Evolutionary Romance- The Complete Trilogy

by Sarah Biglow

  “Very well. You’ll understand if I ask you to pass the information through Tina,” Clayton said.

  “Yeah.” I stood and turned back to where Taylor stood still as a sentinel keeping our meeting unseen by prying eyes. Unless they have someone who can see through invisibility powers, too. I waited, but Tina didn’t follow. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow at the precinct.”

  She stuck her earbuds back in, blocking out the world around her, leaving me to find my way back to the heart of town on my own.

  After leaving Taylor's invisibility bubble, it took me a solid five minutes to acclimate to the world around me. I resorted to slow shallow breaths again until the world stopped spinning before taking off at a jog. I couldn't afford to be late. Not if I wanted to catch Lena in a lie. Did I, though? I still couldn't reconcile the version of the woman Clayton recounted with the one who'd trained me and supported me. Sure, she could be hard on me sometimes, but that's just life. You don't become a functioning member of society if you don't get a little tough love now and then.

  Still as I approached the public library—headquarters sat conveniently hidden beneath it—I considered the way I'd seen Tina treated by her mother. She kept her daughter at arm's length. I’d watched Tina from afar and I’d never seen Lena show her any real affection. Irritation at her latest antics or the first time she’d dyed her hair, but never the kind of pride she’d showed like when I graduated from the academy. I tried to push the conflicting thoughts out of my mind as I tapped my ID badge at the side entrance to let me in. I headed straight for the conference area, but stopped short of entering the room. I picked up Lena and Officer Boudreau's voices coming from within and by the sound of it, they wouldn't welcome the intrusion. Too bad I couldn't bottle Taylor's ability. Being invisible would come in handy right about now.

  "People are going to start noticing if call logs get scrubbed and audio files go missing," Officer Boudreau argued.

  "And that is why you have such a good relationship with the dispatchers. They don't ask questions when such things happen," Lena answered.

  "I can only keep it up for so long though."

  "It doesn't matter. It's over and done with. You said so yourself. There was no signal from their phones."

  "That just means those ones are dead or deactivated. That doesn't mean shit, Lena. We don't have confirmation of bodies."

  My stomach turned sour and I swallowed back bile. Maybe they did know about the attack on Henry and Declan.

  "We both saw the explosion. Something tells me not even Mr. O'Bannon could survive that,” Lena replied. After a beat, she said, "Why don't you pay his parents a visit and console them about their missing child. Isn’t that what the police are supposed to do?"

  "Lena, I don't like this. You're taking too many risks. After all, we never actually confirmed Henry was spying to begin with."

  "Our actions were entirely justified. Now, do your job like I’ve told you to or I'll find someone else who can."

  I backed up from the doorway and retraced my steps, prepared to make it look like I had just arrived and hadn't overheard the argument. I took two steps forward just as Officer Boudreau left the conference room and stopped short at seeing me.

  "I'm sorry that I'm late, sir," I said, my hands behind my back and head held high.

  "It's fine. You know what, I don't think we're going to need you tonight. Why don't you get out of here? Go enjoy a night off."

  "Are you sure?'

  "Yeah. Go on."

  He shouldered past me and I waited a count of ten before following suit. I would get a message to Tina. She and Clayton were right. Something was very wrong and I was going to find out what.

  Chapter Nine

  Tina

  I waited until Reese had crossed Taylor’s power barrier before taking my earbuds out of my ears and stowing them in my pocket. Clayton still sat beside me, silent and immobile. "So, what's the next step in the take-Mom-down plan?"

  Clayton looked at me with a soft smile on his lips. "We get you trained properly. There is so much more you could be doing with your abilities. But perhaps I am not the best person to do that training."

  "I thought you wanted to train me. You know father-daughter bonding or whatever."

  He nodded. "I do and I would of course be happy to supervise, but something tells me you'd enjoy yourself more if a certain officer were involved."

  "What? No," I scoffed even though every fiber of my being was screaming ‘yes I would very much like for Reese to train me.’

  "You did well convincing him to consider our point of view,” he praised.

  "He hasn't agreed to help us, yet," I reminded him.

  "No, but he's far closer than he would have been otherwise."

  "Yeah, well, I'm not sure he'd want to train me. That would involve spending alone time with me and I didn't exactly drop all of this in his lap in a nice way."

  "I take it your date didn't go well?"

  "It wasn’t a date. Still he didn’t appreciate me inviting my friends to interrogate him. He definitely wasn't a big fan of that."

  "I see."

  "To be honest, I feel kind of bad about it." I blew out a breath. "Okay, like a lot bad about it. I had to know and it seemed like the only way I was going to get answers.” I looked at him for a minute in silence before voicing the worry that was whispering in the back of my mind. “Am I a terrible person?"

  He leaned back against the bench and rested one arm along the back, almost like he wanted to wrap it around my shoulder. "Relationships are complicated and from what I’ve gathered in our short time together, you haven’t had the easiest time of building those types of connections, romantic or otherwise. Although, I would think that your guilt about how things went means there is something there that you believe is worth pursuing. And you feel remorse. In my experience, terrible people as you put it don’t feel bad when their actions hurt others.” He gave me another smile. “I would suggest honesty when going forward if you want things to work out with Officer Finley."

  It wasn’t the response I’d been expecting. What had I expected? For him to tell me I was being manipulative, like Spencer or Declan would have accused me? He’s only known you a week. He doesn’t have enough information to judge you. I took his words and let them roll around in my brain for a minute. Sure, I’d kind of forced my friendship on the boys when our powers manifested. Before then I hadn’t exactly been the popular girl with tons of friends. I’d been more content with my computer and a quiet corner of the library.

  “Uncle Nick was right about me,” I muttered.

  “How so?” Clayton asked.

  “He says I’m anti-social. He’s right, I don’t like being around people. And I guess I have forced other people to be my friends when they don’t really want to be.”

  “I’m so sorry you feel that way,” he whispered.

  “I guess I just sort of embraced the stereotype of the hacker chick in high school. It was easier than being at the mercy of the popular kids.”

  “Well, you aren’t in high school anymore. You can change who you want to be. It’s always been in your control.”

  Who do I want to be?

  “I … I’m not sure who that is. I’ve spent so long in her shadow, trying to figure out what she’s been hiding from me. It’s like that’s all I’ve ever been. The conspiracy theory girl.”

  He leaned in close and chuckled. “Remember, it’s only a conspiracy if it isn’t true. Everything you’ve discovered about your mother has turned out to be quite accurate.”

  I wasn’t ready for the typical father-daughter bonding stuff, but in that moment, I couldn’t stop myself from hugging him. He stiffened slightly at my touch, but relaxed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders returning the gesture. The embrace lasted only a few seconds before I pulled away and felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Sorry, I don’t know why I did that.”

  “You don’t need to apologize.”

  “I should go check in wi
th the boys and let them know what’s going on,” I mumbled and stood up. As I approached, Taylor gave me an approving expression and I took the time to really look at her. She looked almost familiar.

  “Have we met before?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so,” she answered.

  “You look really familiar. Like I know I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

  Her phone buzzed with an incoming call with a face I did recognize; Monica—the nurse who’d flirted with Declan after he’d been shot preventing a bank robbery. She also worked for my mother.

  “Her I definitely know,” I said, jabbing my finger at the screen.

  “Monica’s my cousin. Clayton is aware of our connection, it’s part of why he recruited me. You’re not the only one capable of spying on family,” she replied.

  I didn’t quite trust her, but said nothing else as I moved past her back to the road. The vertigo of passing through her invisibility field hit me hard. I staggered sideways until I caught my balance and the ringing in my ears subsided. I had to admit as powers went, hers were a lot more useful than mine.

  I found Spencer and Declan minus their significant others at the coffee shop, sitting in the shade of the building’s awning. Why the hell was Declan out in public? I was about to sit down when I realized that they hadn’t invited me to join them and my concerns about forcing my friendship on them resurfaced.

  “Hey, how was your first day?” Spencer asked and gestured to the third chair at the table.

  “Boring as fuck. I had to do a bunch of cold case data entry and the guy they have me working with, Mitchell, is like a super dull brick,” I answered.

  Declan passed me a cup of coffee, like they’d been waiting for me even though we didn’t have plans to meet up. “So, they’re not letting you near the real tech stuff.”

  “Not really.” I gestured to Declan. “I’m surprised to see you out and about. I thought you and Hot Hands were supposed to be laying low.”

  “We figured it’s been a week and I could only tell my parents I was staying at Spencer’s place for so long before they actually decided to check with his folks.”

  “And before they started to question whether we were more than friends,” Spencer added.

  “Right.”

  I eyed the two of them. “Why are you two being so nice to me?”

  They exchanged a look I couldn’t read. I had to remind myself to take deep breaths and keep my emotions in check. Even if they were up to something, it didn’t automatically mean bad news. “We just thought you might need some friendly support after last night,” Spencer finally answered.

  “Because of the whole handcuffing your date and not in a kinky fun way, thing,” Declan clarified.

  “It wasn’t a date,” I retorted.

  “Tina, I know we teased you for liking him, but I mean … he does seem like a good fit for you. I mean, Marisol and I were practically made for each other, so why not you and Reese? Your powers would work really well together,” Spencer replied.

  “Well, he’s still talking to me so I guess that’s a plus. And he might be on our side.”

  “That’s a quick about-face for the rule follower,” Declan muttered.

  “He met Clayton and heard what he had to say.”

  “And how do we know he’s not just playing us now? Isn’t he going to run back to your mom and nark on the whole thing?” Declan’s hands tightened around his cup and I could see tiny spider-web cracks starting to form in the ceramic. Images of cracked walls and bad guys wrapped up in parking meters flashed through my head. Since the cup hadn’t completely shattered yet spoke to how much restraint Declan was exercising.

  “Because I’m not stupid. I brought him to neutral ground,” I snapped.

  “Does anyone else feel like we’re stuck in the middle of the fight between Professor X and Magneto?” Spencer asked, ignoring my statement.

  “Not everything is a damn comic book, Spence,” I said with a huff. “Besides, you literally told me yesterday that’s not the only comic book out there. Way to fall back on the same old material.”

  He wasn’t wrong. Whether we liked it or not, we were in the middle of my parents’ battle and none of us had asked to be there. Just like neither of them had asked to be your friend. I took a slow breath and downed some of the coffee in front of me. “I need to ask you two something and I need you to be completely honest with me.”

  “Why do I get the feeling this is a loaded question,” Declan grumbled and looked at Spencer.

  He shrugged. “Don’t look at me, man. I can’t read her now, remember?”

  “If we didn’t have these powers … we wouldn’t be friends, would we?” I blurted.

  “What’s this about?” Spencer said.

  “Just answer the question. Please.”

  Spencer pulled his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Honestly, probably not. But why does that matter? We do have these powers and without you guys, I would have gone crazy.”

  “Sorano’s right. We probably wouldn’t have crossed paths, but who cares?”

  “I do. Because I didn’t give either of you a choice,” I whispered.

  Spencer reached over and put a hand on my wrist. “Tina, where’s this coming from?”

  I yanked my arm free of his grip. “I guess I’ve just started to realize that after everything I’ve done, I’m not a very nice person. I made you two hang out with me. I forced you to go out and fight bad guys when you could have gotten killed. I’ve broken the law and not given a crap about it.” What if … “What if I’m just like my mother?”

  “We are who we are, Tina. Everyone has some good and bad in them. Even parts of themselves they don’t like. It’s what makes us human,” Spencer offered.

  I opened my mouth to refute his words, but any retort died on my lips when I turned catching Reese’s reflection in the glass behind me. He couldn’t have come to a decision already, could he? Maybe he’s here to finally clear up the date issue. He stood across the street, hands in his pockets and his gaze cast downward. He wasn’t approaching us, but I suspected that had more to do with me than anything else.

  “Maybe you’re right. It’s possible she’s just gotten in my head more than I want to admit and all of this bio dad reappearing after twenty years thing is just screwing with me. Just, keep your heads down, okay?” I said pushing the half-empty cup back at them and left them sitting there.

  I crossed the street and started walking, letting Reese fall into step with me until we were far enough away that I didn’t think Spencer could pick up his thoughts.

  Reese stopped walking and grabbed my wrist. “You were right. Your mother and uncle are covering things up. I’m in.”

  Chapter Ten

  Reese

  I expected Tina to pull out of my grasp, but she remained still and studied me with those baby blues. God, why am I still thinking about the color of her eyes after what she did to me? Turning on the people who’d given me so much should be enough of a betrayal. I shouldn’t be adding falling for Tina to the list. And yet, I couldn’t help myself.

  “Did you hear me? I said I’m in. Whatever you and your father need me to do, I’m game.”

  She nodded slowly. “I heard you. I just … don’t know where we go from here.”

  “You mean he doesn’t have a plan?”

  She shrugged. “He says I need training.”

  “He’s not wrong there,” I said, tensing in preparation for her to lash out at me.

  “I know.” She looked down at my hand on her arm and then back up at me. “Would you help me?”

  “I don’t know what I can offer you that he couldn’t.”

  “You understand what it feels like, having these powers. Ours aren’t all that different.”

  “And it would be a good cover for passing information under your mother’s nose,” I added.

  She gave me a small, sly smile. “That too.”

  “What really bothers me is that it sounds like
your uncle has been scrubbing call logs and paying people off to hide super-power related incidents,” I offered as we started to walk again, no destination in mind.

  “I think I have a way we can find out what he’s been hiding and covering up. Umm, it isn’t exactly legal though.” I caught the fiery glint in her eye as the wheels started turning in her mind.

  “How illegal are we talking here?”

  “No one would get hurt, but some people might get … yelled at.”

  My shoulders released tension I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying when she said no one would get hurt. I may have been watching Tina for the last few years, but I suspected she knew more about me than she was letting on. Maybe not about my mother’s death from cancer, but other things.

  “What’s that look for?” she prompted.

  “Huh?”

  She gestured to my face. “You spaced out.”

  “Sorry. People getting hurt just hits a nerve.”

  “Because of the whole ‘protect and serve’ thing?”

  I let out a bitter laugh. “No. Do you remember a few years ago the shooting that happened at the Fourth of July parade?”

  She averted her gaze. “I don’t think anyone in town could forget that.”

  “I was there with some friends and …” Tears welled in my eyes and I fought to keep them from falling as images flashed through my mind. “Even with my powers I couldn’t save them.”

  “It wasn’t your job to stop anyone,” she said.

  “Not then. But your mother gave me an outlet to channel the anger and grief. It’s why I joined the force. So, I could stop things like that from happening again. Only now, it seems I can’t even do that. With other super powered people running around hurting innocent people and with your mother and uncle covering it up, I’m starting to question what I’m even doing.”

  She pulled her arm out of my grasp and gave my hand a squeeze. “You’re fighting back.”