Chapter 21
Janet: Everybody ready?
Orion: Do it.
Drew: Let’s get started.
Wyatt: The excitement!
Connor: It has been done.
Hudson added to group chat.
Ricardo added to group chat.
Dustin added to group chat.
Booker added to group chat.
Wyatt: ALL THE FRIENDS!
Janet: Welcome to the Society of Janets.
Orion: No.
Drew: No.
Wyatt: No, friend.
“You’ve got a plan?”
I stormed across the balcony toward the elevator.
Connor and Arthur had moved to security.
With the city on the verge of collapse, we needed allies, and none of us had a huge Rolodex of friends to rely on.
Security knew our secret and had kept it to themselves; it meant support, and Connor finally got to play with their technology legally.
They’d serve as the oversight, dispatching heroes across the city to stop the chaos.
What I didn’t have was an actual plan.
“I’m working on it.” Every hero knew that unless you took out the conductor, it’d only be a matter of time before it happened again. When I paused at the doors to Synergy, Booker’s reflection didn’t seem convinced by my determination.
Ricardo had wanted to deal with Ms. Keyes himself.
I respected his wanting to clean up his company’s mess, but I could see the dismay on his face.
If his emotions were sitting on the surface, she’d weaponize them.
I had seen the weight of her abilities. The two most broken men were best suited for this job.
We sat through the smooth jazz in the elevator.
When the doors opened, I headed toward the office.
I flung the doors to Synergy open. I had nearly crossed the lobby when a hand grabbed my shoulder.
Booker turned me around. He could read every emotion running through my body.
From the rage to the fear, there was no point in hiding it, not from him. Even if I could, I wouldn’t.
“You don’t have a plan, do you?”
“Sort of.”
“You’re going to throw punches?”
“Straightforward, right?” I cupped his face. I wanted to kiss him. One last taste of him before we headed into the unknown.
His hand slid to the back of my neck, warmer than usual.
This time, I welcomed his abilities. My muscles relaxed, and the tightness in the pit of my stomach eased.
He pressed his forehead against mine. I didn’t know what awaited us.
It could be a woman sitting idly behind her desk perpetuating the Human Resources lie, or it could be a leather-clad villainess ready to blow up the building.
“Before we go in…”
With his powers flowing through me, the only thing that hadn’t calmed was my desire to feel his lips.
I leaned forward, giving him a quick peck.
When I tried pulling away, his hand dragged me closer, and our lips smashed together.
His tongue grazed mine as his free hand moved to the small of my back.
I expected a man who witnessed my darkness to run, fearful I’d drag them into my world. Booker stayed, his support unwavering.
“In case it gets bad,” he mumbled.
“It’s going to get bad,” I admitted. He gave me another quick peck. “Or we could stay here?”
“We have to save something for the victory lap.”
Booker imagined something after the job finished?
I should be focused on breaking bones, bloodying knuckles, or at least witty hero dialogue.
Instead, all I could focus on was quiet nights reading the same book on the couch as we fought over the blanket.
I hadn’t given myself permission to think about after, and knowing he had already taken that step…
I wanted to get this done so we could get started.
“We should save the city,” I whispered.
“We should,” he repeated.
Neither of us moved.
“If we survive—”
“We’ll survive,” he said.
“When we survive, date night at the bookstore?”
He chuckled. “Deal.”
If stopping terror from spreading through the city wasn’t enough motivation, now I had a date with a cute bear on my calendar. My hands dropped to my sides, fingers rolling into fists. First, I beat the bad guy until they begged for mercy, then I put on my Sunday best and went book shopping.
“Let’s do this.” The calm vanished, sizzled away by the fire. Hellion had arrived, and we were going to walk away from this. I might show up to the bookstore on crutches, but I’d be there.
Turning around, I crossed the lobby. I smashed the door to the inner offices with the heel of my foot.
The lock broke. Catherine Keyes wouldn’t stand between me and date night.
Storming through the hallways, my steps steadily grew shorter until I paused.
Eyeing the glass offices, I didn’t find a single employee.
In the middle of the workday, it should be bustling with people in lab coats and with tablets.
“Where is everybody?” asked Booker.
I didn’t answer. I prayed they were out doing her bidding. It’d lower the collateral damage, and I wouldn’t need to worry about bystanders getting in the way. Every bone in my body said this was a bad idea, but that had become the hallmark of my brand. Punch first, ask questions later.
We reached Keyes’ office door. My plan remained the same.
Punch. Kick. Be the last one standing. I reached for the handle, ready to shoulder my way through.
Instead, it clicked, the door creaking as it swung open.
Ms. Keyes sat behind her desk, furiously clicking on her laptop.
It wasn’t any different from our previous encounters.
She realized we knew her secret? It should be obvious I had come back for a fight.
This was more unsettling than her crying about job security.
The white blouse revealing the shadow of her black bra couldn’t have been further from a villainess uniform if she tried.
If that weren’t enough, the oversized pastel red bow at her neck almost made her look cute.
The clacking filled the office, punctuated by a loud whoosh of her sending off an email.
“Felt it appropriate to resign formally.”
“Before you get fired?”
She leaned back in her chair, eyes widening as if the thought had never crossed her mind.
Ms. Keyes had pulled the wool over my eyes, playing the part of a struggling employee.
She preyed on my need to keep the peace.
While Booker had let me exist, she had weaponized my insecurities. Those insecurities had evaporated.
“Oh.” Her lip turned up in a grin. “I can feel the anger wafting off this one. Do you feel that, Booker? Unbridled rage.”
He had seen me, all of me. Yet, she struck a chord. I glanced over my shoulder, and Booker’s jaw had tightened. His hand moved to the middle of my back. No powers, just a soft touch assuring me he held his position.
“Keep trying,” he growled.
“Is this where you ask why I did it?”
My fist tightened. “I don’t care.”
“And I spent all evening working on my speech.”
She taunted. Most villains would launch into a dialogue about their genius, but masterminds were a different type of bad guy.
They believed themselves superior, and we common folk could never understand.
Instead, my eyes darted around her office, taking inventory of every weapon.
There wasn’t much in the way of defenses, but I didn’t come to play it safe.
The yellow glow gathered around her forearms like before. This wasn’t Keyes flexing to show off; we were about to discover the full weight of her abilities. After months of an insatiable need to breathe in chaos, who knew what she’d be capable of doing?
“Careful,” Booker whispered.
“Listen to your boyfriend,” she goaded.
Careful was not in my vocabulary. As I charged forward, Ms. Keyes stood.
The energy gathered around her hands. She moved with speed.
The burst of yellow light didn’t make a sound.
I lunged to the side, pressing myself against her awards.
A filing cabinet exploded. I had a second to check that Booker was alright before I snatched a glass Outstanding Employee award, chucking it in her direction.
She blew it out of the air, shards of glass flying across her office.
Before she could turn her attention back to me, I pushed off from the cabinets, launching myself into the air.
I didn’t try to tackle her; instead, I rolled in front of her desk.
She thought me reckless, a victim of my rage and impulses.
I was far more calculating than she believed.
I studied her.
Her ability to feed off emotions was the least of my concerns.
Did they feed into her ability to generate energy?
Concussive, explosive, maybe heat generation?
This was the first time she turned from a helpless employee into an active threat.
Her fist came down on the desk, surrounded by a canary yellow aura.
Wood splintered, the desk splitting down the middle. Strength. Limited to arms?
I smashed into the lower cabinets along the wall. The aura crept up her arms, coating her shoulders. The calm in her eyes vanished, as did her pupils. Her lips had turned into the sinister grin I’d expect from an emotion-sucking witch.
Booker stepped into the office. She threw up both hands, the energy gathering. I couldn’t let her hurt him. The energy pooled, and I jumped in between them.
“Fuck,” I screamed. No heat. Thousands of needles stabbing along my shoulder blades. I growled as the intensity increased, forcing me to take a step toward Booker. His face was somewhere between horror and anger. If only I could read his emotions, I’d be able to—
Booker charged. Arms wrapped around my chest. He spun me out of the way. He didn’t growl or cry out in pain. I never stopped to ask if he had any supplemental abilities. No, it wasn’t that. Keyes’ death rays weren’t striking him. They flowed around him as if he had thrown up a shield.
“I need your rage,” he begged.
I didn’t understand.
“Or we die,” he barked.
His expression struck like knuckles to the jaw. I argued for him to stay with Arthur, and he insisted we see this through together. I relented, and because of that, he became a liability. It wasn’t rage that surfaced, at least not the kind I usually felt when I stalked the streets.
Concern. Worry. Fear.
I would kill her if she hurt Booker. We had a standing date.
There were books we needed to read. There were nights under the covers I wanted.
The rage didn’t surface because of Keyes.
Her determination to rob me of the best thing in my life—that made me mad.
I’d start by snapping her fingers and move to bigger bones.
I’d crush her windpipe so that smug grin would turn into lips gasping for air.
She screamed until a blinding light filled the room. Yet… it never touched Booker. Somehow, his powers created a protective bubble. Was he siphoning my rage as Keyes did with chaos? I’d sort it out later. First, I needed to save Booker.
I dropped low and lunged forward, my shoulder smashing into the broken desk. Windows shattered. Keyes screamed as she fell from the building. The desk slid out while glass rained down. I caught a metal frame as I followed suit. Hanging from the window, Keyes landed on the pavement.
“You’re fired.” Yes, I had planned a catchphrase before we arrived.
Booker rushed over, taking my other hand. He grunted, pulling me up. The four-story fall might not have killed me, but I’d rather not find out.
“Is it over?”
Had he never read the supervillain manual?
“Is she still down there?” I pointed out the window.
He raised an eyebrow. Peering out onto the sidewalk. “She’s gone. But how—”
“They never die the first time.” Supervillains were like zombies. Headshots.
“So, it’s not over?” Booker might have powers, but he wasn’t adept in the field. This wasn’t his usual administrative paperwork and interrogations.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We need to find her and finish this.”