Grant

Chapter Six-Peter

Panic stabs me like a cold knife and my hand shoots out to grab her arm.

"Where. The. Hell. Is. Peter." I ask and she sighs.

"Look, they wanted him alive. The apartment...they were waiting at the apartment." Before she's even done speaking, I'm sprinting out of the facility. My jacket left behind me and my tie along with it. I straddle my bike and Destiny appears out of the shadows in front of me.

"Out of the way or you're dead!" I shout and rev the bike.

"Stop! They're after you too! If you go, you're dead!" She tells me, gold eyes bright and glowing in the moonlight.

"Fine! As long as I get to Peter! Move, or you're flat." Slowly, I start moving and she moves to the side, then I'm off like a comet.

The minute I get to the apartment I'm up and storming through the door.

It's wrecked. Shards of glass from the windows littering the scratched floorboards, stuffing from the couch thrown every which way, and most importantly; no Peter. Despite this, I fly through the rest of the apartment to check for him but find nothing. My search stops at the broken window next to the fire escape and ever so gently I reach out to snag a wisp of grey fabric clinging to a shard of glass.

Looks like part of his sweatshirt. Holding it up to my nose reveals the familiar smell of our laundry detergent and the just Peter smell of cinnamon. Usually from churros. The panic in me reaches a crescendo and I scream, scream like a banshee so whoever took him knows they're going to die. Feeling a creeping up my spine, I spin on my heel to find Destiny in the doorway.

"Explain shortly and concisely or I'll stain my nice floor with the tattered remains of your body." I promise and she looks at me with wide, fear-stricken eyes. "Come on! You're not under anyone's control, I'd see it in your eyes. What did you do and why the hell did you do it?"

"I didn't want to!" She combats and roughly wipes a tear off her cheek. "Spider-Man has been stopping a lot of organized crime lately and the people behind the missions wanted him out of the picture."

"The mob?" I scoff. "You're working for the mob, Des?" Her amber eyes smolder with heat and regret.

"Yes."

"Fucking hell." I breathe and nearly pull my hair out. God, this is my fault. I fucking told her. I told her he was Spider-man.

"You don't know what it's like out there, Grant." She tells me, her voice small and softer than before. I look up at her as she speaks. "No food, no place to stay, it was winter when I was thrown out of the foster home. I nearly froze to death every night, nearly starved every week; I had no one. Until he came along. He offered me food. Clothes. A warm bed. I started doing small things for him. Runs. Driving the car. I had to. I had to survive." Her voice is pleading but my eyes are hard as I look at her.

"When he found out what I could do he gave me more, trusted me more. When he told me to find out who you both were and find out where you stayed, I didn't think anything of it. But...you cared. You care so fucking much and so I thought maybe Peter would be enough. I wanted to...protect you." She breathes and I slam a frustrated fist into the counter, well, through the counter.

"There's no protecting me if Peter isn't safe! I'd rather you'd have given them me than Peter!" I yell, then simmer down when she flinches. I walk over and grab her arms firmly, but not enough to hurt. My mind frantically spins as I think of the various speeches I've gotten from the people in my life before just winging it. My eyes burn into her gold ones.

"Look, I understand. I understand more than you think the feeling of owing people because they showed basic human decency when you were previously shown none. I get it. But you've got to understand me too. People like this are only manipulating you and showing you a shitty replica of kindness because they want you to do what they want. You owe them nothing. Love, real love? That's me and Peter. That's sacrifice and blood and joy and all the other shit because the person is worth it." Tears prick my eyes as I think of that stupid boy and his crime fighting while I just sat on the sidelines. I grit my teeth and focus back on Des.