PHENOMENAL GIRL 5 (28 page)

Oh, God, I
am
talking about an old boss! What kind of person sleeps with her boss—and then leaves him?

“You don’t have to be so polite on our account,” Mindy said. “Well all know how he was. You can say what you really mean.”

God, let’s not
. “I meant it. I liked working with him.”

“Ugh, why?”

“I did as well,” said a well-defined man with warm, latte-brown skin and a calm manner. It was Luke Harmon, also known as Sensei, a martial artist with a photographic memory and insanely quick reflexes.

Mindy shot him a quick look. “He was okay, I guess,
Luke, but he was just so rigid. The new one’s at least kinda cute—in a stuffy sort of way.”

“Robert had a certain appeal,” Kate said with a secretive smile. “And he wasn’t always so rigid…”

I stared at her. No freaking way did she mean that like I thought.

Mindy rolled her eyes. “Please. If it’s male and a hero, you’ve been there, done that.”

“Jealous? I’m the goddess of love, I can’t help it if men are drawn to me.”

“Goddess of whoredom maybe.”

“Ladies—and I’m being generous with the term—we do not need to discuss this,” Rath said.

“Yeah, I don’t want to hear about how bad the Reincarnist is in bed,” Simon said.

“He wasn’t.” Kate smiled again. “Academic types can be very fun.”

I’m sure I turned pale. Rath shot me a look, as if waiting for me to leap across the table and attack. Was he psychic?

“Kate, I don’t want to hear about your escapades before me!” said a man with close-cropped brown hair and a serious expression, distracting me from my violent intentions. He was one of the se nior members, Paul Christian, a.k.a. White Heat. I hadn’t known they were together, and I couldn’t picture an eternally young goddess with a stuffy, forty-something scientist who’d given himself heat-molecule-manipulation powers through illegal experimentation.

But I couldn’t picture her with Robert, either.

Rather, I didn’t want to.

It was before me
, I reminded myself.
Can’t get mad about that
.

Honestly, if he had a thing for tall, gorgeous stick figures with black hair, how in God’s name did he end up with me?

“And I don’t want to hear about it, either,” Rath said. “Remember who you’re talking about, Kate.”

“Sorry, Ben.” She winked at Paul. “You’ve nothing to worry about, baby.”

“And Lainey doesn’t want to hear about it, either,” Rath said. “A little decorum in front of the new member please, children.”

Aphrodite swiveled her chair to face me. “She’s an experienced adult, Ben. I don’t think I’ll embarrass her.” She frowned and then studied me. “Unless you mean…” Her eyes widened. “You and he were involved!”

Gasps went up around the table and everyone stared at me again. I felt like I was standing in a spotlight with the words O
FFICE
W
HORE
tattooed on my head.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Rath said, giving me an apologetic look.

“Don’t try to hide it now, Ben, I am the goddess of love after all. I know when love has blossomed.”

Simon looked horrified. “No freaking way!”

Mindy put a hand on her chin, intrigued. “I hope you mean with the new hottie version.”

Kate looked me over again. “Not
just
the new one.”

Mindy gasped. “Robert was old!”

“Not that old,” Paul spoke up. “He was
my
age, for God’s sake!”

“Good for him,” Luke said.

“Will y’all just leave her alone!” the blond-haired man that had been silent the whole time spoke up in a soft Southern accent. “Way to make a good first impression. Kate goes and blabs about her love life, which is not your business, and happens to mention her own history with the same guy. You sound like a bunch of gossipy teenage girls instead of members of the best hero team in the world.”

Rath sighed. “Leave it to Toby to be the voice of reason amongst the chaos.”

I recognized my savior: the Magnificent, Toby Latimer. He was, for lack of a better term, an enhanced human. He was stronger, faster, and could take more hits than an average-powered
person. He could also jump large distances and control his rate of descent, almost—but not quite—like flying. He was a se nior member, and though he was in his forties, he barely looked thirty, since he didn’t age as fast as most people.

He smiled at me. “I apologize for the behavior of our teammates, Lainey. Sometimes when they get out of hand, you just have to smack them back down again. And she about rivals me strength-wise, people, so I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”

Everyone murmured apologies and looked chastised.

I squared my shoulders. I wasn’t the same slightly chubby, picked-on outsider that I used to be. I was here, and I was going to be strong. “Sorry to ruin your Page Twelve gossip, but that’s all in the past, because I’m here to work now.” Okay, so not
that
much in the past. Like a few hours ago past.

“And I do not want to hear this mentioned again. I cannot stress that enough,” Rath said. “Do any of you want to hear about your parents’ love lives?” Everyone looked sickened. “Exactly. Now you know how I felt during that entire conversation. And Kate, other people’s love lives are their business and not yours. Unless we need to know who a villain is spending his evenings with, I don’t want to hear you mentioning it again, do you understand?”

She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Toby stood up. “I think I’ll escort Miss Lainey to her room now and help her get settled in.” He walked over. “Right this way, ma’am.”

When the door shut behind us, I turned to him. “Thanks. I needed a way out.”

He nodded. “I figured. They can be a bit much. This way to the quarters.” He led me down a long hallway with a bunch of doors. “It wasn’t so much about you as him. The Reincarnist is the subject of many a dispute around here. You either love him, or hate him and want his name erased from the roster forever.” He stopped in front of a door.
“G. Here it is.” He opened the door to a small but nice room, already filled with my possessions and expensive furnishings. Man, super-movers were fast—but I should have remembered that from going to the Reincarnist’s.

“We each have our own bathroom,” Toby said, motioning to a door near the closet.

“So where do you fall?”

“Huh?”

“In the Reincarnist like/dislike debate.”

“Oh. Rath, Luke, and I all like him. Kate, Paul, and Simon don’t. Mindy’s wishy-washy. Of course, Rath and I are prejudiced anyway, being kin.”

I stared at him. “You’re his son, too?”

He laughed. “Not that close. The Reincarnist is my great-great-great-grandfather. That’s why my family’s so long-lived. We don’t come back like him, but we stick around longer than most and don’t age near as fast.” He sat down on my bed. “I’m normally not a gossip, but since they decided to blab about you, I thought I’d fill you in on the multiple love triangles goin’ on here. It’s probably for your own safety.”

I laughed and sat down on my new bed, too. “Lay it on me.”

“Paul and Kate are together, which I’m sure you gathered. It’s Paul’s turn, I guess.” He made a face. “Sorry. That was catty of me. Don’t feel too badly about Kate and Robert being together once; she’s been with almost every male member of the EHJ since she’s been here. She’s the latest incarnation of the goddess Aphrodite, whose power is over all aspects of love. If she’s giving off her seduction pheromones, unless they are already in love, men can’t help themselves.”

“So, that includes you as well?”

He laughed. “Well, her seduction works unless you’re not wired to like women.”

“Oh.” His meaning dawned on me. “Well, it’s good to meet the one man on this team who has an immunity to her.”

“Even if I liked women, I guarantee she wouldn’t be my type.”

I smiled. I think I had at least one friend here.

“So anyway, Kate’s with Paul. But, being who she is, she can’t help but grab a little piece on the side, and her current side dish is none other than Simon. And Paul doesn’t know—or at least he acts like he doesn’t.”

“I could see Simon with her.”

“He already tried to put the moves on you?”

“We went out once. He asked me out at a party after seeing my date ditch me. I think you can guess who my date was.”

“Simon’s really got a grudge against the Reincarnist. That’s one of the reasons he doesn’t like me—my relation to him.”

“One of?”

“He’s also homophobic.”

“You know what they say about homophobic people.”

“He does have an expansive set of issues,” Toby agreed. “He may try to worm his way back into your good graces since you were with the Reincarnist, kind of like stealing you away.”

I made a face. “He wishes.”

“Now, Luke was Kate’s former plaything, which Paul knows, so they don’t always get along. And Mindy has a thing for Luke, but I don’t think he notices.”

“It’s like a soap opera here!”

“Isn’t that the way it is on most teams?”

He had a point. It had been all drama with my former teams as well, love triangles and rivalries galore. I was the one who always tried to stay out of it. Not that it had been difficult. “I just hoped it would be different in the big leagues.”

“It’s not.”

I could hear Wesley’s I-told-you-so in my head. I silenced it.

“It’s so nice to have someone here that isn’t sixty or involved in the drama.” He patted my hand. “You’re a welcome addition.”

“Thanks, Toby.”

“I’ll leave you to get adjusted to the new digs. Fair warning: the newbies do a lot of work around the place and don’t get to go on a lot of missions. So prepare yourself for lots of boring paperwork. Call me if you need anything.” He exited, the door swishing shut behind him.

Paperwork after patrolling every night and working with the police? I reminded myself that everyone had to pay their dues to be in the big leagues.

I unpacked what remained of my boxes and then looked around. It was an alright room, not as nice as when I was at the Reincarnist’s mansion, but nicer than my former apartment.

When everything was settled, my eyes landed on the phone. I wanted to call Wesley, but was that too needy? Should I wait a couple of days? Or would that make it seem like I didn’t want to talk to him?

Aw, screw it.

I picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number.

Mayhew answered. It wasn’t as if I expected Wesley to pick up; it could sit there ringing next to him and he would ignore it.

“Hi, Mayhew, it’s Lainey.”

“I recognize your voice, Miss Lainey.” He sounded amused. “It hasn’t been that long. I assume you want to speak to Mister Charles.”

“Of course.”

“Just a moment.”

For a lot longer than a minute he was gone; then I heard a click and rap music filtered through the phone.

“Hello?” Wesley sounded annoyed that he had been pulled away from what ever ancient text he had been reading.

“So sorry to interrupt your rap and ancient languages time.”

He laughed. “Mayhew said it was someone I’d want to talk to. How are you doing? Settling in okay?”

I toyed between glossing over it all and telling the truth. “These people are nuts, Wes.”

He laughed.

“I need a scorecard to keep everyone’s relationship straight. And FYI, the cat’s out of the bag about ours.”

“You trying to use my clout or something? ‘Let me go on a mission or I’ll get my boyfriend here and he’ll make you do it because he formed this team!’ ” He sounded amused.

“No, actually, your blabbermouth ex-girlfriend told everyone.”

There was a long pause. “Pardon me?”

“You heard me.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Please, we’re not going to rehash the what-I-do-and-do not-remember game.”

“Aphrodite! She announced your sexual prowess in front of everyone, not knowing why that might bother me.”

“Well, at least she was complimentary.”

“Hardy-har-har. Then she used her love powers or whatever, and figured out that we were together, and blabbed.”

“When was this?”

“As soon as I walked in the door!”

“No, Lainey, when was it that I was with her?”

“Some time when you were Robert.”

“Oh.” He was quiet for a moment. “Well, he never wrote it down and I don’t remember it.”

“It must not have been too memorable.” She was only drop-dead gorgeous, after all. What man would want to remember that?

“Blonde girls trapped in closets I remember; one-night
stands, not so much. But I must say I had terrible taste in women.”

“Wesley Charles! I’m going to hang up this phone, fly over there, and hurt you!”

“You know I meant Victoria Dupree and now Aphrodite, not you!”

“I think I’m included in your taste-in-women category!”

“Alright, but I didn’t mean you. I meant one-night stands, and let’s face it, my love, you are not one of those.”

“Really?” I smiled, cradling the phone to my ear. “And what am I?”

“You want me to say something romantic?”

“Yes, please.”

His warm laugh filtered through the phone. “My one and only Lainey. My love forever and always.”

I smiled. “You’re good.”

“I try.”

I sighed. “I miss you, Wes.”

“You want to come back?” He sounded like he was joking, but was that a trace of hope in his voice?

“I’m not giving up that easily. I want this job, even if the people I’m working with are nuts.”

“Some of them aren’t that bad.”

“True. Toby’s nice. Did you know he’s related to you?”

“No. How?”

“Way far back.”

“Ask him the name, and I’ll have to read the diary.” He paused. “If you start to hate it, come back, please. I won’t do the I-told-you-so dance for too long.”

“Is there a song too?” I teased. There was a knock on the door. “One of the inmates is summoning me, Wes, I gotta go.”

“Play nice with the other kiddies. Tell Ben to make them behave.”

“Or you’ll ground him?”

He laughed. “I miss you too, Lainey.”

“Call me if you find out anything new about the Dragon.”