Stilettos, Inc.

by Lexi Ryan

  Paige blinked. She’d only known one other Special who could manipulate time, and she’d vanished ten years ago.

  “Do you mean it?” he asked her.

  “Yes.” Dear God, please let this work.

  “Are you willing to prove it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what would you be willing to give up to join my revolution? Your lover? Your sister?”

  “Anything.”

  He chuckled. Oh, he didn’t believe her. But he was tickled by the idea of tormenting her.

  Paige turned to look at her friends, all suspended in time and space. Josie had a single tear streaming down her face, stuck on the middle on her cheek. Fernandez, Chrissie and Darian all frozen with frustration written on their faces. She couldn’t see Wiley, but she had no doubt he, too, was in the room and suspended in time.

  Winston moved slowly, taking his time and cutting first at Collin’s wrist. When he turned and pressed the knife into Tara’s delicate skin, Paige fought the instinct to close her eyes.

  “Drain them of blood and life, and their power is yours,” Winston murmured, lifting two bloodied wrists. “We must all sacrifice things we love if we want to see change.”

  The blood seeped from the wounds in infinitesimal degrees. Time was moving forward, but ever so slowly.

  She stepped forward, careful to keep her mind clear. Repeating the thought, Let me join you. Thinking, I want your power. She didn’t know if Winston could read minds, but she carefully manipulated her surface thoughts in case he could.

  “Let’s feed together. One for each of us. Which will you choose?” he asked. He lifted Collin’s arm. “Will you kill your ex lover and have the power to leach from other Specials’ powers as you paralyze them? Or will you kill your own sister and have the power to maim or murder with the point of your finger?” He studied her, curving his lips into snarling smile.

  She understood Josie’s vision now. Her instinct would have been to choose Tara, to make sure Tara was the one of the two who didn’t die. She would have chosen Tara, and when Winston was distracted with Collin, she’d have attacked him. But she couldn’t choose Tara or they might both die. She would have to trust that she’d be able to stop Winston in time.

  “Join me, Paige,” he said, his head cocked, his wild eyes roving over her. “You’ll be more powerful than you ever imagined. You’ll have everything you could want. Every power you could want.”

  “I’ll take Collin,” she said, reaching for his arm.

  “Oh, I do love the vengeful woman,” Winston whispered.

  Paige stepped forward and put her lips to Collin’s arm. Winston lowered his lips to Tara’s.

  They stayed like that for a long, timeless moment: Paige heady with the rush from the few drops of blood that had touched her tongue as she pretended to suck, Winston completely absorbed in his hunger for more power.

  Paige hesitated. How long would it take? If Tara’s blood would have killed Paige, would it kill Winston? She couldn’t wait anymore. Winston was drinking too much, too fast.

  She reached to pull Winston away from Tara, but time picked up speed, and Winston lifted his head to look, bewildered, at Paige. He was losing control of his powers and, Paige could tell by his faltering stance, he was losing control of his body, too.

  Everything happened at once. In a single moment, Winston lost his hold on time, and in a quick movement, Paige lunged forward and twisted his arm up, around and down. It cracked at the same time as Josie, Chrissie, Fernandez, and Darian broke free and went for the guys on either side of Winston, knocking them over before they even saw them coming.

  Winston’s face went slack and pale, and Paige wasted no time before she grabbed his head in her hands and whipped it around.

  Winston fell to the ground, neck broken. A man behind Darian charged and Darian grabbed his arm, sending him intense pain that brought him to his knees.

  While the others finished the fight, Paige went to Tara, who was bleary eyed but breathing.

  “You little rat,” Paige muttered, shaking her head.

  “I saved the world,” Tara said, barely clinging to consciousness as she glanced down at her bloody wrist.

  Paige tore Winston’s shirt and wrapped it around Tara’s wound. “Yeah, I guess you did.”

  Tara attempted a laugh. “And you’re still treating me like a little girl.”

  Paige sighed. “I can’t help it. You’re my little sister.”

  Collin knelt down beside her. “Raphael will take her back. He’s outside.”

  Paige nodded and studied Collin, who stroked Tara’s cheek. His relief was palpable. “Would her blood have killed him before he had drained her completely?”

  Collin’s jaw went tight. “We don’t know.” He turned and looked at Paige. “You saved her. I will always see it that way.”

  Paige swallowed, too overwhelmed with the emotions in the room to respond, to say the words, You sacrificed her. I will always see it that way. “Take her back to the hospital,” she whispered. “She needs tending to.”

  As Collin carried Tara away, a warm hand squeezed Paige’s shoulder and calm coursed through her. Thank God. She needed that now. She couldn’t fall apart. Not yet.

  “What do we do with the body?” Fernandez asked.

  Paige spoke calmly, thinking, I just killed the president of the United States. “We could ask the teleporter to take it back to the Oval Office, or we could leave it here.”

  “Paige,” Darian said, “there are witnesses. We can go to the media and expose Specials. We can explain.”

  Paige’s mouth went dry, and Darian pumped more calm through her. She shook her head and looked into his eyes. “We can’t do that. If the American public learns about Specials for the first time and this—” She gestured to the room around them, at the bodies that, until Wiley had shut down the machines moments ago, were being slowly milked for their blood. “If this is the first they know of Specials, we haven’t helped anyone today. There will be a whole new revolution.”

  Collin entered with Raphael. “Raphael will take him back. The vice president caught Winston feeding yesterday. He’s a good man, but he’ll make sure this is kept quiet. He won’t want to be implicated in what Winston has done here.”

  “I’ll call in other SIA forces,” Darian said.

  Collin nodded. “You’ll need them. The revolutionaries have been living in these tunnels. It’s not over until they’re dispersed. They’ll be crippled without anyone to lead them.”

  Seconds later, Raphael disappeared with the president’s dead body.

  Collin turned to Paige. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you,” he said. “You never would have let me get near Tara. I knew you’d want to protect her from this.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “I wouldn’t have let you near her.”

  “You don’t need to protect her, Paige. She’s more powerful than either of us.”

  Paige put a hand over her mouth and shook her head. “She’s just a child, Collin.”

  “She’s nineteen years old. That’s hardly a child.”

  “That doesn’t excuse what you’ve done.”

  “I didn’t sleep with her, Paige. She’s a virgin. That’s how I knew her blood was lethal.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Fernandez said. “If she’s a virgin, how does she have abilities?”

  Collin smiled, like a proud father. “That’s why she’s so special. When Rider and I were being tested by the scientist, he was trying to get our powers to manifest early. He couldn’t do it, but there were some girls who spontaneously developed powers while still virgins. Their blood was always lethal to Specials. The purity of it, maybe? I don’t think he ever discovered why.”

  “Their blood,” Darian said. “So the scientist had them drained? Killed them?”

  Collin raised his eyebrows. “Winston isn’t the first power-hungry killer. Yes, they died, but so did the men who took their blood.”

  Paige scoffed, “I�
��m glad you had it all figured out before you decided to sacrifice her.”

  Collin looked to Josie. “Why don’t you tell her? If she knew what the future holds for Tara, maybe she would understand.”

  Josie set her jaw. “Nothing is set in stone.”

  Paige studied her friend and felt the first crashing wave of grief. “The cancer?”

  Josie chewed on her lip. “Nothing’s set,” she repeated.

  Paige turned to Collin. “That doesn’t make it okay. And you know what? She may have been on this planet for nineteen years, but she’s spent more of her teen years in the hospital than out of it. Those are important years. In a lot of ways, she’s still fifteen.”

  “Paige, all those girls whose powers manifested early, they all would have died young anyway. They had some rare type of leukemia the doctors couldn’t beat. Does that sound familiar?”

  Paige squeezed her eyes shut.

  “She saved us all,” Collin murmured. “I’d think you’d want that after what Winston did to your mother.”

  Paige winced. “Tara could have died today.” And no matter what she’d told everyone in the meeting, she couldn’t make that sacrifice.

  * * * *

  Rider caught Chrissie outside the tunnel. Her shaking hands were holding a cigarette.

  “Where’d you get that?” he asked, chuckling. She’d quit smoking years ago.

  “The teleporter is a smoker. My lucky day, I guess,” she released a sardonic chuckle and avoided his eyes.

  He took another step forward and ducked his head so she’d have to look at him. “Chrissie?”

  She looked as if she’d aged a year in the last month.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I can’t do this, Rider. I can’t just find out you had noble intentions and say everything’s okay.”

  “Why not?” Frustration made his voice harder than he’d intended.

  “Because things haven’t been okay between us for a long time.”

  “You need some time, then.” God, he was desperate for her to understand. For her to say it would be okay.

  “No, Rider. I need this to be over.”

  He closed his eyes, exhaled slowly, and nodded. “Okay,” he said. She was right. He’d never been able to give her half of what she deserved. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to try.

  Fernandez emerged from the tunnel and squeezed Chrissie’s hand. She rested her head on his shoulder.

  Rider shook his head. She didn’t have room for him anymore.

  He turned and walked away from the only person he’d ever trusted enough to love.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Paige! It’s good to see you today,” the nurse said as Paige entered the pediatric unit. “The doctor called. He will make rounds this afternoon to discuss your sister’s test results. She has a visitor sitting with her now.”

  Paige frowned. Did Collin have the nerve to come here when Paige had asked him not to?

  Paige walked into her sister’s hospital room, and her heart stopped when she saw who Tara’s visitor was.

  He rested his fingertips against her forearm while watching the TV overhead. They were broadcasting the president’s funeral, explaining how he “lost his secret battle with cancer,” and talking about being a “nation in mourning.”

  “Darian,” Paige said, his name slipping from her lips before she could stop it.

  “You know each other?” the nurse asked.

  Darian looked up and pulled back a bit, as surprised to see her as she was to see him. But even in his shock, Paige noticed he was careful not to move his fingertips from Tara’s arm.

  He was projecting calm, making her sister feel less of the anxiety that had been plaguing her since their time in the tunnels.

  “He’s my—” Paige hesitated “—my boyfriend,” she finished, figuring that word was as good as any other.

  “Aw! How sweet,” she whispered before leaving the room.

  “She’s sleeping,” Darian whispered. “I think she’s feeling better, though.”

  Paige nodded, tears filling her eyes. “She’s been feeling great ever since...” She exhaled. “Thanks for visiting her. Her health seems to have improved, but she’s been an emotional pendulum.”

  “She wants her power back,” Darian said softly. “She doesn’t know who she is if she’s not a Special.”

  Paige shook her head. “I only care about her health. Who cares about being a Special?”

  Darian’s dark eyes went soft and he reached out to squeeze Paige’s hand. “Your sister does.”

  Someone rapped at the door, and a man in a white dress shirt peeked in. “Do you have a minute?”

  Paige wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Doctor Delano, it’s good to see you.”

  The doctor stepped into the room and studied Tara for a long moment before speaking. “The tests came back. I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but I wanted to have all the results in front of me before we spoke.”

  Paige held her breath. Since what happened on the island, Tara had felt better physically than she had in years. Was it a fluke? An adrenaline buzz? The calm before the storm?

  “Her panel came back normal.”

  Paige tightened her grip on Darian’s hand. “Normal? Normal for Tara?”

  The doctor shook his head. “I don’t understand it, but the cancer is gone. There’s no sign of it. She’s just a healthy nineteen-year-old girl.”

  Paige couldn’t remember how to breathe but managed to gasp, “You’re sure?”

  The doctor nodded. “Sometimes in medicine, we don’t have explanations. Sometimes miracles happen.” He shrugged. “Let her finish her nap. I’ll sign her release papers so you can take her home tonight.”

  Paige nodded. “Thank you.”

  The doctor padded out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

  “A miracle,” Paige murmured. “I don’t know if I believe in those.”

  Darian lifted his hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles softly. “Do you believe in humans with special powers who suck each other’s blood?”

  A giggle slipped from Paige’s lips, and a knot inside her released. “Maybe.”

  “Do you believe they can steal each other’s powers?”

  She studied Darian. “You think that when Winston took her blood, he took her power and with it her leukemia?”

  He shrugged. “Collin said the girls like Tara were drained—killed. Maybe they would have been cured if only enough of their blood had been taken. The news reporter said president had advanced cancer.”

  “I thought that was a cover-up.” She released Darian’s hand and stroked Tara’s hair. “My sister is healthy,” she whispered. “I don’t remember the last time I said that.”

  Darian studied Tara for a moment. “She’d probably be okay if we stepped out for a few minutes.”

  Paige swallowed and nodded. Her sister was going to be okay. The cancer was gone.

  They left the room and walked toward the cafeteria. Paige slid her hand into his, a gesture that felt awkward at first, but so right once her hand was nestled in his.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been around. There’s been so much work at the SIA.” He studied her for a moment. “We found the bodies of all the missing Specials. There were more than we thought.”

  “How many?”

  “We found nearly fifty bodies in underground coolers.” Darian shook his head. “We think they were doing more tests on the bodies, and that’s why they were keeping them.”

  They stepped into the short cafeteria line, and Paige closed her eyes. It’s over, she told herself. But for so many people, they’d been too late.

  Darian ordered two cups of coffee and they took them to the dining room. Paige sat in a booth and Darian slid in next to her.

  “Your ‘boyfriend,’ huh?” he said, his dimple flashing.

  She wrinkled her nose. “I couldn’t think of a more appropriate title. You do
n’t mind, do you?”

  He leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. “Personally,” he said, his mouth hovering over hers, “I’d prefer something a little more permanent.”

  Her breath left her. “Yeah?”

  “I’d settle for fiancé for a while,” he whispered. His lips brushed hers again. “Though I’m sure being engaged to a Stiletto Girl is going to keep me up nights.”

  Paige took a breath. “So, when I told Winston I wanted to join him, you didn’t believe me, did you?”

  He hugged her to him and chuckled. “Paige, I don’t need to be an empath to know when you’re full of shit.”

  THE END

  Excerpt from Flirting With Fate

  The Stiletto Girls’ adventures continue in book two, Flirting with Fate, as Josie convinces Tanner to help her find answers to the mystery of her parents’ death.

  * * * *

  “I need your sperm,” Josie Bovard said, folding her hands on her desk.

  Tanner Wiley narrowed his eyes. He couldn’t deny he’d had quite a few fantasies that involved Josie and his—er—bodily fluids, but somehow they’d never played out quite like this in his mind. “Excuse me?”

  Josie shifted in her office chair. She pulled off black-framed reading glasses and tucked a leg under her. Today her hair was pulled into a knot at the back of her neck, and instead of being dressed as a blonde bombshell, as she so often was in the field, she was in soft cotton pants and a pink tank top. This Josie was even more mouthwatering to Tanner than the one who flashed cleavage, wore tight clothes, and left her long, wavy hair framing her pixie face.

  He cleared his throat and leaned forward on the desk that separated them. He’d heard her wrong. “I’m sorry. You need what?”

  She leaned forward too, until her face was only inches from his. All he had to do was lift a couple of inches out of his chair and he could taste her.

  She wrinkled her pert nose. “I. Need. Your. Sperm,” she said, enunciating each word as if he had only a loose handle on the English language. Which seemed to be the case when she was this close and his nose was filled with the fresh, flowery soap-and-water smell of her.