Screwing the Superhero (8 page)

Terror-stricken, Wendy watched the side of the building crumble to pieces as a giant claw broke through the bricks and mortar. She bellowed with horror.

Ace screamed into the phone. “What’s going on? Talk to me, Warner!”

The machine that had pulled the building apart now moved toward her. The giant claw looked like some kind of deranged cat paw as it entered through the gaping hole in the side of the building. Its focus was clear—it wanted her.

“Oh my god, Ace. It’s coming for me. A giant claw.”

“Warner, drop the phone and run. Run, Wendy.”

Leaping up, she ran for Draco’s door. She didn’t make it halfway across the office when the claw grabbed her. Shrieking, she jostled and bounced as it pulled her from the building and paused, twenty stories in the air.

She clung onto the unknown machine, cursing herself for looking down. Was it going to drop her? She closed her eyes and prayed it wouldn’t, then remembered Carl’s beheading and decided it might be preferable to fall to the ground.

Draco stood in front of the giant view screen Ace had installed in the vault the year before. Behind him, Colt, Mandala, and Zee watched the video Draco had seen four times and which was now permanently seared into his memory like an infected wound. He turned around to regard his team of heroes, glad to see they were just as upset as he had been the first time he watched it. If they’d been blasé, he would know things had gone terribly wrong at Powers, Inc.

“This can’t be allowed to stand,” Zee shouted and Draco couldn’t blame her. She was, out of all of his employees, the most vocal about her needs and wants. Standing almost six foot four inches tall, she looked straight in his eyes. Her skin, the color of desert sand, spoke of a Middle Eastern heritage, although if asked what she called herself, she’d answer an ‘American mutt’ and refused to elaborate.

“I agree.” He nodded as he looked around the room, making eye contact with all of them. They were still waiting on the other twenty-four Superheroes to arrive—he hoped Wendy had called them— including Ace, who was, not surprisingly, taking his sweet time.

Every Superhero in his employ knew the code to get into the vault. It was a closely guarded secret. Most of the administrative staff in the building didn’t even know there
was
a vault, except the Handlers, and it was in their mandatory contracts they should never disclose the location. The Handlers, however, didn’t know how to gain entrance.

“I don’t know if all the Handlers are in danger or just mine. You’ll note that the writing at the end of the thing claims my weakness is my attachment to my employees.

It may be they have weaknesses set up for all of us or maybe they’re just after me.”

Colt swore. “If they come after you, they come after all of us. I’m not going to let them come after Wendy, even if she’s not mine anymore since you stole her from me.”

The last part was spoken without a hint of amusement. The hero had never quite forgiven Draco for poaching Wendy when he needed an experienced, competent Handler to replace his former one. The fact she applied for the job didn’t seem to matter one bit to Colt. Like Draco, Colt knew she was irreplaceable.

“New Handler not working out?”

“Sharon?” Colt shrugged. “She’s fine, but she’s not Wendy. She doesn’t anticipate what I need before I need it.”

That was a good way to put what it was Wendy did. He very rarely had to ask for anything. Chewing on his lip, he looked at his watch and hoped Ace wasn’t giving her a hard time about coming in.

Above his head, he heard shouts and screams.

“What the hell?” Zee looked upward as they all stared in confusion.

Mandala, the quietest of all his Superheroes, looked at Draco questioningly, his black eyes giving away no emotion. He was impossible to read. “What’s going on?”

Whirling around, Draco looked at the monitors. “Nothing is showing up.” A sick feeling started in his stomach. What the hell could have made the monitors turn off?

“Get the fucking door open!”

Zee and Colt ran forward, each punching in their codes. The door, slow because of its heavy weight, had never seemed more frustrating to him. He fisted his hands at his side. He’d left Wendy alone up there. Powers, Inc. had been built to withstand bombs. It would take a lot to make the system shut down. Whatever was happening, she had to be terrified.

Finally, the door swung open and he ran, pushing past the others. He flew outward into the hallway leading to the elevator. For at least a few seconds, he would have to make do with the elevator. It was the only way in and out of the secret vault.

Pressing the button, he and the others moved inside. The elevator started its fast ascent toward the main building.

“Screw this.” Leaping upward, he plowed through the ceiling of the elevator.

He’d probably regret making the hole later, but for now, only one thing was on his mind. He needed to see Wendy.

Reaching the lobby, he kicked the doors that blocked the entrance to the elevator shaft unless the elevator was present. It gave way immediately and he touched down on the ground floor.

A chaotic scene lay before him. People shouted. One woman he knew as a clerical worker from Colt’s floor grabbed his arms and shouted something he couldn’t make out. Using his super eyesight, he zoomed in on the source of the problem.

From his vantage point, he could see outside. The western wall of the lobby was missing. It had crumbled to the street outside.
If the entire wall of the building was missing, then twenty floors of offices, plus an impressive roofline, were exposed to the outside world. On the street, a giant machine stepped on top of another building in its path. It looked like something out of a comic book. A giant cat on two feet with gigantic claws maneuvered away after having destroyed the place he and Ace had built from scratch.

“Ah … hell, no.” Running as fast as he could, he exited the lobby and reached the building next door. Flying upward, he landed on the roof of the other building ad looked up at the groaning piece of machinery.

Above him, he heard Ace yell. Leaning back, he looked toward the top of the cat, which had to be at least as tall as Powers, Inc. Ace was shouting to someone trapped in the cat’s grip. Using his super sight, he zoomed in and gasped.
Wendy
.

Draco leapt into the air, ascending quickly until he floated next to Ace, who had grasped onto the head of the Cat machine. “What the hell is this thing?”

Ace shook his head. “No frickin; idea. I’ve tried ‘talking’ to it and as far as I can tell, it’s remote controlled.”

“It’s destroying everything in its path.” If they didn’t find a way to stop it soon it was going to cause a disaster of epic proportions. “I can bring it down.”

“I could too, but I’m afraid if either one of us do that, it’s going to drop or squeeze its unwilling passenger to death.” Ace nodded toward Wendy.

Zee and Colt flew to join them.

“I’m having Mandala clear the buildings. Some of the other Superheroes are arriving. They’re controlling the chaos,” Colt said.

Draco had forced himself not to look at Wendy. As soon as he saw her up close, he knew what would happen. If she even looked moderately upset, it would be his undoing. Forget decorum, forget plotting, he’d break the thing off piece by piece to free her and screw any bystanders below. So he didn’t look. He kept his gaze entirely on Ace.

“We need to maneuver him to the river. We can take him down over the Hudson.”

Ace groaned. “Maybe I can interrupt the satellite signal that lets whoever built this monstrosity control it.”

“Are you saying this thing is equivalent to a giant, remote control car?”

“Exactly. The only difference, instead of it breaking someone’s lamp, it’s destroying New York City.”

“You will have one job when this is over and that will be to figure out who built this. Do you understand?”

Ace had the audacity to laugh. “And what will you be doing while I involve myself in this?”

“You mean besides figuring out a payment plan with the city to pay for the damage they are bound to see as my fault even though I had nothing to do with this?”

“Yes.” Ace nodded, flying to the left to land on the cat’s left ear. “Besides that.

And before you get worked up, I’m sure all of these buildings are insured.”

The cat swung at them with its free paw. They all pulled back, hovering in the air out of reach, except for Ace, who was still positioned on its ear.

“They don’t make insurance to cover this kind of disaster.”

“They should.”

“You never answered my question.” Ace ducked under the swinging cat paw.

“What will you be doing?”

“Protecting Wendy.”

And then he looked at her. He had to. She clung for dear life to the fingers of the claw wrapped around her. He wanted to laugh from the relief he felt at seeing her conscious and alive. Raising one arm, she waved.

Such a simple, innocent gesture, as if they were out for a drive, instead of barreling down the streets of Manhattan onboard a mechanical cat that had destroyed his building and kidnapped her.

Unable to stop himself, he flew over to her. She looked up at him. Tears stained her face, although he didn’t see any at the moment. She must have gotten all of her crying done, which was a relief since before today he’d never seen Wendy cry and he wasn’t sure he could handle it again, especially now.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay at your desk?”

Her eyes brightened at his joke. “I thought you weren’t going to acknowledge me over here.”

“I just wanted to work some things out with Ace. A plan, so to speak.”

“And what did the two of you decide?”

“We’re going to drive the thing to the river before we take it down. That way if it falls apart, it doesn’t fall on anyone.”

She sniffed. “How are you going to get it past the West Side Highway without squishing any cars?”

He shrugged. Zee would handle that kind of detail. It’s what he paid the other Superheroes for in this kind of situation. “I promise it’s being handled. You don’t have to do anything but enjoy the view.”

“Enjoy the view?” She screamed, and he knew the sound well. It was the noise of the proverbial straw breaking the camel’s back. Wendy Warner had just reached her limit and he had made a bad joke. “No. I’m not staying in here until we get to the river.”

She started squirming. First her upper body and he could see through the spaces between the Cat’s fingers that she was flailing her legs around too.

“Wendy, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting out.”

“You’re twenty stories high.”

She paused for a second. “You can catch me.”

He raised an eyebrow, liking the way the wind at this height played with her auburn hair. “What if I miss?”

“Are you trying to be funny?”

He was, but for some reason, she wasn’t laughing, not even a little.

“If you’re concerned about your reflexes, I’ll make you a doctor’s appointment and ask Zee or Ace to catch me.”

“No, I’ll do it, but I really think you should wait until we reach the river. It’s not like it’s hurting you.”

“How would you know? Are you lodged between two metal fingers?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then don’t presume to know what does or does not hurt me.”

Wow, Wendy had never shown him her backbone before. Of course, these weren’t exactly business conditions, and they’d never really associated outside of work.

“Are you aware you have worked for me for four years and you’ve never once stubbed a toe? Now, in the last two days, someone has tried to kill you twice.”

“Yesterday they may have been trying to kill you.”

“It’s possible, but after today, I’m rather certain you’re the target.”

“Draco,” she shouted. “You are being ridiculously calm at the moment. I would rather you use the super strength I have seen you pull out to find missing mob wives and get me the hell out of this thing.”

“But they were clients. You’re not paying me.”

Her eyes got huge, and, even from where he floated, he could hear her blood begin to boil.

“What?”

“Obviously I’m joking, right?”

She pounded on the metal claw. “Was that a question?”

“Am
I joking? Do you think I would leave you in there because you can’t pay my fee?”

At first, he’d wanted to distract her, to keep her still and focused on something else until they reached the water and he could rip the god-forsaken claw off the machine and fly her to safety. But now he’d asked the question, he wanted to hear her answer. It was perversely important to him to know what she thought.

Wendy’s gaze bore into him and if he’d been standing, instead of flying, he would have squirmed under her hard regard.

“I think that you may be amongst the kindest human beings I’ve ever met and you don’t want anyone on the planet to know,” she said.

“Haven’t you heard? I’m completely narcissistic and I only value material things.”

“I
have
heard that; I’ve heard that a lot, actually.”

She had? His heart fell at the thought.

“But I’ve been with you when you’ve stopped traffic to save an old woman’s dog.

I’ve seen you fly to the top of a building to stop a man who was going to jump. I’ve seen you turn down the fee when someone couldn’t afford to pay. These are things
I’ve
seen you do. So stop fucking around and get me out of this thing.”

Wow. She’d been paying attention, but he supposed that is what he paid her to do. “Wendy, I want to get you out of there. I’m not sure how this is made. If a piece broke off, I’m not sure I could save you and stop the people at the bottom from being hit. If you need to get out right now, I will do that for you. I can make it another three blocks. Can you?”

He watched her swallow, her long neck straining as she was obviously grinding her teeth. Wendy, his busy, industrious, oddball, gorgeous Handler, was trying to be brave. It nearly broke him apart to watch. “I can wait. But I need you to keep distracting me, which I know was exactly what you were doing with all your outrageous behavior.”