I picked up my fork, ready to dig in. The sweet, tangy scent of the sauce had my mouth watering. “I don’t know if I like that idea,” I said to him, scooping up a hunk of chicken. “This is getting into very illegal territory. What I did before was bad enough. But B and E? I don’t want to spend my thirties locked up in the joint. I watched Oz when it was on HBO, thank you very much.”
He picked up his fork too, diving into his food with gusto. After taking a bite he pointed the tip of the fork at me. “My name is Vigilante, not ‘Follow-the-law’ Man. I do what it takes to make justice happen, even if it means getting a little dirty.”
I want to get dirty with you, I almost said, then realized what was about to fly out of my mouth. Bad girl! Now was not the time to dissolve into a horny mess. I crammed a bite of chicken into my mouth to avoid the temptation of speaking my mind. “Okay,” I said around a bite, “so we’ll just plan to break in.”
No biggie. People broke into buildings all the time, right? Surely I could too.
I hoped.
* * *
Ten to midnight. I straightened the mask over my face, hoping against hope the cops would take a break tonight and go grab coffee on the other side of town. I glanced at my watch. Vigilante should be here any minute. We’d agreed to meet one block down from the SummerTech building, where we’d go over our plan to break in. Well, his plan, as I didn’t know what the hell we were going to do.
I’d already gone over to Mason’s lab a couple of hours ago to see what evidence might be hiding there. Unfortunately I was too late. The lab had been wiped clean. Vigilante would be disappointed when I told him, so I hoped the SummerTech building would pay off for us.
“You look great,” a husky voice whispered in my ear.
I whipped around, heart in my throat. “God, you scared me,” I whispered back to Vigilante, who wore a face-splitting smile. His teeth shone white against the darkness of his clothes and mask. Even though he’d scared me to death, I was thrilled he was attracted to me like I was to him.
Vigilante’s eyes grazed my body, almost like hands caressing me. Before I knew what was happening, he pressed my back against the building, his hands sliding across my hips, stroking my backside.
“I could get used to this,” he said in a low, gravelly tone, diving his head into my neck, his nose nuzzling the curve under my ear.
Oh God, yes. I arched my back, pressing my breasts against him, needing to be closer, closer. He reached a hand up and caressed the underside of one breast, his thumb brushing back and forth across my nipple. I moaned at the sensation of pleasure shooting from my breast straight to my pelvis and dug my nails into his back.
Inner Demon: Just do it. Right here, right now. It’ll be the hottest thing in your life. Rip his clothes off and go to town!
Inner Angel: Wait. We’re here to do more than make out. As badly as you want this man right now, you need to remember the task at hand.
Crap. The angel won out—for once.
I dragged in a breath and pushed him away a little. “Whew,” I said, giggling. “As much as I’d like to continue, we’d probably better focus.”
He chuckled a little, running a hand over his lower jaw. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Okay, so what were we talking about again?”
“Hell if I know. I think it had to do with my uniform.” I took a mental cold shower and tried to focus as I told him about the empty lab at MetalCo.
Vigilante shrugged, his lips flattened together. “I figured as much. So SummerTech is our only chance now.” He explained his clever, simple plan to break into the building. It sounded easy enough when he went over the details here, but whether or not it would work, we’d have to see.
I darted over to my car and threw on my street clothes over my uniform, slipping my mask in the glove compartment, then rushed through the double doors of the SummerTech building into the lit foyer, panting, darting my eyes frantically around.
The security guard, a man in his early forties, perked up from behind the massive lobby desk, his face etched with concern. He was a lithe, fit man, so he bounced up fast onto his feet. “Miss, are you okay?”
“There’s a gang fight going on outside, and they beat up my boyfriend,” I said in a shaky voice, moving just past him so he’d turn his back to the door.
Vigilante crept up silently behind the guy and, in the blink of an eye, thrust the tip of a long-assed needle into the jugular, injecting some kind of sleeping solution into his neck. The security guard slumped to the floor without making a sound, his eyes fluttering closed.
I grabbed the guard’s feet, and Vigilante grabbed underneath his arms. We propped him behind the desk and made him look like he was napping, so as not to cause suspicion to any passersby. I quickly ran out and threw my clothes back in my car, slipping the mask over my face, my hands a bit unsteady. It would probably take a while for me to get used to doing things like this.
I sucked in several slow, deep breaths, willing myself to calm down. A quick glance at my watch confirmed we had an hour to dig through the building before the security guard woke up.
Vigilante and I made our way up the elevator, forty stories to the top floor. We’d start with Dementrix’s office and work our way down. When we got there, her office door was locked. Luckily for me it was an electronic lock, so I touched the phone jack on a nearby wall to borrow a little bit of power from the building, then touched the lock of the door with my other hand.
All power in the building wiped out. The generator kicked in, and emergency lights came on, bathing the floor in a dim red light.
Whoops. I’d only meant to shut off the door, not the whole building’s power. It was obviously going to take me a while to get the hang of electrical current manipulation, but at least it worked.
Vigilante nodded at me in approval, obviously impressed with my little parlor trick. “A little overdone, but still successful,” he whispered. “Okay, five minutes in here, tops.”
We scoured through the desk, looking for something—anything. I furrowed through desk drawers, filing cabinets, anything that looked like it might hide information. But of course, I didn’t find a damn thing. Even the items that used to belong to poor Bradley Summers were completely gone, wiped from the room.
I took a quick glance at the window, remembering Dementrix’s implant in my brain of Bradley’s murder. She’d already had someone replace the glass he’d jumped through. Like he’d never existed at SummerTech Enterprises, except for the company name. I wouldn’t put it past her to eventually change that too.
“Time’s up,” Vigilante whispered. “Next room.”
“Wait,” I said. There was a weird shadow along the corner of the room, running a couple of feet across on the wall. I stepped over to scrutinize it closer, sliding the tips of my fingers along the darkness. There was a tiny, almost imperceptible seam.
I pushed it, and part of the wall swung inwards.
It was a secret room.
Bingo. I’d found something good. I waved Vigilante over, and we slipped inside.
My jaw dropped as I looked around. The room was deceptively long but narrow, and also had a red emergency light on. Four rows of tables were covered with various scraps of metal, as well as half a dozen half-built video cameras, wires dangling from the opened backs.
It was a lab, kind of like Mason’s, but super secret. I reached over to pick up a camera and study it closer. Vigilante jerked my hand away before I could touch it. He shook his head rapidly, pointing at the tips of his fingers.
Oh, duh. Fingerprints. Not smart, Jenna.
Instead, I took out my cell and started taking snapshots of the room, making sure to get the video cameras in the screen and hoping the red glow of the emergency lights didn’t distort the picture too badly.
A light, feminine chuckle came from the doorway behind me. Uh-oh, that couldn’t be good.
Vigilante and I slowly turned, and I crammed the cell back into my empty pocket. Standing in the doorway was a t
hin, leggy woman wearing what had to be the tiniest uniform I’d ever seen in my life. Her skin was dark and the light dim, so it was hard to see her well. Her skirt was jagged and angled, the raised side riding dangerously skimpy over her thigh.
Her top wasn’t much better. It had only one strap, and the scrap of fabric barely covered her rounded bosom.
“It seems you two have gotten lost,” she said, her voice husky and sensual.
Vigilante frowned. “Who are you?”
“You’re breaking and entering, and you’re asking me who I am?” She shook her head, wagging her finger at us as her eyes danced. “Not very heroic behavior on your part, Vigilante.” She chortled.
Something about her laugh was familiar. I squinted to study her face, but in the red glow I couldn’t quite place it. Her skin was pale and impossibly smooth. And how did she know who Vigilante was—
Oh, no.
Awareness washed over me. She had to be Carrie. No wonder I hadn’t recognized her without the office disguise on.
She swept into the room, her stride purposeful and graceful like a ballerina, and headed toward Vigilante in a slow, steady fashion. He stood on the balls of his feet, ready to move in a split second.
Her eyes darted over to me, and my heart suddenly stopped. She scrutinized my figure, finally resting on my face.
“And who might you be in this cute little outfit, Jenna? Trying to be a badass now?” she asked in a light tone, tapping a finger to her lip. “By the way, I didn’t appreciate you snooping in my purse. You should have been a little more careful to cover your tracks. Amateur.”
Crap. She knew who I was. But one thing to my advantage was she didn’t know I had superpowers now.
“I’m no one you should mess with,” I said with more bravado than I felt.
Her eyes narrowed, and her lips parted in a wide, cruel smile as she focused on me. “Oh, so we’re going to play it that way, are we?”
I gulped. Maybe bravado wasn’t the best idea. Maybe I should learn to keep my big mouth shut every once in a while.
Carrie walked over to me, standing a good six inches over my head, and looked down at me from over her nose. I had no idea she was that tall.
“Why are you here?” I asked her. “And what do you want with—”
I almost said with The Machine then stopped as a thought dug into my head. Carrie worked for Mason, not The Machine. Theoretically, she didn’t know Mason was The Machine, as he kept his alter ego identity on the down low at work. Or did she know?
Vigilante had said Carrie must have been the one to rat me and Mason out to the villains who ambushed us, and she couldn’t have done that unless she knew Mason was The Machine.
Wait, did Dementrix somehow know The Machine was Mason?
There was something missing here, but I couldn’t figure out what.
Before I could ponder this line of thought more, Carrie made her move. In a split second her fist whirled toward my face. Vigilante grabbed a video camera and tossed it at her with lightning speed, hitting her hand dead-on before she could connect with my nose. The camera crashed to the floor, pieces of plastic splintering all around.
Carrie cried out, clutching her injured fist.
“Get out! I’ll be right behind you,” Vigilante shouted to me.
I didn’t want to run away, but the look on his face told me he’d rip me a new one if I didn’t listen to him. However, I didn’t want to leave him in a bad spot. I took advantage of the moment to dart over to the corner of the room, standing on my tiptoes and touching the red light bulb. I willed the generator to go out completely.
The light bulb blinked once then totally went dark.
As fast as I could possibly move, I ducked down under the tables and crawled for the door, praying Vigilante was following me. Once inside Dementrix’s office, I stood quickly and hovered behind the back of the door, ready to close it when Vigilante came out. From the lab I heard metal clang. Cameras and other electronic equipment shattered as they made contact with the floor. Vigilante and Carrie shoved at each other, grunting with the effort as they fought.
Vigilante tore through, and we pushed the door closed, dragging the heavy desk in front of it to block it. I prayed it would buy us enough time to escape.
Chapter 16
I braced one hand against the outside of the building, trying to drag air into my screaming, shriveled lungs. After locking Carrie up in the secret lab, Vigilante and I had made a mad dash down the stairs.
All forty flights.
I made a mental note to pick up that step aerobics class again—the one I’d dropped six months ago because I was too lazy. Damn my stupid slothfulness! Now, I was paying for it in spades.
Once we reached the bottom, Vigilante patted my back, laughing hard. He was doubled over in stitches.
Well, I’m glad he found it amusing that I couldn’t breathe, and my body was disgustingly out of shape. ‘Cause I sure didn’t. Those stairs just about killed me. If I were going to do this superhero stuff, I needed to get my ass into shape.
“Stop. Laughing. Can’t. Breathe,” I said, sucking in air between words.
“No, I’m not laughing at that.” He tucked a finger underneath the edge of his mask, wiping at the corner of his eyes. “I’ve just never seen anyone crawl on their hands and knees so fast before. You were on the floor and out of that room quicker than I could blink.”
I chuckled, imagining how that must have looked. Not quite my foxiest moment. “Yeah, I guess it was kind of funny.” I glanced down the road to make sure all was clear. Streetlights created halos of bright spots on the asphalt down an otherwise deserted drag.
“Let’s get out of here, okay?” I said, rubbing my left side, where a growing stitch ached. “This place gives me the willies at night.”
Vigilante and I made it to my car parked under a streetlight, the only auto on the street.
“And where do you think you two are going?” a now-familiar husky voice said from behind us. “We were just getting the party started.”
Crap. Why was Carrie always popping up from behind? Right now I wanted nothing more than to go home and take a good shower, then curl up in bed. Looked like we were going to have to finish her to make that happen.
Vigilante shook his head at her, a small smile on his face. “You’re hearty, I’ll give you that.”
“You have no idea.” She sucked on her upper lip as her eyes raked him over. “I’m gonna enjoy taking you down.”
Anger swirled through my gut. Dammit, why was every skank in the free world flirting with Vigilante? This was the last straw. I’d had enough.
I clenched my jaw. “Keep coming forward if you want to get your ass kicked, bitch.”
She dropped a hand to her waist, her gaze disdainful. “Oh, and you think you’re gonna do it?”
“You won’t even know what hit you,” I said, letting the scorn come through my eyes. And I meant it. At that moment I’d zap her with every ounce of electricity I could drain from the entire city.
She raised one eyebrow, a smirk on her face. “I’d like to see you bring it, bitch.”
“Oh, I brought it, ho.” I stuck out my chest a bit.
“Ladies,” Vigilante interrupted, impatience written across his face. “This isn’t how we do it—”
“Shut up,” Carrie said to him, then slammed the heel of her hand into my stomach.
My gut exploded in a burst of pain, and I reeled backward. Holy hell, it felt like she’d hit me with an eighteen-wheeler. I swear, I literally saw stars dance before my eyes as I gasped for oxygen. Why had I thought I could do this superhero stuff? I was so stupid! I’d never been in a fight before, and my first real foray into fisticuffs was rapidly sinking into the realm of suckiness.
Vigilante reached for Carrie, his arm a quick blur, but she did an amazing backflip out of the way. She stopped in a stance, her legs squatted apart and arms resting in the air straight in front of her.
Oh man, I was going to die. Carri
e was going to chop me into little bits with her fists of fury and feed me to the fishes in Lake Erie. Carrie leapt through the air and surprisingly, kicked her heel toward Vigilante’s face. Obviously he hadn’t expected the attack, so he didn’t dodge in time. Her foot connected with his cheek, reeling him backwards, but he quickly grabbed her ankle and twisted, flipping her face-first onto the ground.
She rolled away from him to move back into her waiting stance again.
“Well, well, well. What’s going on here?” a deep, overly masculine voice said from behind me.
No way. Mason, as The Machine, tossed his head back as he surveyed the situation. His hands were firmly planted on his hips, his feet spread in a proud posture as his stomach hung ever so slightly over the edge of his utility belt.
Oh, great. Just the person I didn’t want to see right now. This nightmare was getting worse by the minute.
I pointed toward Carrie, still unable to breathe properly. “Bad guy,” I managed to squeak out.
Carrie laughed. “Oh, goodie. This is getting to be much more fun than I realized.” She reassumed her martial arts stance, motioning with her right hand for Mason to approach her.
My stomach still ached, but I needed to do something. I stumbled backward, letting Mason take my place in front of Carrie. What could I do to help?
I scanned the street, trying to pull myself out of the daze. I spotted the streetlight and touched it, willing all the power to drain from it. A large zap of electricity shook through my body, and I felt my muscles spasm. In a second, the whole street went dark. Since the moon was covered by thick clouds, we were essentially plunged into blackness.
Everyone froze as our eyes adjusted to the drastic lighting change. Mason grabbed my car, grunting as he lifted it over his head and aimed it at Carrie.
Oh, no! No, not my car, asshole!
A sigh of frustration escaped my mouth as the auto, my auto, hurtled toward Carrie. It crunched in a sickening metallic groan when it hit the ground upside down, right in front of where she stood, knocking her slightly backward with the passenger-side door.
Super Zero Page 14
