Her Superhero Lover: A BWWM BBW Billionaire Superhero Romance (11 page)

"I use a variation on steel belted radials for my Horseman
suit," Grady replied. "Sadly, my inventions have not
exactly produced a wear resistant material for running shoes yet.
However, if you notice something else, you won't be worried."

"What's that?"

"You just ran close to eight miles, and you're not even winded.
Regardless of the amount of time it took, you think you could have
run eight miles when we met without being winded?"

Renee laughed and rubbed her feet. "I couldn't have run eight
miles at all when we met. You want any more tests."

Grady shook his head. "No, but I was thinking it's a lovely day
for a lunch picnic by the beach. Would you like to join me?"

At the base of the cliff which Grady's lab was built on, there was a
lovely small private cove. Surrounded on both sides by almost sheer
rock face, the only two ways to get to the beach were to either take
a narrow, rickety set of stairs, or to fly. Renee held the basket in
her arms while Grady floated them down to settle on the sand below.
They were about halfway through a tube of Ritz crackers and cheese
when Grady's phone rang with a tone Renee had never heard before.
Grady dropped his half eaten cracker and snatched the phone.
"Dammit!"

"What is it?" she asked, thinking it was some sort of
office emergency. Grady glanced at the screen, his face tightening.
"What?"

He handed her the phone. On it, a video feed from Action Five news
played. Maria Mendoza was standing in front of two police cars, with
their lights flashing. ".....the gunmen broke into the preschool
about fifteen minutes ago, according to police," she said,
indicating the building behind her. Renee knew that school, it was
the Little Acorn Grove School, a small preschool in the Heights that
was run by a local church. Most of the kids were in single family
households, and the school operated only through donations. Maria
continued. "The gunmen are in communication with police, stating
that they have taken the children hostages and are willing to kill
them if their demands are not met. At this time, the police are not
saying what the demands of the gunmen are, but we are trying to get a
statement as soon as we can. Again, a group of seven gunmen have
taken the Little Acorn Grove School hostage, and are currently holed
up in some of the classrooms."

Grady took the phone back and stood up, brushing off his pants. He
bent his legs to jump and start to fly, when he paused and looked
over at Renee. "You want in?"

She didn't have to even think about her answer. "Damn right.
Hold on buddy, I'm riding piggy back."

They streaked up to the top of Grady's lab building, going in
through a roof top entrance and down to his lab. Grady pulled open
the doors to the cabinets and started stripping out of his clothes,
pulling on The Horseman's uniform. "Next time I'll get something
made for you, but do you have anything that can conceal your
identity?" he asked, pulling on the pale and blood red tights.

Renee thought, then nodded. "In the trunk of the Jeep. I was
going to wear it tonight for work, but I think that's been delayed."

Renee ran to the window and opened it, looking out. The side of the
building faced empty dirt, so before Grady could say anything she
jumped out, landing three floors below like she had just dropped a
few feet. Grady's head appeared out the window, and she looked up at
him, giving him a thumbs up. She dashed over to the Jeep and grabbed
her bag out of the back, running back over. Slinging the bag over her
neck, she gathered her legs underneath her and jumped as hard as she
could. Reaching up with her fingers, she grabbed the ledge of the
window to the third floor, where Grady had his apartment, and pulled
herself onto the ledge. It was barely wide enough for her to get a
solid grip, but she pulled as hard as she could, vaulting her body up
the last floor to grab the open window sill and haul herself in.
"Okay, I just vertically jumped thirty something feet," she
said as she came in. "Just how much of your high school jumping
was bullshit?"

"Most of it," Grady replied. He had his entire uniform on,
except for the half hood that covered the back of his head and his
eyes, while letting his hair flow freely. "But let's face it, I
couldn't exactly do my best now, could I? So what do you have?"

"This," she said, pulling open her bag. The outfit was a
bit of old mixed with some new, and she had been planning to debut it
that night. Originally a knee length shiny leather skirt, it fell
barely to her mid thigh when she pulled it on. "Hmmm, going to
need some bloomers for this one. At least I'm wearing red boyshorts
today."

"Cute," Grady commented as he pulled on his hood. Fixing
his eyeholes with spirit gum, he watched as Renee pulled on the rest
of her outfit. The tight black corset was shot through with blood red
streaks, and leather gauntlets that came most of the way up her arm.
"Check that. Damn that's sexy."

He reached into the cabinet and tossed her the punch enhancing
device he'd shown her the first day he'd revealed his identity to
her. "Right hand. Switch at the base of your wrist turns it on.
I'd advise not punching any walls until we know if your bones can
take it, but if you need it, you'll have it."

"Thanks," she said, slipping it on over her glove. She
reached for her goggles before looking at them, undecided. "If I
wear these, too many people will know who I am. They're a trademark
of Litezout."

Grady thought for a second, then reached into his cabinet, pulling
out a set of ruby reflective lens Gargoyle sunglasses. "Here. I
used them on an early prototype of my costume, but settled on my hood
instead. Secure them to your face with spirit gum, and they'll stick
pretty well. Also, try to change your hair color like I do. It's a
conscious decision." He helped her with the adhesive, then
stepped back. Renee concentrated, and her long black hair slowly went
flame red, and became a bit wavy at the same time. Grady studied the
change and nodded. "Okay, nobody will know who you are. Now,
keep low, protect the kids, and don't hold back if you get the chance
on these guys. This isn't the comic books or the movies. We can get
killed, you more than me."

"I know," Renee said. "I love you."

"I love you too. Now, hold on." Grady turned and offered
his back, and Renee climbed on. As she did, she noticed Grady's hair
change color again, and he floated off the floor and towards the
staircase. Gathering speed as he approached the roof, he sped off
into the sky, Renee riding piggyback behind him. "You okay back
there?"

"Yeah!" she yelled into his ear over the rushing wind. "By
the way, how fast can you go, anyway?"

"Short bursts I've topped the sound barrier, but it drains my
energy a lot to get up that high. I can sustain flights in the three
hundred mile an hour range for about two hours though." They
whizzed over the spread out landscape of San Diego, Grady following
the general guidance of the I-5 freeway below them. "I should
get a GPS for this thing!"

"Add it to the list of things you can invent, a superhero
friendly GPS navigation system," Renee said, before her eyes
tightened. They were approaching the City Heights, and they could see
the flashing blue lights surrounding the preschool.

"Hold on," Grady said. "We're going in."

They came in low, circling the building. Unfortunately with the
broad daylight, there was little they could do to avoid detection
from the army of police and media that were encircling the school.
Thankfully, despite the outstanding warrant for his arrest (The
Horseman, after all, had killed at least four people and assaulted
dozens of others), none of the cops tried to take a shot. They had
other things on their mind.

Landing lightly, Grady let her off his back and then knelt down.
"Okay, silly rule, but just remember, don't use our names
inside."

Renee nodded and looked out. She could see cops and news cameras
looking at them, and she patted his arm. "You got your cell
phone still?"

"Yeah, its in a pocket on my leg," Grady replied. "Why?"

"Because we need information. Pull it out."

He handed her the phone, and she pulled up the app market. "It's
not great, but I think we might be able to get some info. In the
future, let's get some burner phones to use for this little trick."

Quickly downloading a voice chat program, she put in the phone
number for Action Five news. "I remember it from all the times
she would flash it on screen during The Horseman stories she did,"
Renee whispered, before turning her attention to the phone. "Yes,
this is The Horseman's assistant. No, I'm not joking. I need you to
connect me with Maria Mendoza on scene. Oh for fuck's sake!"

She looked over at Grady, and sighed. "They want proof."

Grady thought, then nodded. "Tell them I'm going to fly a
figure eight over the roof."

Renee nodded and spoke into the phone. "All right. The Horseman
tells me he's going to float up and do a figure eight over the roof.
Ready?"

Grady floated into the air and did a quick but obvious figure eight
and landed. Renee nodded. "Got that on film? Fine, now put me
through to Maria Mendoza."

Renee waited, then spoke again, dropping her voice in a false bass.
"Maria Mendoza? Yes, that's correct. Yes. Listen, we can talk
about that later, but we need help right now. The Horseman and I want
to prevent these children from getting killed. But to do that, we
need to know where the gunmen are. What can you tell us?"

Renee listened carefully, then interrupted. "Hold on. I'm going
to put you on speaker phone."

Holding the phone out, she pressed a button. "Go ahead, The
Horseman is with me."

"The gunmen are
demanding a helicopter with enough fuel to get them to Mexico,"
Maria's voice came cracklingly
over the speaker.
"They say if they do that, they'll
free all but three of the hostages, with the other three to be freed
once they are in Mexico."

"There's no way in hell
those hostages will be allowed to live," Grady said. "What
sort of layout do the cops think the gunmen are in? Where are they in
the building?"

"The police think that they have two classrooms, at opposite
ends of the building in order to prevent the SWAT from taking the
building. They've got three hundred and sixty degree views of the
whole area."

Grady looked at Renee and held up two fingers, then pointed them
back and forth between them. "Two of them, two of us?" he
whispered.

Renee thought it over and nodded. "Deal." She raised her
voice and spoke loud enough for the phone to pick her voice up again.
"Any ideas on what they are armed with?"

"Police aren't too sure, but reports from witnesses of the
gunmen's initial attack said they had at least some shotguns, and two
of them were carrying what might be AK's. Also, Horseman?"

"Yeah?"

"This isn't confirmed, but some of the word on the streets is
that the local bad guys suspect you're not totally bulletproof. The
cops are picking up a lot more gang bangers carrying armor piercing
rounds and larger calibers. I'd assume the gunmen have something like
that too."

"Understood. Thank you, Miss Mendoza."

"Hey, if you two get out of this, think I can get an
interview?" Maria asked suddenly, then sighed. "Probably
not, but it's my job."

"We'll see," Renee replied. She closed the phone call
program, then looked at Grady. "What? If you want this little
adventure of ours to continue, we'll probably need to cultivate some
information contacts."

"Yeah, but an ex-girlfriend of mine? Can't we find some regular
reporter instead?" Grady said, then laughed. "Just my damn
luck."

Renee shrugged. "Just think, it could be worse. You know with
the way we came in that some perv got an upskirt shot on me. My ass
is probably going to be all over TMZ tomorrow."

"That could be a tactic," Grady said, smiling. "Have
you jump down and distract the gunmen with your body, and when
they're all looking at your butt I'll come up behind them and knock
them out."

Renee laughed and kissed him. "Only person who gets to see my
naked butt is you. Now, which wing of the building do you want?"

Grady looked. The school was built in an old fashioned design that
looked a lot like a lower case t, with a central main building that
was used for the office, with the classrooms coming out in two wings.
Grady nodded towards the westward one. "I'll go west. It's
closest to the road, and if I were the gunmen I'd put more of my men
there. Remember, I'm still stronger than you."

"Be careful," she said, looking towards the east wing. She
was glad the roof was typically Californian flat, they would be able
to see each other before dropping in. "Let's go."

Renee made her way quietly to the far end of the east wing of the
building, listening for noise coming from inside the building. At the
very end, she heard children crying underneath her. The harsh voices
of the gunmen overwhelmed them. "Lady, get those kids to shut
the fuck up or else someone's getting a rifle butt in the head!"

"Do you think it was really The Horseman?" another voice
cut in, as the screaming child's voice was muffled. Renee suspected
either the teacher or classmates were covering the child's mouth up,
but she couldn't tell.

"Who knows? Could have been him, could have been a big fucking
bird. Considering that Jaime said he saw two people, I think he's a
bit too hopped up for this right now."

"Regardless," a third voice said, calm and controlled, "if
it was The Horseman, then we're ready for him. Even The Horseman
can't take a ten gauge deer slug in the chest without going down."

"Still..." the first voice said, and Renee could hear a
quaver in his voice. Whoever it was, they were scared, and most
likely trigger happy. It was a problem. The third voice was most
likely the most dangerous, she thought. But the first voice was the
one that was the most dangerous to the children, because he'd be the
most likely to spray the room in a panicked burst of gunfire.