Ivory (Manhatten ten) (3 page)

“I’m sorry.” I had to stop her. “I have no plans to stay permanently.”

“Oh.” Angel’s face fell a little, and I regretted it, but this was all too much and faster than the G6. “We thought otherwise, but it’ll be a few days before this blows over, so we’ll have time to talk it out. In the meantime, make yourself comfortable. You must be exhausted.”

That much was certain.

She moved for the elevator. “Ring zero for the concierge if you need anything. We’ll sit down with Tank tomorrow and figure everything out.” She shot me a wistful smile as she stepped into the elevator. “And I hope you change your mind about staying. From what I’ve heard, you’d love it here.”

“Thank you for your help.”
 

She waved and the doors closed. Why I’d want to meet with “Tank”, I wasn’t sure.

I wanted to collapse on the spot, but I couldn’t feel at ease in such a strange environment. A sweep of the space didn’t make me feel much better.

It was an entire floor of luxury furnishings and chrome. The parts done in white were exactly to my taste—they reminded me of home in a good way—but Angel had meant the entire floor. It was nothing like my cramped flat in Amsterdam, and a world away from the tents where I’d been raised.

What did this cost?

And what kind of people had I landed with?

Panther

Tank’s thoughts hit me as soon as we touched down on the helipad.

What did you do, Pan?

On the way, Boss. Don’t make me look like any more of a tool in front of our recruit.

I could hear the eye roll in his mental voice.
Hurry up
.

I didn’t want to leave Valdís, or Ivory, if that was what we were going with, but she was on the verge of ice-skewering me and would be in better hands with Angel.
 

Tank sat in his big oil baron chair, waiting for me, though he could’ve interrogated me from wherever.

“I like to do my interrogating in person.” He leaned on his desk. “What the hell happened?”

“Dropped the ball hard.” The plan was perfect until Ivory hit the first-class cabin. “Our ice girl leaked some power and the mark picked it up. Went ballistic. She took him down rock star style.” I replayed the scene in my mind for Tank’s benefit.

Tank’s eyes glazed as he relived the moment. “Damn. We could use a fighter like that.”

“Right? I want her.” I’d never seen a woman with that kind of fight, and I wanted to see more.
 

“I can see that. Less projection.”

“Sorry, Boss.” I couldn’t help it. He must get all kinds of freaky shit in his head, reading minds around the guys and me.

“We’ll deal with her tomorrow. I’m more concerned that we lost our lead.”

“I’ll hit the streets again. Maybe break Ivory in on some old-school investigation.”

“Do that. We’ve got five dead supers and we owe the community justice.”

“Agreed.”
 

Tank dismissed me and I headed back to my floor. I might’ve stopped by Ivory’s but Angel hadn’t given me the number. She knew me too well.

Ivory was the only bright spot to come out of this clusterfuck. It was looking more and more like a super serial killer was out there, and I’d blown our best lead.
 

I couldn’t beat myself up too much over the guy’s death. He was a card-carrying anti-super, and there’d always be people who feared us or hated our power, but most of us busted our asses keeping the world safe for those kinds of assholes.

But with him went his contacts. We needed to find out who was organizing the anti-super sentiment into cold-blooded murder, or the next victim could be one of our own.
 

Chapter Three

Ivory

After a few hours of fitful sleep, I got up and made coffee. Expensive coffee. Angel hadn’t lied about stocking the kitchen.

Crossing time zones always unsettled my internal clock, but this was a new low. It was so much travel I couldn’t remember what time I wanted it to be.

The bed was lush, but too soft for my tastes, and the penthouse had a stale, unlived-in aura that jarred. I couldn’t relax.

Nor should I have, given what had happened. I clicked on the nearest plasma television with an apprehension of dread.

The news ticker at the bottom of the screen flashed bombing in the Middle East and flooding in Thailand, but the airplane shooting in Los Angeles was the main event.

Or I was.

IVORY
plastered the screen in bold letters with a disturbingly accurate list of known facts about my past. They’d only unearthed the recent history, and that was all they’d find, but it was bad enough.

My stomach churned when the old wrestling pictures flashed into their photomontage. I looked like an Amazon in laced knee-high boots, with flowing blonde hair. Desperate days.

Why did the world care?

I couldn’t imagine until the Manhattan Ten propaganda entered the coverage. That was the full headline. IVORY: THE M-10 AGAIN!

The man who’d died seemed not to matter. A new super hero was born.

Only I wasn’t super, and I hadn’t been asked.

Frost formed at my fingertips. I shook it off, but I needed to meditate or kill something, and I hated being so on edge that the latter came to mind.

“It was terrifying.” The eyewitness’s face was blurred, but I recognized little Madeline’s mother. “The gunshot just missed her, but she wrestled that man to the ground. We didn’t know what was happening, and she was so intense…but she saved us all.”

I was surprised she thought so. Last I’d seen of her, she was holding Madeline away from me like I was a rabid bear.

I was contemplating a call to the concierge about local yoga studios when a doorbell rang from the elevator. Angel exited with several hangers of clothes swathed in dry-cleaning plastic.
 

“Good morning. I would’ve had these to you last night, but there wasn’t time to have the tailoring done.” She set the clothes over a sofa back. “Did you sleep well?”

The plastic hid an assortment of expensive clothes in various styles all cut to fit a woman of my height. Not easy to find under the best of circumstances.

Did this woman ever sleep?
 

“Everything is fine. Thank you for taking so much of your time.”

“It’s nothing.” Angel perched on the sofa arm. “I’m still hoping I can convince you to stay.”

“You mentioned a meeting with Tank?” After all of the news coverage, I’d gathered he was the M-10’s leader. I needed to speak to some kind of authority figure.

“Any time you’re ready.”

She waited while I went off to change. The selection was excellent, and all my size. If the whole team were as large as Panther, she’d have to know where to find the big and talls. I picked a pencil skirt, which would’ve fit me as a mini if it were a regular woman’s size, and a soft white cashmere sweater. I considered slipping back into my uniform shoes, but if we were among supers, it was better to be comfortable.

And more alert. It was easier to sense my surroundings when vibrations could travel through my toes. Angel didn’t bat an eye at bare feet. She did live with Panther and a tower of other unknown supers. I doubted much would trigger her shock reflex.

The elevator deposited us on the third floor, and I was the one in for a shock. I’d expected the offices to be more like a police station, where each super had his own desk on the floor.

This was a regular corporate operation, with buzzing workers, low-walled cubes and a real water-cooler. The workers didn’t pay me special attention, but I regretted the bare feet instantly. These were no supers. “What do they do?”

“It surprises everyone who sees it.” Angel smiled and led me into the warren. “Most are PR. We need a lot of that, as you can imagine. After that, we’re a regular business. We’ve got groups managing cases, technology, licensing and finances. Even a fan-mail team.”

She paused before knocking on the door to the corner office. Its nameplate read THINKTANK, which seemed a silly thing to emboss on a door. “Fair warning, he’s a mind-reader. He won’t be invasive, but he can’t really help himself.”

The door opened. Some fair warning. If I’d had anything I wanted to hide, it was much too late.
 

Tank sat in a massive chair on the other side of a larger desk. He was a big man, not near Panther’s size, but solid. And dangerous. He wore a suit that couldn’t hide fighter’s muscles, and his nose had been broken more than once.
 

“Valdís. I’m sorry for all of the hassle.” He stood and offered a firm handshake. “You’ve gotten tangled into our operation.”

“I killed a man. I was expecting more than a hassle.” Heroes or not, it bordered criminal that I’d walked away.
 

“Good answer.” He gestured for me to sit. “Would you send us in some water, Angel? Our Ivory’s thirsty.”

I took the chair, but my guard rose. Our Ivory? I might’ve been thirsty, but he could’ve given Angel the request silently. This was a demonstration. Or he was testing me.

“A little, but not for the reasons you think.” He leaned back in his chair. “You passed the test on the plane. I know you’re hesitant, but you’d make a great addition to our team.”

I didn’t much like him responding to my internal dialogue, but at least he’d know how serious I was. “I like a quiet life. I’m not the fighter I used to be.”

“Why didn’t you wear your shoes?”

My toes curled against the carpet. If this was non-invasive, I wanted to see what was. I could practically feel him tearing through the layers of my past. All the endless snows and hunts, and the pressure to live up to Mother’s expectations. The cruise ship I’d spotted, and the near-death beating I’d received after asking where it came from. Since I escaped, I’d been battling to control my powers and play human.
 

Tank had to know I’d hate anything that put me in jeopardy of losing that. I couldn’t return to such a cold, narrow world, where curiosity was punished and the universe ended at the edge of the horizon.

A door-knock saved me from any more dark thoughts.

“Morning, Boss.” Panther glided into the room with a ready smile, his skin like dark chocolate. I wanted to touch and see if it was as smooth as it looked. My fingertips tingled.

Tank’s brows twitched.

I had to check myself.
 

Panther was a temptation I didn’t need. One that would break everything I’d built. And one I didn’t want Tank reading from my mind.

Maybe Panther sensed the tension in the air. His grin broadened and he set a glass of water in front of me before throwing a leg over the second chair. “So did he convince you to join forces yet?”

“No.” The sooner I got out, the sooner I could find some normalcy. I left the water where it was. I didn’t dare extend a hand Panther’s way, lest I feel the heat of him.

Tank’s eyebrows lifted. “Normalcy isn’t in the cards. The press has you, and new supers always captivate them for a minimum of a few weeks. Since you’re tied to us, think months.”

He must’ve heard my internal groan.

“We take full responsibility. Or Pan does. You’re going to have to stay with us if you want to avoid a frenzy. In the meantime, we’d like you to do a trial run and help patch up the mission.”

“If I don’t want to?”

“You’re welcome to stay or go. We won’t keep you against your will.”

“Did you tell her about the case?” Panther’s amusement fell away.

“What case?” I’d been puzzled why they’d follow such a man. Surely there were better ways for supers to track a regular human.

“It’s an unusual situation. Go ahead, Pan.”

“We’ve got a killer or killers targeting supers.” Panther’s claws flashed out as he gripped his armrests. “There’ve been four murders so far. Two in L.A. and two in Houston. All four were supers, but we can’t figure the connection. The guy we were following was part of one of the more liberal anti-super groups. He wasn’t behind it, but we thought he was meeting with whoever was.”

“They sent you to be incognito?” Panther was anything but inconspicuous.

“He hadn’t seen me yet.” He flashed the white smile that was so brilliant against his skin. I supposed a man-panther could hide if anyone could.

“But how were they killed?” It seemed like a case for local law enforcement. Muggings, perhaps.

“We thought as much until the third killing,” Tank responded to my thought again. “We still would, but three of the four were certified badasses. No normal human could’ve taken them down.”

“They all died of multiple stab wounds, but we’ve never seen a weapon. It’s spooky.” Panther leaned on his chair arm. “Don’t you want to help investigate?”

His description reminded me of something, but I shooed it away. It was unfortunate for the supers being targeted, but I wanted nothing to do with this. They could resolve it without me.

“That’s your choice. But we do have a small blip to deal with because of your involvement.” Tank kept his voice casual, but the hairs on the back of my neck rose. It screamed contrived.