Super•Villainous

XXXIX

"So I'm going to need you to break my arm. For science, of course."

Leigh blanched, her expression going momentarily slack, and then her righteous disbelief broke over me like a storm. "You want me to what? Did Shade give you brain damage when you were out in the wilderness all those weeks? Do you suddenly think I'm a mafia enforcer? Why the hell do you think I'd even know how to go around shattering kneecaps?"

"Actually," I interjected, "I said arm. Leave my kneecaps out of this."

Her withering glare tossed me back into silence. "Did you even bring anything for me to use?"

"You warmed up to this quicker than I thought if you're already considering it," I said, mildly impressed

"Shut. Up. So did you?"

I scoured our immediate surroundings for a large, blunt object, and came up blank. The rocks were too small, and the few branches I tried my hand at swinging against nearby trees splintered immediately. A large stump seated only a few yards away held promise, if I could use it as a fulcrum of sorts. The mental image of balancing my prone arm against it for someone to stomp on made me wince, but given that I lacked better options and this was all in the spirit of discovering just how deep my healing ability ran, I didn't have much of a choice.

"Okay, it's going to sound crazy, but hear me out..." I began, only for Leigh to cut me off mid-sentence.

"I don't want to hear it." Whipping out her phone from her coat pocket, she said, "I'm calling Nicole. I can't deal with you alone right now."

"Nicole doesn't know about this," I protested.

"Well, she's about to." Then Leigh's call connected and her voice brightened in that false, customer service way it often did when on the phone. "Hey, Nicky. Are you free right now? Mhm... perfect. Well, Lily and I were just thinking about you. You've been so busy since we graduated and all... Yeah... Yup. I'll send you our location... See you in half an hour. Oh, and bring a baseball bat. Or a hammer... No, you really don't want to know why. I'll tell you when you get here. Thanks... Ta-ta."

As she put her phone away, I rolled my eyes. "I can't believe you called her."

"We needed something to break your arm, didn't we?" she snapped, annoyed. "It was either I call her or my brother, since he already knows about your whole healing thing, but he's busy dealing with my mother today."

I shivered, suddenly very grateful for Mrs Courten's grand machinations to fashion her son into a socialite. An evil, supervillain socialite. What was the world coming to.

"So, is there a reason you wanted to meet in the middle of serial killer country instead of one of our houses?" she asked.

"If you're willing to risk your parents walking in on you attacking me, by all means, let's go to your house, but I have a feeling my dads won't appreciate it happening at the apartment where the neighbors could hear me yelling."

"Yeah, because that's the only reason they would possibly disapprove," she replied. "And my parents aren't even home. You're telling me I'm out here freezing my ass off for no good reason? No. Nope. Not happening. Get in my car. If I'm breaking your arm — I haven't even asked why I'm doing that yet, by the way, so that either makes me the ultimate Yes-Man or the best friend ever — I'll be doing it with some finer creature comforts." Her keys jingled as she pulled them out of her pocket, twirling them around her finger on her way back to her vehicle. "I'll text Nicole to meet us there."

I didn't move. "I'd really prefer not to."

"And I'd prefer not to get frostbite. Get. In. The. Car."

The driver-side door opened and Leigh flung herself into the leather seat. I flinched at the sound of the door slamming shut, closely followed by the subtle purr of the engine sparking to life. Hands on the wheel, she stared at me expectantly through the windshield, her challenging expression clearly telling me that if I didn't acquiesce to her demands very soon she held no qualms about running me over.