Playing With Fire (tales of an extra ordinary girl)

by Gena Showalter

  What the hell did Lexis do to afford this stuff? Or did Rome buy it for her? I didn’t know government agents were so well paid.

  Hair floating behind her like a black cloud, she emerged from a walk-in closet carrying a large black duffel bag and several items of clothing. She carefully placed the bag on the bed.

  “Going somewhere?” Rome asked her. He let go of my hand, traced his fingers up my arm, lingering, then withdrew all contact.

  Without his touch, I experienced a wave of emptiness.

  “Your woman is going to burn this place down,” she replied bitterly. She stuffed a green silk dress in the bag. “I figured it was in my best interests to leave before that happened.”

  There was no time to bask in the acute sense of joy the words your woman elicited. Not with her accusation ringing in my ears. “I’m not going to torch this place. Jeez.”

  Rome ’s chin dropped to his chest, and he shook his head. “This is great. I’m sorry, Lex. I wouldn’t have come if I’d known.”

  “I know,” she said. “Brit will take care of Sunny, so that’s one less worry.”

  “I’m not going to start a fire,” I insisted.

  “You won’t mean to,” was the airy reply as Lexis returned to her closet to gather more clothing. “But you will.”

  “You stay, Lex. We’ll leave,” Rome offered, his voice taut.

  “Too late.” She folded a pair of jeans and placed them inside the case. “I can’t throw you out, Rome. It’s too dangerous. Plus, I’m involved now.”

  Oh, joy. Just the words I wanted to hear. “You’re both acting like me starting a fire is a done deal. But now that I’ve been warned-” bitch! “-I’ll be careful.” I would have placed money on the fact that she was only trying to make me look bad in front of Rome.

  She pinned me with a piercing stare, her emerald eyes taking on an unholy glow, otherworldly and ethereal. “You’re still going to cause trouble.”

  God, I hated this woman. Do not get mad. Do not get mad. Trying to control my breathing, I stretched my fingers behind my back-just in case they emitted plumes of smoke. Already I felt the burning, the intense heat.

  “Uh, Belle, sweetie,” Rome said.

  “Not now, Rome. Lexis and I are in the middle of a… conversation.”

  “Put the conversation on hold. Your fingers are on fire.”

  Damn it all to hell and back. I whirled on him, pointing a blazing finger at his chest. I growled, “Watch the temper. Think happy thoughts. Well, guess what? I’m on the run, I can’t go home, I miss my dad, people want to kill me and/or capture me for reasons I still don’t fully understand, your best buddy is a bitch, and I’m starving.” My stomach was in danger of eating itself, I only then realized. I hadn’t had a decent meal all day. Well, there was that amazing breakfast Rome had cooked me that morning, but already that felt like eons ago. “I have every right to feel emotional.”

  “I know,” he said softly. Features lighting with compassion, he blew on my fingertip, dousing the fire, and snaked his arm around my waist. He tugged me in front of him, then slid his fingers up my back and onto my shoulders, where he began a bone-meltingly delicious massage. “I’m sorry.”

  Just like that, my anger completely defused. A man who understood-unusual. A man who said he was sorry, and meant it-priceless.

  “I’ll watch her tonight, Lex,” Rome said. “I’ll make sure Belle doesn’t start a fire.”

  Lexis hesitated, then nodded. “It’s against my better judgment to ignore my instincts, but I’m going to trust you, Rome. We’ll leave in the morning.”

  “Good. Now let’s get down to business so Belle and I can eat and get some sleep,” he said. His fingers never stopped kneading my sore muscles.

  Lexis, who continued packing her bag, avoided glancing in our direction.

  I watched her without reservation. Though her motions were stiff, she carried herself with the grace and fluidity of a dancer.

  With a flick of her wrist, she tossed another case on the bed. “I’m filling this one for you,” she told me. “You’ll need some different clothes in the coming days, and we are about the same size.”

  How… sweet. And completely unexpected. “Thank you,” I said, a tendril of guilt drifting through me.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Here’s what’s going on,” Rome said, cutting through the sudden, pregnant silence. “Belle was given an experimental formula.”

  “Against my will,” I added. “A little lower,” I told him, moving my shoulders to show him where I needed him. Oh, yeah. Right there. My head lolled forward as ecstasy consumed me. “Mmm… ”

  He inhaled a sharp breath before finishing his explanation. “This formula has changed the alignment of her DNA.” His voice began to deepen, a husky edge sneaking into the rich timbre. “It’s given her power over the four elements. As you might have figured out when her finger caught fire.”

  Lexis paused in her movements, a pair of green silk pants dangling from her fingers. Finally she faced us. “So that’s the hum of electrical output I feel from her?”

  “Yes.” Rome dabbled at the top of my butt for a moment, and I bit my lower lip to cut off a moan. “Both Vincent and our boss want her.”

  Wait. Our boss? That meant Rome and Lexis worked together, too. Just great.

  “Stop tensing,” he whispered to me. “You’re the Periodic Table Chick, remember? Keep it calm.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “This is Dr. Roberts’s formula we’re discussing, yes?” Lexis asked, ignoring me.

  Rome nodded. “You’ve worked with Roberts in the past. You know him better than I do.”

  “You worked with Dr. Roberts?” I asked. Well, more like growled. I didn’t like the man, for obvious reasons.

  “Yes,” she said. “He’s not a bad man. He wouldn’t have hurt you on purpose. He’s sweet and he means well. But he does have a wild, sexual side, and I think Vincent used it-most likely by blackmailing him-to keep the doctor working on the formula, even after he learned Vincent wasn’t the altruist he’d thought.”

  “Why did you work with him, though?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “We heard what the doctor was trying to create, a liquid that could make the weakest of people strong, and we wanted him for PSI. When he chose OASS instead, I was sent in to befriend, monitor, and make sure he failed. But Vincent figured out what I was doing and took the doctor underground.”

  “Do you think you can get a lock on him?” Rome said. “I need to find him. I promised Belle I would help her search for an antidote and get Vincent off her back.”

  “What about John?” Lexis asked.

  He can’t have me, I mentally answered.

  Rome didn’t speak for a moment. “I’ll deal with him later,” he said, and there was an odd inflection in his voice. An inflection I couldn’t decipher. “Tell me about Roberts.”

  Lexis closed her eyes, a blanket of extreme relaxation falling over her features. For a moment I wasn’t sure she was breathing. “Roberts is in the city,” she said, completely monotone. “He has not left and will not leave. There’s still something he wants to do here.”

  “What?” Rome asked.

  “I don’t know,” she answered with disappointment. “That is hidden from me.”

  So Pretty Boy Vincent hadn’t captured him yet, I realized. There was still a chance I could find him, talk to him, slap the shit out of him, then force him to reverse what he’d done to me. If that were even possible.

  “He’s concealed himself very well, and I can’t pinpoint his location.”

  “At least we know he’s still in Atlanta,” Rome said. His fingers ceased all movement on my back, but remained in place. He rested his chin atop my head. “You’re sure Sunny is going to be okay?” he asked, his tone stark. Filled with raw emotion. The words burst from him as if they’d been poised on his tongue all along and he couldn’t hold them back a moment more.

  Genuine affection and s
adness played over Lexis’s face, changing her exotic beauty to one of haunting delicacy. “She’ll be fine.”

  Rome ’s chest was pressed into my back, so I felt the frantic dance of his heartbeat, then the gradual slowing as he accepted her words. My stomach clenched painfully. I reached up with both hands and threaded our fingers together, offering him what little comfort I could.

  “We talked about taking her into hiding,” Rome said, his voice different than before. Flatter. Like when I’d first met him.

  “Yes,” Lexis replied. She stilled, gazing over at him.

  “Soon,” he said. “I have a plan. Belle is going to… help.”

  Was that hesitation I heard from him? “I’ll learn to control the powers,” I assured them both. “I won’t be a hindrance.”

  Lexis’s eyes widened for a moment and she looked from Rome to me, from me to Rome. “That’s why you didn’t take her to John?”

  He nodded.

  Lexis hesitated for a moment-come on, I wasn’t that bad-then gave a clipped nod. “I appreciate your willingness to help my daughter,” she told me stiffly.

  You’re sooo welcome, I wanted to reply snottily. That stilted tone of hers made it clear she didn’t expect me to be much help.

  “Thank you, Lex,” Rome said. “I owe you. For everything.”

  “No more than I owe you.”

  They shared a smile, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying something dumb. Or mean. Or both. Restraint was my new best friend, it seemed.

  “Go,” Lexis said, resuming her packing. Her movements were lighter, her expression happier than they’d been since I’d entered the apartment. “Eat. It’s getting late, and I need to finish up here so we’ll be ready to go in the morning.”

  Class dismissed, I thought, which meant I could drill Rome for answers about himself, his daughter and his relationship with Lexis. No excuses this time. No evasions. He would tell me everything I wanted to know, or he would suffer the wrath of the Fabulous Flame.

  I cringed. Eew. No. I didn’t like that name any better than I liked the ones Rome had given me. I’d think of a better one soon. If I didn’t, I’d be stuck with Four Elements Girl or Periodic Table Chick.

  A sigh seeped from me. I did not want to go down in history with a lame-ass superhero name. Not that I thought of myself as a superhero, but I could now see that there was the potential for it. I mean, I was helping Rome track down the doctor who had done this to me, and then I was going to help him hide his daughter.

  Yep. Belle Jamison, superhero. I was starting to like the sound of that.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I FOLLOWED ROME into the dining room, meaning to question him about Lexis. Instead, I saw food spread out on the table, and my mind went blank. Ham, crackers, cheese-Lexis must have set it out earlier, knowing we were coming and all. By the time I came up for air, Rome had already locked himself in the shower.

  I consoled myself with a bottle of red wine (don’t ask the brand, I don’t know how to pronounce it) and more of the food. It was the perfect midnight snack to top off this long-too long-day. Thirty minutes later, after I’d eaten my fill and given myself a tour of the apartment, Rome still hadn’t emerged, so I decided to shower, as well. Alone. In a bathroom that was as expensive and well-maintained as the rest of the apartment, with gold-veined facets and pink-veined marble. Sheesh. I could live in this bathroom.

  Afterward, in the guest room Lexis had told me was mine for the evening, I changed into an ice-green silk pajama set she’d loaned me. I’d expected a coarse brown sack or extra-large flannel, so the silk came as a welcome surprise. The material felt ultrasoft against my skin.

  I was walking out of the room when I spied a phone on the nightstand. I paused, pressed my lips together. Maybe I should call Sherridan. If she went looking for me at work, found out I’d been fired and I hadn’t called her, she’d freak. Would her cell be tapped? I didn’t see how it could be. I mean, the woman kept it on her at all times in case a client wanted to see a house in the middle of the night. But…

  Should I? Shouldn’t I? In the end, I hunted down Lexis and asked her-hating that I had to rely on her for anything. “Would I cause a disaster if I called my friend Sherridan?”

  Lexis looked at me for a moment, her pretty features pensive. “No. I do not sense one.”

  “Thank you.” Relieved, I marched back into my room, picked up the phone and dialed Sherridan’s number.

  “Hello,” she said sleepily, and I sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Hey,” I said. I toyed with the damp ends of my hair. “It’s me. You alone?”

  “Belle?”

  “Yeah.”

  I heard a crackling static, then, “Why are you calling me at… two in the morning?”

  “I wanted to talk. You too tired?”

  “No, no. Just give me a moment.”

  Eager, I mentally counted to five. “You good now?”

  “Yeah.” She yawned. “So, do you want to talk about riding crops? Or Rome? Let’s talk Rome.” She sounded more alert with every word. “His voice was sexy enough to give me an orgasm. Does he do phone sex? You should have told me about him when I asked you about the twins.”

  “You’re babbling, Sher.”

  “I’ll stop if you tell me about Rome.”

  “ Rome was sort of a… surprise.” Truth. I fell onto the mattress with a sigh. “Oh, Sherridan, I don’t know what I’m going to do about that man.”

  “Have you slept with him yet?”

  “No!”

  She tsked. “But you want to, you naughty girl. I can tell. Do you remember how to do it or do you need Auntie Sher to remind you?”

  “I remember, thank you.” I hoped. “Listen, I’m… going away with him for a while.” Again, truth. And the real reason I had called her. “I’m going to be unreachable.”

  Silence. Then, “Wait a second. You’re taking time off from work. Okay, this is serious. Are you an alien? Did you invade my friend’s body?”

  “Ha, ha.”

  “I’m not kidding,” she said, deadpan.

  “I’d better go,” I stated, before she could start asking questions I wasn’t prepared to answer. “ Rome is probably naked and looking for me.” Well, the naked part wasn’t a lie.

  “Fine. Go. But you owe me major details when you get back. Just do me one favor. Give Rome a kiss for me. With tongue.” Click.

  Little devil. I laughed and replaced the receiver in its cradle. That was done. Next up: Tanner. I tiptoed out of the room and into Tanner’s. He was sleeping peacefully, his hair mussed, features relaxed, and a soft snore gliding from his lips. I never should have gotten him involved in my mess. He was just a kid, lost, unsure about his life, and perhaps desperate to find some peace.

  I’d shattered that, and I decided then and there to make it up to him. Somehow. Some way.

  I left the room and once more braved the labyrinth that was the apartment. Where was Rome? Surely he’d finished his shower. If not, well, I wasn’t above storming into the bathroom and questioning him there-while secretly checking out his goods, of course.

  I sneaked into the living room and stopped in a shadowed cubby that separated hall from room. My eyes narrowed. Rome sat on the couch, Lexis right next to him. Their backs were to me. The sound of their whispers drifted in the air, too light to distinguish actual words.

  Lexis purred a soft chuckle.

  Okay, so even her laugh was feminine and pretty. What kind of mutant was she? No one should be that perfect. My hands tightened into fists. Rome could very well be denying, even to himself, that he loved her. I mean, the woman was the mother of his only child. That kind of bond couldn’t be broken. Proof: there was an ease to their relationship, an intimacy that hadn’t been shattered by divorce. Proof: he went to her when he was in trouble.

  Why had they split, then?

  I hated-hated!-that the thought of them together bothered me so much. Rome had seen this perfect woman’s perfect breasts and p
erfect thighs. How could other women compete? What’s more, Lexis probably kissed and fucked with the exotic flair her appearance promised. No telling how I compared-and would compare. Not favorably, was my first guess.

  “She’s going to be more trouble than Daniel,” Lexis said, loudly enough that I could hear.

  “I remember him,” Rome replied with a husky chuckle.

  “The little boy who could soul-jump, invading people’s bodies and taking over their minds. He thought it was a game until Vincent caught him and forced him to soul-jump to rob and murder.”

  “Getting Daniel out of that lab earned you three bullets in the back.” She expelled a sad breath at the memory. “How did Belle survive the formula? No one else did.”

  “I don’t know,” he answered. “Maybe the doctor finally got it right. I’m sure blood tests will reveal the true answer to that, but I’m not curious enough to take her in to find out.”

  Silence.

  Then, “Do you ever regret joining PSI?” Lexis asked.

  “We’ve saved thousands of lives and averted hundreds of paranormal disasters.”

  They weren’t called “parasters”? Lord, would I ever learn the lingo?

  “But,” Lexis said.

  “But,” Rome repeated. They looked at each other and in unison said, “Sunny.”

  “That will be corrected soon enough,” he stated. He stiffened, then added, “You going to stand there all night or come sit with us?” He didn’t face me, but I knew the question was meant for me.

  I frowned. “How did you know I was here?”

  “I smelled you,” he said, keeping his back to me.

  Color heated my cheeks, quickly spreading to my neck and collar. I bet he’d never said that to Lexis. “I just took a shower. I do not stink!”

  “I didn’t say you stank, now did I?”

  “You said I smelled, and that’s the same thing.” If he’d been within arm’s reach, I would have slapped him.

  “Well, you do smell. You smell good. Really good.” Finally he twisted to face me, and our eyes locked together. Sizzled. Oxygen burned in my lungs, and a jolt of desire speared me. “C’mere.”