by Liana Brooks
“I’ve been acting.” Angela pushed the paperwork back at her sister. “I’ve got commitments. Contracts. People are expecting to see me.”
“What about Travys?” Delilah demanded.
“What about Mia and Aaron?” Angela shot back. “Who’s going to tutor them? Who’s going to step in on Fractured? Travys is going to be fine. He’s going to a good school, I can keep in touch with him by email, and by this time next week his mom will be there.”
Delilah stared at the roof of the car in her classic Counting To Ten And Praying For Patience pose. “This is about Arktos, isn’t it? You’re going to risk everything to play tonsil hockey with a superhero.”
Angela rolled her eyes. “This has nothing to do with Arktos. I told you, we’re through. This is about being a responsible adult and not leaving my coworkers jobless because suddenly there’s a little risk associated with living there.”
“It’s not a little risk!” Deliah shouted. She took a deep breath and let it out with a huff. “Listen,” she said in the voice Angela knew as Delilah Being Reasonable While Telling Everyone What To Do, “you can’t honestly think going back to L.A. is a good idea. It’s not. The facts are black and white. I understand that you want to be responsible, and it’s a very noble ideal, but you need to check back in to reality. You are not AJ David, movie star, you are Angela Smith, math teacher.”
Delilah reached over and patted her hand. “I’ll make some phone calls and by morning roll call this will all be a bad dream. You’ll be teaching again on Monday. Isn’t that what you really want?”
Angela caught herself nodding and stopped. “Delilah! Stop messing with my head! I’m going to L.A. The end. I’m not arguing with you.”
“Only because you know there is no logical argument for your actions.”
“I have loose ends I need to tie up.” Angela tapped on Freddie’s shoulder. “Take me back to the conference center, please.”
Delilah slammed back into her seat, arms crossed.
Travys grinned nervously. “I’m so glad I’m an only child.”
“Don’t think I’m not envious,” Angela muttered.
Delilah rolled her eyes as the cab stopped outside the center. “I don’t like this plan.”
“Objection noted.”
“I don’t like Arktos.”
“I wouldn’t let you kiss him anyways.”
“That green dress was hideous on you.”
“Agreed.”
Delilah huffed. “Be careful?”
“As careful as you always are.”
Her sister winced. “Try to be a little more careful than that. You don’t know how to get handcuffs off.”
***
Arktos thumbed through the files as soon as he landed at the small Company safe house in a suburb outside the city. No one seemed to remember it was there and he doubted anyone would look for him here. Not when he was supposed to be highly visible on the red carpet in under an hour.
Mikey’s photo on the first page came as a gut punch. Glee’s was no surprise; he’d wondered about that since her first wig went missing. For the pyro there were two pictures, Jacob Kapsimolis and Tyler Running Fox with a dainty scrawl that read, “Hunch?” A second, slightly neater author had written, “Not Ty.” underneath.
He sat down at the ancient computer and logged into The Company’s remote access portal. Katrina liked to operate everything on a need-to-know basis but right now that suited him. He found his file, erased it. Found Angela’s, erased it. Found Zephyr Girl’s, erased it.
A few little clicks and everything was vanishing into the ether.
Arktos checked his watch: time to fly. There was a red carpet waiting for him.
Not that the cameras mattered, he thought as he changed. Omnipresent cameras were part of life in L.A. No, this red carpet was special because AJ would be there. The gem-encrusted confection she’d worn earlier had left him speechless. Tonight? He adjusted his tie. Maybe tonight she’d recognize him.
Chapter Seventeen
Dear Daddy,
I need you to come out to L.A. and I need you to bring your Agree With Me Ray. There’s... I’m compromised. That’s the right spy term isn’t it? When things go all fluffy shaped and everything is wrong?
There’s this guy who needs to forget I exist. I think he’s working up to ask me for something I can’t give. I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t know if I could send him away. But he’s such a nice guy. He can’t live on our side of the tracks. He’s in love with me, but he doesn’t know the family. He doesn’t know about Maria. And I can’t let him near Mom.
He’s Company.
Please, get here as fast as you can. Maria will bring you if you ask. She’ll understand. People that come into our lives are in danger every second we’re with them.
Please, Daddy, hurry.
Angela
Angela slipped into the sound stage’s only bathroom with a working air conditioner, leaving the lights off, and locked the door. Swendon had given everyone a long lunch so he could work out some details of the script, and that suited her just fine.
The phone rang. “Hey, Button.”
“Hey, Daddy.” Angela slid down the door and sat on the cool tiles in the glow of the emergency lighting. “How are things?”
“Better here than there from the sound of it. Do you want to give me the whole story?” he asked with the same patient tone he’d used on Blessing after she wrecked the car for the third time.
“Not really. It makes me sound like a twitterpated idiot.”
“That happens sometimes. I did incredibly moronic things at your age.” She heard the sigh of leather as he settled back in his favorite chair. “Who’s the guy?”
“Arktos, the main superhero for the region.”
“And he’s in love with you?”
“It’s not my fault! I told him it would never work.” Angela wiped a lone tear from her eye. “I didn’t mean to break cover. There was just...the people were scared and hurt. I thought I could go in, rescue them, and get away without anyone caring. I don’t dress like a superfreak, so you know, maybe I could be just a good citizen.”
“Mmmhmmm.” Her father’s dubious tone came through loud and clear. “Sweetie, I may think you’re cute as a button, but the rest of the world hasn’t spent a lifetime around you and your sisters and your mom. I don’t want to sound harsh, but there is literally no way I can think of aside from radical cosmetic surgery that will let you blend in with everyone else.”
She rolled her eyes. “Daddy, I’m in L.A. Every other woman is a hot blonde with long tan legs. I don’t have a monopoly on this look, you know.”
“Are they all as smart as you?”
She stuck a tongue out at the phone before responding. “No. But no one has asked me my IQ. That would be weird.”
“You’re still an intelligent, down-to-earth, easygoing, beautiful young woman who is going to turn heads. I tried to talk your mother into letting me enroll you in a Swiss priory with barefoot nuns chanting hymns for this very reason. I thought I made a very rational argument. I even had a PowerPoint.”
Angela giggled. “Never mind that we aren’t Catholic.”
Her father sighed. “Do you love this guy?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“I haven’t even known him a month, Daddy. Love doesn’t work like that. It’s not eyes-across-a-crowded room and bluebirds singing.”
“Fine, so it isn’t marriage-and-a-baby love. He’s a horrible man troll who is threatening you?”
“I didn’t say that.” Angela studied at her fingernails. “It’s just...we got too serious too fast. I’ll take some of the blame. He’s easy to like. Smart. Funny. Just... He quotes Shakespeare all the time. You’d like him,” she said without thinking.
“So you want to rip his heart out and put it in a blender because...?”
“Daddy!” Angela frowned at the phone, appalled. “I didn’t say that. I said I want him to forget about me. He knows too mu
ch already and it won’t be long before he figures out who Mom is. What then? What are we supposed to do when a Company superhero finds out that Mom is alive? They’ll come for her and then I’ll have to kill him for real. This is easier. Better.”
There were heavy footsteps in the hall outside and someone tried to open the door. Angela braced herself against the sink. “Occupied!”
“Hurry up!” a man on the other side yelled.
She ignored him.
Her father coughed. “Angela? Do you remember when Rolling Shock took your mom from us? Do you remember how you felt when we went to the park and your mom was there and she didn’t recognize you?”
“Yes,” Angela whispered.
“Do you hate Arktos enough to hurt him like that?”
“I don’t want to hurt him. I’m trying to save him!”
“Then let him decide whose side he’s on. If he knows the truth about what happened and he backs The Company, we’ll take care of it.”
Angela’s breath caught and she forced the words out in a whisper. “And what if he proposes?”
“Then we’ll set an extra plate at the dinner table. It was going to happen eventually; your mother and I knew it would. Five children do not grow up and stay single for eternity. That’s not how life works.”
“Daddy!”
The person outside hit the door with something hard. “I gotta go, lady!”
Angela turned her back on the stall door. “I’m not ready to get married!”
“Then ask him out for dinner.”
She swallowed and took a long, ever-so-slightly-shaky breath. “Love you, Daddy.”
“Love you too, Button.”
Angela turned off her phone.
“Hurry up!”
Grumbling, she opened the door. “Good grief, do you think it’s easy to pee in this suit?” she demanded as she swept past the gaffer. It wasn’t until after he slammed the door that she realized she’d have to hold it until the next break. Stupid men. Stupid phone calls. Stupid shooting schedule. Even superheroes needed to pee sometimes.
***
“AJ!” Jacob tackled her with a sweaty hug. “How is my most favorite lady?” A drop of his sweat fell onto her neck.
“Good. Off, now.” She pushed him away and tried to focus on the script she was reading.
“We’re going out for drinks. Wanna come?” Jacob asked as he played with her hair.
Angela batted his hand away. “Can’t. I’m dying tonight.” Swendon had decided the easiest way to pick who was getting offed in the season finale was to film everyone dying so he could put off the decision until the very last minute.
Jacob sat next to her and gazed adoringly. “Tell Swendon to cut the talk. Everyone knows Pacifica will survive. You’re the fan favorite.”
“You have to kill your darlings to make art,” Angela countered. She hit him with a light wave of disinterest.
He ignored it. “Come on, Peach. I want some quality time with you. I feel like it’s been forever since we did something together.”
“That’s because we’ve never done anything together,” Angela returned, trying to keep the sarcasm from showing too blatantly. Try as she might, she couldn’t make Jacob fit into the mold of Arktos. He was too short, not muscular enough, and he was always grabby. It was getting on her nerves. “Tell you what, I’ll call when I’m done shooting and meet you at the bar. You aren’t planning to go to bed early, are you?”
“Not if you’ll keep me up late.” He winked lasciviously at her.
“Great. Have fun!” With a chilly smile she hit him with the urge to walk away, a strong urge. That got through.
Jacob pivoted and zeroed in on his next victim. “Mikey! I was hoping you’d be here tonight. Let’s go get a beer. I’ll drive.”
Angela flipped through the script one more time as the crew reset the scene and someone painted her leg with fake blood. Geoff Swendon meandered through everything, checking the lights and sound.
“Is Pacifica ready?”
“I’m ready.” She tossed the script on her chair and walked into the light. “Let’s kill me and call it a night.”
Three hours later, Angela walked through the dark sound stage alone. While she’d showered, the place had shut down. Even the janitors were gone. It was almost ghostly. Appropriate though, she decided. This was her last day on a film stage, and she was the last one leaving. It had been fun in its own way. A learning experience. Today she was a TV star with a fan following and her picture plastered over a dozen magazine covers. Tomorrow she’d be unemployed and sending her application out to various schools.
Maybe she’d join the Peace Corps so she could travel Africa with Blessing. They could do with a nice bonding experience.
Her ringtone echoed as she stepped into the deserted parking lot. “Hello?”
“AJ, it’s Luiz, are you home yet?”
“Not yet. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes, why?”
Luiz swallowed a sob. “Somebody jumped Mikey. The police just called me. They’re taking him to the hospital. I’m going to go meet them, but I’m onsite for the Clayborn movie and I’m worried about Mia. I don’t know where they got him. Can you...” She sniffed. “Can you go make sure Mia’s okay? Call me as soon as you get home?”
“Of course. Have you tried calling her yet?” Angela jogged for her bike, stuffing her nonessentials in her backpack as she ran.
“A dozen times, but she won’t pick up. She’s probably already asleep.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call from the house in fifteen minutes. You go take care of Mikey. I’ll stay with Mia until you get home. Luiz”—she focused on her friend, somewhere out there in the city of millions—”It’s going to be okay.” Angela willed Luiz to believe her. “Mikey will be fine. Mia is fine. We’ll make this okay.”
“Yup. Good. Okay.” Luiz’s breath sounded ragged.
“I’m going to hang up now so I can drive. I will call you in fifteen minutes. I promise. Mia is fine.”
“Okay. Thank you.” Luiz hung up as Angela heard sirens in the background.
She pulled her helmet on and turned the key on her bike. Nothing happened. She tried it again. Nothing. Angela pulled her helmet back off. Leaning down, she checked under the bike. Wires were hanging loose. Someone had sabotaged her bike. What kind of punk move was that? Why would anyone mess with her bike?
A shiver of apprehension rolled up her spine.
Yeah, there were a couple people who might hate her. It probably wasn’t hard for Glee to guess who Rage was; they’d been mistaken for each other enough times. Even if Glee hadn’t put two and three together to get five Angela was likely on her hit list for everything else that had happened in the past month.
A car turned the corner, moving slowly like a shark on the hunt. Angela stood, holding her backpack by the straps so she could use it as a weapon if someone jumped out. The car glided to a stop in front of her and the window rolled down.
“Are you okay?” Tyler asked.
Angela eyed her bike and then the darkly beautiful actor. “I’m good.”
“You’re not much of a poker player, AJ. What’s wrong?”
Angela sighed, muttering about gambler’s chances. “My bike won’t start. It’s fine. I can call someone for a ride.”
“Isn’t Luiz working tonight? I heard Clayborn’s movie has a motorcycle gang.”
Well, wasn’t he Mister Well-Informed? She shrugged. “Bike gangs are popular right now.” She cursed at her phone. Five minutes wasted. Right now Mia could be... Her mind shut down. She didn’t want to think what could be wrong with Mia right now if Mikey had been attacked at the house. She realized Tyler had said something. “What?”
“I asked if you wanted a ride.” He sounded more worried than amused.
“Yes, please. I’ve got to get home.” She opened the door and hesitated. “I’m telling you now that me getting into this car isn’t a sign that I like you, trust you, or want anything to do with you
. I’m not trying to seduce you in any way. I’m desperate. I need to get home. I will give you gas money.”
“Understood. I am m’lady’s taxi cab.” He rolled the window up and gripped the wheel with both hands. “I’m so glad I went to college for this. Very good use of my degree.”
Chapter Eighteen
Dear Mom,
I’m fine. Daddy’s worrying over nothing. Don’t worry about it.
Love,
Angela
Angela slid into the soft, heated leather seats in a car interior that was chilled to Spokane Cold. “Where are you from?” Angela demanded, rubbing warmth back into her arms.
Tyler chuckled as he turned up the heat on her seat. “North Dakota.”
“Which is in the arctic circle, right?”
“Only a couple hundred miles away. You’re from the south?”
She settled back in her seat, letting the warmth pull the stress from her muscles. “I spent most of my life in Texas. You can move around, but it’s hard to escape.”
“Were you a spoiled southern princess or a cowgirl?”
“Yes.” Her phone vibrated against her foot and she picked it up. “Yes?”
“Hey, Peach. Where ya at?” Jacob asked. In the background she could hear dance music.
“I’m leaving the studio. Um, about tonight—”
“That’s why I was calling. Mikey and I are getting bored waiting for you.”
“Mikey?” she asked, wrinkling her brow as Tyler pulled out of the studio compound onto the main street.
Tyler glanced her way, but she shook her head and he stayed silent.
“You know, Luiz’s brother?” Jacob asked. “He’s sitting here with me and we’re both waiting for you. Even though we both know you like me best.”
“Um, Jake, lemme call you back. I forgot something inside.” Angela hung up in confusion.
“Something wrong?” Tyler asked as they headed for the highway.
“Jacob wants me to meet him and Mikey at the bar, but Luiz is going to meet Mikey at the hospital because he got beat up. I told her I’d go home to sit with Mia until she can come home. Why would Jacob say Mikey is at the bar if he isn’t?”
Tyler switched lanes in the heavy weekend traffic. “Maybe the guy stole Mikey’s ID and then got beat up. Seat belt on, please.”
