by Robin Hale
The door to my office opened, and I jumped a full three inches off of my seat before crashing down again. Captain Colossal — in full crime-fighting regalia — stood in the doorway looking amused.
“Listening to another Stephen King audiobook, Molly?” He asked with a charming smile. “You know how you get when you’re here by yourself.”
There was a crash, the sound echoing as if along a narrow tunnel, and then the Silhouette’s voice was in my ear once more. “No need for you to bite your nails and watch this, darling. I’ll be back in a flash.”
And then the comms, the video feed, it all went dead.
I tore the headset from my ears and tried to remember what a friendly smile looked like and how my face might be convinced to form one. “Oh, no, just…doing a little work. That’s all.”
Lana would’ve strained something rolling her eyes at how poorly I lied. Well, obfuscated. It was true that I was working after all.
“I was hoping you might be able to go over the last known locations of Sergeant Cinders’ crew with me? I can’t seem to get the geography right when I’m in the air, and they end up scattering like rats into hideyholes I don’t know to look for.” The Captain approached my desk, and I scrambled to swap desktop displays as he came around the corner. His eyes narrowed.
“The Cinders gang? Sure, let me just bring that up.” I mistyped the command three times before I was able to generate the map overlay for that particular set of villains. The Captain was still looking down at me like he suspected something, and I wished fervently that no one had ever asked me to lie to anyone. Why did I get myself into these things?
“Great.” His voice was calm, friendly. But was it too calm? Get a grip, Fawn.
We pored over the maps together, bringing up satellite images, GPS coordinates, even street-level photography that we found via search engine for about ten minutes before the tension broke.
“It’s the Silhouette, isn’t it?” The Captain asked, and I cringed as I turned to face him.
“Look, I know how you feel about —” I began.
The sound of the back door of the lab crashing open startled the Captain and myself into whirling to face the newly appeared master thief.
“Colossal! Lovely to see you here,” the Silhouette grinned and tossed a small mechanical device to Opal City’s favorite hero. She didn’t pause, didn’t stop moving, just threw the device she’d risked her neck to retrieve and then took my face in her hands and kissed me like she hadn’t seen me in weeks, rather than waking up next to me that morning.
For a moment, everything fell away, and I was lost in the feel of her lips, the taste of her mouth, and the gentle grasp of her hands on my face.
Then the Captain’s sputtering broke through.
“Did you — Silhouette! I specifically told you to wait for the police to retrieve this! It was too dangerous, you could’ve —” The Captain was gearing himself up for a good rant, all about safety and duty and how their agreement required that the Silhouette learn to follow orders, but Lana was clearly unfazed.
“It’s better than those fuckers having it, right? We’ve got it, no one was injured, and my video feed was on the whole time. We have video evidence of it in situ. Relax, Captain.” The Silhouette’s hip was cocked at an insouciant angle as she leaned against my desk, using her utter disregard for authority to worm beneath the Captain’s skin. It was her favorite pastime — apart from theft and touching me, anyway.
“That isn’t the point! There are procedures!” The Captain’s raving had reached the level of involving wild hand gestures, and Lana winked at me while I fought to hide my grin behind my hand.
God, I was lucky. Lucky that she was safe, lucky that she loved me, lucky that she thought she was the lucky one. Lucky that she considered occasional heroism to be an acceptable price for admission into my life.
Lucky that she’d looked at me and never once made me doubt that she believed in me.
My cheeks started to go pink and I caught the exact moment that Lana realized I was getting flustered and emotional. Her impish smirk slid seamlessly into a rakish grin, and she cut the Captain off mid-sentence.
“Colossal, we can argue about this later. I’m going to get this one home.” Lana whirled around and leaned down to drop a peck on my nose. “Ride with me?”
“Sure,” I grinned.
“You know, if we time it right, we’ll get there just before the pizza I ordered.” Lana’s fingers were tangled with mine as she led me toward the door.
“Are you still riding that thing without a valid license?” The Captain groused, which was as good as admitting he’d lost his verbal sparring match with Lana.
“Captain, do you take me for the kind of scoundrel who would risk Molly by riding without a license?” Lana’s eyes were wide, mouth soft, all innocence and mock hurt.
“Yes.”
With a wink and a shoulder against the door, we were out in the alleyway behind the lab where Lana had left her bike.
“You know, he never used to be that perceptive,” Lana remarked as she passed my helmet to me.
“Maybe you’re rubbing off on him.” I pressed a kiss to her shoulder before I settled the helmet over my hair.
“Ugh. Now there’s nightmare fuel.” Lana revved the engine into life before rubbing a thumb over the back of my hand. “Hold on tight, darling. I don’t want to lose you.”
I wrapped my arms tighter around Lana’s midsection and grinned to myself behind the facemask of my helmet. As long as I had anything to do with it, she never would.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robin Hale is a new author of sapphic romance, and looks forward to telling many stories of incredible women falling in love with other women.
When not writing, you can find Robin hosting vintage cocktail parties, planning elaborate costumes, and looking for someone to go to the Renaissance Faire with her.
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