Sweet Release (A Bad Boy Mafia Romance) (27 page)

Without even realizing I was doing it, I nestled myself against him. His body was so tight, so strong. I feel his heartbeat against my skin, and I realized that when I was with Inferno, I felt safer than with anyone else.

He turned towards me and pressed himself against me as well. When his kiss came, I was ready for it. His hands roamed my body and I closed my eyes, wanting this. Needing this.

Annie was right. As Inferno began to slip my dress off my body, I was really, really glad that I’d come on this date.

If there was anything in the world better than waking up after amazing sex with an amazing woman, I didn’t know what it was.

Well, other than the sex itself. Valerie was like no one I’d ever been with, and as much as I convinced myself I’d just done everything yesterday to try and get her into bed again, deep down I knew I was lying to myself. Even if I wasn’t exactly ready to admit it yet.

I mean fuck, those tits. The way she pressed them into me, her hard nipples against my chest. The way her back arched against me as I pounded my cock deep inside of her. The way she gasped with pleasure in the throes of orgasm as her pussy clenched on my cock. The way her hands grabbed at me, like I was the only man alive who could make her feel this way. Because I was. And I loved every second of it. So much so that at the end of the night I’d given her the number for the burner phone Miller had given me.

I groaned as I got off my bed, my cock rock hard once more. I had to have her again. But for now, the memory would have to do.

Fifteen minutes later I had just gotten out of the shower and slipped on an old pair of sweats while drying my hair when the doorbell rang.

Fuck
, I thought to myself. I bet it was the super, trying to get me to help him move some shit out of the basement again. He’d been bugging me about it for a week. Just because I was young and strong didn’t mean I was going to do his job for him for free.

I briefly considered pretending I wasn’t home, but I went to the peephole to check to make sure it was him. But to my surprise, it wasn’t. It was Keith.

I hadn’t seen him since the last time he was at my door.

What the fuck does he want this time, I asked myself. Against my better judgement, I opened the door and stepped aside to let him in.

He was carrying a box of egg rolls.

I couldn’t help myself, I laughed when I saw the box. His face was sturdy, stoic, like he was expecting me to start yelling at him straight away. As soon as he realized why he was laughing, though, his face turned into a big grin and he held up the box.

“I figured I owed you these,” he told me, holding up the box. I grabbed it from him and took an egg roll, the crispy exterior crunching loudly as I bit into it, then handed him back the box.

“You must be here to apologize for something,” I told him as he grabbed an egg roll as well and we headed into the living room. “I’ve known you for what, five years, and you’ve probably eaten like a hundred egg rolls that I’ve paid for and never replaced them.”

Keith laughed as he sat on the couch. For the first time, I got a good look at his face. He’d healed up pretty well. There was still a bit of a scar from when I’d set him on fire, but the bruises on his face were gone, and something else was different, too. He looked a little bit more relaxed, somehow. I wondered why he was here.

“Yeah. I owe you a sorry, bra,” he told me. “I can’t fucking do this anymore.”

“The stealing?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I mean, at first it was fun. Like for fuck’s sake, we have fucking superpowers. And I have so much money now. So much fucking money. It’s unbelievable. I didn’t even know what to do with it all. I ended up making a hole in the wall behind the top shelf of my closet and shoving it all in there. I haven’t even touched it in ages. But fuck man, I’m going to graduate without any student loans.”

“So far I’m not hearing a bunch of regret,” I told Keith. But I was mostly kidding. I was used to Keith taking a while to get to the point.

“Yeah yeah, I’m getting there.” He grabbed another egg roll and started munching, and I did the same.

“So,” he continued, “Everything was pretty good. I was pretty happy. Then last week was my mom’s birthday, and the whole family went over to her place. And holy fucking shit are they all in love with you. Every other sentence was about how amazing Inferno is, and how he’s single handedly saving Olympus, and how the city is so much better with him around, and all sorts of shit. And I had to laugh, because they had no fucking idea that you were my best friend. And then they started talking about Acid, and Strong Spice. And the shit they said man. It made me realize that I was actually
glad
they didn’t know who I really was. They’d have been fucking horrified. And you know, when your mom is sitting there telling you to your face how she hopes your best friend kills you the next time he sets you on fire, well, you gotta fucking reconsider your life choices, you get me?”

I nodded. I knew what my mom would have thought if she knew what I’d been doing when I was with Keith and Sam. That was most of the reason why I’d rescued Valerie, why I’d left the other two.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean, man,” I told him.

“And fuck, it’s not like I
like
hurting people. It’s just the money. It’s so fucking good. But I think I have to change the way I’m doing things, and I wanted you to know. Sam and I have one last heist planned. At least, it’s the last heist for me. I think she’s planning on continuing. But I’ve told her, after this, I’m out. One last rush, and then I’ll go back to being Keith Andrews, the football player. I’m hoping to be good enough to get drafted into the NFL.”

“So you’re still going to be playing football next year?”

“Hell yeah! How about you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d like to. I still really like football. But I haven’t really given it a lot of thought, you know?”

“You’ve been fucking busy, that’s for sure. It seems like every fucking day there’s another picture of you rescuing a puppy, or stopping some bad guys. You’re all over the front page of the Post.”

I sighed. “I know. It’s not exactly something I really wanted to do.” I decided to be honest with Keith. “It was the idea of that new guy in charge of the cops, Miller. He wants to get the crime rate dropping, but he says he has a ton of work to do before the cops are gonna be remotely effective, and that by calling in anonymous tips to reporters before I go stop certain crimes I’d get a lot more coverage, and it would at least make some dumbass thieves think twice before they’d actually go steal shit.”

“No fucking way. I always figured you just loved the attention. You’re a fucking attention hog on the football field, you always have been.”

“This is different, though. I mean sure, it’s kinda cool seeing my picture on the front page of the paper every day, but it’s not football. Being a superhero doesn’t feel right. I feel like a fucking fraud. Batman did that shit because he wanted to be a good person. I got these powers because I felt like being a fucking dumbass around a really dangerous piece of equipment.”

“Yeah, but the X-Men were born with their powers. They didn’t ask for them either. Isn’t what you do with the abilities you’ve gotten more important than how you got them in the first place? I mean, I look at myself, and I know I’m pretty much a piece of shit. But you. You were better than us. You always were better than us. You tried to stop us.”

“Maybe.”

“Definitely. Believe me. Plus I got to hear my whole family sing your praises yesterday. The normals feel it too. They know you’re a good person.”

“Thanks, dude.” I grabbed another egg roll. “So one more, and you’re out?”

“Yeah. We’re going to hit the 5
th
Street Bank. Apparently they’re getting a shipment of a whole bunch of laundered money from Russia. Like, ten million or so worth. The shipment’s getting in at around 10, so we’re going to be there then. I know you’re going to have to show up, but if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate you not setting me on fire this time. And maybe letting us get away with the money. I promise you, after this, I’m out.”

I thought about what Keith was saying. I knew he was telling the truth, I knew the guy well enough to know when he was lying to me. He wanted out.

“So you’re gonna be in the NFL instead, huh?”

Keith grinned. “Yeah. I mean, if I’m not going to use my superpowers for bad, I might as well use them for something else. Though I’m not sure cheating my way into professional sports is that good, it sure beats accidentally frying people to death.”

“That’s for sure. You gonna continue on as a running back?”

Keith shook his head. “I think I’m going to try on for wide receiver this year. I was always pretty good at catching passes and interceptions, it’s not like I have hands of steel or anything like that. And my vertical jump now is going to be lit as fuck.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. I guess now your only problem is trying to figure out where the line between “worked really fucking hard over the summer” and “probably isn’t totally human” is, and trying not to cross it.

“Exactly. You should come back and play this year though, Zander. It won’t be the same without you. And you really fucking love football.”

I shrugged. “I do fucking love it. But I dunno. I’ll think about it.”

“You could make some sick-ass passes to me as I become the best wide receiver Loch College has ever seen.”

“Yeah, that’d be sweet,” I laughed. “Maybe you should go to the gym every so often, you know, so people actually think you’re working out from time to time.”

“I will. Yeah, I will, for sure. After tomorrow. I’m fucking excited man.” Keith stood up.

“And I’m fucking excited for you. I’m glad you’re quitting it with this shit. It wasn’t you.”

“It was me. I love the money. I love it so fucking much. But I just can’t handle it anymore. It’s not me now. I’m going back to football, and I’m happier for it. You know, a part of me wishes we didn’t have these superpowers. I know they’re fucking awesome and all, but they also suck balls sometimes.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean.”

“I asked Sam once if she would try to come up with an antidote. She’s so fucking smart she could do it, you know. But she pretty much chewed my head off. Went off on me about how we were perfect the way we were, that there was nothing wrong with us, you can’t sure nature, that sort of shit. So I think it’s safe to say she’s not going to make one. But if she did, I think I’d consider using it.”

I thought about the night before. How I had to make the best date I could for Valerie on the roof of a random building because going out in public with her would just lead to too much attention.

“Yeah. I think I would too,” I told Keith. “Listen, come by tomorrow, after you’ve done your heist. Let’s hang out. It’s been too long. We’ll play Call of Duty or something.”

“Sure. Will do. See ya, man,” Keith told me as he left. I closed the door behind him.

So Keith was getting out. I thought about what he said.  About how this was going to be his last heist. One last rush. His retirement, so to speak. I could understand the desire to do it.

And I decided that I wasn’t going to stop it. Hell, what was the point? I could show up, get into a fight, hurt myself again, whatever. Get my picture in the paper. That wasn’t what I was there to do, was it? My whole goal had been to stop them from hurting people. And it sounded like that wasn’t on the agenda.

Fuck. Nope. I was just going to let Keith do his robbery, and get out. Then we could be friends again. I missed my best friend. I had to admit that much.

And the more I thought about it, the happier I was with this decision. I ordered some Chinese food – no egg rolls, there were still six of them left in the box on my coffee table – and settled down to watch some TV while I thought about finally getting to hang with Keith again.

Things were about to start getting better.