by EJ Whitmer
My heart ached for her. I had no idea what the right thing to do was. Should I tell her what happened? How do you tell someone their brother was an evil supervillain and is now dead?
Luckily, I didn’t have to make that decision as the sound of my front door being unlocked interrupted our conversation. I rushed to my bedroom door and peeked out. Eric Blake stood in my entryway, eyeing the empty wine glasses and cookie wrappers.
“Heard of knocking?” I demanded as I approached.
Blake frowned and bent to take off his shoes. “It’s early. I figured you’d still be sleeping. I was just going to grab the keys to my car and take off.” His eyebrows shot up as he noticed Gia standing behind me. “Did you girls have a sleepover?”
“I know what you’re thinking, perv. Knock it off.”
Blake grinned and sauntered into my kitchen. “This is quite a collection of empty wine bottles for just two people.” He lifted one of the many empty bottles and deposited it in the recycling bin. “How are you feeling today?”
“Oh, it’s just rainbows and unicorns around here,” I snapped, then joined him at the counter where he was loading glasses into my dishwasher. “What are you doing? Stop that.”
He ignored me and kept picking up. “I take it rainbows and unicorns are a good thing?” He paused his cleaning. “What’s that sound?” he asked over his shoulder. “It sounds like rattling chains.”
“Carl!” I gasped. I raced to the guest bedroom and threw open the door. Carl was lying in the center of the bed, wrists and ankles still secured by chains, snoring and twitching in his sleep.
“Holy shit,” Blake breathed in my ear. “This just gets better and better.”
I quickly shut the door and shoved him back to the kitchen. “This is all her fault,” I said, pointing at Gia.
“How is it my fault?” she demanded.
I ignored her and turned to Blake. “Last night was the first night of the full moon. Carl was worried he would shift into a werewolf and hurt someone. He came here, Lea got him drunk, I chained him to the bed so he wouldn’t were-out and kill someone.”
Blake stared at me blankly. “And why does he think he’s a werewolf again?”
“Because when we fought against the invisible guy at the marina, a large dog that resembled a wolf broke up the fight and accidentally bit Carl while saving his life.”
Gia burst into laughter. “That’s why he’s been acting so strange? That’s hilarious!”
“Yeah, hilarious to you!” I shot back. “You’re not the one who’s had to feed him meat and house him for the past few days. Oh, by the way, he’s convinced you’re his one true mate. So have fun with that. Karma’s a bitch.”
“Hang on,” Blake interrupted. “I’m missing something.”
I sighed and looked at Gia. “You tell him. I’m going to go unchain Carl.”
I quickly unlocked Carl’s wrists and ankles, careful not to wake him, and piled his chains on the floor next to the bed. After checking his pulse to make sure he wasn’t actually dead, I returned to the kitchen to find Blake comforting a crying Gia. Apparently he’d told her about Ian. They both looked up as I closed the bedroom door behind me.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as I hurried to Gia’s side.
She dried her eyes with a paper towel and covered my hand with hers. “It’s not your fault. Honestly, I knew the news wasn’t going to be good. It’s just hard to hear it.”
I reached out to hug her and caught Blake’s gaze over her shoulder. He offered me a sad smile and shrugged his shoulders in defeat.
Gia pulled away and sniffled. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair. Again, Anna, I’m really sorry for scaring you this morning.”
I waved her apology away. “Don’t sweat it. It’s not even the strangest thing that’s happened to me this week. Are you sure you’re alright to be alone? You can hang out here for the day and we can watch shitty movies and order pizza.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll be alright. I need to call my parents. I won’t tell them about your team. Don’t worry. But I do need to tell them that Ian is gone.”
After another hug from me and an awkward pat on the back from Blake, I saw Gia out the door and returned to the kitchen. Blake had just loaded the last of the dishes into the dishwasher and was looking entirely too comfortable in my home.
“What are your plans for the day?” he asked as he hung the dishtowel on the fridge handle.
“I hadn’t thought about it,” I answered. “I’ll probably go for a walk or jog while Carl is asleep. Then … I dunno. Veg out, I guess.”
“I’ll walk with you,” offered Blake. “And then maybe we can go look at some new cars. It’s Sunday, so we shouldn’t be bothered by salesmen.”
“Are you in the market for a new car?”
Blake cocked an eyebrow at me. “No, but I heard you are.”
“Shit. Who told you?”
“I can read minds, Anna. Nobody had to tell me. Every one of the guys at the bar the other night was thinking about what happened. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I knew Friday was going to be rough for you,” I answered. “I didn’t want to upset you even more. I planned on telling you after a few days.”
“I appreciate your concern, but next time, just tell me. It’s not fun to hear these things through your friends’ minds when you’re already three sheets to the wind. Now go change and let’s go for a walk. I’d like to meander down toward the harbors and see if we can’t match up some of the boats to the ones on Peter’s list. I’ve got it on my phone.”
I bounced on my toes and grinned. “You’re involving me!”
Blake took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We’re not getting involved in anything. You wanted to go for a walk. I wanted to cross-reference our list. We’re killing two birds with one stone. Settle down and go get ready.”
I shot him one last grin before high-tailing it to my bedroom.
30
The clouds had dissipated at some point during the night, leaving the morning sunny and beautiful, if a bit chilly. Blake and I walked east at a steady clip, each immersed in our own thoughts. We eventually found ourselves walking along Lakefront Trail, huddled in our coats against the wind, but still enjoying the beauty of Lake Michigan on a Sunday morning.
We passed several harbors and detoured toward the docks to reference our list. The lake was full of activity. Of the boats we were able to identify, the vast majority showed some sort of life. Most had multiple people on board, readying their vessel for another day on the lake. The few that were lifeless were circled on our list before we moved on.
“Thank you for taking care of me Friday,” Blake interrupted the silence as we approached another set of docks. “I’m not sure why Norm chose you as his person to call, but I suppose I’m glad.”
“Me too. And don’t worry. It’s between us. And we can absolutely drop this conversation if you’d like. You don’t owe me any sort of explanation.” I smiled up at him and nudged his shoulder.
He nudged me back and nodded. “Thank you.”
“So how much of the car crash story did you hear?” I asked, changing the subject.
Blake chuckled. “Oh, I’d say pretty much the entire story from four different points of view. Including Will’s thoughts about how atrocious your super suit was.”
“Oh my God, don’t remind me. You have no idea how ridiculous I looked sitting on the side of the road while the police questioned me.”
He pulled out his phone and clicked a few buttons before holding it out to me. “I do know, actually. Your brother managed to snap a picture when you weren’t looking.”
“That son of a bitch! Give me that!” I reached for Blake’s phone, only to have him hold me back with a palm to my forehead. “I mean it, Blake! Give that to me! You have to delete that!”
“Are you kidding me? This is priceless! I’m getting quotes from local artists to see how expensive it would be to ha
ve it painted as a mural on my office wall.”
I employed every duck and weave maneuver my brothers had taught me growing up, all to no avail. Blake had at least a six inch reach advantage over me and simply held me still with one hand while flipping through his phone with the other. I was about to start kicking when a loud crash startled us both out of our scuffle. We both whipped around to see the aftermath of a small crash in Monroe Harbor. A pontoon rested precariously close to a small, yet gorgeous yacht.
A man emerged from the yacht and immediately launched into a verbal attack. “What ah you, a moron!? Fahkin asshole! If you can’t pahk your own piece of gahbage pontoon, don’t rent space at one of the busiest hahbahs in Chicago!”
His heavy Boston accent grated on my ears, giving me a newfound sympathy for Henry Higgins.
At least Eliza Doolittle was cute and halfway sweet. This guy is an ass! And he looks like a chubby … Tom … Selleck …
“Blake!” I exclaimed, pointing at the man. “That’s him! That’s the hairy naked guy!”
Blake squinted his eyes against the sun. “Hmmm… He does look like Magnum P.I. Did he have that accent when he spoke to you?”
“No. I thought he had a strange lilt to his voice, but I could never place it. I wonder if he was purposely hiding his Boston accent.”
“Funny that we see him here at the harbor, where most of our activity has been, and he’s obviously from the east coast,” Blake murmured. “It’s too big of a coincidence. I’ll have Peter look into it. Can you see if his boat has a name or registration number on the side?”
“I can’t see the registration number. I think it starts with 4982, but the rest is completely hidden. His boat’s name is ... Mustache Ride. Ew!”
Blake shuddered before referring to our list of renters on his phone. “He’s on the list. Unfortunately, I only have registration numbers on my copy,” he murmured before dialing Peter and relaying the information. He disconnected and ran his fingers through his hair. “Peter is going to look into it. He’ll call me back as soon as he knows something.”
“So what now?” I asked as we watched both boats pull away and exit the harbor.
”Now, I guess we go back to your place. We can put together a fresh list of what we know while we wait for word from Peter.”
We jogged back to my apartment and immediately launched into our list. If the naked man was our bad guy, we could place him at both the initial fight at the marina and outside of our building the day someone hacked away Lilith’s plants and went through my papers. I didn’t see him at Navy Pier, but he could have just remained invisible the entire time he was there.
“So is the naked thing just a coincidence?” I wondered out loud.
“I doubt it,” replied Blake. “Will can never go commando or he’d end up transporting somewhere naked. I bet this guy isn’t able to turn his clothes invisible, so he just runs around nude.”
A thought occurred to me. “Ew! No wonder the heat made his butt squeak in my car. His bare ass was on my leather! That’s disgusting! No amount of bleach will ever get his ass germs off my seat.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Blake interjected. “From what I hear, your Mini is long gone.”
I gaped at him in outrage. “No it’s not! It will be just fine! They’ll just pop out a couple dents, give it a quick spit shine and it’ll be good to go.”
“Dream on, Jennings. You’ll be searching for a new car tomorrow.”
Blake’s phone interrupted yet another squabble. Blake accepted the call, listened for a moment, then thanked the caller and hung up.
“That was Peter. A yacht matching that description is registered to a Jay Webb. He confirmed with harbor management that a man by that name rented a slip for the next six weeks. He’s also looking into other known aliases.”
“Do you guys have some sort of supervillain database? Does his name ring any bells?”
He shook his head. “I don’t recognize the name. We have files on known supers in the area. Some cities have more extensive files. We’ve also got a couple contacts with Chicago PD, so I assume Peter is calling them in on this too.”
The guest bedroom door opened and Carl trudged out, dragging his chains behind him like Rob Zombie. “Hullo,” he murmured as he took a seat at my breakfast bar. “Did you unlock my chains? They don’t look like they’ve been busted through.”
I patted his shoulder and nodded. “Yes. I unlocked them this morning.”
“So I didn’t shift?”
“No. You didn’t. Actually, Carl … There’s something you need to know.” An idea sparked in my mind. “But maybe I’m not the best person to explain. One second …”
I whipped out my phone and sent a quick text to Emmett, asking for Gia’s cell phone number. A moment later, I dialed her digits and waited for her to answer.
“Hello?”
“Gia? Hi, it’s Anna. I’ve got Carl here. You know, your mate? I’m going to go ahead and let you explain this whole shifter business to him.”
“You really don’t like me, do you?”
“Actually, as hard as I’ve tried to not like you, you’ve grown on me. This is just payback for the past week.”
Gia sighed loudly into the receiver. “Fine. Put him on.”
I handed the phone to Carl and shoved him back into the guest bedroom. “You go talk to Gia. We’ll be here when you’re done if you need a hug.”
“I’m not hugging him,” said Blake, just before his phone buzzed with an incoming message. “Okay, known aliases for one Jay Webb are: Ben Derwin, Timothy Branden and Duncan Hancox.”
My legs nearly gave out. “Duncan? Oh shit … Mae met some guy on Tinder named Duncan. They’ve been out a few times. She’s mentioned that he has a mustache. You don’t think he could be the same Duncan?”
He gave a sympathetic wince and handed me his phone. “Unfortunately, when it comes to this kind of stuff, nothing is a coincidence, Anna. Maybe you’d better call Mae. Put her on speaker, will you?”
She picked up on the first ring. “Hello, this is Mae.”
“Mae, it’s Anna. Hey, I was just wondering, do you happen to know Duncan’s last name?”
“Anna, I’ve told you many times, I’m being very careful. I wouldn’t go anywhere with a man whose last name I didn’t know.”
“Don’t let her know anything’s wrong.” Blake’s thoughts intruded.
“I believe you,” I soothed. “I just happened to run into a Duncan this morning while I was on a walk by the lake. I wanted to see if they happened to be the same person.”
“Oh! Duncan actually has a yacht he’s been staying on! His last name is Hancox. Does that sound familiar?”
I closed my eyes and banged my forehead on Blake’s shoulder. “No, I’m afraid not. This guy’s last name was … Johnson. Oh, well. It was worth a shot!”
Mae tsked. “Well, that’s too bad. I’d have loved for you to have met him. You could give me your honest opinion! He’s such a nice man. I’m just still deciding if he gets my final rose, if you know what I mean. He’s taking me to dinner tonight at a Mediterranean place down by Soldier Field.”
“That sounds great, Mae. I’ll let you get back to your day. See you in the morning!”
As soon as I disconnected the call, Blake snatched his phone back and began firing off messages. My heart was pounding. My poor, sweet Mae had no idea who she was dating. I didn’t know why he hadn’t used her for leverage yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“I’ve got to go,” Blake said as he grabbed his coat. “Don’t worry about Mae. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
I grabbed a fist full of his shirt and pulled him to a stop. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you’re going? You can’t just leave me here! I’m going with you!”
He pried my fingers from his shirt and smoothed out the wrinkles. “Anna, we’ve been through this. You need to leave the crime fighting stuff to us. Have you forgotten that you were nearly
killed two nights ago?”
