Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
Joan pulled the fleece blanket tighter under her chin. She never really needed one unless she was sick. Or curled up on the couch in a pathetic ball of heartache, wanting to disappear under the comforting material.
A bright ray of late morning sunshine beamed across her face. She moaned in misery. Mark squeezed her feet, then rubbed her legs. He was still wearing his club clothes: a dark, skintight T-shirt and pants. His styled blond hair had morphed into bedhead.
Joan moaned again, then managed to say, “Thank you for coming over.”
“I’ve got you, sis.”
Thanks to cosmic twin intuition, Mark had shown up last night less than an hour after Joan collapsed on her bed, crying and having the tears evaporate, and then crying more because she couldn’t even cry properly.
All because she was Spark, the deceitful Villain who’d tried to start a future with a good, honest person with stolen funds and lies.
“Besides.” Mark jiggled her thigh. “You’ve nursed me through a lot of bad times.”
“And you’re really annoying when you’re super whiny.”
“And you’re irritatingly grumpy.” He rested his arm across the back of the couch. “Which I will overlook today.”
Joan’s heart ached in a way that hadn’t happened since their parents kicked them out. Maybe it had never hurt like this. She felt like complete and total shit.
“I should’ve told her,” she said for the eighty-third time.
“Yes, but hindsight and all that.”
She groaned and pulled the blanket over her head.
“No, no.” Mark tugged it down. “We’re not doing that. If you’d told her, it would’ve ended sooner. She wouldn’t have handled the news much better if she’d found out a different way.”
“I hate that I lied to her. She’s so sweet and thoughtful and trusting, and assholes have taken advantage of her. Now I’m just another asshole because she really trusted me.”
She plucked at the fleece blanket and continued, “I should’ve known she would never go for Spark, even if I said I was giving it up. She had no reason to believe me, anyway.”
Mark slurped the rest of his iced coffee. “Do you want one?” he asked, dancing the plastic cup in front of her.
“No.”
“Ice cream?”
“No.”
“A big vat of wine you can lie in face-first and drink away your sorrows?”
“Maybe.” She shut her eyes, then opened them, because every time she closed her eyes, she saw Sadie sitting on her couch, scared and in pain and not wanting Joan anywhere near her.
Mark stood, saying, “Well, I’m gonna get another one. This is good. You finally cracked the cold brew coffee recipe.”
“Sadie made it,” Joan grumbled miserably.
“Oh. Shit.” He considered the cup. “She does make damn good coffee.”
Joan tossed the blanket over her head.
Creaking and shuffling came from the spare bedroom, followed by the door opening.
“Hey, Per,” Mark said. Of course Perry would break in rather than use the door.
“Your security system is shit, Joanie,” he said.
“Nah, you’re just the Man,” said Mark.
“We have a problem.”
The blanket got yanked off Joan’s head, bathing her in unwelcome sunlight again.
“What’s this about?” Perry asked.
“Go away,” Joan mumbled.
“We have a situation.”
“ We have a situation.” Mark gestured with his cup at Joan. “Sadie found out Joanie’s true identity and didn’t take it well.”
“Really?” Perry’s expression softened slightly. “Crap. Come here.”
He sat beside Joan and held his arms out. She squeezed hers gratefully around him, fresh tears forming but drying up just as fast.
“Sorry. It sounded like you really liked her.”
“I really did,” Joan snuffled. “I still do. And don’t worry. She’s not gonna rat me out. At least I don’t think so.”
“Okay.” He patted her back, then eased out of the hug. “You can tell me about it later. We have to deal with something else. It’s bad.”
That snapped her to attention. They got off the couch, Mark joining them.
“I found out why Melvin was so interested in us selling the VanderHooven.” Perry pulled his phone from his suit jacket pocket. He unlocked the screen, then showed them a news article.
String of art heists perpetrated by Breeze, Ice, Spark
“Shit,” Mark said.
“He’s framing us for a bunch of recent break-ins and that museum job. Even me.”
“Asshole,” Joan said.
“It’s clear from the article he brainwashed a bunch of so-called witnesses to say they saw us at all these places.”
Mark shrugged. “Our names will be mud, but the Supers know we weren’t there. We haven’t been spotted at?—”
“They don’t care,” Perry said. “They’ll use any excuse to nab us. If they bring us in, they’ll look like heroes.”
“Race told me their priority is stopping Trick,” Joan reminded them. “This is small potatoes.”
Perry shook his head. “Public image is never small potatoes to the Supers. It’d look like they let this slide. Flight gave a quote saying they’ll see justice is done.”
“ They’ll see justice is done, ” Mark said in a sarcastic baby voice.
Joan held up a hand. “I’ll talk to Zee. We can reach a deal to?—”
“We still don’t know what Mel’s planning,” Perry said. “Other than screwing us over.”
“I’m with Joanie,” Mark said. “As much as it pains me to say so, we need to form an alliance with the Supers.”
Joan nodded. And then maybe I won’t be a bad guy in Sadie’s eyes.
Perry pushed his glasses back. “You can’t go to the Supers with no information. I wouldn’t trust them even if we did.”
An incoming video call popped up on Perry’s screen. Fuckin’ Melvin.
His pasty nerd face and slicked-back hair appeared. He was in his Trick ensemble from the neck down. “Oh, good,” he said. “You’re all together.”
“What the hell, you douche?” Mark said.
“Framing us?” Perry said.
Melvin didn’t bother hiding his amusement. “There’s been a terrible misunderstanding. I’d be happy to clear it up and say you had nothing to do with those thefts. All you have to do is join me.”
Joan could only shake her head. He was such an asshat.
“Seriously, dude,” Mark said. “Why is it so important for us to join you?”
“Strength in numbers.”
“And you can’t control us.”
“I don’t want to control you.” Melvin grinned. “Siding with me means you can do whatever, whenever. The ultimate freedom for us all.”
Perry screwed his face up. “That kind of attention would bring Supers from all over the world. We’d be the most wanted Villain collective in history.”
“Wouldn’t that be exciting?”
“No,” Mark and Perry chorused.
Melvin turned his cocky smirk toward Joan. “Why are you so quiet? You’re usually the one with all the answers.”
“You suck, Melvin,” she told him.
“That’s it?”
“I’ve already said I’m done.”
He studied her for a long moment, then looked back at Perry and Mark. “All right. You’ve made your choice.” He squinted hard at them. “Have it your way.”
The call ended.
“Oh my god, he loves drama,” Mark drawled.
“What should we do, Per?” Joan asked.
Perry put his phone away. “I hate to say wait and see, but I do think we have to wait, and be ready for anything.”
Mark set his now frozen-over cup on the coffee table. “Once his plan is revealed, all dramatic-Supervillain-style where he explains every step, then we can go to the Supers and?—”
“Wait.” Joan grasped his shoulder. “If he had a grand master plan to take over the city, he’d be gloating about it to anyone who’d listen. We haven’t heard a peep from anyone. Nothing.”
“Maybe he finally learned tact,” Perry said.
“Maybe he doesn’t have a plan,” Mark laughed, then sobered. He locked onto Joan’s gaze with wide eyes.
Clarity smacked her upside the head. “He doesn’t have a plan. He needs us because he needs us to come up with it. Think about it. He’s not an evil genius. Ethel and Irving just agree with everything he says. We’re the ones who come up with the good ideas. It was Mark who thought it’d be funny to do things like have us be seen across town while the real crime was taking place.”
“Yeah.” Mark bobbed his head. “And Perry does all the schematics and flow charts or whatever. Sorry, Per, you know I never pay attention.”
Perry waved an unconcerned hand. “You’re right. He has no idea what he’s doing.”
“The only reason he’s gotten this far is mind control. And even then, it’s more like, ‘Hey, I’ll make everyone think I’m big and muscular and handsome.’”
Joan squeezed both of Mark’s shoulders. “We really don’t have to do anything but lay low. We just have to stay out of trouble.”
“And we don’t have to go to the Supers,” Perry added. “Thank god.”
They shared more nods and agreements. Part of her was glad they’d figured it out and wouldn’t have to form irritating alliances. But another part kind of wanted to do something that would get back to Sadie. The headline would read Spark aligns with Superheroes and proves she’s one of the good guys .
It was probably too little too late, but better than nothing.
“Then we’ll lay cautiously low.” Perry shrugged out of his jacket. “Are we having the heartbreak special of Chinese food and cheap beer?”
Mark snagged his phone off the coffee table. “On it.”
Joan slumped onto the couch. “It’s ten in the morning.”
“Oh, yeah.” He set his phone down. “I’ll order it in an hour.”
Perry sat next to Joan, covering her lap with the blanket. His preferred method of supporting her and Mark was exacting revenge on those who’d wronged them, so she said, “Don’t retaliate against Sadie. She’s not to blame.”
“I can’t blow the plants off her balcony?”
“She doesn’t have plants on her balcony because of a vindictive pigeon.”
Mark joined them on the couch. “Maybe in time, after we open Hot and Cold, you can show her you’ve changed. That we’ve all changed.”
Perry gave him a look, but Joan didn’t have the energy to work on him. Besides, what he’d said last night was true. “I’m always gonna be the scary woman who shoots fire,” she said.
“Maybe you could be the woman who heats up sandwiches with that fire,” Mark said. “Who, I don’t know, helps firefighters with controlled burns, or?—”
“And I’ll still be the woman who didn’t come clean. How can she trust me?” Joan slouched deeper into the cushions. “I can’t blame her. I was fooling myself that it could work, ’cause I just… I really like her.”
They sat quietly for a minute. Perry swiveled his head to look at both of them. “You know what I don’t understand about you two?”
Mark opened his mouth to give a smartass reply, then decided against it.
“You’ve tried to act like average people for years. Why would you want to be like everyone else? We’re remarkable, and that’s good. Don’t hide who you are, you dorks.” Perry mussed up Joan and Mark’s hair, making them both groan and shove him off.
“It’s not about being like everyone else,” Joan said. “It’s not wanting to freak people out. Just have them be a little more understanding. Not vilify some of us while putting others on a pedestal.”
“I mean, the general thievery doesn’t help our case,” Mark said. “But yeah, the Supers aren’t much better than us.”
“Sanctioned larceny and destruction,” Perry grumbled.
Joan closed her eyes, steeling herself for the image of Sadie’s sad, beautiful face. Hopefully, she’d heard all Joan had said about their quasi-benevolent villainy. At least it would help dull the ache if Sadie understood they weren’t trying to hurt anyone.
There was a good chance they’d see each other again. What would it be like? Would Sadie ignore her? Want to talk? Rip her a new one again? Whatever it was, Joan would respect her wishes. Finally take responsibility.
“Are you sure it’s too early for Chinese food and cheap beer?” Mark said.
“No,” Joan said, and pulled the blanket up so she could hide under it.