by S. J. Delos
“I’m willing to bet they all are. I’ll also bet that they’re attractive, too.”
“What’s your point, Karen?” There was a smidge of condescension in his voice. As if he thought I was making up an issue to justify my nosing around in his files.
“He’s screwing them, Kurt!” I blurted. “I mean that in the most literal way.” I balled my hands into fists and stalked around the table. “He uses the threat of sending them back to prison as a way to convince them to have sex with him.”
His mouth dropped open. Apparently, that wasn’t the explanation he had expected.
“What?” Then he shook his head. “No, that can’t be right.” The tone of his words changed, filling with desperate disbelief.
“It’s the truth, Kurt,” I said softly.
I knew what type of person the detective was. I knew what kind of person his mother—a woman who seemed to like me from the first time we met—raised him to be. The thought that he might have been indirectly responsible for placing someone in a horrible situation, such as what I just revealed, was probably slamming around in his skull, flipping every possible guilt switch. His gaze drifted down to his bare feet.
“But none of them have said anything?” he asked. “If he was using his position to pressure them into having sex with him, why didn’t a single one of them report it?”
“Because,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat that slid down to join the bigger one in my belly. “Because the fear of having to go back to the Max can be a lot stronger than the shame of letting him do that … to them.”
He glanced up at me, his eyes slowly widening as the last couple of clues fell into place. He was, after all, a pretty good detective.
I shrugged, knowing my face was probably the color of a fire engine. God knows, it felt hot enough.
“I didn’t say anything either,” I mumbled. All the incidents that sweating, disgusting pig’s bed came rushing back. “I’m sorry.”
He dropped the file and reached out toward me. The folder slapped the slate tile floor, Lorraine Dallas’ picture sliding out to stare up at me.
“Karen, I …”
“No!” I stepped backward, away from his outstretched arms. I wanted to throw up. I probably was going to throw up. “I just …I’m sorry.”
I turned and ran out of the kitchen, down the hallway. When I reached the front door, I yanked it open so hard I thought it would come off the hinges.
“Karen!” Kurt called, running after me. “Wait!”
My vision blurred as wetness streamed down my cheeks. I crossed the threshold onto the stoop, not bothering with the usual flexing of legs or positioning of arms. Instead, I blasted off Kurt’s porch as if shot out of a cannon.
Less than three seconds later, I was above the thick gray clouds, rocketing home.
CHAPTER 5:
A MOTHER’S TOUCH
The day after my shameful confession to Kurt concerning the things I’d done to stay free, I sat on the corner of the American Bank building’s roof, sipping on a bottle of water as I watched the city below.
Even though I technically wasn’t on duty, I put on my uniform and left headquarters immediately after the team’s daily briefing. Being confined inside, with all the turmoil currently rolling through my life, made me anxious and irritable.
I snapped at Zip for nearly knocking my breakfast out of my hand in his haste to get to the meeting. Then when Greg started to mention the Heroes’ Ball, I gave him a look that probably would have cowered Behemoth.
It really wasn’t a good day for me to be around other people.
I just finished the rest of the bottle when my earpiece chirped as Alexis’ voice came over the line.
“Karen?” she asked. “Are you, uh, busy or anything?” A worried tone filled her words. I guessed she probably heard about my bad mood from the others.
I sighed. “I’m here, Lexi. Just hanging out by myself. What’s up?”
“Is your phone dead?”
“No,” I said, a little rougher than I planned. “I turned it off.”
Kurt had called or texted me several times since my rapid departure from his house. I avoided answering any of the communications. I didn’t want to talk to him, afraid that I would say something that I would regret. Or that he would.
“Oh,” Alexis said. “Uh, well, I guess since you weren’t answering your phone, your mom decided to call here.”
My heart seized.
My relationship with my mother had always been a tumultuous one. Even before my Activation, she managed to constantly make me feel as if I needed to be better. Try harder. If I got an A on a school project, she demanded to know why it wasn’t an A-plus. Nothing I did was ever good enough for Mrs. Rebecca Hashimoto.
She was appalled when my powers manifested. She dragged me from specialist to specialist, trying to find someone who could cure her child of what she saw as a horrible affliction. After failing to achieve that result, she turned to doing everything she could to hide my “condition” from the world.
In her eyes, I was an embarrassment.
When Tomiko died, she dropped any pretense of acceptance and threw me out of the house.
“I’m not living under the same roof as a murdering freak,” were her final words before she slammed the door in my face.
Right after my joining The Good Guys, my father showed up to inform me that my mother was dying of cancer. I discovered, when I finally went to see her, her opinion of me and my abilities had changed. At first, I assumed it was because her daughter was now a superhero, something she didn’t need to be ashamed of.
Imagine my surprise to learn that her pride in me began before my release from the Max.
Over the past six months, we had attempted to rebuild the bonds between us, knowing the time to do so was short.
“What?” I said into the com unit as I launched myself into the air. My eyes flicked toward the horizon. “Is she okay?” I knew I could be by her side in under ten minutes if I pushed it.
“Oh,” came the startled reply. “Yes. I mean, she didn’t call because of, you know, her health.”
My heartbeat, running at the pace of a NASCAR engine, slowly settled down.
“She, uh,” there was a lot of hesitation in Alexis’ voice. “Well, she called a little while ago. I wasn’t here. Neither was Greg. So, she talked to Darla.”
Uh oh. I already knew where this runaway train was headed.
“She didn’t,” I said, guessing the worst. “Please tell me she didn’t say anything to my mother about the nomination.”
I could honestly hear my friend wince over the radio. “Yeah. She wants you to come see her. Now.”
My hands curled into fists. I was going to punch Darla right in the mouth as soon as I saw her. “I don’t suppose I have time to swing by HQ to kick Omega-Girl’s ass first?” I asked.
“Probably not. From what I could gather, your mom’s more than a little upset.”
I sighed. “This is not going to be fun at all.”
Alexis sighed herself. “Good luck,” she said.
My parents still lived in the same house in which I’d grown up, in a quiet subdivision outside the Kannapolis city limits. Since our reconciliation, I had been back only twice, both times riding in my father’s SUV after one of my mother’s doctor appointments.
This was my first time arriving by air.
My boots barely touched down on the patchwork stone surface of the patio when the back door opened to reveal my father waiting patiently for me to enter. As I went up the short steps into the house, I gave him a smile, touching him lightly on the arm.
He returned the smile, closing the door behind us.
“Thank you for coming so quickly, Kaori.” His voice was always soft, even when the words behind it were stern. I honestly couldn’t think of a single time I’d heard my father yell.
He also steadfastly refused to call me “Karen”, despite my insistence since the sixth grade that it was going to be t
he only name I answered to.
“Hey, Dad.” I tipped my head in the direction of the room at the end of the hall. “How mad is she?”
His frown deepened. “She is rather angry. Even for her.”
“Wonderful. Just what I needed on top of everything else.” I gave him a ‘here goes nothing’ smile before heading down the narrow corridor like a prisoner heading toward the gas chamber.
Rebecca Hashimoto could be a thermonuclear firestorm when she felt slighted or kept out of the loop. Once, when I was fourteen, she destroyed the reputation of a woman in her garden club who didn’t invite me to her daughter’s birthday party.
I wasn’t really friends with the girl. Or anyone else that was going to be there. Honestly, I didn’t even want to go in the first place. To my mother, it was an unforgivable slap in the face, one that required a harsh response. By the time she was done, the woman was left with no other choice but to move out of our neighborhood.
I found my mother in the living room, sitting in her favorite chair. It allowed her to see out from three sides of the house without doing more than turning her head. All the better to keep tabs on the neighbors, I suppose. She wore a light green track suit and there was a bright pink bandana wrapped around her head.
The chemo might have taken her hair, but she would be damned before she tried to hide her fight with a wig.
Even though the cancer in her breasts had spread further into the rest of her body, she looked much healthier now than six months ago. She was still thinner than I was used to and it took a great deal of makeup to cover up the constantly present dark circles under her eyes. Not getting constantly injected with toxic chemicals brought some of her former beauty back, helping to cement the lie that she wasn’t living on borrowed time.
She glanced over as I entered the room, her eyes moving over me, her face stoically neutral. Yeah, she was pissed.
“Kaori,” she said with a little nod of acknowledgment. How the woman could put so much disappointment in a single word greeting was a mystery I don’t think even a Class Six intellect could solve. Almost immediately, it was as if I were a child again, and I found myself automatically attempting to smooth out my wind-blown hair.
She patted the arm of the loveseat next to her chair.
“How are you?” she asked. Her voice shifted to a honeyed saccharine tone. As I took the indicated seat, I already knew from past experience that this little visit was probably going to end in a fight. Her eyes locked onto my uniform. “I was told you were off duty today.”
“I’m not on duty.” I left the explanation for my attire at that. “I was told you wanted to see me?”
She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Is it too much to ask that you visit your mother every now and then? Honestly, I thought we were past all the animosity.” Her eyes narrowed in on the side of my face. “Oh, you cut your hair. It’s very … daring.”
I sighed, running my fingers through the tangled, much shorter strands. “Yes. Thank you for noticing. Now, what is so important that it required I fly here immediately?”
A little frown formed on her face, though it lasted less than a second before her predatory smile returned. Trivial small talk was usually my mother’s segue into her real agenda. Mostly one in which the other party didn’t want to engage.
“Very well,” she said with overdone drama. “I simply called to remind you that we were supposed to have lunch at Charro’s on Thursday. Then that darling Omega-Girl told me all about you being nominated for that award nomination. I wanted to pass along my congratulations.”
Her smile widened. For a moment, I thought she was going to follow up by taking a bite out of my face.
“Uh, thanks. But you could have just left that on my voicemail.”
“Of course,” she continued, ignoring my response. Her forced smile faded away as slowly as the setting sun. “I will admit; it did hurt a little to have to find out the big news from someone else. I would have thought something of this magnitude would have come right from my own daughter.” Her mouth finished its transformation to become a slight pout. A downcast gaze quickly followed.
Yep, there was the dagger being shoved right into my Guilt Cortex. I was positive the grinding twist would be next.
“Mother, it’s just a stupid nomination for a stupid award that doesn’t mean a damned thing. Obviously, this is someone’s idea of a joke. I’m not falling it.”
“You don’t think it’s sincere? Or do you just believe you can’t win it? You lack confidence. That’s always been your problem.” Her head moved up and down slowly, presenting a sage, all-knowing nod. It was like the State Science Fair all over again.
“No, I’m saying that I’m not going to win it because I’ve turned the nomination down. I’ve got better things to do than strut around like part of someone’s dog and pony show.”
She blinked, her bottom lip rolling back in to form a hard line out of her mouth.
“This is not a joke, Kaori,” she said in a stern voice. “You’ve done many great things since you joined that team. You’ve saved the city many times. Plus, I hear you’ve started helping train a young criminal to be a hero like you.”
Good god. The woman must have spies everywhere. I doubt the information on Zip came from her conversation with Darla. “That doesn’t make me Hero of the Year material, Mother. I’ve been a hero for only six months. I spent years as a bad guy.”
She waved her hand again. Seriously, did the woman think she was actually clearing the air?
“Pshaw. You weren’t yourself during that time, Kaori. You were under the influence of that horrible Doctor Maniac.” She reached out to pat me condescendingly on the arm. “I remember when you Activated. After the initial embarrassment, all you could talk about was being a hero, helping people. Tomiko spent hours helping you pick out a name. Do you remember that?”
My jaw clenched tight enough to snap titanium. “Yes. I also remember that when I tried, it got him killed.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “What happened to Tomiko wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you for that. Why do you insist on continuing to blame yourself?”
I couldn’t help my eyes from nearly popping out of their sockets. “Mother, I stopped beating myself up about Tommy’s death years ago. Even before I turned myself in. This is about taking responsibility for what I did after his death. What I did of my own free will. But I’m not out there helping people because I feel guilty. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. It’s what I should have been doing from the beginning. Having these Enhancements means having the responsibility of helping those who need it.”
She nodded eagerly, and when her beaming smile returned, I realized that I had fallen right into her plan. “Exactly! I couldn’t have said it better myself. That’s why you deserve that award. That recognition. You’re a true superhero, Kaori. The whole world needs to know it’s official.”
I held up my hand. “Wait,” I said, giving her a sideways look. “What is really going on here? What are you angling for?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, futilely attempting to feign innocence.
“I know you, Mother. This is more than just congratulating me. Or looking forward to bragging rights if I win. There’s something else at play here. Why is it so important to you that I be recognized as Hero of the Year?”
We stared at each other, silently, for several tense seconds. I knew there was some plot going in her head. She knew I knew it. The showdown was just a contest to see which of us would crack first. This was a game we played against each other through the years. Over school … about boys … because of my powers.
I lost every single time.
This time, I took a different approach. I sighed, standing up. “Well, if there’s nothing else you need, Mother, I guess I’ll see you on Thursday.” I turned toward the door.
“I’ve been talking to Hannah Shultz recently,” she said so quickly that her
words almost ran together.
I looked back at her. “Hannah Shultz? Trista’s mom? About what?”
“Well, Hannah is an attorney. She specializes in … child custody cases. I believe that you winning that award could help our case. Hannah agrees.”
“Case?” I asked. “What … oh god,” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Mother, what have you done?”
She reached out a hand to me, a disarming smile on her face.
“A few weeks ago, I asked Hannah to research our options. To see if we could sue for visitation rights with Harmony. However, I just called her to relay your possibly being recognized as Hero of the Year. She thinks something like that might give us enough leverage to go for full custody.”
My legs wobbled, dropping me back down on the sofa, as if I just got sucker-punched in the gut by Colonel Tank. I should have been far less surprised at the discovery of what my mother was trying to do. I should have known from the moment she found out about the child I’d given up for adoption she would do anything and everything in her power to get her granddaughter back in the family.
“Oh, my god. Mother, will you just stop it?” I said, holding my head in my hands. “You can’t go around telling people about Harmony. Why is that so hard for you to understand? There are a shit ton of reasons why it’s a secret. The biggest of which is that if word gets out that the former Crushette is a mother, it’s not going to take Guy Genius to figure out that the father is most likely Doctor Maniac. Do you know how much danger that would put Harmony in?”
She gave me a look that screamed offense of having been considered stupid, and her mouth morphed into that practiced pout again.
“You think I didn’t assume that?” Righteousness filled her voice. “I told Hannah that you didn’t know for sure who Harmony’s father was. I mean, the last thing I want is for anyone else to know you let that monster put a baby inside you.”
I slapped both of my cheeks, then ran my hands through my hair. “Oh, oh that’s just awesome. Much better. So instead of getting impregnated by the most horrible man of the twenty-first century, I’m a rampaging slut who’s slept with so many men she doesn’t know which one knocked her up? Thanks a damned lot, Mom!”