Sweet Release (A Bad Boy Mafia Romance) (30 page)

We hadn’t even really been dating. That was what I kept telling myself. And yet it still felt like the worst breakup of my life.

I felt so bad for Inferno. I kept trying to tell myself that he was just grieving; after all, he’d just seen his best friend killed in front of him, and he felt incredibly guilty about it.

But a part of me knew it was more than that. I read about the guard that had killed Keith the next day. He’d almost been burned to death, everyone had figured it was Inferno who did it, but obviously he wasn’t exactly in the phone book. As far as I knew Strong Spice and I were the only two people in the world who knew Inferno’s real identity.

The guard had lived, he was in the hospital in critical condition. The fact that Inferno hadn’t killed him showed that he wasn’t a bad person, deep down inside.

But as much as I justified it to myself, as much as I told myself everything was going to be fine, as much as I tried to convince myself that Zander would come back and everything would be fine, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case. He had been firm about it: he was too dangerous to be around. It wasn’t that I necessarily agreed with him – I didn’t, actually – but it was his choice to make, wasn’t it?

Still, I was pretty bummed out about it. And while I tried to hide it, I obviously wasn’t very good at it, because Annie noticed something was wrong almost immediately when we went to the gym again together two days later.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” she asked as we went back to that smoothie place, that was quickly becoming our greatest motivation for hitting the gym more and more often.

I shrugged. “I guess I’m just in a funk. I’m not feeling great right now.”

“Is it Inferno?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry,” Annie told me, taking me by the hand. “You know what? Tonight, I’m going to take you out. We’ll go hang out at a bar, meet some random guys, and it’ll help you get over him, ok?”

I smiled. I knew damn well going out with Annie wasn’t going to help me get over Inferno, but what the hell? If it got her off my back, I supposed I could go. And I did always enjoy watching Annie flirt with the entire room at once.

“Now, tell me all about it.”

“I really don’t want to talk about it. But he just decided it’s too dangerous for me to be with him. And I’m not sure he’s going to be around a lot anymore.”

“After that Acid guy died?”

I nodded. “They were close.”

“Ohhh. That sucks. I’m sorry, Val. You can do better than him anyway.”

“Really, Annie? Better than the guy who can fly and control fire with his mind?”

Annie laughed. “Well fine. But you know what I mean. Physical skill isn’t everything, even if my own dating *ahem* experiences don’t exactly imply that I practice what I preach.”

This time it was my turn to laugh. “I’m just teasing you Annie. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“You absolutely will. Especially tonight. I promise.”

Ten hours later I was sitting at a bar with Annie, who was busy chatting up some suit wearing a Rolex, I wondered if tomorrow she was going to be rocking a new Gucci purse or something. I was sipping the same Long Island Iced Tea that I’d been working on for the last half hour, just starting to think that maybe I should have argued a little bit more that this wasn’t a good idea.

After all, none of this was getting my mind off Inferno.

I didn’t know who was more revolting: the man in his 50s trying to grind with a  girl barely out of her teens trying desperately to get away from him, the bros in the back trying to slap the ass of any woman who walked past them to go to the bathroom, or the guy two stools down who kept ordering more drinks just to stare at the bartender’s cleavage. Well, the last guy wasn’t too bad, but all in all, this wasn’t the best crowd.

Or maybe this was the same crowd as always. But Inferno had never been like any of these men. He’d always been soft with me, even though I knew he was capable of some very bad things. He was tough, but he wasn’t an asshole. These guys didn’t seem to know the difference.

“Hey, what’s a pretty girl like you sitting here on your own for? Smile a little, sweetheart. Let me buy you a drink.”

That was when I knew I shouldn’t have come here. Fire started to burn inside of me. Why the fuck did men always think they had a right to tell women to smile, like we owed them to be happy? I liked to think of myself as a strong, independent woman, and I didn’t have to smile for anyone if I didn’t want to.

Any other day I might have just ignored him, or politely told him to get lost, like I had plenty of times before. But this wasn’t any normal day, and I wasn’t in a normal mood.

I took the rest of my drink, still almost full, and dumped it in his lap, a grin on my face the whole time.

“There. Is that better?”

The bar was so loud that barely anyone noticed what had happened as the guy got up, sputtering. Suddenly, Annie grabbed my arm and dragged me away.

“Holy shit! What did you do that for?” she asked me as we left the bar before we could get kicked out.

I told her and she burst out laughing. “Really? That’s awesome.”

“No Annie, it’s not awesome. It was super rude, and I probably shouldn’t have done it,” I replied, already starting to feel a bit of shame for my over-reaction. I mean, it wasn’t like the guy didn’t deserve it, but that didn’t mean it was acceptable for me to do it.

“Yeah, well, sometimes doing things you’re not supposed to do is a lot of fun,” Annie told me, and I realized that ever since I’d met Inferno, I’d done a lot of things I wasn’t supposed to do. And yeah, they were fun.

God, I missed him. As we walked down the dark streets together, Annie and I, heading to her apartment where I was going to crash on the couch – my apartment was a lot further from the bar – I realized something.

I
loved
him. I loved Inferno.

For probably the first time in my life, I’d fallen in love. And this was what it felt like to have my heart broken.

Sure enough, Inferno stopped showing up to crime scenes after Acid died. The crime rate in the city that had dropped while Inferno was getting his photo in the paper every day began to skyrocket as more and more potential criminals realized that the hero who had been stopping them was gone, and that the police force was still far from adequately set up to do its job right.

The sound of sirens now pierced the air constantly, day and night. Fires broke out. Fights between rival gangs involving fists, knives and even guns were common. As September rolled around and the school year started again we saw more and more gunshot and stabbing victims at the hospital. More mugging victims. More of everything a depraved human being could do to another, really.

The papers began to call out, asking for him.

MISSING SUPERHERO

HAVE YOU SEEN INFERNO

HIS FLAME PUT OUT FOR GOOD?

Each was more speculative than the last. No one knew what had happened to Inferno, except for me. No one in the media put it together, that he quit because his friend had been killed.

But slowly, surely, like with everything else, the media began to turn on their darling.

The headlines went from questioning where he was to essentially calling him a coward for leaving them when he was needed most.

INFERNO ABANDONS OLYMPUS

WHERE’S THE FIRE?

SUPERHERO LEAVES OLYMPUS IN LURCH

The tabloids were even less polite than that. They all spoke to a “source” with a different story. Inferno didn’t think the city was good enough for his protection. Inferno was going somewhere else, to save them. Inferno just got tired of being a superhero. Of course, the sources didn’t actually exist, surely. The number of people Inferno had to be in contact with you could probably count on one hand.

It got to the point where I was purposely avoiding reading the papers. I knew Inferno. I knew that he hadn’t made this decision lightly, and besides, it was his decision to make, wasn’t it?

Who was it who said that just because he had superpowers he absolutely had to use them to save the city? Wasn’t it up to him to do what he wanted?

Strong Spice had also been in hiding since Acid’s death, as far as anyone was aware. There were a few late-night attacks and a couple fires set that might have been her, but no one had seen her since that day. Maybe she had decided to lie low for a little while, maybe the fact that her friend had been killed made her realize that just being superhuman didn’t make her immortal.

I didn’t know.

What I did know was that everything in Olympus was incredibly tense right now. People were on edge. Our superhero was gone, crime was on the rise, and no one knew what was going to happen on any given day. It was leading to tense moments with patients at the hospital. Cashiers were less friendly than usual, everyone worried about getting home safely to their families that night, every customer a potential threat. We’d done two lockdown drills at Loch College already this year, and we were only a few weeks into classes. Neighbours didn’t talk to each other so much. Parents stopped taking their kids to the playgrounds. Things were bad, the worst I’d ever seen them, and I’d lived in the city my whole life.

I knew things couldn’t stay this way. We weren’t supposed to be in a war-torn part of the world, and yet in a way, that was what it felt like.

It seemed like it was more than just the people that were affected though – it seemed like mother nature was on the rampage as well. A freak lightning storm had destroyed an air force building a little bit outside the city a few nights ago. All in all, the mood everywhere was, at the very least, tense.

Zayne was back on the football team. I saw him once or twice from far away on campus. He gave me a small smile once, but that was it. We weren’t in any classes together anymore. I supposed he was going on with his life normally once again.

My heart still panged every time I thought about him. I considered going up to see him a couple of times, but never did. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because I knew that he wasn’t going to accept that we could be together.

I was walking through a practically deserted park one Saturday morning. It was a rare moment for me, I didn’t have anything to do. I’d been so busy with studying, but decided to take a morning for myself.

No one else was in the park; it was full of leafy trees, I supposed a lot of people were afraid. Maybe I should have been as well, because as I walked along, my coffee in hand, enjoying the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves, I never heard or saw the chunk of concrete that came flying at my head.

Every day I wondered if I’d made the right decision.

Things were going really badly in Olympus, and I couldn’t help but feel responsible. Shouldn’t I be better than this? Shouldn’t I just put my suit back on and get back out there?

No. Every time I considered it I thought about my mom. I thought about Keith. Whenever I tried to do something, the people closest to me, the people I loved, were hurt. I wasn’t a hero. I was a fraud.

However, I was also one of the best football players in the country now, thanks to my superhuman abilities. I had to be careful to keep my strength within human limits on the field, but it was going really well. I wasn’t going to go back to the game, but I decided to do it to honour Keith. He had wanted me to keep playing, so I did. And I really still absolutely loved playing.

I was tossing a football around with a few of the guys as we were walking back to campus after practice one afternoon. I couldn’t wait to get home and just chill out with Potato, who had started grudgingly accepting me as his new owner. A few days after I’d taken him home I reported Keith missing, saying that he’d given me his cat to take care of as he went for a drive upstate for the weekend and never came home. No one had seen a trace of him since.

Suddenly, one of the guys’ phones beeped. He took it out and had a look at the screen.

“Oh shit,” he said, and the others looked over. He looked up at the group.

“That Strong Spice chick is threatening a whole school full of kids,” he said. “In Blue Creek. Fucking hell. I gotta see this.”

The guys split up pretty quickly and after they’d been gone for a minute I ducked in behind a building and flew up into the sky; getting to my apartment was way faster by air than any other way.

Blue Creek was a residential part of the city in the north, a big family area. I wondered what the fuck Sam was up to. When I got home, I put on my Inferno costume. I hesitated for a minute before doing it. After all, I’d told myself I was retired. I wasn’t supposed to be doing this anymore.

But fuck, a school full of kids? I couldn’t just let that go.

My heart pounded in my chest as I slipped the familiar suit on. I grabbed my mask, ran to the roof of the building and flew north. As I flew over the streets I noticed a couple of people down below pointing at me and gesturing excitedly. It seemed people were happy to see me back out in action.

It wasn’t hard to find where Sam had taken her hostages. She had actually managed to pick up all the concrete under an entire school, and had lifted it two hundred feet into the air. Jesus Christ.

She was floating fifty feet from the giant concrete block, looking down at the street below. Her costume had changed as well; she had added the bulletproof material to her neck and most of her face, now her eyes and mouth were the only part of her that were actually visible. I supposed she wasn’t taking any chances after Keith’s death, and she was constantly moving around just slightly, enough that no sniper would be able to definitely get a kill shot in.

Suddenly, I noticed something else floating, on the other side of her.

A hundred feet from Sam, on her other side, was the lifeless body of Valerie. She was tied up and obviously unconscious. Lying on another chunk of concrete that was floating in the air.

Holy shit.

Just then, that was when Sam saw me.

“I knew you’d come. I knew you’d come for your little girlfriend,” she told me.

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Maybe not, but I know you care about her.”

“Let her go. Let the kids go. Let everyone go,” I ordered. I really wanted this to end peacefully, but I also knew Sam had no qualms about hurting people.

So long as she didn’t hurt Valerie.

“Why? Look at all of them, down there.”

“Yeah, they all want everyone to come back to the ground safely.” I looked down at the growing crowd. There were parents, crying, reaching up towards their kids as if wishing they had Sam’s powers to make concrete move. Cops lined the streets, trying to keep people back. We were over the school’s soccer field, if the concrete dropped right now the school would land directly on it. Survivors would be unlikely.

I tried not to think about it as I floated towards Sam.

“Stop!” she called out. “If you come any closer, I drop everything.”

I did as she asked.

“What do you want?” I called out to her.

“I want you to recognize how much you fucked up. You left us. You left me. And that was a screw up.”

“I had to break up with you, S,” I told her, not wanting to use her real name in front of all these crowds. Who knew how much anyone could hear. “We weren’t working out.”

“Because you left. And because you left, Acid fucking died. He died. Because of you.”

“He died because he decided to commit a crime. And it’s not like I’m not super fucking bummed out about it too. Why the fuck are you doing this now?”

Because I can’t take this anymore. I can’t take feeling like this. It’s been months. You know what it’s like. Not having anyone you can talk to about it. Having to hide, all the fucking time. I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t. It’s driving me insane.”

I knew what she meant. I’d hidden my powers for so long, it felt like they were itching to get out, all the time. And I didn’t have anyone I could talk to about it either. Sam was now the only person in the world who knew exactly what it felt like to have those powers.

“I know. I know exactly how you feel. So why don’t you put everyone down gently, and we’ll go somewhere, and we’ll talk about it.”

I gave a quick glance over to Valerie. She was still unconscious, but she was starting to stir.

Fuck, I’d do anything for her to be ok. What I didn’t want to happen was for Sam to drop both Valerie and the school at once. I was pretty sure there was no way I’d be able to save them both.

“No, I’m not putting them down. This is all your fault. And theirs. You’re the one who left, you’re the one who got Keith killed. And them.” She nodded down at the crowd. “They’re the fucking morons who kept trying to stop us. It was one of them that got Keith killed, and they have to fucking pay. I’m done.”

“Wait!” I cried out, as the school and the concrete block with Valerie on it both began to drop. I could hear screaming from the kids inside the building, most of them crowded by the window as they dropped about ten feet, then stopped. Sam looked at me.

Fuck. I was going to have to talk her down. Valerie woke up then, I could see her looking around. Her arms were tied behind her back, and her ankles were tied together. I could see her looking around, absolutely terrified. God, I had to save her. I would do anything to save her.

“Look, I’m sorry. Do you think I wanted him to die? He came and saw me the night before, he told me what he was going to do. I was in the crowd that day. I saw you guys. I saw him die. I’m the one who set him on fire, so they wouldn’t be able to tell who he was. I was just there to watch. I knew it was going to be his last heist, and that he was getting out after that. So I told myself if I went there just to watch, I wouldn’t do anything to stop him. And then he’d be out. I didn’t want him to die. I really didn’t.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not still your fault,” Sam replied. “I’ve had it. I’ve fucking had it. You’re all going to pay. You don’t want to be with me? Fine. But you’re not going to be able to be with her, either.”

At that instant, it was like time stood still. Sam threw her arms up into the air and flew up higher while the school, and Valerie, began to drop to the ground.

Holy shit.

This was the absolute worst case scenario. I barely had any time to think about what I was doing.

I instinctively dove down after Valerie. She screamed as she plummeted towards the ground. I could see the green of the field below coming closer and closer, but I couldn’t focus on it. I had to focus on her.

She was maybe thirty feet above the field when I finally got her. I grabbed her by the waist, but didn’t have time to drop her off safely. There was a school full of kids and teachers plummeting to the ground neaby.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. I really wasn’t. But I had to try. I dove closer and closer to the ground. I was just skimming it now, and I let Valerie go. She’d probably have a few scrapes and bruises, but I knew that letting her go that close to the ground she’d be fine. I knew she’d rather I go try to save the kids.

By the time I got under the concrete block with the kids I was less than ten feet from the ground. I flew under it and pushed up, pushing up against it as hard as I could. It took every single ounce of strength in my body as the concrete pounded on top of me. But I managed it. I managed to slow the fall of the building, and then slowly, ever so slowly, it began to rise again.

I slowly brought the building back down, landing in the middle of the field. I had no idea how I was going to set this building down without being crushed myself, but that was the least of my worries. I had done it. I had saved them both. Valerie, and everyone in the school.

Eventually I started walking over to the edge of the concrete building, and the other side tipped over and crashed into the concrete. There were going to be a few injuries, but hopefully nothing serious. As I stepped out from the rubble, the crowd burst into cheers, but I couldn’t have cared less.

All I cared about right then and there was Valerie. I ran to go see her as emergency workers sped past me into the building, from which kids were already running.

She was about forty feet further back, being tended to by an EMT. As soon as she saw me she pushed him away and ran towards me. Her face had a little scratch down the side, and one of her arms was bruised and scratched up. She had a twig poking out of her hair, but other than that, she looked fine.

She looked perfect.

Valerie ran up to me and threw herself into my arms.

“Thank you,” she whispered into my ear. “You see? You don’t need to run from me. You’ll always be able to protect me.”

I held her like I was never going to let her go. I never intended to let her go. Never again.