by Sarah Biglow
“Well I’m gonna need to signal you when it’s time,” I replied with a tone that clearly conveyed the ‘Duh’ nature of his question.
“You aren’t knocking him out or something first?’
I patted my messenger bag and smirked. “Trust me, this is better. Besides, think of it this way. For once, you all get to be the ones in my ear.”
“I just wish it wasn’t for a date,” he muttered.
“This isn’t a date,” I snapped.
“Right. That’s why you’re wearing more makeup than I’ve ever seen on you in the entire time we’ve known each other.”
“You are making her nervous,” Marisol said.
I glared at her, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Just hang out here,” I said and approached the front of the four-story apartment complex. I smoothed my hair down to cover my ears—less chance he’d see my earpiece—and hit the buzzer for apartment 310.
The front door gave a prolonged beep and unlocked, allowing me into the building. I stepped into the elevator and cleared my throat. “You all still with me, boys and girls?”
“We can hear you,” Marisol answered.
The doors slid open when I reached the third floor and I marched down the hall to Reese’s apartment. I was about to raise my hand to knock when the door opened. Reese stood on the other side of the threshold in a crew neck t-shirt and khakis. He looked almost … hot. No, do not go there.
“You never told me where we were going so, I hope this is okay,” he said and gestured to his outfit.
“It’s perfect. I was thinking we could hang out here. Maybe get take out.”
“Not much of a date then, is it?” he said.
That’s the idea. “If I’m not mistaken, you were the one having a heart attack about my uncle or anyone else we might know seeing us. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to show up here.”
Reese let out a hiccup of nervous laughter and rubbed the back of his neck. “No, he’s not. Come in. Can I take your bag?”
What’s he got to be nervous about? “I’m good, thanks,” I replied and stepped inside.
It was spacious for a cop’s apartment, especially for a rookie’s salary. I guess my mother paid him well enough to cover the extra rent. He caught me eying the place and smiled. “Want the tour?”
“Sure.”
He led me down a short hallway and gestured off to the right. “Bathroom’s down there.” He pointed in the opposite direction. “Bedroom’s there.”
I made a mental note of that particular location in case it proved useful in getting the information I needed and followed him to the kitchen-living room combo with a table for two, an armchair and a two-seater couch. The fact it was also called a love seat wasn’t lost on me either. A tall lamp sat right behind the couch within arm’s reach.
“I’m impressed. I didn’t think a cop could pay for something this nice,” I replied and set my bag down on one arm of the couch.
“Come on, Tina, let’s not pretend here, okay? We both know I’m not just a cop.”
“Right. You’re a super cop,” I said and sunk onto one of the cushions.
“You’re pretty super from what I hear,” he said, blushing bright pink at the cheesiness of his words.
“Wow, do they not teach you decent pick-up lines in the academy?” I replied.
He sat down beside me; his hands clasped in front of him. “I don’t know, but for some reason you make me nervous.”
He’d seemed so confident at the precinct. Where he could hide behind the badge and the pretense of being a cop. Which begged the question: is he really that scared of Mom and Uncle Nick or is he hiding something?
“I’m not so scary,” I said and rested my chin on his left shoulder.
“Gag me,” I heard Declan snicker in my ear. Maybe having the earbud in this early had been a mistake.
I did my best to ignore the little voice in my ear. They would serve their purpose soon enough. Reese glanced toward the kitchen area. “I’ve got some menus if you’re hungry.”
“Not really hungry at the moment,” I answered and gave him a flirty grin. I leaned over and kissed him.
“You’re hungry for something all right,” Henry chimed in.
I could feel Reese starting to pull me closer, not with his hands, but with his powers and I let him. Before I knew it, I was sitting in his lap. Just the right position I needed to find and disable his little mind blocker. I wrapped my hands around his neck, keeping him distracted as my fingers probed for the tiny device that kept his thoughts protected.
The damn thing was hidden better than I’d thought. I would need to use more than just my fingers to find it. Still he had to know what my powers were. I came up for air just as I heard Spencer whisper, “Damn, I didn’t need to know Tina could hold her breath that long.” I felt Reese’s chest rise and fall with shallow breaths as he looked at me.
“I like a girl who knows what she wants,” he said in-between breaths.
“For a guy who was so scared to go on a date with me, you seem to be enjoying yourself,” I said, trying to control the amount of magnetic field I created, searching for the device in his head.
“I thought you said it wasn’t a date,” Spencer said into the earpiece. God, I wanted to slap him.
“I never said I was scared,” Reese replied just as my power bumped up against something electronic behind his left ear.
Gotcha.
His gaze went slightly unfocused for a moment and I pulled back on my powers, praying he hadn’t noticed what I was doing.
“Still trying to figure out your powers, huh?” he asked.
“Sorry. I get excited and things go a little haywire.”
“I remember those days,” he said.
“Maybe you can teach me some tricks to keep them under control,” I whispered in his ear.
“Can this be over now?” Spencer whined.
“I’d be happy to,” Reese answered, stealing a kiss and catching me off guard.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me close. Close enough to feel how much he really was enjoying this little phishing expedition. He kissed me harder this time and I closed my eyes, taking in the feeling of his body against mine. It was strong and comforting. Stay on mission, Tina! When I opened my eyes, I realized we were levitating a good two inches off the couch cushions.
“That’s new.”
“Does it freak you out?”
“Not at all,” I answered.
As his hands began a less-than-stealthy exploration under my shirt, I used his diverted attention to finally zap the little bit of tech in his head. He jumped, sending us falling back to the cushions.
“Can’t multi-task?” I asked, trying to cover what I’d done.
“Sorry, just got a headache all of a sudden.”
“Oh,” I feigned disappointment. Okay, maybe it wasn’t as fake as I had made it out to be.
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Just give me a minute,” he said, rubbing at the spot behind his ear.
I didn’t need a minute. I used some of my power to unzip my bag and retrieved the handcuffs I’d ‘borrowed’ from Uncle Nick. I slid one end around his left wrist, the other around the lamp.
“What the hell are you doing?” He tugged on the cuffs and I could see the lamp start to rise off the ground.
I found the buzzer for the front door and shorted it out. “Door’s open. Come on up,” I said to the quartet in my ear.
“This isn’t funny, Tina. I don’t know what kind of game you think this is, but you need to let me go.”
“I’ll let you go when you’ve answered some questions,” I replied.
“What questions?”
“Like why you tried to kill my friends,” I answered just as Henry walked through the door.
Chapter Six
Reese
I stared in silence as Henry, Declan and Tina’s other friends marched into my apartment. I’d met Marisol at the library before, and knew she was an empath. The
other kid with glasses was a telepath. The look of pure hatred on Declan’s face made me recoil. I’d seen what he’d done to Henry when they’d fought. I didn’t like having that power directed towards me. What the hell did Tina mean I’d tried to kill her friends?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t try to kill anyone. Seriously, if this is some weird joke, it’s not funny,” I replied, locking eyes with Henry. He knew me. He knew I wouldn’t do something like that.
“He’s lying,” Declan ground out.
The telepath narrowed his gaze as if he was trying to read me, he couldn’t though. Not with the telepath blocking tech from Lena. Which Tina just shorted out with her powers. “He just realized Tina shorted out his little mind blocker.”
“Henry, what is going on? You ghosted me. Now you and your boyfriend gang up on me?”
“Funny you should use that word,” Henry replied, his tone icy.
“Seriously, one of you needs to explain what this is all about,” I demanded.
“Why would you go after Henry and Declan?” Tina asked, arms crossed over her chest defensively.
“I wouldn’t! I didn’t. I mean, sure, I was worried after they got in a fight. I wanted to make sure my friend was okay, that’s not a crime.”
“He’s telling the truth,” the telepath offered.
“Of course, I am telling the truth,” I spat. “What possible motive would I have to hurt any of you? No offense, but I don’t know most of you well enough to want to do anything to you.”
“Because you’re a by-the-book guy who follows orders. That’s your thing, Reese,” Henry replied. “You just obey orders. Your commanding officer or your boss tells you to do something and you do it. No questions asked.”
“I wouldn’t hurt anyone!” I protested, tugging against the handcuff keeping me chained to the lamp. I fought to loosen the cuff around my wrist, but found this close proximity to metal, and with Tina’s temper in full swing, her powers overshadowed mine. The cuff only tightened the more I struggled. I winced as the metal bit into the soft flesh of my wrist, drawing blood.
“Tina, he is cooperating. You do not have to hurt him like that,” Marisol said softly.
“Maybe I want to,” she snapped.
“Look, he says he didn’t have anything to do with what went down with Declan and Henry,” the telepath added. Why couldn’t I remember his name?
“He’s been trained by my mother, Spencer. She’s an excellent liar,” Tina quipped.
“Well he is feeling very scared right now and that is not a lie,” Marisol replied.
The pressure on the cuff lessened and I slumped back against the couch, rubbing at the raw skin. “Tell me what happened. What do you think I did?” I turned my attention back to Henry.
“Someone ran us off the road. Nearly killed us,” Henry answered shortly.
“Why would you think it was me?”
“I’ve felt your powers, I know them … Reese. We trained together. It felt like you.”
“Well, it wasn’t me. I swear.” But it could have been someone else. “We’ve suspected Clayton Kirkpatrick took some of the research when he left town. And Lena’s been warning us that a fight is coming. Maybe he replicated my power.”
“It wasn’t Clayton,” Henry said.
“How can you be so sure?” I probed.
“He wouldn’t have a reason to do that,” he answered cryptically. He scrubbed at his face with both hands. “That day at headquarters, when you found me in cold storage, did you tell Lena you found me in there?”
“It was a little weird, but I mean you were pretty banged up.” I said.
“So that’s a yes,” Tina snapped.
“Yeah, I might have mentioned it in passing. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“And you didn’t get any calls about any car wrecks in the last week while you were on shift?” Henry started to pace.
“No. Wait, what exactly happened to your car?”
“Giant fucking fireball,” Declan answered, complete with dramatic hand gestures.
“It doesn’t make sense that Lena would try to hurt you just because you were in an area of headquarters you technically weren’t supposed to be,” I said.
I caught Declan shake his head at Henry and the rest of the group went silent. The secret they all shared hit me in the face. Some cop I’d turned out to be that I couldn’t even sniff out a conspiracy unfolding in my own living room. “Wait … you’re saying you think Lena’s behind it?”
“My mother is a manipulative, heartless bitch,” Tina answered.
“She’s not the warmest person on the planet, but attempted murder? That’s just not in her wheelhouse. It still doesn’t explain …” I trailed off, the other piece of the puzzle clicking into place. “You know Clayton wasn’t behind it, because you’re working for him.” I gestured to the assembled group. “You all are, right?”
“Is this the part where I hit him hard enough that he forgets the whole night?” Declan asked, rubbing his knuckles.
“How could you betray everything we’ve worked for?” I ignored his threat, still addressing Henry.
“I haven’t. I have been fighting to keep people safe from Lena’s goals the entire time. We were an unintended consequence of well-meaning science,” he replied.
“Clayton filled your head with lies,” I argued.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one,” Henry said with a shake of his head.
“You can’t honestly believe I’ll just stay quiet about all this,” I spat.
“Did I not just mention the punching him option?” Declan muttered.
“I’ll handle that,” Tina said and shooed the group away. They were apparently satisfied that they’d gotten the answers they were looking for. Leaving just Tina and I by ourselves.
“Was this just a ploy to get me alone,” I asked.
“Obviously,” she answered. She stood with her back to me so I couldn’t see whatever emotion played on her face. I could tell from her tone that her statement wasn’t true.
“How can you expect me to believe that? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who felt something before the handcuffs came out.”
Tina still kept her back to me. “You work for my mother, for starters. And when we thought you could have attacked Declan and Pyro … I had to know, because maybe a small part of me wanted to like you. Of course, if you had done it, well that would have just been my luck … flirting with my mother’s star pupil.” She turned and I spotted tears dampening her cheeks. “You didn’t hurt them though. Which is good for you because I’m pretty sure Declan would have had a blast seeing how many different shapes, he could contort you into. Still, stupid me didn’t think about what would happen if you were innocent.”
“Because you like me,” I replied. I wasn’t sure how that made me feel. I wanted to believe that she had done this out of loyalty to her friends and that it didn’t have to mean putting a stop to what had started on the couch. Wait She’s off limits, I reminded myself. No matter how much I’d enjoyed feeling her lips … and other body parts on mine.
“Yeah. I get you hate me. I don’t blame you.”
“You blame yourself?” I didn’t respond to her assumption that I hated her.
She let out a bitter laugh. “I blame my mother.”
“She’s not the root of all your troubles, Tina.”
“Sure, she is. She drove my father away and is the reason I never knew him.” She wiped at her eyes and started to pace. “She’s the reason I have these powers and she kept me in the dark about them my entire life. She knew they were coming and she could have sat me down to explain what had happened. She could have trained me. But instead she just ignored me like I wasn’t good enough for her. She had you and Henry. Maybe she really wanted a son and I was just some big chromosomal disappointment, I don’t know,” she rambled.
With Tina distracted by her inward-directed emotions, I had enough freedo
m to use my own abilities to free myself from the handcuff. My wrist was raw and still bleeding in places. I held out my other hand in the direction of the kitchen. The cabinet beneath the sink slammed open and the first aid kit floated through the air at waist height to land on the couch beside me. I pulled out a tiny bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some cotton swabs and began tending to my wrist.
“So, you clearly think your mother is up to something nefarious. If you’re convinced your father wasn’t behind it, and we are both in agreement now that I wasn’t the culprit, then who?” I probed to hide the wince of pain as the wounds bubbled. Clearly the handcuffs weren’t clean when she swiped them.
“I know there are more of us than she’s letting on. I’ve seen most of the records so I know there’s a ton of powers out there. Whether my father took some with him, I can’t say. There’ve been reports of super-powered attacks around town and I have to believe she’s behind it. I’m going to find proof. I am going to stop her.”
“I haven’t heard anything about any attacks,” I replied.
“She’s probably covering them up as usual.”
“And you want me to just stay quiet while you snoop.”
She turned to face me. “No, I want you to help me. She trusts you and so does my Uncle Nick. You don’t have to do anything illegal; I swear. Just watch my back.”
“So, you can do something illegal,” I muttered. She didn’t respond, which was an answer in itself. I sighed. “Say hypothetically I help you, what do I get out of it?”
“Stopping a maniac from ruining lives. And … maybe a date? Like a real one?”
“I’ll need to think about it. I mean, you did lie to me, handcuff me in my own home and forcibly interrogate me. That’s not something I can easily forgive, Tina.”
“I know. Although, we aren’t exactly in a situation where you can take forever to decide.”
“Give me until tomorrow when your internship starts. You’ll know my answer then,” I answered.
“Okay. Tomorrow,” Tina replied and left me alone in my apartment.
Chapter Seven