Gena Showalter - Playing With Fire (tales of an extra ordinary girl)

“I doubt we’ll find anything else,” Tanner said a few minutes later, his voice heavy with disappointment. “None of the other toys open.”

“Just keep looking,” I said.

Tanner ran his hand over the inside of a drawer, probing for a hidden compartment. “Have you found a live body yet?”

“No,” I grumbled. I had to admit, in all my many jobs, many interviews, many hours spent scouring the classifieds, I’d never pictured myself doing this. Was there even a title for it? Certified Body Finder?

I should have preferred serving coffee to snobs. Should have preferred tweaking the odometers of used cars or making stupid balloon animals for ungrateful kids. Hell, I should have preferred sweeping disgusting balls of hair off the salon floor.

I didn’t.

I kind of liked my current position, I realized. Maybe I wasn’t ready to go back to my normal life. Sighing, I stuffed the doctor’s note in my pocket. What would Rome say when he saw it? Maybe it would bribe him out of his Taser-induced bad mood when he finally came around.

As I trudged down the stairs, I ran my fingers over the bullet holes in the wall. Where was I going to find a living bad guy? The answer came to me instantly, surprising me. Grinning, I hopped over Rome ’s body-which had begun the slow process of returning to human form. Big patches of fur had fallen out, leaving gaps of tanned skin and sleek muscle. At the moment he resembled a hideous man-beast. I tried not to grimace.

“Be back in a jiff,” I told him with a false, breezy air. I sailed outside. The neighborhood was calm, as if the shootout had never happened, but the man next door was standing on his porch, scratching his head as he stared out at the hail and snow covering the ground.

He saw me and said, “You one of Roberts’s girls?”

I was very thankful the two sleeping (or dead) agents were hidden by the SUV. “Yep.” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, as I thought a hooker might do.

“Always weird stuff going on in that house.” He motioned to the ground with a tilt of his chin. “You ever seen anything like this? Snow this late in spring, of all things.”

“Very weird,” I said, just standing there.

After a moment, he shook his head and went back inside his house.

Hurry, hurry, hurry! Before he comes out again. I raced the rest of the way to the SUV. The two men were slumped at the tires. One of them, the one I’d hit directly with lightning, was in the same condition as his cohorts in the house.

I lost a little of my giddiness. I’d killed him. Another victim of my powers. Don’t think about it, Jamison. Remember, he was one of Vincent’s men. He wanted to kill Rome. And capture you. With shaky hands, I checked the second man for a pulse. At the first touch of my fingers, he moaned. I sighed in relief. He, at least, was alive.

I anchored my hands under his arms and dragged him toward Dr. Roberts’s house. He weighed a freaking ton (more than Rome, even, the fatty), and I strained under the burden. He had black streaks on his face and shirt, as if the lightning bolt had ricocheted off his friend, frying him, too.

By the time I heaved him onto the porch, gooey mud covered him from head to foot, splattered over his skin and clothes. I huffed and puffed from exertion. Amid his moans, I held him up with one hand and opened the front door with the other. Thankfully, the neighbor never came back out.

My gaze immediately sought Rome. Except he no longer lay in the entryway. The only sign that he’d been there was the mountain of fur he’d shed.

Should I call for him or not? He might be searching for me, ready to attack the moment he saw me, in retaliation for what I’d done. He might-holy shit-round the corner and storm toward me, death gleaming in his expression. He was in the process of jerking a black T-shirt over his head. A pair of black slacks already encased his lower body. How many spare pairs of clothing did this man have?

His eyes narrowed on me, then flicked to the man I held. “Don’t say a word,” he snapped, his steps never slowing.

“I wasn’t.” I shook my head for emphasis. “You look great. Really.”

“How. The hell. Could you stun me?” The words left him haltingly, filled with the dark edge of his fury. He stopped just in front of me, our noses touching. Hot breath fanned my chin.

Better to go on the offensive, or he’d stomp all over me with guilt. “I think a better question is how could I not?” I released my burden, and the body thumped to the floor. I wagged a finger at Rome. “You came at me as you would a target. You should be commending my excellent reflexes in taking down an assailant.”

His nostrils flared. “Commending? Did you just say commending?”

“Your hearing is excellent, Cat Man.”

His pupils elongated, the black growing thinner, pointing on top and bottom. “What happened to waiting outside like a good little girl?”

“Tanner and I wanted to protect you. You’re not invincible, Rome.”

“But I’m damn close.” He spread out his arms, motioning to the bodies lying around us. “You wouldn’t have almost gotten yourself killed if you’d stayed where you were told.”

“And you might have died if we had stayed. There was a man about to shoot you.” I rose on my tiptoes, putting us on more level ground. “And like it or not, you’ve got partners now. We’re supposed to look after each other. That means we look after you, just the way you look after us. Don’t try to do this all on your own.”

“If stunning me is how you look after me, I’d rather you didn’t.”

The man behind me moaned. “Look. I brought you a present. Two, actually. A live body and a note from the doctor.”

Rome brushed past me, crouched beside the man and hefted him effortlessly over his shoulder. “Lock all the doors,” he grumbled. “We might be here awhile. And what do you mean, a note from the doctor?”

I fished out the paper and held it toward him. “It was stuffed in a vibrator, of all places.”

Rome reached for the note, but suddenly stilled. One corner of his mouth lifted, as if to say are you kidding me? Then he shook his head, muttered, “God save me,” and grabbed the paper. He shifted the body over his shoulder as he read it. His expression became grim.

“You wanna put him down?” I asked.

“That bastard knew what he was going to do to you, and he did it anyway,” he said, ignoring me.

“What do you think he left me in the office?”

“I don’t know, but we will find out.”

His voice was so ominous, I shuddered.

“What if someone called for backup?” I asked, only then thinking of the possibility.

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take, rather than drag this guy with us.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Stand watch at the back and have Tanner guard the front. We’ll do this quickly and get the hell out.”

“Tanner,” I called.

The kid trudged down the steps. “There’s nothing else, just like I feared,” he said, throwing his arms in the air. “No papers, no diary. Nothing. Hey, did you guys decide to stop arguing?”

“Yes,” Rome said at the same time I said, “For the moment.”

I opened my mouth to give Tanner his new orders, but his eyes lit on the unconscious man, and he clapped excitedly. “Is he breathing? Awesome. We get to question him, don’t we? We’ll torture some answers out of him for sure.”

“I need you at the front, since you’re our expert marksman,” Rome said, hefting the body into the living room. “Stop anyone from entering.”

Tanner’s grin widened. “Did you see me take down that guy? Did you know I took him down in one shot? Just one shot?”

“You did real good,” Rome praised. “If I hadn’t been immobilized, I would have told you sooner,” he added darkly. “Belle, right a chair for me.”