his men into positions across the city.
A nickname, she’d said of her getup. The cat thing had come from a nickname the other assassins had given her.
Leopards inked their victories on their skin. If anything had led to a cat-based nickname…
He’d never seen Holly’s arms. Even in the heat of early fall, she’d worn long sleeves. Every outfit.
To hide the tattoos.
The leopard spots inked there.
“I need your computer,” Luke breathed, not asking for permission as he yanked the nearest laptop to him and had himself in the GCPD database in a few clicks. Had a web browser pulled up beside it.
A state science fair. She’d won a statewide competition.
A veritable glass slipper.
Articles scrolled past. Winners of every science fair, their photos—
And there she was.
Not Holly Vanderhees, socialite and heiress.
Selina Kyle, inner-city kid and gang member.
Fourteen years old, dark-haired and unsmiling as she held her statewide science fair trophy. More clippings of various gymnastics competitions. Victories. The dates matched, and the face…It was her. Fierce and focused.
He typed the name into the GCPD database. Selina Kyle. Her record had been scrubbed clean. Luke used a few backdoor hacking codes, and it reappeared.
Born and raised in the most dangerous, underprivileged part of Gotham City. Druggie mother, absent father. The mother who had beat her. That part of her story had rung true, at least. Currently serving a life term in prison for attempted kidnapping and murder, among other things.
But Holly—Selina…top of her class. Top percentile of all exams. Smartest kid in her school district. In every district. Skilled gymnast. And known member of the Leopards.
Theft. Aggravated assault. The charges went on and on.
Undefeated fighter in Carmine Falcone’s underground ring. Vanished two years ago, at age seventeen, after a third strike to her record.
The reason behind the final, damning crime…
Luke’s stomach dropped as he looked back at the hospital, the Leopards who had answered their former member’s desperate plea. To guard not just those who could not defend themselves, but also to protect…
To protect…
Luke took Gordon’s laptop with him and launched skyward.
* * *
—
Selina ran for the hospital.
Past the frantic, rioting inmates, past the cops who weren’t dumb enough to stop her, past the panicking people of the city, Selina ran all the way from Arkham, her breath a sharp blade in her chest.
Mika and Ani were already there. Waiting at the doors.
They said nothing as they looked her over—the battle-suit and blond hair.
A new scar marred Ani’s face, but they both seemed the same. They seemed the same, while Selina…She was a stranger in this body, these clothes. A stranger to herself.
Mika inclined her head, stepping aside from the glass doors.
Her old Alpha had picked up on the second ring. Had not asked any questions when Selina explained. When Selina had begged. Called in a favor as their undefeated fighter, who had never refused an order, who had done everything Mika had ever asked.
And so Mika had answered. Brought every Leopard she could.
Selina gave her former Alpha a nod of thanks, and one to Ani, too, before she stalked through the glass doors of the hospital and broke into a flat-out sprint.
It had been two years since she’d last seen Maggie.
The young woman on the hospital bed before her was a husk. A shell of what her sister had been.
Machines hummed and chirped softly, the room dim and quiet. In the two chairs against the wall slept a pair of fortysomething men. Maggie’s adoptive parents.
Camped here, with their daughter.
In her final days. Her final hours.
Maggie’s skin stretched too tight over her delicate bones. Her beautiful curly hair lay limp and thin.
Selina’s hand drifted to her chest, as if it could contain the cracking she now felt within. The feeling of the floor sliding out from beneath her as she stared and stared at her sister.
The cystic fibrosis had wrecked her.
The tubes and machines flanked her bedside, the IVs and monitors standing like sentinels around her unconscious sister. So much technology. None of it could keep her alive.
Incurable.
And the two men sleeping at their daughter’s bedside…They had known when they adopted Maggie that she was sick. Would not have long. That it would be expensive and hard and sad.
They’d welcomed her into their home anyway.
For two years, they’d fought for her sister. Every day. With every dollar they had.
And when the first of the anonymous donations came in a month ago, and all of Maggie’s medical bills were paid off…they had cried.
Selina knew, because she’d been in the shadows outside