Evolutionary Romance- The Complete Trilogy

by Sarah Biglow

  I nodded slowly, letting my thoughts come back to the problem at hand. We have to find the scrubbed call logs. There was a less rule-bending option I could follow, especially as it related to what happened to Henry and Declan. “Let’s start tomorrow. I need to check something first. And if we are going to make it seem legit that I’m training you, one of us is going to need to pay your mother a visit.”

  “I guess I can be patient and I’ll talk to her,” she said. The way the corners of her mouth turned into a frown told me she didn’t relish having that particular discussion. “Have you thought any more about the uh … other thing?”

  “Look, I like you, Tina. I’d be lying if I denied that. What you did was a huge violation of trust. I need you to give me some time.”

  “I know I screwed up. I’m sorry. I’m not great with apologies, but I really do regret what I did. Because I like you, too.”

  “Let’s take it one step at a time, okay? See where things go.”

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said and after a moment of awkward silence between us, I left her standing on the sidewalk.

  Luck was on my side today. I approached the front of the firehouse and spotted Taron Garraway leaning against the door to one of the firetrucks. He’d joined the fire department at the same time I’d joined the police academy. We’d been friends in high school. Both of us had lost friends at the parade, but unlike me he had no super powers to speak of.

  “Finley, you get lost on patrol?” he called with a broad grin and offered me a hand.

  “Funny. I was actually hoping I’d run into you,” I replied and shook his hand, clapping one hand on his shoulder in greeting.

  “I’m not in trouble, am I?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Depends, you do something an officer of the law shouldn’t know about?” I teased back.

  “Not that I’m gonna admit to. Seriously, what brings you by, man?”

  “I was actually hoping to ask you about a call that may have come in about a week ago in the morning. Were you on shift?”

  “Yeah, I was on.”

  “Do you remember what calls came in?”

  “Man, they kinda blend together.” Strange, he wouldn’t look me in the eye. He knows something.

  “Would have been a car wreck. Pretty bad from what I’ve heard.”

  Taron rubbed the dark red stubble on his chin and gestured for me to follow him out of the bay and into the turnout gear room. It provided more privacy which sent my curiosity skyrocketing.

  “Look, I’m not sure why you’re looking into this, but we got orders from above not to talk about it,” Taron hissed.

  “Look, it won’t come back to you. I promise. Just tell me what you know,” I pressed.

  “We got to the scene and the car had already been engulfed. It looked suspicious, like someone had been run off the road. But the thing is, there weren’t any people in the car. No driver or passenger.”

  Because Declan had already gotten them out of the car before it exploded. “Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

  “We searched the area, but came up empty. It was just weird. I noticed some drag marks and when I went to tell my lieutenant about it, he said to just drop it.”

  Lena and Officer Boudreau’s reach extended farther than I realized. “Thanks man. I really appreciate you telling me this.”

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but Reese, stay out of it. This feels like the kind of thing that is a career killer for guys like us. We’re low men on the totem pole. Don’t go turning over any rocks you shouldn’t be.”

  If he’d been told to cover up the attack on my friends, what else had he seen that he’d been told to forget? I needed to know exactly how many attacks had been swept under the rug and what powers were in play. I clapped him on the shoulder in what I hoped was a reassuring gesture. “Don’t worry about me. Good to see you, T. We should grab drinks sometime.”

  I left him alone in the turnout room and headed back home, trying to put everything I’d heard today into some sort of order that made sense. The more I learned about what my bosses were up to, the more I wondered how much I’d really been blindly following along up until this point. Some of the anger that had nearly consumed me at the death of my friends bubbled to the surface, fueling me onward. I wasn’t going to risk more people stumbling into Lena’s crosshairs.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tina

  I didn’t want to go home and face my mother. Especially not after how we’d left things that morning, but I couldn’t stay away forever. Besides, if I was going to convince her to let Reese train me, I would need to actually make her think I’d drunk the company Kool Aid. I walked up the front steps to find the driveway empty. A quick check in the garage revealed that her car was gone. There was only one other place she would be so I turned around and headed to the library.

  “We’re closing soon,” a thick-set man I didn’t recognize said from the circulation desk as soon as I strolled through the automatic front doors. I guess with Henry supposedly dead, they needed someone else to cover his shifts.

  “My mother is Lena Boudreau. She’s on the board,” I answered and headed for the restricted section, like I owned the place. Then again, given what was hidden in the sublevels, it wasn’t that far from the truth.

  “Miss, you can’t just go in there,” he protested as I strode in and let the door slam behind me with a satisfying ‘wham.’

  I hadn’t used this entrance to the sublevels since Spencer, Declan, Marisol and I had stumbled upon it months ago. It just felt like the thing to do today. So, I found the panel in the wall and pressed my palm to the scanner.

  “Welcome Christina,” the robotic voice announced and the panel slid open to reveal the long hallway that would lead me to my mother’s lab.

  I marched with confidence down to the lower level and soon found the familiar branching corridors that led to labs and conference rooms and training areas. Not that I’d seen the latter, though that was about to change. I made a beeline for the room I’d dubbed my mother’s office. The door was locked with one of the fixtures requiring a key. The kind purposely used to keep me out, but there was more than one way to hack a lock.

  I concentrated on feeling the metal inside the door handle and the locking mechanism. It resisted my pull at first. “Come on,” I muttered, clenching my hand into a fist until tiny screws came loose, zooming into my other hand, leaving the handle hanging loosely in the door. I yanked it out with a clank and pushed the door open.

  “I said I didn’t want to be disturbed,” my mother said without taking her eyes off the computer screen in front of her.

  “Then maybe you should get better locks,” I said and tossed the handle on to the desk beside her.

  She pivoted her chair to look from the door to the metal fixture on the desk to me and back again. “I hope you’re going to put that back.”

  I shrugged. “Do I look like a locksmith?”

  “I’m busy, Christina. What is it you want?” she said with an air of irritation. It was like my very existence bothered her and for a split second I flashed back to being a five-year-old just wanting her mother to play with her. She’d been busy back then, too.

  “I wanted to apologize for the whole breakfast thing the other day. I just got mad.”

  “I see. Well, apology accepted.”

  “You know, I’d be able to control things better if someone actually trained me. You’ve been testing everyone else’s abilities, but not mine. I could be helpful. I want to be useful and not just behind a computer. I could be out there stopping bad guys,” I said, hoping my words came across as sincere.

  “It is a dangerous place out there.”

  “And I’m ready to face it. Why waste my abilities?” I held out a hand and concentrated on the keyboard in front of her, making the keys type of their own volition. “I could be doing so much good.”

  “I don’t know that we have anyone to pair you with. And as
you know we don’t send subjects out alone. We need to ensure compatible powers get tested together.”

  “I know of someone.” I paused for dramatic effect. “Reese Finley.”

  She sighed in exasperation. “I’m not indulging your school girl crush. Besides, he’s far too old for you and he has more important things to focus on than you chasing after him.”

  “It’s not a crush.” Not that I would admit to her anyway. “He’s a good guy. You liked him enough to take him in after his mom died. You helped him when he had no one else. And his powers are like mine. There’s no one better to help me understand how they work. And I promise, I won’t go out into the field until he says I’m ready.”

  “It wouldn’t just be fun and games, Christina. Training would require monitoring and testing.”

  “Whatever you have to do. Just let him train me. Hell, we could start tomorrow after my internship time is up.”

  She studied me, as if trying to read my mind—a look I was annoyingly familiar with from Spencer—before she finally nodded. “Fine.”

  “Thank you.” It was probably the first sincere thanks I’d given my mother in my life. Too bad it was all in service of taking her down.

  I’d fill Reese in on the news in the morning. I bounced out of her office and back up to the library level with a spring in my step and a grin on my face. We were one step closer to putting an end to her power trip and I would finally get to explore my powers.

  Chapter Twelve

  Reese

  Taron’s confirmation that strange happenings were being covered up kept me Taron’s confirmation that strange happenings were being covered up kept me awake that night. Despite having heard Lena and Officer Boudreau all but admit to knowing about the attack on Henry, I still couldn’t reconcile the callousness with the woman who’d shown me such support. Giving up on the possibility of sleep a little after four in the morning, I dressed in shorts and an old Academy t-shirt, heading out for a run.

  As my breathing settled into a rhythm in time to the sound of my feet hitting the pavement, my thoughts drifted to Tina. Had I thought she was off limits only because of who her mother was? And if that was the case, could I let half a decade’s worth of loyalty to someone it turned out I really didn’t know trump my feelings? Should I?

  Deciding to take my dating life into my own hands, I slowed to a walk and made my way to the station. I’d be early for my shift, but there was a chance I could find Tina beforehand and let her know what I’d decided. After grabbing a quick shower in the locker room and donning my uniform, I headed down to the basement. I spotted Mitchell grumbling to himself, lighter in hand. The door to his office sat ajar and I spotted a shock of blue hair.

  “Everything okay?” I asked as Mitchell approached.

  “Mornings are sacred. No one bothers me. Ugh … then she shows up and ruins my flow,” he huffed, flicking the lighter open and closed.

  “She’s just trying to make a good impression,” I said, hoping he’d buy it and leave us in peace.

  He glanced backward one last time before pushing past me and heading upstairs out of sight. With him gone, I approached the room, spying Tina slide into Mitchell’s chair, fingers poised over the keys. “Hope you aren’t doing anything illegal,” I commented, leaning against the doorframe.

  Tina spun to face me; her cheeks flushed like she’d been caught doing something she knew she wasn’t supposed to. Which she had. “Don’t fucking sneak up on a girl like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  I stepped completely into the room, easing the door shut behind me. “Sorry.”

  “I don’t have a lot of time to talk right now,” she muttered and turned her attention back to Mitchell’s computer.

  I peered over her shoulder. “What are you doing exactly?”

  “This will go faster if you don’t ask questions right now,” she answered.

  “Forgive me for wanting to learn something new,” I huffed.

  Tina let out an exaggerated sigh. “If you have to know, I’m copying Mitchell’s credentials.” Her fingers flew over the keys as she talked.

  “Why? I get he’s not very personable, but he’s not a bad guy.”

  She pivoted in the chair and put both hands on either side of my face, as if she were speaking to a small child. “So, we can snoop in the database without it linking back to us. Duh.”

  “This is what you meant by no one would physically get hurt,” I commented.

  ‘Exactly.”

  “Tina, I don’t like this. You’re using him, because he’s not particularly likeable. He could face charges or lose his job. What you’re doing could ruin a man’s life. You understand that right?” I argued.

  “Do you want to find out what they’re covering up or not?” Her sharp blue gaze bore into me, challenging me to disagree with her.

  “Yes, but I’d be happier if there was a way to do it without risking someone’s livelihood in the process.”

  “Yeah, well, there’s not so suck it up.”

  “I wanted to tell you that I did a little digging on my own and found out that someone did respond to the car wreck involving Declan and Henry.” I lowered my voice to a whisper in case anyone might be listening. We may appear to be alone, but with other superpowered people out there, we couldn’t be too careful.

  “But I’m guessing there’s no record of a call coming in that sent them to the scene.” Tina scooted back to her own computer and opened a case file, making it appear she’d been working the whole time.

  “Probably not. The brass also told the firefighters on the call not to talk about it. And it wasn’t the first time either.”

  “We’ll have plenty of alone time to figure that out. My mother agreed to let you train me.” Tina gave me a satisfied grin.

  “You actually had a conversation with her that didn’t end in shouting and objects going flying?” I couldn’t hide the amusement and disbelief in my voice.

  “Miraculous, I know,” she deadpanned. After a moment, she continued, “We should meet at headquarters after your shift today to get started.”

  “Shouldn’t you be off on patrol or something, rookie?” Mitchell rumbled as he returned from his smoke break, cutting our conversation short.

  “Just checking on Tina to make sure she’s still settling in okay and not causing too much trouble,” I lied.

  “Hmmph,” Mitchell sighed and plopped back in his seat.

  “I’ll check back later,” I told Tina, doing my best to hide the excitement growing inside me at the prospect of spending time alone with her again. Sure, it would be monitored, but at least it was a start. I just prayed things went better than our first “date”.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tina

  I’d never been so excited to be locked in a room underground than I was when Reese escorted me into one of the training rooms that afternoon. I clocked several cameras watching us, their recording buttons glowing red and ominous, reminding us that we were not alone. We had to be careful what we said and did. Unless there’s a mysterious tech malfunction.

  “So, I’ll be honest, I’ve never trained anyone before. I’m not exactly sure where to start,” Reese said, eying the cameras, too.

  “I guess I can show you what I can do,” I replied.

  He stepped back and gestured at the plethora of gear in the room. For a moment, it reminded me of Clayton’s training room with all the little odds and ends. He hadn’t cared if I’d destroyed his stuff. I doubted my mother would feel the same way. I was good at destroying things and so I focused on a pair of bar bells in the corner.

  I held out a hand and felt the electricity around me snap to attention. It wanted to obey my command. I fed it with my desire to lift the weights and they came clattering into each other from across the room until they hovered a few inches above my right hand. I concentrated, imagining them contorting around each other and the metal within them responded, squelching and whining as I exerted power and control until they were
a mangled mass floating in midair.

  “Now, undo it,” Reese said, circling me like a bird of prey.

  “Uh, what?”

  “Put them back how you found them.”

  I’d never tried to do that before. Usually whatever barrier I needed to bypass was left a mangled mess in my wake. “I don’t know how.”

  “Sure, you do,” he prompted and stepped behind me. I felt his breath on the back of my neck and I couldn’t suppress a shiver at his proximity. “How’d you get it like that in the first place?”

  “I just did,” I argued.

  “No, you didn’t. There was a process to it. Break it down. Think about what you did step by step and tell me.”

  I pushed aside the annoyance at his commanding tone and turned to face him. We were nose to nose. “How about this, we make things a little more fun. I manage to do it and … you have to take off a piece of clothing. You top whatever I do, and I’ll do the same.’

  “This isn’t a game, Tina. You really do need to learn to control your powers,” he replied.

  I gave him a pout. “Come on. Unless you’re scared, I’ll beat you.”

  He let out a snicker. “I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have. But, fine. We’ll play. Now, tell me what you did to the weights.”

  I blew out a breath and turned to face them still floating mid-air. “I guess I felt the metal in them and used the electromagnetic forces around me to levitate them toward me.”

  “Good. Then what?”

  “I bent them around each other.”

  “Did it resist?”

  “Well, yeah. I’m pretty sure it didn’t want to be that shape,” I answered.

  “Okay, imagine you’re watching yourself in reverse. Like a video on rewind and undo it,” he said.

  I closed my eyes and envisioned watching myself un-smash the weights together, remembering what they looked like before I’d exerted my will on them. I opened my eyes, held out my hand and pushed with a small bit of power. Before my eyes, the weights began to squeal as they righted themselves into the shape they’d held before. It was a little less perfect than how they’d started, but it was still damn impressive as they dropped to the ground at my feet.