by Kelly Oram
He handed me the passport and I automatically laughed. “Nice picture.”
Teddy frowned. “It had to be realistic. Passport photos always suck. Even yours will have to be bad.”
I studied the picture again until my eyes caught the name below it.
Antonio Stark.
“Tony Stark? Your secret identity is Iron Man?”
Teddy grinned and snatched the passport out of my hands. “Billionaire, playboy, genius, philanthropist? I thought it was quite fitting. Plus, it’s not Tony—it’s Antonio— which is Italian. I had to stick with an Italian name because I clearly look Italian.”
“Stark is not Italian.”
Teddy’s grin spread even wider. “So? I was adopted, but my American parents wanted me to keep some of my heritage.”
“Whatever. I’m not going to be Lara Croft or whatever Wonder Woman’s secret identity was, so forget that right now.”
“Actually, I was kind of thinking ‘April O’Neil.’”
It took me a second to get it, but then I laughed. “Okay, I can live with that. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is awesome.”
Teddy smiled triumphantly. “I heard you have a weakness for Cartoon Network.”
Teddy turned back to his computer, which was now fully up and running, and I finally noticed what was on his desktop. Teddy noticed it too and swore under his breath. He tried to close out of it, but it didn’t matter because I’d already seen it.
I pushed Teddy out of the way and clicked open the folder with my name on it.
“Hang on, Jamie. I can explain that.”
He had everything in there—pictures of me, articles about me, police reports. He even had copies of the notes from my therapist when my parents had put me in counseling after my accident.
“What is this?”
I didn’t realize I was in Danger Mode until Teddy stepped back with his hands up in surrender. “Okay, don’t overreact.”
“Overreact?” I screamed. “You have my entire life on here, you creepy stalker! Those are confidential medical records! I’ve never even seen those!”
Teddy started to argue again, but stopped and just stared in awe for a moment. “Has anyone ever told you how incredibly sexy you are like that?”
I was so not in the mood. In the blink of an eye I crossed the space between us and grabbed Teddy’s hand, giving him enough of a jolt to drop him to his knees.
“Who the hell are you?” I demanded, letting him feel the zap a second longer. “What do you want from me?”
I let Teddy go and gave him a few minutes to catch his breath. He crawled over to the couch. Once he pulled himself onto it and laid down on his back, he groaned. “Geez, Jamie, I said ‘don’t overreact.’ That hurt.”
“You think that hurt? That wasn’t even a fraction of what those guys got in my dorm yesterday, so start talking right now or I’ll really make you feel it.”
Teddy sighed. “I’m exactly who I said I was. I’ve never lied to you about anything. I’m Teodoro Vivenzio from Rome, Italy. I have telekinesis. I accidentally killed my parents. I was adopted by people who brought me to America and as soon as I got the chance, I ran away from them and bought this place.”
“And?” I barked. He knew full well that wasn’t want I wanted to know.
“And,” Teddy said hesitantly, “I have been trying to find other people like me for years. I knew I couldn’t be the only one. And I was right! I found you!”
If he was trying to put me at ease, it wasn’t working. “How?” I asked. “How in the world did you have any idea I existed?”
“You fit a certain profile—things I was looking for. You come up in a lot of police reports. There are a lot of tiny inconsistencies between the police report about your accident and the cause of death of your boyfriend. The story doesn’t add up. Plus, your doctors and the police all suspected you weren’t telling the truth about what happened.
“Then there were the incidences at your high school last year. I read the statements from that gardening crew and put the pieces together. And I don’t buy that story about your teacher for an instant. I don’t know what happened, but I know it wasn’t what the police reports claimed.
“I wasn’t positive that you had powers, but I knew you were covering up something, so I had to come meet you and see for myself if my hunch was right. I thought for sure I was wrong after Mike’s accident, but then you showed up in the hospital.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” A stupid question, I knew, but I still asked it.
Teddy’s face softened with sympathy. “I know guilt, Jamie. Better than anyone. You know I do. But even I have never felt the kind of guilt I saw in you as you looked at the condition of that guy in the hospital. I knew I was right about you then. I knew you were beating yourself up because you hadn’t intervened when you could have.”
I flinched and Teddy quickly shook his head. “I’m not judging you. Why do you think I was at the hospital that day?”
When my eyes widened, Teddy stood up so he could look me directly in the eyes. “Jamie, I didn’t help him, either. I made the same impossible choice you did that day, and I felt just as awful about it.”
Teddy stepped closer, not caring that he was within arm’s reach of me. Then again, my anger was gone now. “I didn’t have parents like yours. I didn’t have a perfect girlfriend to support me. I accidentally killed the only people who’ve ever loved me. I got rejected from foster home after foster home because I was different, and then I spent years being used for my abilities.”
I hadn’t realized that somewhere during his speech I’d started to cry until Teddy reached up and wiped the tears off my cheeks. His voice was so warm as he whispered, “Please don’t cry. All of that is behind me now. It has been since that day in the hospital.”
His confession startled me, and he smiled at my surprise. “You have no idea how much you mean to me, Jamie. You and I are the same. You understand me. I can trust you. I’ve needed someone like that my entire life. I need you.”
Teddy had completely opened himself up to me right then. His raw vulnerability overwhelmed me so much that my eyes flooded with tears again. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, stepping back. “I need a minute.”
Teddy gave me another impossibly warm, understanding smile and went back to his computer. “Anyway, the reason I brought you down here is because I have a plan, too. You and I can’t be the only ones out there like this.”
I completely agreed with him. Those guys at Visticorp seemed way to familiar with the process of capturing people with powers to never have done it before.
“We can find them, Jamie. The same way I found you. The more of us there are, the stronger we’ll be—the safer we’ll be. We could make ourselves a family.”
“We’ll definitely look for others,” I said, joining him at his computer, my emotions thankfully under control again. “Of course I want to be a part of that. But I already have a family, and I’m not giving them up.”
Teddy immediately started to argue, but I wouldn’t let him. “I’m happy to have you too, and I’ll always be there for you, but I won’t give up my parents and Ryan. I can’t. I’ll just stay away until it’s safe to go to them again.”
“But it’ll never be safe.”
“It will if we can stop Visticorp.”
Teddy stopped fiddling with his computer and turned to face me fully, his eyes intense and full of curiosity.
“I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get info on Visticorp, but you can do it. You know about all that computer geek stuff.”
“‘Computer geek stuff’?” Teddy sounded offended.
I rolled my eyes. “Genius hacker skills, whatever. The point is, you can help me. You can hack into Visticorp’s files. If we can get enough information on them, then we can find a way to take them down. Carter says he knows they’re into some seriously illegal stuff. I mean, obviously, if they’re willing to kidnap us.”
“Who’s Carter?”
“He’s…” How does one describe my relationship with Carter? “He’s sort of an ally. He’s someone I trust, anyway. But he doesn’t matter. I don’t need him now that I have you. You can probably do a better job at getting what we need than he can, anyway. If we can expose them, then they won’t be able to come after us.”
“You mean take evidence to the cops? That could take years.”
“Years is better than never seeing my family or Ryan ever again. Besides, I don’t think it will take that long. Once we get the police investigating them, even if their case is tied up in court forever, they’ll be under too much scrutiny to come after us. They’ll have to stop.”
“And if it doesn’t work? If we can’t find anything to stop them, or they come for us again anyway?”
“Then we’ll come up with something else. We’ll keep trying until we find a way to stop them. Those guys are going to pay for what they’ve done, no matter what it takes.”
Eventually Teddy cracked a smile—a crooked one. “A law degree, Jamie? I knew you were secretly a criminal mastermind.”
Surprised, I burst into laughter.
“Seriously,” Teddy continued to tease, “the nation couldn’t have picked a more inappropriate name for you, Angel.”
“Oh, whatever, Tony Stark!”
We laughed another second, but then I managed to get back on topic. “So, will you help me?”
Teddy’s laugh turned into a sigh. “I’ll do my best, if you promise to be patient and not to get your hopes up too high. What you’re asking me to do is probably almost impossible. If these guys are as bad as you’re saying, they probably have some of the best security in existence. I might not be able to hack their firewalls.”
I ruffled Teddy’s hair and said, “I have complete faith in your nerdiness.”
Two weeks passed, then two more. I was beginning to lose my patience. I knew Teddy was trying everything he could, and I didn’t want to take my frustration out on him, so I started spending more and more time out among the country as Chelsea’s Angel.
I was becoming accepted by the people. They didn’t even report on all of my rescues anymore, just the more exciting ones. But the police were getting harder to avoid. “I don’t know what their freaking problem is!” I ranted as I found Teddy in The Lair—I’d officially renamed the office. “I’m just helping people!”
Teddy clicked off his computer and gave me his full attention. “The government likes control,” he said with a shrug. “They can’t control you. Of course they don’t like that.”
“It’s not like I’m trying to do their job for them and chasing after criminals. I purposefully try to stay out of their business. I only help with emergency rescues and stuff. Firemen love me! Why can’t the police? You know some jerk just pulled his gun on me for saving a woman’s life? There was a nasty crash on I-70 outside of Denver. This lady was pinned beneath the steering wheel and the paramedics were waiting for the Jaws of Life, so I offered to forgo the wait and rip the door off the car. The firemen were all, ‘Hell yeah!’ and the policeman was like, ‘Don’t move, Angel!’”
“He pulled a gun on you?” Teddy liked that about as much as Ryan would.
“Stuck the stupid thing right in my face! Of course, I did it anyway. The freaking car was on fire! I totally called the cop’s bluff. I mean, what was he going to do, shoot me and let the lady burn to death? He didn’t want her to die, either. So I pulled the door off the car and held the front dash up while the paramedics safely pulled the lady out of the car. As soon as she was clear of the vehicle I turn around and there’s a freaking pistol practically being shoved up my nose. Can you believe that! So I said, ‘What’s your problem, jerk?’ and the cop was all, ‘There’s a warrant out for your arrest. You need to come with me.’ And I was like, ‘Oh yeah? Make me, Dunkin’ Donuts.’ I mean, the guy was seriously overweight and he—”
“Hey Jamie, take a breath.”
I took a much-needed breath. “Sorry.”
Teddy watched me take a few more breaths and then sighed. He turned his computer to sleep mode and dragged me up the stairs. He found the takeout I’d brought home, and once we were settled on the couch with cartons of Chinese in our hands, he finally said, “‘Dunkin’ Donuts’?”
I laughed, but it quickly turned into a sigh. “I know I shouldn’t have been name-calling, but I was already on edge and he was being ridiculous.”
“Why were you on edge? Because of the warrant out for your arrest?”
I scoffed. “No. I don’t care about the stupid cops. I haven’t heard from Carter so I went to New York to check on him, and he wasn’t in the office. Believe me, that is not like him.”
Teddy helped himself to some of my sweet and sour chicken. “Who’s Carter? I’ve heard you mentioned that name before.”
“He’s…” I frowned. How does one explain Carter? “He’s a reporter.”
“You’re friends with a reporter?”
“I wouldn’t say we’re friends, but he helps me sometimes. He knows my secret.”
Teddy choked on the chicken in his mouth. “A reporter knows about your powers?”
“It’s complicated. He’s safe, though. He’s the one who helped me put my old English teacher in prison without exposing me.”
Teddy’s face flashed with sudden anger.
“What?” I gasped, startled by the intensity of his reaction. “Teddy, I swear we can trust him. He’s known about me since my accident.”
Teddy quickly calmed himself and plastered a smile on his face. I knew it was fake. “What?” I asked again.
“I’m sorry,” he said with a sheepish shrug. “You just surprised me. But Jamie, you can’t just go meeting up with people from your old life. It’s dangerous.”
I swallowed back my annoyance at his calling it my old life. “Whatever. It was fine. He’s all the way in New York and like I said, we’re not exactly friends. I doubt Visticorp would ever make the connection between us.”
“Still, you can’t risk it.”
“I had to. He was doing me a favor and I went to tell him he didn’t need to do it anymore. Plus, I sort of owe him an interview as Chelsea’s Angel.”
“What?” Teddy jumped to his feet and began angrily pacing the room. “How could you promise that? What kind of favor was he doing for you?”
I cringed. “An extensive background check on you.”
Teddy jolted to a stop and gaped at me. He looked betrayed enough that I almost felt guilty. Almost. “Oh, come on,” I said. “You came out of nowhere, I knew nothing about you, and you had powers? Was I just supposed to believe that the only two people in the world with superpowers just happened to go to the same random college in Sacramento, California and ran into each other by coincidence?”
“I can’t believe you didn’t trust me.”
“I was just being cautious. And I was right, anyway. We didn’t meet by coincidence, did we?”
I folded my arms across my chest and stared Teddy down, daring him to argue with me. He looked pretty pissed, but after a moment he let it go and asked, “So did he find anything good, at least? Something worth a Chelsea’s Angel interview?”
“That’s just it. He never called me back, and I know he wasn’t planning to waste time getting me the info. He wanted that interview. He should have contacted me by now. This is the third time I’ve stopped by his office this week and he wasn’t there. Carter’s always in his office. The guy’s a workaholic.”
I abandoned my dinner, and suddenly Teddy was sitting next to me again, resting his hand on my leg. “Hey,” he said, flipping from anger to concern in a flash. “I’m sure he’s fine. You haven’t had your cell phone for a month. How was he supposed to contact you at all? He probably just got sent out on assignment.”
Duh! Of course he couldn’t have contacted me all this time. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. The obvious oversight made me feel stupid. “You’re right. I’m an idiot.”
“You’re not an id
iot, Jamie. You’ve just been through a lot lately.”
Teddy wrapped his arms around me and I melted against him, suddenly feeling completely frayed. “The whole Visticorp thing has made me completely paranoid.” I let out a big breath. “I’m not sure how much longer I can do this.”
Teddy pulled back and frowned at me. “Do what?”
“Live like this.”
Teddy’s frown got even bigger and it made me restless. He may have understood me on a lot of levels, but he would never grasp how difficult being away from home was for me. As far as he was concerned, our life was fantastic now.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue about it with him again, so I rose to my feet. “I’m going out.”
“As Chelsea’s Angel? Again? But you just got back.”
“I need some air.”
“How can you need more air? You’re always gone!”
“I just do!” I snapped. “This house is becoming more suffocating by the minute! Have you found anything on Visticorp yet? Are you even trying to? Because sometimes it feels like you’re just stringing me along waiting for me to forget about my ‘old life’ and accept you instead, and I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen!”
All the blood drained from Teddy’s face. He looked so devastated that I felt awful for accusing him of not trying after everything he’d done for me.
I opened my mouth to apologize and at the same time he said, “You’re right.”
My stomach turned in on itself. “What do you mean? What am I right about?”
“I haven’t found anything on Visticorp. The company is squeaky clean. I don’t know where they’re hiding all of their info, but I’ve tried everything I can think of.”
Teddy let out a weighted breath and stared at his feet, unable to look me in the eyes. “I’ve known for about a week now that there’s nothing I can do to help you. I’ve just been trying to figure out a way to break it to you.”
It took a moment for Teddy’s words to register and then my anger popped like an over-inflated balloon. “So that’s it, then,” I said sinking back down to the couch. “I’m never getting my life back.”
Teddy’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry, Jamie.”