Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
Sadie pulled her pale pink bra from the bottom of her shirt. While she was very much looking forward to Joan taking bras off her for many days and nights to come, tonight was about getting naked as quickly as possible. The super woman wanted to be with her. Wanted to help her achieve her dreams. Wanted Sadie to be a part of her life. They needed to get to it ASAP.
The bathroom door cracked open just as she flung the bra into her bedroom. Joan watched it sail, then walked over to where Sadie stood impatiently.
“Starting without me?” Joan teased.
Her low tone sent sensual vibrations through Sadie’s belly. She skimmed her fingers up Joan’s arms. “Just moving things along.”
“Much appreciated.”
They joined in a kiss that rapidly grew from soft and sweet to frantic and needy. Joan slid her hands beneath the hem of Sadie’s shirt and caressed her skin. Sadie did the same. Joan was so warm. She always tended to run warm, but this was unusually hot. Maybe all the Supers ran this hot.
Joan exhaled heat into her mouth. It felt kind of weird, but not unpleasant. Sadie broke from the kiss to trail her lips across Joan’s cheek toward her earlobe.
Joan gripped Sadie’s ass and sent a wave of heat through her, like she’d just sat on a heating pad. “You’re really hot,” Sadie said.
“You’re so hot, baby,” Joan murmured. She sought Sadie’s mouth and kissed her with scorching lips.
“No. Joan.” She pulled her hands away from Joan’s radiator of a torso. “You’re really hot. Like temperature hot.”
“That’s normal for me.” Joan kissed her. “I run a little hot.”
“Are you absorbing my energy?”
“I told you I don’t do that.”
A thread of worry cut through her desire. Joan could control herself, but this was unexpected and slightly awkward. Wouldn’t sex with a Superhero be fantastic, especially one with Joan’s abilities?
Maybe she was overreacting. Sleeping with Joan wasn’t going to be like sleeping with an average person. Good, bad, or somewhere in between, it was going to be a whole new experience.
“Then it must be these pesky clothes,” Sadie said. She reached for the top button on Joan’s shirt. “We should get them out of the way.”
“Definitely.”
She undid two buttons, glancing up to smile at Joan before undoing the one covering her athletic bra.
Then she noticed Joan’s eyes.
Her irises glowed a ferocious shade of crimson. Flickering with…
Fire.
Full-blown fear shot through her body. She stepped back on shaky legs. “Joan.” The word came out on a breath. “What’s happening with your eyes?”
Joan blinked and shook her head. “Nothing,” she muttered. “ Shit. Nothing.”
She ran a hand through her hair. Flashes of light sparked off her fingers.
Why was she shooting off energy? She only did that if she absorbed something. If she wasn’t taking it in, she had to be generating it.
Generating…fire?
“ Joan. ” This time, it came out as a frightened cry. “What is going on?”
Joan opened her mouth, hesitated, then closed it. She dropped her arms to her sides.
Everything became terribly, shockingly clear.
Joan was not Catch.
Sadie held her palms out. “Ohhhh my god.”
“Sadie, I…”
“What’s going on? Who are you?”
“Sadie…” Joan reached out a hand.
“No.” Sadie moved away from her. “Who are you? You’re not Catch. I don’t know who you are. Is your name even Joan?”
“Yes.” Her forehead wrinkled. “I need you to hear this, okay? Please. This isn’t how I wanted you to find out.”
Joan took a small step toward her, which made Sadie take three in the other direction.
“Almost everything I’ve told you is true. My name really is Joan Malone. I really did grow up in a small town and get kicked out by my parents.”
“ Who are you? ” Sadie demanded.
Joan shoved her hands in her pockets, then pulled them out when her pants began to smoke. What the hell? “I’ve been trying to tell you. I didn’t know how. I like you so much and didn’t want things to change. You…”
Angry tears coated Sadie’s eyes. “Tell me,” she whispered.
“I’m Spark.”
“You’re Spark.” Her stomach sank like a jagged rock. “You’re Spark ? Are you kidding me? A Supervillain?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a Supervillain ? You made me think you’re a Hero, but you’re a…” A snort shot through her nose, and she flailed her arms wildly. “You’re the Villain who shoots fire! You made me think you got into a fight with…with… you ! You told me you were Catch!”
“I never actually said I was Catch,” Joan said quietly.
“You never said you weren’t . You led me on. Oh my god.” She grabbed both sides of her head. “ Oh my god! I almost had sex with a Supervillain!”
“I’m so sorry,” Joan said. “I never meant for it to go on this long.”
“Prove it.” Every shred of sanity had unraveled. “Make some fire.”
“Sadie—”
“Do it. I need to see it.”
Joan hung her head, then brought her hands together. A smoldering ball of fire appeared between them, licking and shimmering before she waved her hands and it extinguished.
Holy shit. Joan really was Spark.
Sadie’s gut clenched. Hurt, confusion, anger, a little fear, twisted inside her like a devious snake.
“Spark has long dark hair,” she said.
“It’s a wig.”
A sneaky disguise. A lie. Joan had been lying to her. Lying the entire time they’d known each other. About the gym. About her abilities. About everything .
Sadie hugged herself as she shivered from too much adrenaline. “Who are all these people you keep talking about? Perry, Uncle Mel? And Mark and Greta? Are they Villains, too? Is Mark even your brother?”
“Yes, he is. Mark is Ice. He also has a wig attached to his facemask.”
Sadie snorted and tossed her hair. “Another lie.”
That explained Mark’s startlingly blue eyes. She’d known there was something about them.
“So Greta must be Volt.”
“No.” Joan shook her head. “Greta’s not a… She’s a damn good thief.”
“Oh, great. She was at my workplace.”
“I wanted to tell you,” she said. “I really did. Perry is Breeze. He took in me and Mark when our parents kicked us out. He loves meetings and agendas. He’s not a bad guy. The three of us aren’t really that bad.”
Sadie wound up to retort, but Joan continued, “That thing I said about needing to survive was why I had to turn to villainy. Mark and I were kids. Everyone in the city was terrified of us. We couldn’t survive on our own.”
“You melt things when you get emotional,” Sadie spat.
“Yeah.” Joan took a half step toward her. “I’m telling you because I really do want to be honest with you. I’m risking my safety, and the safety of those I care about, by revealing our true identities. But I want you to know.”
She looked shamefaced. Utterly sorry and guilty.
Good. She should.
“Do they know you’ve been lying to me?” Sadie said. “Today, when we were with Mark and Greta. Were you all laughing at me behind my back?”
“No, not at all. They told me this would backfire. They said I should’ve told you I wasn’t Catch.”
“But not that you’re actually Spark.”
“I tried to tell you yesterday,” Joan said. “But, I don’t know. I didn’t want to admit to something so… And you were so happy. You have such a high opinion of the Supers. I wasn’t sure you’d believe me.”
A tiny glimmer of sympathy flickered in Sadie’s heart. Everyone was afraid of the Supervillains. It couldn’t have been easy to?—
No. Joan was not going to get let off the hook for this. For lying and thieving and?—
“The money.” Sadie shook her head. This was so unbelievable and surreal. “Were you gonna give me dirty stolen money to open my café? That’s horrible.”
Shrugging her hands, Joan said, “Okay, yes, it’s stolen money. But we only take from big corporations. We never rob local businesses like Vector City Café.”
“No, you just destroy them.”
“I did pay for the window repair. We do stuff like that all the time. Mark and I genuinely feel bad when people have to clean up after Super activity.”
She really wanted to be angry, but that caught her attention. “So, you were the one who made that deposit?”
“Yes.” Sincerity shined on Joan’s face. “The Supers never pay for their damage. They’re kind of assholes. I’m always cleaning up after their messes.”
“With money you’ve stolen from said businesses,” Sadie pointed out.
“It’s an imperfect system. But again, we only take from corporate fat cats.”
“And you want to give it all up and use your ill-gotten gains to open a coffeehouse and food truck? Or was that a lie, too?”
“No,” Joan insisted. “I want to go legit. I want everything we talked about. The only way I can do it is with that money. I don’t have a financial footprint, or credit cards.”
“Then how did you rent an apartment?” Sadie said.
“Paid double the security deposit plus a year’s worth of rent in cash.”
“Stolen cash,” she grumbled.
“Well, it’s easier to rob a bank than get a loan, am I right?”
Sadie gripped her biceps and tilted her head in disbelief. “Are you actually making a joke out of this?”
“No, but you know how hard it is to get approved for a bank loan.”
“Did you stop to think that’s because people like you make it impossible to insure a business?”
“Not until you pointed that out to me.” Joan scratched at her scalp. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You’ve opened my eyes to?—”
“You were going to involve me in illegal, fraudulent activity,” Sadie said. “What if that money was traced to me? I could go to jail. I could lose everything.”
“I…” Joan ground her palms against her eyes and groaned loudly. “Fuck, I am so sorry. I royally screwed this up. I just wanted us to be happy.”
“You did screw up. Badly.”
Sadie walked to the couch and sank onto the edge. Turned on the lamp beside it so she wasn’t in the dark. Joan had kept her in the dark for too long.
She dropped her elbows to her thighs and cradled her head in her hands. It felt like a thousand pounds, it was so filled with pulsating emotions.
Joan cleared her throat. “Look, I’m not going to pretend like not coming clean was right. But having you involved in Super activity is dangerous. There are some real bad bad guys. This Melvin situation has been a giant pain. I don’t want you anywhere near it.”
“Because you’re one of the good bad guys,” Sadie chortled.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but yes. We’re trying to stop him and those who think like him. Then I’m leaving all that behind.”
“You’re hanging up your Spark wig?”
“Yes.”
She studied Joan’s earnest expression. She seemed sincere. Joan always seemed sincere. But that was Catch Joan, not Supervillain Spark Joan.
“If you had told me the truth,” Sadie thought aloud, “or even warned me to expect…well, I don’t know what. Maybe it wouldn’t be…”
“Would you have wanted to be with me if you knew I was Spark?” Joan gestured at the wide distance between them as if to punctuate that fact.
“I don’t know,” Sadie said again.
“You really wanted me to be a Superhero.” Her tone was filled with sadness.
“Joan, I’m not even that upset that you’re not Catch. I’m mad that you lied to me. You led me to believe you were someone you’re not.”
“I want to make this right,” Joan said. “I know I betrayed your trust, but I’m still the same person.”
Sadie scoffed at that. “I don’t even know you.”
“Yes, you do. I’m still me. I’m still the Joanie who loves cooking for you. Who wants to open a food truck with Mark.”
Joan started toward the couch, making Sadie stiffen. She seemed to pick up on that and stopped.
“You got to know the real me. You know the real me.” A shadow crossed over her face. “Shit. You said you felt safe with me. Now you’re scared to let me near you.”
“I’m freaked out,” Sadie told her. “I wasn’t expecting you to turn into a furnace.”
“I would never hurt you.” Joan placed both hands on her chest. “I swear.”
Her intense earnestness hurt worse than any lie. “But you did. Not physically. I really trusted you.”
“I’m sorry.”
The tears returned in full force, strong enough for Sadie to sniffle them back. “I’d like you to leave,” she said.
“Can we please talk some more? I can explain?—”
“You’ve done enough explaining. And if it’s because you’re worried I’ll expose you, I won’t.” She waved her hands. “I’d rather forget this ever happened.”
A tear slid down Joan’s cheek, which quickly fizzled and evaporated.
Sadie’s heart ached for her. For what they could’ve had if…
She met Joan’s eyes and wordlessly communicated her thoughts.
What we could’ve had if you weren’t Spark.
“Okay,” Joan whispered, then cleared her throat. Another tear slipped out and sizzled. “I respect what you want. If you do want to talk?—”
“I have nothing more to say to you,” Sadie said, which wasn’t true at all. She had so many questions. So much she wanted to know. But what good would it do? Joan wasn’t who she’d said she was. Even if she hadn’t said the words, she’d led Sadie to believe a lie. Like a true Villain.
Joan simply nodded. She turned and headed for the door.
She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “I wish I could be the good person you thought I was,” she murmured.
It hit Sadie square in her soul.
The moment the door closed, a torrent of tears poured from her eyes. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. Despite the lies, the hurt, the betrayal, the stealing and life of crime, that was the worst part of all this.
Deep down, she knew Joan was that good person.