Super Chick

by Amber R. Polk

  At least she was keeping the secret within one family, Megan thought as she opened her eyes and looked down.

  Yep, it worked.

  “What the hell just happened?” Laura said each word slowly. Her eyes were as big as saucers and by the way she was pressed against the wall, Megan wasn’t so sure Laura would leave with her when the time came.

  “Okay,” Megan whispered, “I know this is crazy and we’ll talk more about it later, but you have to be very quiet when they come down here. Got it?”

  There wasn’t any more time to calm Laura’s nerves because the moron twins were on their way down the steps. Megan took a deep breath and hoped beyond all hope she didn’t come back into view while they were present. She had only showed all her goodies to one man and had no desire to show them to anyone else.

  “Where’d she go?” the bald guy asked.

  Megan slid as close to the wall as she could so they wouldn’t bump into any of her body parts. The thought of one of them touching her bare skin made her queasy.

  “Look by those boxes,” the other man ordered.

  Baldy rummaged through the boxes and turned around, scratching his head. The other bent to inspect the pile of her clothes on the floor. Megan closed her eyes and internally cursed her own stupidity for not hiding them.

  “All her clothes are here and the rope we tied her up with has been cut,” the larger man said as his grubby fingers stroked her bra. She was going to have to burn that bra now and it was her favorite bra. “Where did she go?” he asked, a foot from Laura’s face.

  When she rolled her eyes, he slapped her with the back of his hand, causing Laura’s head to snap back. Slowly, she turned back to him, hatred burning in her eyes as she spat in his face. The blood pumping under Megan’s skin boiled and anger filled her veins.

  “Hey, Larry, what’d you do that for?”

  Larry jumped up and stood nose to nose with Baldy. “You idiot. If we don’t find the bitch then she goes to the police and tells them where we are and we go to prison for the rest of our lives.”

  “Still, don’t hit her. It’s not her fault.”

  As the two argued, Megan was lucky enough to pick up the keys they had set on the washing machine. She clinched the keys in her hand, but knew if they turned around it would look like keys were floating in mid-air. Rushing to Laura, her eyes flashed when she saw the keys, but she held her palms up high so Megan would have easier access to the key hole. Looking back at the men still arguing about how to find her, she made fast work of unlocking one of the cuffs.

  With all of their communication depending on touch, Megan took Laura’s wrists and moved them back into position so she would understand to stay still until they had a good shot of getting out of there.

  “Go look for her while I get this one,” Larry said, sticking a thumb toward Laura, “out of here.”

  “You gotta swear you’re not gonna hurt her,” Baldy said, standing his ground. Megan noted to not beat him nearly as badly as she would Larry.

  “I won’t hurt her, but I’m going to hurt you if you don’t get your ass out of here and look for that bitch,” Larry spat out and Baldy left the room with his head hanging low.

  Positive Baldy wasn’t coming back, Megan bumped Laura’s leg to let her know it was time. Laura nodded, giving her okay. Megan crept to the opposite side of Larry to keep him occupied so Laura could make a dash for it. With Larry looking at the wall, wondering just how she’d escaped, Megan took great pleasure in pulling her arm back and punching him square in the nose.

  “Go!” Megan screamed and much to her surprise, Laura didn’t run for the door. Instead, she ran straight to Larry and jumped on his back.

  Laura balled her fist and hit him with as much power as her little body could muster. And because Laura earned the right to give him exactly what he gave her, Megan stood back and let her. He swung around and tossed Laura off him with a growl. Megan stepped in, kicking and hitting him as he comically flailed his arms, trying to find whatever was inflicting pain on him.

  “Go, Laura, now!” Megan yelled just before giving Larry a final kick in the stomach which brought him to his knees. Grabbing Laura’s right arm before she started kicking him, Megan dragged her out of the basement and through the house.

  It wasn’t until they were outside that her body began to shake ferociously. Megan wasn’t sure her body trembles were from the cold or the extreme adrenaline rush she was in the middle of, but before long she was going to be visible again. The last thing she wanted was to be running around without clothes covering her.

  At least she had the night sky to help keep her hidden when the inevitable did happen.

  “The woods,” Laura said with heavy breaths as they ran with everything they had into the forest.

  Megan had never ran so hard in her life and without the support of a bra, her boobs were killing her. She didn’t even let herself think of the pain in her bare feet.

  Laura’s feet came to a dead stop and she looked straight at Megan. “You’re almost back.”

  “Well, stop staring,” Megan demanded, throwing her arms and hands across her delicate parts. She wasn’t at all comfortable with the whole invisibility thing as it was and she sure as hell didn’t want the sister of the man she was in love with to watch her goodies come to view.

  “That’s crazy wicked. How do you do that?”

  “I don’t know, I just do. Now, we have to get further out before we can stop.” Megan started running again, trying to not thinking about her rear end jiggling and the pain of the broken branches biting into the bottoms of her feet.

  As they ran side by side, Laura kept glancing at her.

  “Will you please stop it already?” Megan yelled.

  “I can’t help it.” Laura threw her hands up in the air and bounced as their run moved to a fast walk. “Are you like a super hero or a government project? Oh, wait, are you an alien?”

  Megan made a full stop and inspected their surroundings for any sign of Larry or Baldy but there were none. “I’m don’t know what I am. You do know that if you tell anyone my life is over, right?”

  Laura put one hand up and the other over her chest. “I swear, I won’t stay a word.”

  Walking again, Megan tried to cover her bits the best she could and since her body had begun cooling down, the sweat was like ice on her skin. “I have to get something to put on before I freeze to death.”

  Laura looked down at her dirty dress. “I would help, but there’s no way in hell I’m running around out here without any clothes on.”

  “Not funny.” Megan slit her eyes toward her as Laura grinned. Right then Laura looked so much like Drew it hurt. “Your brother is probably cussing me right about now.”

  “Speaking of, why did you answer his cell the day I called?” Laura asked with wiggling eyebrows.

  As they walked, Megan explained everything that had transpired over the past week. Well, not everything… she left out the part where she had sex with her brother and how she was pretty damn sure she was in love with the jerk.

  She had only just begun to let herself in on those feelings.

  After another thirty minutes of walking, they made it back to the outskirts of town and to a row of houses. Before Megan would let Laura knock on anyone’s door, she stole a shirt and sweat pants from someone’s clothes line and tugged them on. She cringed at the thought of whose clothes they were, but the alternative was much worse.

  A young couple opened their doors to them and moved them inside while they waited for the police to come. A surge of pride came over Megan as she watched Laura smile. She did it. Drew wouldn’t have to worry about her anymore.

  The police were there in minutes, sirens screaming and lights flashing. Drew’s car came to a skidding stop in front of the house before he launched himself out at the same time Laura threw open the door and ran out of the house, jumping into his open arms.

  It was at that moment it hit her: Drew would be gone and her days of playing
house were over. Her life would go back to normal.

  Megan’s heart skipped. That’s what she wanted, right? So why did it hurt so bad? She walked out of the house and stood away from the swarm of police officers on the lawn. Drew’s eyes found her and she gave him a weak smile.

  “Megan,” he said, still holding his sister, “I’m going to whip your ass.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The first words out of Drew’s mouth weren’t exactly what Megan wanted or even expected to hear, but she could understand him being upset. Though, she would have thought saving his sister from the clutches of lunatics would override his anger of her running off without telling him.

  “You’re welcome,” Megan said sarcastically.

  Tucking his sister to his side, Drew slung an arm around her shoulder and stomped to Megan. “Do you have any idea how out of my mind scared I was? Are you crazy? What the hell were you thinking?”

  The thought of him worried about her wellbeing melted her heart. “I’m sorry. Honestly, I had no idea I was going to find her there.”

  “That’s not the point, Megan,” he said, shaking his head and giving her that I-should-lock-you-up-right-now look he had perfected since the morning he found her crawling around on Laura’s yard. “You weren’t supposed to leave the shop and especially without telling someone where you went. What if you ended up caught with her and couldn’t get out?”

  Bowing her head, Megan dug her big toe into the dirt like a scolded child. She wanted to say she was sorry again and she would stay out of it from now on, but she didn’t want to lie. She wasn’t sorry she’d found Laura, particularly since she witnessed Larry hit Laura. The diamonds were still out there and Megan was more determined than ever to find them and put Larry and his partner behind bars.

  “Take it easy, Drew,” Laura told, him patting his chest and looking up at him. “She’s a genius. If she hadn’t found me, I don’t know how much longer I could have stood being in there with them.”

  “Why are you dressed like that?” Drew asked, ignoring his sister and his body going rigid. “That’s not what you were wearing this morning.”

  Casually tossing an arm across her braless breast, Megan felt the heat of embarrassment burn her cheeks. “We’ll have to discuss that later.”

  “No, we’re going to discuss it right now,” he said, his hands on his hips, and Laura’s eyes widened as she looked to Megan for what to do.

  “It’s not something we can discuss outside the privacy of my home, Drew.” He quirked his brow, not getting the hint.

  “Did one of those pieces of shit touch you?” His voice dropped dangerously low.

  “Will you please stop it? No, they didn’t touch me.” By the set in his jaw, it was clear Drew wasn’t going to back down until he knew the details. Rolling her eyes, Megan kept her body in place and leaned in close to him and whispered, “I had to go invisible to get us out of there.”

  At this, his jaw visibly clenched and he looked to his sister.

  “Obviously, she knows,” Megan sighed.

  “Yeah!” Laura snorted. “That was the freakiest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.” Her eyes widened and her hands flew through the air.

  “Shh!” Drew and Megan hissed in unison as they glanced around for eavesdroppers.

  Laura’s hand flew her to her mouth. “Well, it was,” she whispered and shrugged. Drew shook his head and gave her a stern look of warning. Laura received the message loud and clear because she put her head down in shame.

  He squeezed Laura’s shoulder. “They want to take you to the hospital and check you over.”

  “Okay,” Laura agreed as he led them toward the awaiting ambulance.

  Twisting her hands in front of her, Megan stood back, not really knowing what to do next. She wanted to leave, but her car was probably at the bottom of Hope Lake, along with her cell phone and house key. Finding a phone to call Lillie was out of the question since she hadn’t memorized her number. Just as she was about to sit on the steps of the porch, two men in black suits cornered her. She looked to Drew, but he was arguing with his sister to get inside the ambulance.

  “Megan McAlister?” the suit with a bad comb-over asked.

  “Yes. You are?” she asked, trying not to fidget. She already knew who they were.

  “Agent Graves. FBI.” He flipped out his identification and snapped it closed before she had the time to look at it. “This is Agent Johnson. We have a few questions we’d like to ask you.”

  “Now? Like, right now?” Megan looked past the men to Drew, but Drew was nowhere to be seen. He probably left with Laura. Crap. She didn’t know how to answer the questions they were bound to ask about their daring escape without letting the world know her secret. If she kept it up, her powers wouldn’t be a secret much longer.

  “Yes,” Agent Graves said.

  “What do you want to know?” Megan did her best to keep her voice steady and strong, but feared they saw right through her and knew all her secrets.

  “Let’s start with how you knew where to find Laura.” His tone was dripping with accusations while Agent Johnson stood to her side like he was waiting for the green light to toss her to the ground and cuff her.

  “I didn’t know I was going to find her.” She leaned from one bare foot to the other to ease the pain emanating through her soles. The pain was enough to distract her from thinking clearly. Megan had little hope of getting out of this without becoming a government lab rat, or worse, a national weapon. She could see it now: muscle enhancing drugs, brainwashing, and water-boarding.

  I would look horrible with rippling muscles, she thought.

  “Why did you go to the Harrison residence?” Agent Graves whipped out a notepad and pen from his suit pocket and started scribbling notes. She would give up her firstborn to see what he was writing about her. Well, not really, but she really wanted to know what he was writing.

  “I went to speak with Ester.” Megan’s palms were clammy and she was going to throw up at any second. What if they were the type of people that could tell she was lying by the pulse in her neck or the direction she looked when she spoke? As inconspicuously as she could, she brought the sweatshirt up to her cover her neck and looked Agent Graves directly in the eyes.

  “About?” His head was still tilted to the notepad, but he raised his eyebrows and moved his eyes to her.

  Just as she was about to tell the agent that her personal business was none of his, Drew interrupted. “Graves, Johnson.” He shook both of their hands, then stood with his hands resting casually on his hips, but the fire in his eyes told her he was not happy. “Can we do this tomorrow? It’s been a hell of a day for her and she needs to be checked out by a doctor.”

  The suits looked to each other before Graves spoke. “We can do that.”

  “Thank, guys,” Drew said, giving a million watt smile.

  The men nodded, but Graves turned to her. “We’ll see you first thing in the morning.”

  It was more of a warning than a polite invitation. The silent assassin kept his steely gaze on her as he walked past. When they were far enough away to be out of earshot, Megan leaned into Drew’s chest. He put an arm around her shoulder and stroked her upper arm. “What am I going to do?”

  “Exactly what I tell you for once.” With that, he led her to his car and opened the door for her before walking to his side of the car. Putting her hand on the top of the door, she looked over the roof to him. “Get in,” he said, his eyes going soft.

  With a long sigh, she got in the car and buckled up as he climbed in and shut the door. He started the car and headed toward town.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Megan said, thinking about all that could go wrong the next morning. Her mouth opened to flip right the hell out, but Drew’s leg went to her thigh and squeezed before releasing it. Her eyes followed his hand to his mouth where he put a finger over his lips for silence and pointed to his ear.

  “Don’t worry about it. Once you’ve seen the
doctor and a have good night’s rest, everything will be fine.” He winked at her then kept his eyes on the road.

  Megan’s eyes widened and she clamped her lips closed. Drew thought someone was listening. Pushing herself as deep in the seat as she possibly could, she hoped it would swallow her up like quicksand. Her head hurt, her boobs hurt, and now that her feet were thawing, they were in agony. All she wanted was a hot bubble bath where she could cry her eyes out, but first she wanted to make sure Laura was okay.

  Drew parked in the no parking area by the emergency room entrance. He turned to her with the same soft eyes and asked, “Do you need a wheelchair?”

  “No, I can walk.” Megan had to remind herself this was all for the benefit of whoever he thought was listening as he walked around the car and opened her door. She swung her legs out, but when her feet touched the concrete sidewalk, she immediately picked them up. “Geeze Louise!”

  “Hold on. Let me carry you.” Before she could protest, Drew ducked in and lifted her out of the car like she weighed ten pounds. “Funny how it doesn’t hurt until you don’t use it for a few minutes. We’ll get someone to look at you in just a second.”

  This felt nice. Megan had to wrap her arms around his neck to stay in place and couldn’t help but feel his back muscles rippling under her hands. Memories of a night not so long ago when she felt more than just his back flooded her mind. Closing her eyes, a small groan escaped her lips.

  “Are you in pain?” he asked, placing her in a wheelchair.

  Yes!

  “No,” she lied, because the kind of pain she was feeling right then had nothing to do with her feet and everything to do with her lady parts. Too bad she would never be able to feel him pressed between her thighs again to ease that pain. “Kinda,” she admitted under her breath.

  “Try not to move. I’ll be right back,” Drew instructed, pushing her bangs from her eyes and tucking them behind her ears before heading to the nurses’ station.