Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3)(64)

Hence the warning the other week. That worse was coming, either as part of Nyssa and Talia’s agenda, or…to hunt the woman before him. “So you left,” he said.

A slight nod.

He wanted to see her face. Wanted to know who he was speaking to, who had fought like a black wind tonight, who had dared walk away from the League, dared defy it—

“And as for why I’m working with Ivy and Harley…” A shrug. “Since I am no longer a part of the League, I need money to establish myself in Gotham.”

Luke blinked, jaw clenching. Right. That.

She went on, “I stole something valuable from Nyssa when I left.” Tigris’s warning echoed in his head. “I’ve been weighing options for potential buyers. But until I sell it, I’m low on funds.”

“What about just getting a job?”

She laughed quietly. “You’re terribly naive to say that.”

Luke stiffened. But instead of lunging for her, he lifted his forearm and finally dialed the GCPD. He gave a clipped explanation that a body had been found at this specific location, hung up, and growled at her, “Don’t even think about running.”

Because he was going to arrest her. Right now. He hit a button on his suit, the tech powering up, readying for the chase. His Bat-Cuffs clicked free from his Utility Belt.

Another soft laugh. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

His suit detected two others beside her. Right as Harley Quinn clenched two of those small circus-ball explosives—one in each hand—a gas mask covering her face. And Poison Ivy thumbed free one of the orchids from the vine snaking across her torso. Smoke rippled from it. Not to take him down but to cloud their escape.

“Hi, handsome,” Ivy drawled. Harley grinned.

Something sparkled at Catwoman’s fingertips.

The necklace. The Fox necklace.

When Tigris had slammed her into that case the second time, she must have swiped it. Too fast for even him to see.

The diamonds burned with blue fire in the moonlight. “Thanks for this,” Catwoman said, and took a step back.

Luke said tightly, “I have it on good authority that necklace is a fake.”

He’d had a replica made yesterday. Cubic zirconia and painted brass.

Total worth: a few hundred bucks.

Catwoman let out a low laugh, the sound echoed by twin rumbles. Motorcycles. Parked on the road a few feet away. She stepped back into the smoke. “Oh, I know.”

Then vanished.

Luke lunged through the smoke, dodging trees before he reached the quiet road.

She sped off into the night on the back of Harley Quinn’s motorcycle. Too fast for him to follow, even with the wings.

He should have grabbed her. Should have handcuffed her to Tigris and waited until the cops came. Should have…He had no idea.

A League assassin with a conscience.

Here to sell something that the League would kill for and Gotham City’s underworld would line up to buy.

His stomach turned. But even as it did, Luke recalled the way she’d fought. That low laugh. That frank, cool openness with which she spoke to him.

And the heat that rose through him, stretching his skin tight over his bones. An aftereffect of battle, of adrenaline. Even though he hadn’t thrown a single punch. Even if he’d stood there, gawking, while she fought. Beautiful, graceful, and utterly off-limits.

Trouble. He was in big, big trouble.





Selina had been on the run for a month and a half.

She’d taken money from Nyssa. Broken into the safe in her office and swiped her bank card out of her wallet, minutes before Selina had headed off on a mission for the League. She’d walked out of the compound right through the front doors.

She didn’t know how long it had taken them to figure out who had done it. Probably Talia herself had pieced it together. But by now it would be clear that Selina had taken a train not to Greece like she’d been ordered, but to Switzerland, where she withdrew all of the account’s cash, set up a fancy new Swiss bank account, and became Holly Vanderhees.

The hair, the nails, the clothes. The shoes, the bags, the jewels. The cars, the residences, the private plane. The last one was leased, of course, but all of it—the identity she’d built—purchased with Nyssa’s blood money. She only wished she’d had time to grab Talia’s, too.

And what Selina had brought along with her, the payoff from that…Worth it. Utterly worth it.

“So all of this trouble tonight,” Harley said over the motorcycle’s roar as they sped off into the night, “was over a fake?”

Selina had known it was a trap. Whether Luke Fox and his stupid apologies knew his family had been used, she had no idea. Didn’t care.

But it was interesting that Batwing cared about the Fox family. She stored that information away to puzzle over later.

Batwing himself was a problem. Mostly because she liked him. He definitely filled out that suit, but she…she just liked him. That relentless drive to protect the innocents in this city, no matter the cost. To fight past his own demons to do so. Which meant he was absolutely lethal for everything she was working toward.

And though she could tell he was equally intrigued by her, and could certainly use that to her advantage…

“He threw down a challenge,” Selina said. “We couldn’t let it go unanswered.” Hence why she’d had Ivy and Harley remain behind. Going in for a fake necklace hadn’t been worth the risk. So they’d waited here, on the outskirts, to retrieve her.