Power Surge (Anna Jennings Super Novel Book 1)

by E. J. Whitmer

  Sherri’s eyes filled with tears and she reached out for an awkward hug, trying to keep her sodden pants off of me. “Thanks, Anna,” she whispered. “And thanks for firing that bitch.” She shot me a half smile and walked off toward the elevators.

  I sat down at Sherri’s desk, pretending not to listen to the ranting and raving going on inside Lilith’s office. If I wasn’t still so embarrassed over Regina’s outburst in my meeting, it would have been quite comical. I couldn’t hear every word, but I could get the gist of what was going on. Regina was ranting and raving about being indispensable and if she left, Mr. Blake would leave as well. For a moment, I wondered if Lilith realized Regina was full of shit, but I assumed if Blake and Lilith fought super villains together, she probably was pretty close with him.

  I was giggling at the word “fucktard” being strewn about when the hair on my neck stood up.

  “Eavesdropping, Ms. Jennings?” asked a familiar voice behind me.

  I cringed and turned to face Eric Blake. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “Couldn’t help it. She just used the word fucktard!”

  Blake’s mouth turned up to half a smile as he sat down on the desk in front of me. “Pretty sure she learned that one from you.”

  Before I could reply, Lilith’s door swung open and a very agitated Regina stormed out. It didn’t take more than two seconds for her eyes to zero in on me sitting crotch-level in front of Blake.

  “AhHA!” she screeched. “Proof! Here’s the dirty slut right now with her face in my husband’s MRMPH!” A masculine hand shot out of nowhere and covered her mouth.

  Blake leaned down to her eye level. “That’s enough,” he growled. “I will not have you making another scene. Security will be here in ten seconds to escort you out. If you say one more negative word about Anna Jennings I will blackball you in every industry this side of the Mississippi.”

  Whoa. That was scary. And hot.

  Eric shot me an agitated look. This mind reading thing was going to take some serious getting used to.

  Before Regina could argue, two security guards had an arm in each hand, escorting her off the floor. As soon as her perky little ass was out the door, Blake motioned for me to lead the way to Lilith’s office.

  Lilith Hines has an abnormal obsession with plants. Every time I visit her office, the plants seem to have multiplied. It’s like they have little green orgies on the weekends and reproduce like hamsters. There’s been a long standing rumor around the water cooler that she’s a dendropheliac; A rumor stemming (pun intended) from the fact that she’s never seen without a corsage or boutonniere and that her husband Herb (yes Herb) looks like a mix between Art Garfunkel and a dandelion that’s gone to seed. I’m secretly scared to death that I’m going to get drunk at a company event and try to blow on his fluffy white hair while making a wish.

  Anyway, I made my way through Lilith’s jungle, swatting at vines that I swear were trying to cop a feel of my ass, and found her sitting behind her desk with a flask tipped to her lips. I unsuccessfully tried to muffle a laugh and her head shot up to spot me.

  “Oh dear!” she squeaked. “I’m sorry. Please pretend you didn’t see that.”

  I laughed and waved her off with my hand. “I didn’t see that. And you didn’t see this.” I reached across her desk to snag the flask and take my own gulp. Blake, standing behind me, reached over my shoulder to grab it for himself.

  At my raised eyebrow Blake shrugged and smirked. “My ex-wife just publicly accused my employee of trying to sleep with me. I deserve it.”

  Right, like I needed to be reminded again. I groaned and plopped down in one of Lilith’s guest chairs.

  “Alright, now that we’ve broken both the ice and the employee code, what can I do for you?” Lilith asked, replacing her flask in her briefcase.

  “I came down to inform you that I fired Regina Blake from my magazine. Obviously you already know. I can’t control what the other publications do, but I don’t want her working for me or my reps any longer. Her behavior during a meeting I had this morning was horrifying.”

  Lilith held a hand up to stop me from continuing. “I trust your judgment, Anna. If you hadn’t fired her, she certainly would have been fired after her tirade in here. As it is, we’re looking at filing assault charges after she doused my assistant with hot coffee.”

  “She did what!?” Blake interjected.

  “I’ll explain later,” Lilith answered. She flicked through a filing cabinet, found what she was looking for and handed me a small stack of papers. “I’ll need you to fill these out, Anna.” She looked up at Blake. “Are you two here together or did you need something as well?”

  “I actually just came to see if you’d heard from Lloyd Vance today,” Eric answered. “I was going to speak with him about barring Regina from the property but his secretary said he hasn’t been in all day.”

  My spidey senses kicked into high gear. “I haven’t heard from Emmett either,” I added. “I was going to give him until this afternoon before I started to worry.”

  “You still haven’t heard from him?” Blake asked.

  I glanced at Lilith and blushed. I didn’t know how to handle these inner office relationships.

  She noticed my blush and gave me a knowing smile. “It’s alright, Anna. He’s not your direct supervisor.”

  Pretty sure my face was on fire.

  “I was with him Friday night. He got a phone call around nine o’clock and said he had to leave. He told me it was his father and there was a family emergency but that he’d be back. He never came home. I haven’t heard from him since.”

  “I assume you’ve tried his cell?” Blake asked.

  I nodded. Blake and Lilith shared a look. Placing a hand on my back, Blake turned my shoulders and steered me toward the door. “I’m sure it’s nothing, Anna. They’re probably dealing with some family stuff. I’d give him until tomorrow before you start worrying.”

  Blake had me out of the office and the door halfway shut before I realized what he was doing.

  “Wait, Eric!” My plea was answered by a click of the lock.

  “Goddam it, Blake! Do not shut me out of this!” I attempted to think loudly through the door.

  “Anna, let it go. It doesn’t concern you.”

  “Doesn’t concern me!? Blake, you can’t hide this shit from me anymore! Not only do I know about your gang of super freaks, but this is my boyfriend we’re talking about!”

  I was met with silence.

  “Fine,” I huffed. “Let’s see. When was my last period? Oh yes, it was on the second. It was an abnormally heavy flow…” I began describing every detail of my last lady time, including all the disgusting details. It took about thirty seconds before I heard a muffled curse as the door flew open and Blake grabbed my arm to drag me back inside.

  His cobalt eyes burned into mine. “You will stick with me at all times. You will do exactly as I say. You will not leave my sight under any circumstances. If you breathe a word of this to anyone…”

  I shoved my hand over his mouth. “I got it.”

  I waited until he nodded before removing my hand and walking to sit down in front of Lilith’s desk. Blake took an exaggerated breath and sat next to me.

  “So,” I began. “What’s the plan? Do we need to gather your super team?”

  “For Christ’s sake, Jennings!” Blake swore as Lilith attempted to hide her smile.

  “What!? I’m serious! Are you going to ask the other members to help?” I asked. “And while we’re on that subject, how is it that you all work for the same place and just happen to have super powers? How many of you are there? Do you all have different powers? Is there like an international super power club? Did you all get struck by lightning when you were little or survive a plane crash on a magic island that gave you all super powers? Have you killed people? Is there an organization of bad guys that you have to fight? Do you have a secret lair!?”

  “I can’t do this,” muttered Blake as he stood and began cros
sing to the door.

  “Eric, stop,” Lilith laughed softly. “It’s only natural that Anna has questions. If she’s going to help us track the Vances down, she’ll need to know some of these things.”

  Blake remained standing but nodded at Lilith to continue.

  “Yes, Anna, we will be calling the other members to help us, but probably only our local partners at first. You know of me, Eric, Lloyd Vance and Emmett Vance. There is also Peter Schulz, our head of IT, and Dominic Gallo, our CIO.”

  Lilith waited for me to nod before she continued.

  “We do not have a lair.” She smiled at me and Blake grunted behind me. “We do have an informal network of sorts. We are in contact with several people across the globe who also possess certain extraordinary powers. Hundreds of people have been researching these powers, combing through family trees to find the original source. So far nobody has found anything substantial. As far as we know, there isn’t any big bad organization of super villains. However, we have come across more of them lately.”

  I shook my head. “I’m still confused about how you all just happen to be working for the same company. In VP level positions, at that.”

  Blake cleared his throat. “We ah… We have someone who helps us.”

  I raised my eyebrows in question and Lilith interjected. “Many years ago, Lloyd Vance’s personal secretary Rose warned him against making a business trip to Tulsa. She told him she had a vision. It was choppy, but she remembered massive amounts of fire and could hear Lloyd wailing for help. Because of his and Emmett’s experiences, Lloyd was already aware of the possibility of people being born with extraordinary talents, so when he heard her premonition, he cancelled his flight. Turned out she was right. The plane Lloyd was supposed to be on ended up crashing just west of St. Louis.”

  “Oh my God!” I gasped.

  “After that incident, Mr. Vance encouraged Rose to call him right away with any visions she had, dramatic or not. Since then, it’s as if her clairvoyance is directly related to Lloyd’s inner circle of friends, family and coworkers. I was already working here during that time. I’m told Rose was eating Frosted Flakes one morning when she was hit with a vision of me taking on Tony the Tiger. She told Lloyd. Lloyd came to me and, in a round about way, asked if I had any special talents he needed to know about.”

  My brain was buzzing with the information. I felt rather than saw Blake walk over and sit down next to me. He draped his arm across the back of my chair in an act of comfort. I took a moment to process and then motioned for Lilith to continue.

  “We have added four others on staff since then. Each time, somewhere in the application process for a job opening, we received a call from Rose. The first time, she was eating spaghetti and saw a large man with long dark hair and a crooked nose. The next day, Dominic walked in for an interview and we knew he was the one she had seen.”

  Lilith looked up at Blake and winked. “She saw Eric in a bowl of goulash.”

  I peeked over at Eric to see him roll his eyes.

  “So why can’t we call Rose now and ask her to help us find Lloyd and Emmett?” I asked.

  Blake turned to me. “It doesn’t work like that, Anna. She can’t make herself have a vision. If one hits her, she lets us know. But we can’t just make it happen.”

  We were interrupted by a soft knock on the door. After a short pause, the door opened and Ray, one of Vance Publishing’s mail couriers poked his head in. Lilith smiled and murmured a greeting as she rose to retrieve her mail. As Ray was closing the door, it hit me. I hadn’t seen Carl all day. Again.

  I whipped my head around to gape at Blake, who was already watching me. “Eric, I haven’t seen Carl all day!” I exclaimed. “Do you think he’s with the Vances?”

  Blake shrugged. “Either that or he’s stuck in his bathroom again.”

  Lilith eyed us curiously. “Do I even want to know?”

  I turned and gave her a sheepish smile. “No. Probably not.”

  Blake stood and pulled out his cell phone. “I’m going to track down Peter in IT. He should be able to hack into Lloyd Vance’s email account. Maybe we will find something in there.”

  I nodded and stood. “I’ll go call Carl and see if he checked into work today.”

  Lilith stood and rounded her desk to join us. “I’ll go gather the rest of the team.”

  Eeeee!! The Super Squad! I squealed internally.

  Blake groaned and shook his head as he opened the door to leave.

  I was too antsy to wait for the elevator, so I took the stairs back to the 28th floor. Apparently I forgot to breathe because by the time I reached the Courier’s station, I was wheezing and very close to cardiac arrest. The station was quiet and after an unsuccessful search for someone to assist me, I checked the courier’s time cards. Carl’s was blank. He hadn’t clocked in or out of work since the previous Friday.

  I pulled out my cell and dialed his number, praying he was just home sick for the day. The call went straight to voicemail and I hung up, banging my head against the wall.

  As I raced back to Blake, I texted Mae, asking her to cancel my appointments for the day. I had a feeling this search and rescue mission wasn’t going to be as easy as they make it look on TV.

  I arrived on the 26th floor and rushed to the IT department. Blake was in Peter Schulz’s office, leaning over one of about thirty computer screens. Schulz was seated in front of him, clacking away on his keyboard.

  Peter Schulz is your stereotypical computer nerd. He’s a couple inches shorter than my five foot eight, weighs probably a buck ten and has yellow blonde hair, parted severely on the side and slicked over with way too much hair gel. I kind of want to turn him into my pet project and get rid of his glasses and burn his hair product.

  As I was shutting the door, a highly polished shoe shot through and wedged itself in the door frame. Dominic Gallo reopened the door and sauntered in, closing it behind him. Dom was our CIO and while I had never met him in person, I had scoped out his picture on our company directory a time or two. He gave Blake and Peter a quick glance before settling his dark gaze on me.

  He was very well put together in a navy suit, white shirt and no tie. His nearly black hair was thick and shiny and hung long enough to kiss his shoulders. He oozed confidence with his dark Italian complexion, high cheekbones and chocolate brown eyes. The only thing that marred his appearance was a slight kink in his nose, as if it had been broken a time or two in the past. While it could be considered an imperfection, it actually added to his appeal. I wouldn’t call him good looking, but he definitely had some sort of magnetism to him.

  “Hello,” he murmured, his eyes roaming my body from head to toe. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Dominic Gallo.”

  “Hello,” I answered, smiling politely. “I’m Anna Jennings.”

  My eyes wandered his face, taking in its smooth planes and landing on his slightly crooked nose. Hmmm… If guys with big noses have big doodas, I wonder if guys with crooked noses …

  “Jennings!” barked Blake. “Jesus Christ. We’re in the middle of an extremely serious situation. Get your shit together or get out.”

  I couldn’t decide if I was more upset about Blake shouting at me or if I was mortified at the thought of being caught in my inappropriate thoughts. I blushed and glanced up at Dom, who smiled down at me as if he knew what I was thinking. Oh shit. Can he read minds too!?

  “I don’t have to read your mind, Anna,” Dom answered for me. “Your face gives away your every thought.”

  “Knock it off, Dom,” Blake warned before turning to me. “Anna, have a seat. We’re hacking into Lloyd Vance’s email account to see if we can find anything.”

  “Carl isn’t at work,” I informed Blake. “His time card hasn’t been punched since last week. I’m worried, Eric.”

  Blake closed his eyes and took a couple deep breaths. “We’ll find him, Anna. Chances are he’s just sick or working on a new super suit.” He gave me a reassuring smile as he turned
his attention back to Peter.

  “I’m not seeing anything here that seems suspicious,” said Peter. “Nothing from anyone outside of the company except Mrs. Vance. Those emails are just asking when he will be home or what he wants for dinner. Nothing abnormal.”

  “Vance’s cell phone is paid for by the company, isn’t it?” asked Peter. “Do you have access to the account to see his recent calls?”

  “I don’t, but it shouldn’t be hard to hack his account information,” answered Peter, his fingers already flying over the keyboard.

  A few minutes later, his fingers stopped and he and Blake leaned in close. “Looks to me like the last call he received was from a payphone on west 79th street.”

  The men all stood and I watched them put their game faces on. Blake cut his gaze to me as I stood.

  I held up a hand to silence him before he could speak. “I’m going, Blake. I’m already in it this far. I’m going.”

  Blake looked like he was having an internal debate before sighing and nodding. “Fine,” he bit out. “But you will do as I say without hesitation. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to duck, you duck. Do you hear me?”

  I grinned and squelched the need to do a happy dance. Blake barely controlled his eyeroll as he turned to Peter.

  “You stay here and keep digging. There has to be more info somewhere.”

  Peter gave a mock salute before turning back to his computer.

  I installed my own super badass game face and nodded. “Let’s roll.”

  This time both Blake and Dom rolled their eyes.

  While we waited for the elevator, Blake called Lilith to tell her to meet us in the parking garage. He ended the phone call and ushered me onto the elevator. As the doors pinged closed, the atmosphere in the elevator shifted. I looked up at the two men on either side of me and, again, my mind started to wander. It felt like the temperature skyrocketed at least four hundred degrees.