Highway To Armageddon (16 page)

           
“Come on, Red. You know this is a good idea,” he swoons. “You need us, and we
need you. Just think, the two of us, working together to save the world. It’ll
be a blast.”

           
Lance and Machete groan as Arrow sweet-talks me, but I find his words
intoxicating. He pulls me in so close that our lips are mere inches apart. I
look up at his dark, handsome face, partially obscured by the silky black hair
that hangs over his chocolate eyes. Part of me wants to jerk away, but I can’t.
His magnetism pulls me in like a rocky asteroid caught in the inescapable
gravitational pull of a black hole.

           
“C’mon, Red,” he whispers, softer than before. “Let’s go save the world.”

           
I hear myself whisper back, “Okay.”

           
“WHAT?!” Lance explodes.

           
This releases me from Arrow’s mesmerizing hypnotic reverie. I unlatch my
fingers from Arrow’s hands and step back. It’s almost like he’s some wizard,
able to manipulate my mind and emotions with his words and mere presence.

           
“Way to go embarrassing yourself, Firecracker. Why don’t you just throw
yourself at his feet?”

           
“Shut up, Lance!”

           
Deep down inside, however, I am embarrassed by my love-sick puppy behavior. I
think it’s because Arrow is the only guy I’ve ever known to actually act
romantic around me. Sure I get hit on all the time by old, creepy perverts, and
Lance and I have dated on and off over the years, but Arrow is the only man to
actually work to woo me. He’s smart, charismatic, brave, athletic, gorgeous,
and articulate. But that’s not why I’m infatuated with him. It’s because I’ve
never seen him go after another girl. I’m the only one he wants, whereas Lance
is constantly distracted by other women. I know it’s a selfish reason to like
someone, but I like the attention. I like that someone desperately wants me.

           
Lance swings his quivering finger between Arrow and Machete.

           
“I refuse… I repeat, I
refuse
… to work with these jackasses. If you’re
so hell-bent on hanging out with your new boy-toy, you can go alone.”

           
“Quit acting like a buffoon,” I snap. “Use your head. We need the help. Rasputin
is going to be well protected. You saw firsthand how easily Arrow and Machete
kicked our asses. Wouldn’t you want people like that on our side and not
competing against us?”

           
“No,” Lance grumbles. I can tell from his softened tone, however, that I’m
winning him over.

           
“Don’t be stupid, boy,” Machete growls. “You know how good Arrow and I can be
in a fight, so drop the macho act and let’s get a move on.”

           
Lance clenches his fists. I grip his shoulder and give him a quick, gentle
massage. He instantly relaxes. Arrow’s not the only one who can manipulate
people. I know what makes Lance tick, and I know what relaxes him. I also know
Lance would never allow me to go off on a dangerous mission without him. If
we’re all going to be working together, we need to learn to coexist
somewhat
peacefully.

           
Machete points at her car. “We can use my ride. Yours is a piece of crap.”

           
Lance tenses up again, so I dig in deeper. He exhales as my fingers work their
magic.

           
“Okay,” I say. “So when do you want to head out?”

           
Machete blows more smoke rings into the night sky. “At the crack of dawn. Don’t
worry about accommodating us. Arrow and I can sleep on the roof. It’s a nice
night out.”

           
“Good,” Lance says. “We weren’t going to let you sleep in our place anyway.”

           
“Lance,” I whisper, pinching the back of his neck.

           
Machete narrows her eye, but thankfully she doesn’t toss a dagger or anything.
“I’ll wake you up at dawn. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get a little
shut-eye.”

           
Machete starts marching toward her car when Arrow clears his throat.

           
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Mom?”

           
Machete grumbles and plungers her hand into her pockets. She withdraws a
tattered wallet and whips out several bills.

           
“Here,” she says, thrusting the money into my hand. “Ten $10,000 bills. It’s
part of the money we got for Remy.”

           
I stare at the money in total shock.

           
“I… I don’t know what to say,” I whisper. “T… thank you.”

           
Machete blows smoke in my face, forcing me to cough. “Don’t thank me, it was
Arrow’s idea.”

           
Arrow places his hands over mine, closing them around the crinkled bills.

           
“Consider it a token of our gratitude,” he says, gazing into my eyes. “For
helping us take down Remy, and for accompanying us on our mission to take down
Rasputin.”

           
“Thank you,” I whisper again, blinking back tears. Arrow has no idea how much
this means to me, or how badly we need the money. Or maybe he does. This
$100,000 is a godsend. It’ll help us cover our $25,000 rent, and it’ll cover
the $5,000 monthly fee we must pay
per person
just to live behind the
Sanctuary walls. When Dagger was around we always had a ton of money in the
bank, but these past few months have been tough…
real
tough.

           
Machete continues grumbling and hops into the back of her Moon Cruiser.

           
Arrow bumps into Lance as he walks by. I try to grab Lance’s arm, but I’m too
late. He shoves Arrow from behind, causing him to stumble. Arrow spins around
and grabs Lance by the front of his shit. Both of them pull back their arms and
engage in an intense stare-down. They’re mere seconds from initiating a full-blown
brawl.

           
I squeeze myself in between both of them. “Knock it off!”

           
Lance and Arrow back away so they don’t hit me, but the stare-down continues.

           
I press my hand against Arrow’s chest. “If you expect us to help you and your
mom, you’re going to have to keep your temper in check.”

           
Arrow looks down at me and all his anger fades away.

           
“You’re right, Red. I’ll try to behave from now on.”

           
He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close. My chin bumps into his
chest. I suddenly realize just how tall he is. And his body is
so
hard.

           
Arrow brushes his lips against my ear. “That is, until you want me to be bad
again.”

           
My knees buckle. My heart is like putty in Arrow’s hands.

           
Lance gags and pretends to vomit. “For the love of God, stop it. You guys are
about to make me lose my lunch!”

           
 I glare at Lance. “Are you three?”

           
Arrow rubs my lower back, causing my knees to buckle once more. “Don’t worry
about it, Red. Do yourself a favor, though, and keep your boy in check. If he
keeps running his mouth, he might just wake up with an arrow in his chest.”

           
Arrow twirls around and lays on one of our lounge chairs. “If you don’t mind
I’m gonna sleep on this tonight. My mom is a loud snorer.”

           
“Actually we do mind,” Lance says.

           
I grab his arm and pull him to the far side of the roof. He glowers at me and
says, “You are unbelievable, you know that.”

           
“And why’s that?” I say angrily.

           
“You just are. Machete and Arrow are scumbags, and yet you’re practically
throwing yourself at them. And how come you don’t get mad when Arrow calls you
Red, but you throw a fit when I call you Firecracker?”

           
“Maybe because he uses it as a term of endearment while
you
only say it
to get under my skin!”

           
“It’s not my fault you’re so damn sensitive,” Lance barks.

           
“
I’m
sensitive? Are you freaking kidding me?
You’re
the one who
loses his mind when another guy so much as looks at me!”

           
“Oh, you don’t do the same when another girl looks at me? You just about tore
those strippers’ heads off in Detroit! And besides, Arrow didn’t just
look
at you. You guys practically fornicated right in front of me!”

           
“Oh that’s ridiculous. I’m surprised you even know what ‘fornicate’ means.”

           
By now Lance’s face is bright red. I’m sure mine is as well. Every time Lance
does something sweet to make me wonder why we ever broke up, he does something
like this to make me wonder why we got back together three times.

           
Lance takes a deep breath to quell his swelling rage, as do I. In a slightly
less-hostile voice, Lance says, “Boom Boom, you know we can’t trust them.”

           
I sigh and reply, “I know, but they’ll be invaluable in a fight. You can’t deny
that.

You saw how they saved our asses in
Detroit, and last month in Seattle.”

           
“They also stole our captures,” Lance reminds me. “Remember when we hunted down
Alberto El Delrado at the Mexico City Oasis? We nearly got killed 100-times
over during that shootout in the streets, and Arrow and Machete swooped in at
the last minute to steal our $500,000 bounty.”

           
“Yeah, but if it weren’t for them ‘swooping in’, our carcasses would currently
be rotting in the Mexican desert.  Which is my point. When the going gets
tough, we can always count on Machete and Arrow to stand their ground and slug
it out. They made not be particularly pleasant people, but they have more guts
than anyone we know.”

           
Lance’s cheeks bulge out as he rolls his tongue around in his mouth. He always
does that when he’s struggling to win a losing argument. He finally throws his
hands in the air. “Alright. But if this backfires, I’m never letting you hear
the end of it.”

           
I scoff and leap through the skylight to tell Krystal about our impromptu
plans. Lance follows after me.

           
“Hey Krystal!” I shout over the booming TV. “Arrow and Machete are going to
join us on our manhunt for Rasputin. Is that cool?”

           
Krystal flaps her wrist. “Yeah yeah, I don’t care. Now shush, you’re
interrupting my show.”        

           
I smirk at Lance. “See, Krystal doesn’t care.”

           
“That’s because Krystal has mental problems,” Lance retorts.

           
He’s not going to get an argument out of me about that.

           
Harpoon walks over to us and asks, “Are you guys really going on another
mission?” She doesn’t sound particularly happy.

           
I kneel beside her and say, “Unfortunately we have to, sweetheart. But don’t
worry. If things work out, we’ll never have to hunt down bad guys ever again.”

           
Blade makes his way over. “You guys said the same thing about that Caesar
dude.”

           
I run my fingers through Blade’s messy hair. “This time I mean it. I promise.”

           
Lance pulls the kids in for a hug. It’s like he’s already forgotten about our
fight. It’s one of the things I love most about him. He can drop a petty feud
or fight in an instant if something more important comes up. And for us,
nothing is more important than Blade and Harpoon.

           
“When we get back with our bounty, we’ll be able to go on all sorts of
vacations,” Lance says with a grin.

           
“Really?” the kids blurt out simultaneously.

           
“Yep,” he says, his grin widening. “We can go to ball games, amusement parks,
cruises, you name it.”

           
“Well in that case you guys should get a move on!” Blade shouts.

           
Lance and I burst out laughing. Even in the face of such danger and peril, the
kids always find a way to make us smile.

           
Lance finally stops laughing and becomes deadly serious. “I’m not sure how long
we’re going to be gone, Blade. Hopefully we’ll be back within a week. But until
then you’re going to have to be the man of the house.”

           
Blade stops smiling and nods solemnly, as if he’s honored to be granted such
immense responsibility. “I know, Lance. I’ll take good care of Harpoon and
Krystal’s grandma.”

           
“I know you will, bud,” Lance replies. “I’ll ask Mrs. Madison to stop over once
a day to check on you guys, though, just in case you need anything.”

           
“No, don’t do that!” Harpoon wails. “She’s mean!”

           
“Exactly,” Lance says. “She’ll stab anyone who tries to mess with you guys. But
most of the time you’re going to be all alone. And we still have that bounty on
our heads, meaning people may try to break in looking for us. And if they do…”

           
Lance grabs Krystal’s handgun off the coffee table. (She’s too busy laughing at
her trashy TV show to notice.) Blade gasps as Lance hands him the firearm, as
do I.