A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the bsp;to vote on the dire of the story!

  Even with the weekend over, Thaddeus just 't escape these dam to hearts.

  -x-X-x-

  Thaddeus has been a very naughty boy, but Jen has to admit, she wasn’t expeg him to react quite like that. Maybe look guilty and shrink into his seat at the sight of her, sure… but this? Well, this was iing. And also hirious. Though not everyone feels the same way.

  “Excuse me, young man?! Mister Cummings, I will tolerate no form of sexism, bigotry, prejudice, or discrimination in this , do you hear me?! If you have an issue with Ms. Walters, you are more than wele to leave!”

  Neville is a small, somewhat unassuming man. Ae his earlier words, they aren’t actually good friends. In fact, Jennifer’s iions with the Criminal Justice Professor have beeively limited over the years, ever siheir first meeting where she’d found herself fag off against him in his first ever court case… and thhly mopping the floor with the man.

  Iermath, Jen had felt bad enough that she’d offered him her number in case he needed some tips or advice or what not ever. Neville had taken that offer and ran with it a even with her help, he’d fizzled out within six months, jumping from w to teag shortly after.

  Still, they’d stayed in touch, talking every so often here and there. So when Jennifer found she needed an ‘in’ at Empire State Uy sooner rather than ter… well, the Criminal Justice Professor had been the perfect way to stick her foot in the door. Serendipity made ma.

  Unfortunately, Neville had found a terrible moment to finally discover his bae because Jennifer could see in Thaddeus’ eyes that the younger man was actually sidering taking that offer and running with it just to escape her for a little while longer. And that, obviously, would not do.

  Stepping forward, Jen pces a hand on her insed former colleague’s shoulder, calming him down with a smile.

  “That won’t be necessary, Neville.”

  Then, she looks up at Thaddeus, smiling toothily.

  “Mister Cummings, was it? Let’s talk after css, shall we? I hope whatever issue you might have with me wait until then.”

  Thaddeus flushes, reizihe trap she’s put him in. If he storms out now, he looks unimaginably weak in front of everyone. Of course, the gamble is whether he’d actually care about their opinions or not. In the end though, he slumps ba his chair, mostly seeming resigo having a talk with her eventually either way.

  And he’s right to be resigned. Jennifer didn’t call in this favor with Neville just to be stonewalled by the very reason she’s here.

  With Thaddeus seemingly ‘giving up’, Jen smirks and nods, befiving Neville a nod as well that sees the mousy man scurrying back to his own desk. Leaving her by herself as the ter of attention at the front of the lecture hall… just the way she liked it.

  “Now the’s get started, shall we?”

  To be fair, she feels like she gives a det enough lecture. It wasn’t anything she’d written down or prepared too much for ahead of time, of course… but then, someone like her with all her years of experience didn’t o pn ahead for something as simple as giving a lecture to a bunch of coeds. She would never act this ckadaisical in a real courtroom situation, but she knew how to and the attention of a room and hold it, and that was more than enough for these people.

  Eventually her time es to an end. Neville gets up to cp profusely and prompt everyone else to do the same, before announg that she would be back soon for more of her pnned series of guest lectures. While that’s happening, Jen only really has eyes for Thaddeus… who stares back at her seemingly nonplussed.

  Finally, as most of the audience files out of the room, Neville clears his throat and asserts himself once more.

  “Mister Cummings. I hope you aren’t going to try to scurry away.”

  Thaddeus wasn’t doing anything of the sort, and the way he stiffens in e at the presumption almost has Jen barking in ughter. As is, she mao keep it together even as Neville turns to her and gives her a nod.

  “You use my office to have a chat with him.”

  Huh, that was a lot of trust. Most people would assume she wanted a one-on-one chat with the seemingly sexist oted jock because she was going to physically intimidate him. But not Neville, not if he’s not worried about his office getting partially demolished in the first pce. Jearts to raise her estimation of the unassuming professor up a few notches… only for him to lean in and give her a spiratorial whisper.

  “I’m due for a few renovations anyways, if you know what I mean.”

  Nope. Right back down. Her smile bees far more pstic as she gives Neville a nod and then heads for the office. Thaddeus doesn’t slouch his feet or anything like that, so they wind up meeting at the door. Holding it open auring him inside, Jennifer gives Neville one more nod before closing and log the office door behind her.

  “Why are you here?”

  Thaddeus’ clipped, accusatory tone has Jen scoffing as she crosses her arms over her chest and looks at him. Not down at him… the instant they were alohaddeus had grown in size. Not to tower over her, but to make eye tact with her. She approved, truthfully. Despite what Neville had said, Jennifer knew she was in no position to physically intimidate a man like Thaddeus.

  “Why do you think I’m here, Thaddeus?”

  Huffing, Thaddeus leans back against a wall.

  “I holy don’t know, actually. I had all of css to think about it…”

  “What, you weren’t paying attention to my amaziure?”

  Thaddeus just gives her a look for that teasing ent before tinuing.

  “… If you thought I was a vilin or had itted a crime, you would either have taken me down or had me arrested or something. You wouldn’t show up as a guest lecturer on my Uy Campus.”

  Jen hums, finding it all too easy to fall ba wyer instincts.

  “And why exactly would I think you were a vilin or a criminal, Thaddeus?”

  Again, he gives her an unimpressed look. Jen just grins, not apologeti the slightest.

  “What do you know?”

  Unfortunately, she tell that her current tack risks alienating him. He’s unusually fed up with her antics already… perhaps as a result of what happened Friday night? The problem is, Jennifer doesn’t actually know what happened Friday night. All that made its way to her ears through the grapevine was something so startling and so w that she felt like she had to iigate immediately… if only to see if it was still possible to save the soul of the young man standing in front of her now.

  “I don’t know much.”

  He jolts at her easy admission, narrowing his eyes at her. Jennifer just shrugs.

  “I only know ohing that happened Friday night, in fact.”

  Thaddeus tenses as she draws it out a little bit… but he doesn’t rise to the bait by revealing anything of his own volition. Sighing, Jennifer finally just ys her cards oable.

  “I’ve been told by a very reliable source… that Chad Thaddeus Thundercock Cummings is now a White Knight of the Hellfire Club.”

  That gets a hard flinch from Thaddeus. His lips thin out and he looks quite… defensive for a moment. Then, Jennifer watches as he visibly forces himself to rex. Brows furrowing slightly, Thaddeus tilts his head to the side.

  “That’s… it?”

  Jen scoffs, repeating his words ba.

  “’That’s it’? Thaddeus, we may not know much about the Hellfire Club… not nearly enough in fact. But we know they’re bad news. How the hell do you go from heroics like taking down that illegal facility and killing that moo joining the Hellfire Club as one of their named pieces barely a week ter?”

  That gives Thaddeus pause. Not the kind of pause where he doesn’t know what to say though. Jennifer reizes this pause all too well… it’s the pause of a man who is trying to decide how MUCH to say. She wishes she could say she deserved more respect from Thaddeus, but admittedly their retionship was still rather short, despite the depth of intimacy that had already transpired.

  “… I didn’t just up and join the Hellfire Club after our st meeting. I was already a member of the Hellfire Club before we ever id eyes on each other.”

  Well damn. Jen had her suspis, but Thaddeus had just e out and firmed them straight up. It did make a certain amount of sense, really. It also put some of the things she already knew into a whole new light.

  “So when you told us that you fucked two versions of Domino back at the hotel… that wasn’t just happenstance, was it? That was set up ahead of time.”

  Thaddeus nods.

  “That’s right. My handler in the Hellfire Club arranged for Domino to fuck me so I would have her Luck Poing forward. The extra Domino wasn’t anticipated, nor was my running into you three, but I didly let that stop me. Still… I’ve always been Hellfire Club.”

  That was… hard for Jeo stomach, truth be told. Not much was known about the Hellfire Club. If you asked most people, they wouldn’t even know it existed. Those who did know were split into a fes. First, there were those who would just shrug and say that the Hellfire Club was just a Gentleman’s Club for the rich, powerful, and iial. Because on its surface, that’s what it was.

  Sed, you would have those who were actually part of the club itself, but obviously they weren’t talking. And Third, you had the camp that Jen fell into. Call it what you wanted… but her experiences as both wyer and heroine had given her a unique insight into that anization of the rid powerful… enough to know they were up to no good. Enough to know that something was rotten and stank to high heaven about the whole damn group.

  Unfortunately, facts didn’t care about feelings and Jen had never had hard, crete proof. Until now, maybe. But first, she had to know.

  “Thaddeus, what happened Friday Night? What stitutes a promotion to White Knight in the Hellfire Club?”

  The younger maates for a long moment before letting out a sigh.

  “I killed a man.”

  Needless to say, that admission sends a jolt of electricity up Jennifer’s spine. She definitely wasn’t expeg Thaddeus to fess to murder, even if part of her had beehly afraid that something like that (or even worse) WAS the prerequisite for such a promotion. Ahe way Thaddeus just cops to it does give Jen pause. And even if they’ve only known each other for a short time, her instincts tell her to give him a ce to expin himself.

  After a brief pause while he waits for her rea, Thaddeus tinues.

  “I guess your source was good enough to know about my promotion, but not good enough to know about the shakeup in leadership. Still, do you know who the Bck King was?”

  Jennifer immediately he word choice, even as she slowly nods.

  “Sebastian Shaw. Business Mogul.”

  And corrupt bastard, she was sure. Again, she’d never had proof of it… but Shaw’s shit smelt too much like roses for its own good. It was obvious that something stunk to high heaven somewhere.

  “He was also a mutant with no small amount of power. He tried to kill me Friday night because I refused to hand over my date for the evening. Instead… he bit off more than he could chew.”

  Well damn. Je think Thaddeus is lying to her. But she tell he’s holding a lot back about the enter. And… fair enough really. She wasled to all of his secrets. Except, she was still an Avehat meant she had a duty to iigate this, even if it took her pces she didn’t want to go. At the same time though… she’d be happy to not have to take Thaddeus down for murder.

  “So it was self-defehen?”

  The hesitation is damning, but finally Thaddeus nods.

  “… Yeah. It was self-defense.”

  A half-truth, Jennifer intuits. Shaw started it and Thaddeus fi, but things were never quite so bd white. No, it was more than likely that there’d been a moment where Thaddeus had Shaw at his merd could have let the other man live. A moment where the younger man had to decide whether to deal with the threat to his life permaly or refrain from being a killer.

  Obviously, she already knew which option Thaddeus chose. And she now knew why he’d received his promotion. Because apparently the Hellfire Club was just that kind of pce, where killing the Bck Ki you were promoted to White Knight. Ugh, Jen had never been a particurly big fan of chess, truth be told.

  Ultimately though, she now had a choiake. Just from the way Thaddeus had started out by fessing to murder before expining that it was in self-defense, Jennifer could tell it was eating at him. Maybe ing at him too much given he had no trouble ing to css today after a weekend to get over it, but still.

  She could take him in right now. She was an Avenger and he’d just admitted to killing someohis could be the big break they o finally drag the Hellfire Club’s maltents kig and screaming into the light. But it would permaly ruin her retionship with Thaddeus. And maybe that was a small price to pay… but what if there was another way?

  The whole reason she’d called in that favor with Neville had been because her pn was to slow roll this impromptu iigation. She hadn’t wao scare Thaddeus away. His rea to seeing her, however, had been so pronouhat she’d moved up her timetable.

  That wasn’t to say she should keep accelerating things though. You caught more flies with hohan vinegar, after all…

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [ ] She 't ignore what he's told her, take him in for official interrogation - 7%[X] Actually, his rea was kind of curious wasn't it? Question that further - 81%[ ] Best not to spook him, slow roll it and make sure he knows she's on his side - 12%

  -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories!

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