyone, we will send this packet to your new employer and the FBI.
No.
I struggle to breathe as I flip through the rest of the pages of the packet. They include all the evidence from my break into SeCure years ago, as well as IDs and photos of me and my parents under various aliases.
None with my real name.
Hell, even I've forgotten that.
My head throbs, and the room spins away. Someone found me. Maybe not him, but this is a huge threat.
First things first. Is there anything in this packet that can put me in jail?
I flip through the pages again.
No. But it will raise flags. SeCure will fire me, for sure. I'll lose the chance to work with Jackson King, not that it looks like we'd be working closely, but still. Goodbye to my chance at being normal.
But I can't do it and stay. If I give in to these guys, I'll be their bitch forever. Next, they'll ask me to hack into the credit card vault. Then somewhere else. I can't do that. I have to disappear. Like I've done a million times before.
I stomp to the bedroom, grab a suitcase from the closet, and fling it onto the bed. Without thought, my hands move, packing the necessities. Black clothes, one pair of each thing. A simple bag of toiletries.
Running again. It doesn't matter how hard I try to outrun Catgirl and my parents' legacy, the past always catches up with me.
But what about Mémé? We've moved so many times, I don't want to drag her on the road again. This time, our lives aren't in danger. It's not fair to make her pick up and move. Can I leave her?
She's the only family I have. Ditching her to keep her safe feels like what my father did to me, when he tried to stick me in boarding school after my mom died. I wouldn't let him, and I'll bet Mémé won't like being left behind, either.
Okay, so we'd both move. Mémé can make soup anywhere.
We have to run. We have to hide. What other choice do we have?
So much for my chance at normal.
I wrench open my drawer. The Batgirl shirt stares up at me.
"I can't," I say. "I'm not a superhero."