by Lia Davis
Nik phased into the tenement, shifted direction, and headed downtown. By all rights, he should head back to the Arena to continue his probe into Fagin's finances, but he didn't relish the thought of running into Serena again. Instead, he headed to his office at his father's detective agency. Right now, the agency didn't have authorization to work on Fagin's case either, but Nik would rather use the agency's resources than return home. Home would only remind him of the way Dani had led him on a very merry — and very naked — chase last night, around the whole penthouse suite.
Where did such a tiny woman get that kind of energy? She'd scampered over his furniture like an excited kitten escaping with her favorite toy. He captured her only because he phased under the sofa and popped up behind her through the wall. She accused him of cheating.
"You can't blame me for cheating," he'd replied, bending down so his arms could circle her waist, his fingers sliding down to warm and secret places. "Not when you're the prize."
She'd sighed as her head fell back against his shoulder, her curls tickling his ears. He'd pulled her even closer, but it wasn't enough. He wanted her closer, he needed to feel her around him, so he'd tossed her over his shoulder and hauled her off to bed.
Nik sped faster toward his destination. He didn't bother entering through the lobby, or the elevator, or even the front doors to the office suite his father leased. Instead, he popped up in the middle of his office so no one could see him. He needed to get last night's activities off his mind before he embarrassed himself.
Numbers could kill desire faster than a cold shower, so Nik booted up his computer. Who would want to fund Fagin's new network? An hour later he still hadn't advanced beyond a long list of when hell froze over. Fagin hadn't remained at the top of the blitz distribution chain for as long as he had by making friends. Nik's own list of enemies fell into the "deceased" or "incarcerated" categories. Of those in the incarcerated category only three might have the brains and the backbone to still have access to their own hidden funds, but how could he prove it? And, why would they have a vested interest in helping Fagin? How could he figure out which one, if any, would do it? How could he uncover any ties, if they existed, without tipping off either Fagin or his funder?
He looked at the string of pictures of his family sitting on the edge of his desk. The nearest one was from his Little League days, with his mother and father after the divorce. A second one was from his high school graduation party with Evan and Alek lifting Nik into the air with their abilities. The third had been taken at his college graduation, with everyone from both sides of the family, including his stepmother and Thomas.
Thomas. Nick sighed and lay his head back on the backrest of his executive chair. Thomas would have no difficulty uncovering any connection between the convicts and Fagin. Would he, though? Thomas played the gray hat hacker when it suited his purpose, whether it benefitted the Blackwoods, T-CASS, or himself. Asking Thomas to play beyond the legal limit required a certain finesse Nik didn't think he had. Still, if it meant putting Fagin away for good and keeping him away from Dani, it was worth asking, wasn't it?
He thought of Dani, so wild and loving, his heart beat off rhythm just thinking of her. She'd been arrested once. What would she think of Nik asking Thomas to break the law on her behalf? He would have to tell her eventually, even if Thomas found nothing. If Thomas even agreed to Nik's request, which he might not.
Nik looked at the family photographs again. He'd never put a picture of Serena next to the pictures of his family. His fingers flexed. He didn't have a picture of Dani yet. He would, though. He'd find a way to get one of them together. He could imagine both of them crammed into a photo booth at the farmer's market, making silly faces while the machine snapped pictures. Dani would do it too, the sillier the face the better.
He looked at the Little League picture again. His mom had nudged him once or twice about having kids. Like a good son, he'd mentioned it to Serena during one of their better days. Serena had shaken her head. Maybe she saw the look of disappointment on his face, because she quickly amended her statement to not until she was more established in her career. They never talked about kids afterwards.
The sound of a door closing punctuated his thoughts. Voices drifted through the heavy door to his office, followed by the faint sound of a ringing phone. The work day had started. Nik pulled his thoughts back to the problem at hand. If he was going to protect Dani from Fagin, he needed to find the source of Fagin's funding. The strength of T-CASS sprang from their training, their ability to work together.
He would ask Thomas for his help. If Thomas refused, Nik would find another way. He had to. He wanted Dani's picture on his desk.
Chapter 7
Dani smiled as she closed the door to the HR department behind her. Generation Med forgave her lateness this morning so she could change her flat tire, but they wouldn't budge on its policy about keeping guns in the building. In all honesty, she couldn't blame them for sticking to the letter of the law. They had, however, promised to set aside a parking space closer to the building just for her. Security would also arrange for an escort to and from the car every day.
A good night's sleep assuaged her worries about telling Nik about her past. He would either forgive her or he wouldn't. If he didn't...there was always ice cream and a movie marathon to ease her broken heart. If Nik didn't love her, she would keep searching for someone who did.
Her phone buzzed from her pocket. She checked the screen, not surprised to see a text message from Nik. Sweet boy was checking to make sure Generation Med was taking good care of her. She texted him back, and invited him to perform a strip search to make sure she hadn't acquired any scratches or bruises during her meeting with HR. His next message suggested a deeper examination. If she kept this up, she'd dash right back out to her car and make a beeline for the detective agency downtown.
She sent him several happy emojis instead before she stepped onto the elevator. Down in her lab, she side-stepped several hunky men moving furniture and equipment around. Lots to admire, but none could beat Nik in the hunky and handsome department. In another lifetime, she would have admired them from afar, but she had work to finish if she wanted the weekend free to entice his-hunkiness back into bed. Maybe the two of them would stay there all weekend. His penthouse sure beat her little cape, but practicality meant she'd have to go home at some point to make up for her lack of maid service.
Her parents had maids and chauffeurs and the like, but Dani had learned how to do her own laundry the second she moved across the Bay.
Her computer burped up a rude message after she typed in her password: The user name or password is incorrect. She tried to log on again. Same message. She had never mistyped a password more than once in her life. She requested a new password and tried again. Same message. She grabbed her phone and dialed IT.
"How can we help?" a voice garbled by what sounded like the ocean in the background answered. Generation Med couldn't afford its own IT department yet, so they contracted out to a third party. Who knew where on the planet she was actually calling?
"This is Doctor Daniella Rose at Generation Med. I appear to be locked out of the Generation Med system. I tried to reset my password and I still can't log on. Can you please help me with my password?"
She tapped her nails on her desk while watching the movers haul a stack of chairs from one side of her lab to the other. In her ear, the IT guy made soothing noises while he typed on his own keyboard.
"I'm sorry, Doctor Rose, but your credentials do not appear in the Generation Med system."
"I'm sorry?"
"Your credentials..."
"I heard you the first time." Fear, cold and sinister, churned her stomach. "What about my files?"
She waited, her fingers now tapping her desk faster than before.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but whatever files you had would have been deleted along with your credentials."
All of her research, all her hard work...she had to keep trying. "Wh
at about the backups? You do back up the entire Generation Med system every night, correct?"
"One moment."
Dani didn't wait. Balancing the landline on her shoulder, she pulled out her cell phone and texted Nik: Trouble. Locked out of Gen Med system. All work lost. Can you call?
A second passed, then three, then six. It took almost two minutes, then: Sorry. Bank robbery. Needed. Will call asap.
Dani switched the handset from one ear to the next just as IT responded.
"I'm sorry, Doctor Rose, but we have nothing in our back up system under your credentials either."
Dani hung up. Fury burned through her. Incompetence. Just plain old fashioned incompetence. She'd have to file a complaint through the Generation Med hierarchy, but she was reluctant to start pushing buttons when they'd been so gracious with her not ten minutes ago.
In reality, she hadn't lost much. The backbone of her work consisted of the research she'd conducted at Star Haven University. She'd copied those files and erased it from their system even though the University owned her work. Her ex-fiancé wouldn't dare say anything. If he started an investigation of her theft, he'd have to admit he'd been working with, and sleeping with, an Alt. Associating with an Alt in Star Haven was a career killer, the same one that had driven Dani back to Thunder City in the first place.
After she'd uploaded the files from Star Haven University to Generation Med, she'd placed the external drive in a safety deposit box at her new...oh, shit.
She pulled out her phone again and clicked on the news app. Streaming headlines spilled across the screen. Bank robbery in progress at Thunder City Bank & Trust.
Dani clicked on the headline. A coincidence. It had to be. There's no way it could be her branch.
The headline opened to a news feed. A reporter shouted into her microphone as T-CASS converged on the bank, her bank, right alongside the police. Gunshots could be heard in the background.
Nik. Dani forgot about her research at the thought of Nik phasing into all of that chaos. He'd already been shot once this year. Abilities or not, Alts could get hurt and they could die.
Dani ran out of the lab.
Ghost rose through the asphalt of Mystic Bay Boulevard two blocks from the bank, where the dispatchers at the Arena had directed him. They had reported an incendiary device had exploded in the middle of the street. Cars swerved, causing accidents. Then, the bank's silent alarms hit the security company monitoring them. The Thunder City police department already had traffic under control, with police detouring commuters down side streets. Fire and Rescue waited their turn nearby. Around him, T-CASS clustered together, in uniform and ready for action.
Captain Spectacular swooped in from the skies, landing light as a feather in the middle of the group, Thomas secure in her arms. Highlight landed right behind her, carrying three trainees on her light slide.
"Mach-Ten, make sure the buildings in the surrounding area are clear up to the fourth floors. If not, get the stragglers higher up. Any medical emergencies should be taken to the roof. Rumble and Roar will fly them to Harbor Regional."
Mach-Ten sped away, a bright green blur.
"Where's Seeker?" Captain Spectacular called.
"Right here, Captain." Seeker pushed his way forward through the crowd.
"Ghost, get him closer to the bank. Phase him into the car dealership right across the street. Report back what you can see."
Ghost reached out to Seeker. "Ready?"
"Didn't we just leave this party?" Seeker referred to Ghost phasing the pale young man away from the quarry before a mutated Alt could squish him dead the week before.
"The fun never ends." Ghost phased himself and Seeker into the ground. When they reemerged, the car dealership was empty. Mach-Ten had already been there and cleared out the showroom floor.
Ghost guided Seeker behind the latest luxury sedan. Huge, showy, with a thick body between Seeker and any stray bullets. "Can you see from here? Do you need a better angle?"
"Let me look around first. I'll let you know." Seeker took off his opaque glasses and faced the general direction of the bank. To an outsider it appeared as if Seeker was staring at the car door. In reality, he pushed his vision through solid layers until he could see through the walls of the dealership and the bank. He didn't have normal human eyes, but an all-black ichor where his eyes should be.
Nik waited, his comm unit relaying new orders to other T-CASS members in his ear.
"There are hostages." Seeker's voice was low, though it really wasn't necessary. "At least twenty-four. They're all in front, near the doors, except one who's in the hallway leading to the back offices. They're already tied up."
Nik handed Seeker his tablet, to which Thomas had pushed a blueprint of the ground floor of the bank. Seeker slipped his glasses back on and started marking the coordinates of the hostages. Then he handed the tablet back to Nik, who transmitted the information to Thomas, who in turn pushed the information to the rest of T-CASS. Nik was proud of Seeker. For a recent graduate to full-time T-CASS member, he'd proven himself quite capable here, and during the quarry raid.
"Highlight," Captain Spec said in Nik's ear. "You get Stampede, Flame, Blockhead, Spritz, and Division Six up to the fourth floor. Make your way down to the first and wait for my signal."
Division Six was the Thunder City SWAT team that worked in tandem with T-CASS. They trained together specifically to make sure neither T-CASS nor the TC police were caught off guard by Norms who thought they could outwit T-CASS or by Chaos Alts who liked to use Norms and T-CASS for target practice.
"Ghost, you grab the hostage in the hallway. Get him out first," Captain Spec continued. "You'll have one minute to grab him, then Highlight will blow open the back door. She'll head to the front doors while Spritz and Blockhead disarm the robbers. Stampede, you cover Flame while she burns the ties off the hostages."
"Wait," Seeker interrupted. "There's something happening in back. There's two men in the safety deposit vault. There're drilling one of the boxes."
"Division Six will handle them. Hostages first, then the vault. Whatever is in there isn't half as important as keeping people alive." The Captain had taken no small amount of heat since the quarry raid and she knew she needed to make up for the loss of life there.
Ghost shifted his stance. He couldn't phase yet. Once he phased into the ground, he couldn't communicate through his comm unit. He spared a brief thought for Dani. Was she following the news? Did she wonder if he was okay? He hoped not. He hoped she was sitting in her office, typing away on her computer, secure in the knowledge that he could take care of himself. He wanted her safe and happy and not thinking of him the way he'd thought of her when she held Fagin at gunpoint.
"They're waiting for something," Seeker said. "They're not taking money from behind the counter. There's no activity except for the drilling in the vault. It's weird."
Ghost agreed. Weird, but the Captain was right. They'd worry about why after the hostages were safe.
"Team One in place," Highlight said.
"Get ready."
Ghost tensed. Seeker glanced over his shoulder. "Good luck."
Ghost nodded. Captain Spec gave her signal and Ghost dropped into the ground.
It only took seconds for him to travel under the road into the walls of the bank and find his way to the corridor. The hostage sat tense and curled in a ball, his head tucked into his knees, just inside the doorway leading away from the main lobby. Three men stood over him with guns. The easiest way out was through the floor.
Ghost gathered himself into a corner. Once he positioned himself directly under the hostage he would bring his hands up around the man's lap, haul him into the ground and hurry back over to the car dealership. It was the fastest route out of here. Once he'd assessed the hostage's situation and checked to see if he was hurt, then Nik would take him to the staging area where the paramedics would take over.
The hostage looked up for a brief second to mutter something to one of the
robbers. From this angle Ghost could get a better look at the hostage's face. The man looked familiar — a rough, worn face framed with dark sideburns, with a shot of salt and pepper hair. Ghost quick-checked his memory. He couldn't come up with a name.
A shout from the lobby startled both the robbers and the hostage. Captain Spec must have given Highlight her signal. There was a boom and a rush of noise. The robbers pulled their guns closer, triggers ready. Ghost hoped the hostage didn't try to run.
Ghost slithered under the feet of the robbers and made his grab. He expected a shout or a shove or some sort of resistance from the hostage — they all reacted that way when he unexpectedly pulled them into a wall or floor. Even Dani had shivered in his arms the first time, tensing up. It was an automatic reaction that couldn't be helped.
Nothing happened with this guy. It took Ghost a second to realize that he'd missed. He didn't have the hostage. Shit! Now the robbers would be alerted to his presence.
Ghost made another grab. Nothing again. Something was preventing him from bringing the hostage into his world. From inside the floor, he couldn't contact the Captain to request backup. He had to unphase to stop the robbers from murdering the hostage. He had no choice. He spared a brief thought for Dani, lying in his arms, her sweet breath tickling his ear, her desire riding him hard.
He wanted her in his life forever. If he survived this he would propose to her. But he had to succeed first.
Ghost rose through the floor putting his body between the guns and the hostage. "Don't shoot!"
He circled the hostage, so all three robbers could see his arms raised. "Don't shoot. Let him go. I'll stay."
The three robbers didn't move any closer, but their weapons were aimed at his head.
"Oh, you're not staying, Ghost. You're leaving. With us."
