Jasper stuck a finger inside his cast and scratched his injured arm. “Because I, and my clients, like my anonymity. If I told people I was attacked by Hangman, I’d have Kelly Caleb and the other news hounds camped out on my doorstep. Besides, it was just easier to lie. There’s less paperwork to fill out.”
“Since when are you dealing with Swifte?” Carmen asked, her voice high and squeaky. For some reason, she always got a little nervous whenever Swifte’s name came up.
Jasper shrugged. “I see him around, and we came to an agreement. If somebody breaks into my house, he responds.”
“And in return?” I asked.
Jasper pushed his glasses up his nose. “I don’t sell my supplies to anyone who’s going to use them within three blocks of Quicke’s. Evidently, it’s Swifte’s favorite restaurant, and he doesn’t want anybody blowing it up.”
It made sense in a way. Quicke’s was supposed to be neutral territory in Bigtime—both superheroes and ubervillains could eat there without fear of reprisal from each other or even the police. But I supposed it never hurt to have a little extra insurance. Swifte was probably like Fiona in the fact that he constantly had to eat to keep up his strength and superspeed. And Quicke’s did have some of the best food in town. Even if it was filled to the brim with hero-villain memorabilia.
Jasper pointed to a dusty floorboard. “The blueprints are on a flash drive taped to the bottom. One copy, anyway. What are you girls planning on doing with them?”
“We’re going to pass the information along to the Fearless Five, of course,” Carmen said in a steady voice, prying up the board and reaching down to retrieve the flash drive.
I admired her smoothness. I’d never been very good at lying or hiding my emotions, but Carmen didn’t even blink as she fibbed to her friend. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Do you girls or your superhero friends need some extra firepower? Or should I even ask?” Jasper raised an eyebrow.
Lulu and Carmen exchanged a look.
“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Lulu said.
*
Jasper gave Carmen some directions, and she pulled several hidden bombs and explosive devices from metal safes in the walls and floors. There was even a case strapped to the ceiling that looked like an air vent.
Jasper took one of the lead boxes from Carmen and opened it on his lap. Inside lay a black velvet case, like the kind women get jewelry in on Valentine’s Day. Jasper cracked open the case, revealing a shiny, silver bracelet with a variety of charms dangling off it. There was a tiny book, a high-heeled shoe, a beach umbrella, a martini glass, and other items—thirteen charms in all. All cute and whimsical and exquisitely made. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought it was a handcrafted piece from Jewel’s Jewel Emporium.
“This is my latest project,” he said.
“Lucky charms?” I asked, thinking of the door code.
Jasper nodded.
“I didn’t know you were branching out into jewelry, Jasper.” Lulu smirked. “People are going to think you’re going soft.”
Jasper scoffed. “Soft? Hardly. The charms have enough explodium in them to level a city block. They can be used in combination, depending on how much power you need, or one at a time for smaller jobs. Use them all and the bracelet at the same time, and you’ve got something that would take out most of the downtown area.”
Lulu let out a low whistle.
“But wait, there’s more,” Jasper said, beaming over his creation. “The bracelet is voice-activated and key-coded so that only the wearer can use it.”
“How many of these things do you have?” Lulu asked.
“I have a prototype, of course. But this is the only other working model I have at the moment.”
Carmen and Lulu exchanged a look, and Carmen lifted the bracelet out of the velvet case.
“We’ll take it,” Lulu said. “But who gets it?”
Carmen’s eyes glowed for a second. “I think Bella should have it,” she murmured.
Carmen held out the charm bracelet to me. I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t need to be anywhere near any sort of explosives—not with my uncontrollable power. And I definitely didn’t want to be in a situation where I’d have to use the charms and bracelet. I’d never get out of it alive. Even I wasn’t that lucky.
“Trust me, Bella,” Carmen said in a soft voice. “I’m getting pretty good at judging these things.”
Despite my frizzing hair and itchy fingers and general nervousness, I let her fasten it on my wrist. It was pretty, in a one-false-move-and-I’ll-blow-your-arm-off kind of way.
“Now, just tell me the code word or words you want to arm and trigger the explosives in the bracelet, and I’ll program it for you,” Jasper said, gesturing at Lulu to hand him some sort of electronic doodad that resembled a calculator.
I gingerly shook the bracelet, watching the charms jiggle back and forth. They tinkled as they brushed against each other. My power pulsed, sensing the new device swinging from my wrist. For a moment, I thought something very, very bad might happen, but my power fell down to its usual, low hum. Still, it gave me an idea for the words Jasper needed.
“Let’s go with luck be a lady,” I said.
“Why, Bella, are we feeling lucky today?” Lulu quipped.
I ignored her bad pun. Lulu wouldn’t be nearly so chipper if she were the one with this thing strapped to her wrist. Still, maybe Carmen was right. It might come in handy if I ran into Hangman again—or the mysterious Prism. Luck wasn’t much of a power when it came to the world of superheroes and ubervillains. It was barely a blip on the radar screen, compared to the people who could form fireballs with their bare hands or freeze a person from head to toe or zip through the sky like a rocket. Still, I was going to be extra, extra careful with my new piece of jewelry.
Jasper tuned something on his gizmo, then made me speak my command words again. Sapphire eyes on one of the charms—an angel’s head—blinked on and off three times.
“The angel is the key,” Jasper explained. “Once her eyes start blinking, you have about twenty seconds to get clear or get rid of the bomb.”
“Got it.”
Jasper showed me how to slip the charms on and off the silver links and told me which ones were more powerful than others. When we finished, Carmen looked at her silver watch while Lulu grabbed her cane and headed for the stairs.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Jasper asked.
“What?” Lulu replied. “We got information on the ubervillains, figured out more or less what they’re up to, found the blueprints to their ultimate-evil device, and got Bella some brand-new, supercharged explosives. I think we’re good.”
Jasper cleared his throat. “Well, there is the small matter of my fee.”
Ah, Jasper. Ever the businessman.
Chapter Eighteen
“I can’t believe you gave him a million dollars for that bracelet,” Carmen said ten minutes later as we headed for the van. “You didn’t even try to negotiate with him.”
“There was no point. He wasn’t going to get suckered again,” Lulu said. “He let Fiona buy him off with clothes last time because he has a thing for her alter ego, Fiera. He wasn’t going to let me get away with that too. Besides, he still gave me a discount. We are becoming regular customers of his, whether you like it or not. The man could retire on what we’ve spent on explosives in the past year. Sam should just put him on retainer. It would be cheaper, in the end.”
Carmen sighed. “I know, I know. I’ll get Sam to write you a check tonight after work.”
“Nonsense. I’m as much a part of the team as you are, even if I don’t dress up in a costume. Just write another glowing feature on Yee-haw!, and we’ll call it even,” Lulu said. “They’ve really done wonders for me these past few months.”
Yee-haw! was a therapeutic riding program financed almost in its entirety by Lulu Lo and her illegal life of crime and computer hacking. She’d been one of the program�
��s clients for years and was forever expounding on its virtues. In fact, getting publicity for Yee-haw! was one of Lulu’s main passions in life—along with Henry, computers, and making groan-inducing puns all the time.
We left Jasper behind with plenty of aspirin and promised to check on him later. Then, Lulu and Carmen drove me home. Or at least, they started to.
Carmen sat in the driver’s seat, but she didn’t crank the engine. “Maybe we should rethink our plan about taking you home, Bella. If Prism is anything like Malefica, she won’t stop until she’s got the sapphire. She’ll be sure to sic Hangman on you again if she thinks there’s even the slightest chance you have it or know where it is. She might even kidnap you and try to trade you for the sapphire. Then, we’d be right back where we started.”
The plan the superheroes and I had come up with to keep Hangman away from me had been to let Lulu spread the word via her shady contacts that the Fearless Five had recovered the Star Sapphire from Debonair—and for the superheroes to announce it themselves on SNN. If I didn’t have the stone, there was no reason for the villains to come after me. At least, that was the theory. You could never really tell what ubervillains were going to do.
“Why don’t you guys just return the sapphire to the museum?” I said.
“Why would we want to do that?” Lulu asked. “That’s just stupid.”
I shook my head. “If Hangman and Prism want the sapphire to power their laser, they’ll have to try and steal it from the museum again. When they do, the Fearless Five can be there ready and waiting. You guys can capture the ubervillains, keep them from taking the sapphire, and save the city in a single night.”
I might not like superheroes and ubervillains, but I sure as hell could think and plot like one.
“And what happens if the ubervillains get past us?” Carmen asked.
“You guys are the Fearless Five. Surely that won’t happen.”
Carmen gave me a look. “You should know by now not to take anything for granted—or to be too confident.”
Truer words were never spoken, but I persisted. I didn’t want to sit in the Fearless Five headquarters until they managed to capture Hangman. I’d be bored to tears. And probably have an allergic reaction to all that spandex. Besides, if I was tucked away in a supersecret superhero lair, I wouldn’t be able to see Debonair again. And I wanted to.
Or did I? Did I really want to see the handsome thief? Just because we’d had a hot, one-night stand didn’t mean he cared about me. Or that he’d even want to see me again. He’d probably had a couple more sexual encounters since our night together. Hell, maybe even a dozen, if the rumors about him were true.
But part of me still wanted to see him. Wanted to know more about him. Wanted to know if he’d felt anything for me besides lust—because I’d definitely felt something for him. It wasn’t love, but I had a soft spot in my heart for the thief now—even if he’d seduced his way into my good graces and bed. Plus, he kept saving my life. It was really hard to be angry with a guy when he did that.
After another ten minutes of arguing, I convinced Carmen to drive me home. I thought about pressing her into looking into Debonair’s real identity, but that would be pushing it. Tomorrow. I’d ask her tomorrow. It was well into the afternoon now, and all I wanted to do was go home and pretend like everything was normal. Like I hadn’t spent the last few days on the roller coaster ride of a lifetime.
Carmen drove across town and turned the van onto Lucky Way. An abundance of cypress trees and Spanish moss flanked the wide street, swaying like strands of green-gray hair in the fall breeze. Smooth, perfect, manicured lawns led up from the road, and mansion after mansion stood tall in the quiet, subdued neighborhood. Sun bounced off the roofs of the BMWs and Aston Martins and other pricey cars parked at the top of the winding driveways. Everything was the same as the last time I’d seen it, but the street and houses looked different to me. They looked…smaller somehow, less intimidating.
Carmen turned into the driveway, and the wrought iron gates swung open at her approach. I leaned forward in my seat, and the Bulluci mansion came into view. Red-tile roof, stone arches, balconies, tall, narrow windows. The house wasn’t nearly as large or impressive as Sublime or Brilliance, but seeing it always gave me a sense of peace. It was home, and I was glad to be back.
Carmen parked the van in front of the house, and the three of us got out.
“No valets?” Lulu asked. “No butlers to greet us?”
“We never really had any. We just hired people to come in and help whenever I had a fashion show here or if we had guests over for dinner. Now, we don’t even do that, since Fiona and Johnny hooked up. They didn’t want to take the risk of someone asking why Fiona eats the way she does,” I explained, taking a key from my stained purse and sliding it into the front door.
We stepped inside. My eyes traced over the tile floors, the high ceilings, the familiar furnishings embellished with angels and halos and wings. I let out a long breath. Home. This was where I belonged. Not in the Fearless Five headquarters. Not in Jasper’s bomb lab. And definitely not in the Lair of Seduction.
“Grandfather? Where are you?” I called out.
A loud thump sounded, followed by some sort of banging noise and a low moan.
“What was that?” I asked.
Panic pulsed through my body, shooting my hair to new heights. Had Hangman broken into the mansion like he’d done at Jasper’s brownstone? Was he in here now? Hurting my grandfather, torturing Bobby to get him to tell the ubervillain where I, or even the sapphire, was?
“Bella, wait—”
Carmen started to say something, but I rushed deeper into the house. My power surged. My foot hit a rug in one of the entryways and threatened to go out from under me. But I focused, willing myself not to fall, and somehow, I turned my skid into a long, smooth slide. The rug hit a doorjamb and stopped.
“Ha!” I shouted in triumph, leapt off the rug, and kept going.
The odd noises seemed to be coming from the downstairs living room. I picked up a small, wooden chair by the door, stepped inside, and pulled it over my shoulder, ready to crash it down on Hangman’s basketball-sized head.
I didn’t see anyone in the room, but more sounds came from the direction of the sofa. Hangman probably had my grandfather pinned down on the floor, crushing the life out of him, just like he’d tried to do to me.
Nobody was hurting my family again. Nobody. Especially not some ubervillain hell-bent on taking over Bigtime. I drew in a breath, careened around the edge of the sofa, and raised the chair up high.
And found my grandfather in a very interesting position—with a woman.
Chapter Nineteen
I stared at the tangled limbs with amazement and horror. I hadn’t known Bobby was that flexible. That anyone his age was that flexible. The lady he was with was also rather bendy. In all sorts of ways.
Finding my grandfather doing the nasty with his lady friend was not what I’d expected when I’d come into the room—it was far worse. My power pulsed again, and the raised chair suffered for it. The chair didn’t explode so much as I ripped it in two. The two legs I had my hands on snapped off from the rest of the frame, which plummeted to the floor. As my luck would have it, one of the legs I wasn’t holding on to banged into my knee before the other one stabbed my foot. Pain exploded in my toes, and I bit back a howl.
Carmen walked into the room a couple of seconds later, followed by Lulu. I hobbled around on one foot, trying to pretend I hadn’t just gotten an eyeful of bare, somewhat wrinkled flesh.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you—it wasn’t anything serious,” Carmen whispered.
Lulu peered over the back of the sofa and tilted her head to one side. “Looks pretty serious to me. Seriously kinky.”
I shooed the two of them outside and hopped back to the sofa.
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat.
The two of them kept right on going like they were seventeen, instead of seventy
-something.
“Ahem!”
They finally stopped what they were doing, and my grandfather looked over his shoulder at me.
“Oh, Bella! I didn’t hear you come in,” Bobby said, disengaging himself from the woman beneath him.
He could have been telling the truth. It was rather hard to hear when there were legs clamped over your ears. Bobby buttoned his shirt and drew back, giving me a look at his lady friend’s flushed face. I managed to keep my mouth from falling open. But just barely.
“Hello, Grace,” I said in the politest voice I could muster. “It’s lovely to, um, see you again.”
Grace adjusted her violet, angora sweater over her shoulders, smoothed down her skirt, and sat up. “You too, Bella.”
Of course, I hadn’t expected to see quite so much of Grace Caleb at one time, but I wasn’t going to say that. It was better to pretend the last two minutes had never happened. Hell, that the last few days had never happened.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you before, but the benefit was absolutely wonderful.” Grace’s voice was calm and serene as ever. From her smooth, even tone, you would have thought she and my grandfather hadn’t been doing anything more strenuous than playing canasta. “We raised more money than ever, which, sadly, we’re going to need now to repair the museum.”
“How is the museum? How many items were damaged? Was the wing completely destroyed?” I asked, ashamed that I hadn’t been by the museum yet to see the destruction for myself.
“At first glance, it looked catastrophic, but the damage wasn’t as bad as we feared,” Grace replied, pinning her silver hair back into place. “Several of the paintings and sculptures suffered fire and smoke damage, but Arthur says they can all be repaired. Of course, the roof was completely destroyed, along with part of one wall. Everyone keeps saying how lucky we were that Hangman didn’t level the whole building.”
Grandfather gave me a knowing look, which I ignored.
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