by EJ Whitmer
Carl, however, was not trying to hide anything. He pumped his skinny legs on the elliptical next to Gia, his gaze fixed on her face. His tiny ponytail bobbed with the rhythm of his gate and his naked chest sported several tattoos which were obviously fake. A pair of neon green running tights covered his pasty legs and bulged out in the front where he’d clearly stuffed a sock again.
I was debating whether or not to go save Gia when Eric Blake approached. “Morning,” he grumbled as he climbed onto the treadmill next to mine.
“Morning,” I replied. “You want to pick back up on that political thriller?”
Blake and I had recently begun to compromise on what I listened to while running in the mornings. Before I found out he can read my mind, I used to listen to raunchy romance novels while I ran. Once Blake’s secret was out, he became completely ruthless with his smartass remarks about the books I was listening to. After nearly beating him over the head with a dumbbell multiple times, we agreed to decide on books together.
“Sure,” Blake responded. “Where’d we leave off again?”
“The Vice President’s daughter just met his Chief of Staff.”
“Right. Got it. Go ahead whenever you’re ready.”
I hit play on my iPod and resumed my pace. Every thud of my feet sent a pulse of pain through my seatbelt bruise. I firmly blocked the thoughts of my accident and tried to concentrate on the book. This proved to be a bit easier than expected as the VP’s daughter and his Chief of Staff fell into immediate lust and began undressing each other in the Oval Office.
It’s awkward enough having a male boss who can read your female mind. Listening to an audiobook together that somehow turns into a BDSM novel? Yikes. Any hope of listening to a short summary of boring, vanilla sex vanished as the man tied the woman’s hands behind her back with his tie and smacked her in the face with his penis.
“I thought this was a political thriller?” Blake questioned, his voice a bit higher than usual.
I reached for my iPod and frantically searched for the fast forward button. “It is! It’s supposed to be comparable to John Grisham mixed with Gore Dival!”
“That’s a totally bizarre combination of authors. Plus, I’m pretty sure Gore Dival doesn’t write books where the hero cockslaps the heroine,” Blake snapped, though I could easily make out a twinkle in his indigo eyes.
“Oh my God! You can’t say that word! Where the hell is the fast forward button?!”
Unfortunately, by the time I found the button, the Vice President had already walked in on his daughter meowing like a kitten and batting at his Chief of Staff’s dingdong like a catnip toy.
I immediately skipped to the next chapter and risked a glance at Blake. He had completely stopped his treadmill and was standing there, slack jawed, staring at me. “Who the hell writes this stuff? And how did you find it?”
“It was recommended to me. It’s not my fault!”
“Recommended by whom?”
I cringed and concentrated on my strides. “Michael.”
Blake groaned and lightly banged his forehead on the treadmill’s display. “Honestly, Jennings. For as intelligent as you are, you can be so dense sometimes! Why would you even ask your brother for a book recommendation in the first place?”
“I was trying to find a book that we would both enjoy,” I shot back. “He knows you better than anyone else, so I asked him for some recommendations. Be mad at him, not me!”
The corners of his mouth twitched as he fought back a smile. “I’m not mad. I’m horrified and probably scarred for life, but I’m not mad. I just feel like I might have to turn the shower water to boiling so I can scald away this dirty feeling.”
Thankfully, the book went back to normal after that and the rest of our run was drama free. I called it quits after a few more miles and quickly showered and readied for the day. Due to frequent client meetings, I didn’t normally get to participate in Casual Fridays, but for once I had no non-employee meetings that day. I threw on a pair of dark-wash jeans, a black shell tank with a high neckline, and a khaki jacket.
I’d decided to get the meeting with my superhero friends over with, so I shot Dom a text, asking him to grab the guys and meet me in Lilith’s office. By the time I reached her door, the entire team was there, sans Blake, staring at me intently. Will, ever the gentleman, leapt from his chair and motioned for me to take his place. I nodded my thanks and sat down, avoiding eye contact with Emmett who would certainly not be happy about what I had to say.
“I just wanted to let you all know about a bit of drama that occurred on my way home last night.” The entire room seemed to inhale sharply. “Basically, the guy was in my car and I drove off not knowing it. It is a guy, by the way. He said he wanted information on you guys. He wanted to know what your powers are, who the leader is, stuff like that.”
Emmett stood abruptly and began pacing the room. “Did he hurt you?” he demanded.
“Well, not on purpose …”
“What does that mean? How is that not a yes or no question?” Emmett’s ears had turned an alarming shade of red.
“We got in a small argument, okay? I yelled at him and took my eyes off the road for one second, and I sideswiped another vehicle. He tried to yank the wheel out of my hands and correct our path. I yanked it back. Next thing you know, we’re barreling through the ditch and my car is destroyed. The end.”
Emmett threw his hands up in the air and sped up his pacing. I chewed on my bottom lip and smiled apologetically at the rest of the team.
“Your car is destroyed,” repeated Dom. “But you were uninjured, correct? What about the perp?”
“I’m fine,” I confirmed. “I’ve got a pretty gnarly seatbelt bruise, but the airbags went off, so I’m fine. The perp seemed to be fine too, although I don’t believe he was wearing his seatbelt. He rolled down the window and escaped before the police arrived.”
Dom walked over and after a glance at Emmett, placed his hands on my collar bone. The area grew warm and tingly for a moment before he lifted his hands and stepped back. I pulled down on the neckline of my blouse and grinned at my normal pale skin.
“You fixed it!”
He smiled and nodded. “It’s what I do. So, getting back to your story …”
“Wait, were you still wearing that pink getup?” Will grinned. “I bet that was fun to explain to the police!”
I grumbled a curse and rubbed my palms over my eyes. “Don’t remind me. It was awful!”
“Did you notice anything different about his voice or the language he used?” Lilith asked.
“He definitely had a strange voice. It was raspy, like an avid chain smoker’s. And there was a faint accent, but either he was hiding it or just making it up. I couldn’t exactly place what it sounded like. The powder from the airbags did cling to the top of his head. I can tell you he has giant eyebrows and a full head of short, curly hair.”
“Well, even though it sucks that Anna was in an accident, we do know a bit more now,” offered Peter. “I’ll add the info to our file and see if I can eliminate anyone from our list of suspects.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “I almost forgot. The guy was off on a rant about how easily he killed the Boston team, and he kept saying we have to get rid of anyone in our path and we have plans. I asked him who this we was and he said they were the bad guys. Apparently he’s part of some larger organization that has tasked him with taking out our team. It sounds like he’s here alone, but he’s part of a greater web of supervillains.”
The office was deadly quiet as the team absorbed the information. After a moment to process what he’d learned, Will cleared his throat and took a step forward. “Back in Boston, we’d never really fought against experienced supervillains. When we did come across someone, he or she was always working alone and often mentally unstable. We weren’t prepared for this guy. You can’t go in blind and you can’t rely on your powers.”
Dom turned to the group. “Okay, what steps do we need to take
? I don’t want to enter another battle as unprepared as we were. Peter, I need you to do your magic and find out more about what organization this guy could belong to.”
“What are your schedules like this afternoon?” Emmett asked. “Can you clear a few hours to meet in the training room? We need to discuss battle tactics and practice through a few scenarios.”
Everyone nodded and simultaneously pulled out their phones to check their calendars.
“I need to get upstairs,” I said. “If I think of anything else, I’ll call you guys. And please don’t tell Blake about this just yet. He’s got enough on his plate. I’ll tell him in a couple days.”
The group murmured their agreement and Lilith gathered me in for a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”
Emmett walked me out the door and followed me to the elevator, where he climbed aboard behind me. “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked as the doors slid shut. “How did you get home?”
“I knew you’d be upset,” I confessed as I leaned against the elevator wall. “It had been such a long night. I didn’t want any more drama. I called my brother and he came to pick me up.”
He approached me and ran his thumb along my jaw. “Are you sure it wasn’t because of our talk?”
I shrugged and avoided his gaze. “That was part of it. Quite honestly, I didn’t want to get back from a car accident and jump right back into an awkward discussion about our relationship.”
“From now on, just call me,” Emmett pleaded. “You can tell me you don’t want to talk about things. But please call me. And know that just because I don’t want to run off and get married and pick out China doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. You have to know how much I like you.”
I offered him a small smile and leaned into his palm. “I do know that. I guess I’m just getting used to this new information. I wasn’t exactly thinking about spending forever with you and having two-point-one children. But I also didn’t not think about it. If that makes sense.”
The elevator came to a halt and chimed its arrival.
“I understand. Just don’t doubt my feelings for you. And when you almost die in a horrific accident, maybe give me a call.”
“Deal,” I said with a smile as I exited the elevator. “See you later?”
Emmett nodded and sent me a little wave as the doors closed to take him back to his floor.
24
Mae was already in my office when I arrived. She immediately hopped up from my guest chair and enveloped me in a motherly hug. “Good morning!” she chirped as she released me.
“Good morning.” I took a step back to examine her face. “Your whisker burn looks better today,” I observed. “I take it you didn’t have another makeout session last night?”
“No, Duncan had plans last night. He’s taking me out tonight. But I promise I’ve learned my lesson about men with facial hair. Plus, I’m not sure I want to commit to him so quickly. I got four new matches this week on Tinder and three of them are total hotties! One is a retired horse ranch owner. I’ve read dozens of cowboy romances and they’re always extremely passionate lovers. I might have to give that stud a ride before he gets put out to pasture. Yeehaw!”
Before I could formulate a response, Carl shuffled through my door. “Good morning, ladies.”
“Good morning, dear,” greeted Mae. “Say, are you on Tinder? Because you should be. A handsome young man like yourself would have the ladies swarming like bees!”
Carl scooted around Mae to drop my mail off, then turned to her with a dreamy smile. “I was on Tinder for a while, but I recently deleted my account. I’ve found my one true love. The other half to my soul. My mate.”
Mae clapped her hands excitedly and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Honey, that’s wonderful! Tell me all about her! Here, I’ll walk with you while you deliver mail …” The two of them wandered out together, discussing Carl’s beautiful blonde girl with stunning brown (green) eyes.
While my computer booted up, I pulled out the card the tow truck driver had given me the night before and dialed the number. After being transferred three times, a very rude woman finally informed me that the guy who does their estimates was out until Monday and that I might not hear anything until Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week. Lovely.
I resisted the urge to slam down the receiver and attempted to count to ten. I had just reached eight when a very angry man’s voice broke through my thoughts. It took me a moment to realize it was Blake. He was in his office speaking with someone, presumably on the phone, and the conversation was not going well. I could easily make out his cursing through the wall, so I doubted the rest of the floor had any trouble hearing it through his closed door. After the third f-bomb was dropped, I jumped up and raced to his office. It was highly out of character for him to lose his temper at work. Even when he did get angry, he never raised his voice.
Blake’s back was to the door as I entered and he either didn’t hear me or he purposely didn’t acknowledge my presence. I gave him a few moments to turn around before finally stepping forward and placing my hand on his shoulder.
He whipped around and glared at me before snapping into his phone. “Hang on, Ben.” He covered the phone and scowled. “What do you want, Jennings? Can you not tell I’m in the middle of an important phone call?”
“Of course I can tell,” I snapped. “So can everyone else on the floor. No doubt you’re making the staff anxious. I’m trying to be a good friend here and tell you to chill out a bit.”
Blake let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. “Alright. Thank you. I’ll tone it down.”
I nodded curtly and spun on my heel to leave. I closed the door quietly behind me and avoided eye contact with the staff as I grabbed a cup of coffee and returned to my office. I was seriously overdue for my morning moment and getting fussier by the minute. As soon as my office door clicked shut, I breathed a sigh of relief and settled down to drink my coffee and catch up on emails.
I enjoyed an hour of silence before meeting with the editorial team to discuss upcoming articles and features. By the time that meeting wrapped up, I had an hour to grab lunch before our big quarterly update meeting. Seeing as the last few times I went out for lunch ended up in drama, I chose to play it safe and scrounged through my desk for a protein bar and pack of pistachios.
At 12:55 Mae rapped on my door to ask to walk to the meeting together. It was standing room only as we entered Vance Publishing’s auditorium. We quickly found our way through the mob and leaned against the back wall, just as Eric Blake walked in. Despite his obviously rough morning, he looked as professional as usual, dressed in silver gray slacks, a white button up, a matching gray vest and steel blue tie.
The crowd instantly hushed as Blake cleared his throat and tapped the microphone. After shuffling through his papers, he inhaled a fortifying breath and began his presentation, congratulating the team on surpassing our new subscription goal and breaking down numbers. As his speech progressed, he became noticeably less upbeat. The words coming out of his mouth were positive, but the tone in which he delivered them reminded me of Ben Stein. By the time he got to the reports I had given him, he looked completely bored and even a little frustrated.
“Now I’m going to pass the rest of the meeting off to Anna Jennings. Again, good work everyone. I look forward to seeing even more improvements next quarter.” Blake looked up from the podium and searched the crowd “Ms. Jennings, you’re up.”
My entire body froze as several heads turned my way.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing!?” I thought. “You can’t just spring this on me!”
“I’m sorry,” came Blake’s mental reply. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t know you could handle it. Fake it til you make it, right?”
Mae nudged my shoulder. “Anna, everyone’s staring. Go on up there!” she whispered.
I nodded absently at her and slowly trudged my way down the ramp and up the stairs to the stage. Blake smiled at me
and handed me my reports, then briskly walked off the stage and out the door. Dozens of expectant gazes met mine as I approached the podium. I quickly leafed through the reports to refamiliarize myself, and took a deep breath.
“As Mr. Blake said, our numbers have improved across the board. We also tabulated the results of our recent VIP events and were very pleased to read exceptionally good reviews. We’ve had a lot of famous faces on our covers over the last six months. We need to do more than keep that up, though. We need to push it further with bigger names and better headlines. I’d like to congratulate Elle Rutherford for being named on Midwest Graphic’s annual “Designers to Watch” list.”
