Reality Hero (16 page)

“All those girls scrambled up the hill as quickly as they could. Amber went running and screaming to her cabin. You should’ve seen the scary, fierce look he gave that one. Wowza. I’m sure as hell glad I didn’t push you. He took off, just popped away, as soon as you were on shore. Maybe the big guy doesn’t like blood?”

Before she could respond, Zane returned with a strange man. He knelt down and looked relieved to see that she was sitting up. “I’ve brought a doctor. How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy and wet, but I’ll live,” she told him dryly.

“Let me be the judge of that,” he said. She winced as he pushed on the back of her head. He shined a light in her eyes. “Hmm, I think that could use a few stitches. How many fingers am I holding up?”

“I lost one of my contacts, so I’ve no idea. I need my glasses to tell you that.”

Zane poofed away and was back again so quickly no one noticed he’d gone until he handed her the glasses.

She removed the remaining contact and put on the glasses. “That’s better. Thank you. Okay, doc, let’s go do the finger thing again. Four fingers, now three, now four and a thumb. Did I pass?”

Chuckling, the doctor opened the bag he had with him and removed his suture supplies.

Dina swallowed nervously and asked, “Is this really necessary? I think a bandage is enough to hold my brain in my skull. Really, I’d rather not have you stick that in my head.”

“I’m worried that you may continue bleeding. Just combing your hair might reopen the wound and make it bleed again. I’d like to just remove the hair over the spot and get that gash stitched together.”

“Oh, hell no. There’ll be no hair removal today. You can stitch me, but the hair stays.”

The doctor scowled, but honored her request. He numbed the area and got to work. When he’d finished, Zane left to return him. Vinny helped her stand and get back up the hill. Wobbling and feeling foolish, she kicked the heels off her feet, leaving them in the grass. Zane was suddenly there next to her. He took her from Vinny without a word, and
poof
, they were gone.

Zane had her on her bed and undressed before she could think straight. He enveloped her in a warm blanket.

“What’ll the crew think? You should probably go,” she told him weakly.

“I’m so sorry that you were hurt.” His voice was raw with emotion.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t push me. Shouldn’t you go find someone else to kiss?”

There was a tick in his jaw, and his eyes didn’t meet hers. “I was playing with you and the cameras. Watch what was recorded, and you’ll see how it all happened. I know you, and I wanted you to get mad because…damn it. I love it when I can see some sign that I’m under your skin like you’re under mine. I should’ve escaped before you got into the boat. I should have been able to get to you before you hit the water. I’m sorry.”

“Zane, you’re human. No worries. You still kept me from drowning, and thanks for that. I should never have tried to remove the she-cat when she was so obviously in heat. Too bad I shut the camera down. Her wild reaction would’ve made some good TV.”

“How can you put higher value on what you taped than your life, Di? Do you know how important you are?” His voice was a rumble of soft anger.

She felt heat filling her cheeks as it crept up her neck. “Zane I’m nothing special. I’m sorry if I scared you. I really didn’t expect to take a swim.”

* * * *

Zane looked at Dina in disbelief. Before he could stop himself, he was crushing her to him in a desperate kiss. His mouth ravished her with primitive savagery. Dina melted against him. Her lips parted and he slid his tongue into her mouth. She tasted so damn good. Feeling her body against his was an incredibly heady sensation. He never wanted to let her go. Her tongue slipped inside his mouth and explored. Zane growled and held her close for a second longer.

He pulled back, searching her expression for any sign that she was ready to admit they belonged together. Her wide eyes gazed up at him, and her lips parted slightly. She flushed, looking incredibly sexy. Just looking at her made his cock stiffen.

She put her forehead against his chin and closed her eyes. “You’d better go before someone comes to investigate how I am.”

He pushed back from her. She was a damn stubborn woman. He must like to suffer, because that was part of her appeal. He’d always loved a challenge. “Someday, I won’t obey your every command, Di.”

* * * *

Zane left without another word in his typically abrupt fashion. Dina lay down on the bed, keeping her head on the uninjured side, and closed her eyes. She’d been right to worry earlier. It had been a long and awkward day.

She’d only lain comfortable for a few minutes when there was a knock at her door. She was still nude and just wrapped in the blanket. Dina stood up slowly and put on her robe. They’d kept staff to a minimum out of the necessity of discretion so the options of who was waiting at her door were limited. When she opened the door, it was Cynthia, the makeup artist.

“What’s up, Cyn?”

“We need you to finish production. I can fix you up.”

“All right, I can pull it together. I’ll be just a second. I need to get dressed.”

Cynthia waited while Dina dressed. Then she went to work covering the injury with an up-do and makeup. Dina looked healthy as a horse when the woman finished, but felt like a horse on its way to the glue factory. Nevertheless, she pasted her phony smile on, and Cynthia helped her wobble to her place.

When Zane saw her, he looked concerned and obviously displeased that she’d gotten out of bed, but there was a competition she needed to host. Dina did her best to act normally. The cameramen did a great job helping to disguise her wobbly walking and not filming the back of her head. She’d planned a competition to put a tent up. The woman who put up her tent the quickest won immunity.

“Hello, ladies, and hello to our viewers at home. Since Mind Man needs a woman who is handy and can improvise, we’re going to hold another contest. The woman who erects her tent first will be safe from elimination,” Dina announced to the anxious group.

Amber gave her nervous glances, and wouldn’t make eye contact with Zane. The nine tents were still in the brand new boxes.

Dina held up the timer. “Go,” she shouted.

The women scrambled as she pressed the timer. They ran, tripping and crying, as they tried to get the tents up correctly. Dina looked over at Zane to see whom he was rooting for; she knew he couldn’t cheat on this contest. He wasn’t watching the women; he was looking at her. She blushed and looked away.

Regina was the first to finish, and she’d done it correctly. Amber hadn’t even bothered to finish when she realized she was behind the majority of the group.

Regina won the immunity. Dina liked her and Susan best out of the group. She was glad that Regina won.

They wrapped up the day’s filming. Dina planned to go see the boat footage of how the orgy started when she began to feel woozy again. Doing her best to hide it from Zane, she used all her strength of will to make it to the mobile studio.

Stumbling inside, she sat down on the floor until the room quit spinning. After a few moments, she felt up to looking over the footage, and pulled herself to her feet. She organized what she needed and then she hit
play
. The women questioned him about every detail, and about being a hero. They seemed especially interested in how he’d developed his abilities. Amber wanted to know where he lived and how he supported himself. Dina was impressed with his masterful dodging of the questions without offending any of them. She was less impressed when Amber asked him how he liked to be kissed.

He smiled, and she knew he couldn’t help how darn sexy he was, but the woman took his smile as invitation. She began to kiss him. Virginia declared she was the better kisser and pushed Amber off him to demonstrate. Dina could see that Zane was not a willing participant, but she knew he could’ve poofed away, so she declared him guilty, nonetheless. Her irritation began to rise as Purity joined the fray, and soon they were all just randomly kissing him all over trying to outdo one another.

Grumbling about men, other heads, and pants, she turned off the equipment before carefully making her way back to her temporary home. Thankfully, it was time to take off her accursed shoes. She tossed them across the small space. She doubted she’d make it into the bedroom. For a moment, she tried to rest her head back against the wall, but it caused her pain. Exhaustion and pain caused her to give into her need for sleep, and she fell asleep curled up on the little mini sofa, still fully clothed.

The pain was terrible. Whatever they’d given her burned through her body. She gasped, unable to draw a full breath. They were killing her! She was suffocating. Smiling down at her, the evil man made a few notes, but mostly just watched her reactions. She wanted to scream or beg, but she couldn’t speak.

“You’re going to be very special, my dear. Don’t fight it.”

She wanted to tell him she’d always fight, but the pain was just too intense. Her body bucked. If she hadn’t been so well restrained she would have fallen out of the chair.

The man stroked her cheek. “You’re a pretty one. I do hope you live.”

More pain. She turned her head away from his touch. Hate filled her. Why were they getting away with this? Didn’t anyone wonder where so many kids had gone?

“I think this one needs additional stimuli. If we want to promote spontaneous evolutionary changes we need to push her harder,” he said, turning to one of his assistants.

The man paled. That wasn’t a good sign. He pulled out a box. Dina began to struggle, whimpering. She knew what was in the box. The man put the bands on her forearms. The cold metal touched her and she flinched. When he pressed the button on each band sharp spikes impaled her, thousands of tiny needles. Dina found her voice. She screamed.

Dina had no idea how long she’d slept, but when her phone rang and she woke up, it was dark. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she looked down and saw Ella’s number. Seeing the caller ID display reminded her that Bridget had tried to kill herself, which brought an involuntary pang of pain to her chest.

“Hello, Ella,” she groggily answered her phone.

“Zane told me you were hurt.” She stated her concern directly without any emotion to give away her feelings.

“Yes, I was, but I’m more worried about you. I’m all right now.”

“Bridget did what she wanted to do. Why worry about me? I’m not like that. I’m not going to kill myself or anything. She was weak, but I’m not. Just to let you know, she’s quitting. Stunner has retired. She did a lot for this city, and she lost a lot for it too, but no one knows, so there’s only us to show her any appreciation. Therefore, next month when you and Zane are done playing at this TV garbage, we’ll have a little retirement party.” Ella’s lack of emotion worried Dina.

“Sis, I love you, and I know I haven’t been there like I should’ve for Bridget, but please don’t shut me out, especially now. We’re family, all of us. You guys are the only family I’ve ever had, and I should have never turned my back on that. Almost losing Bridget has opened my eyes. I’m a liability to you because I don’t have any special powers, but if I turn away when you need me, I’m not doing anything to protect you either.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Dina. I don’t need you, and you don’t need me. We aren’t scared kids anymore. Just forget I called.”

“No, please don’t hang up. I do need to talk to you. I’m so confused, and I think you might be the only person in the world who can understand this thing that I’m going through.” There was a long pause of silence.

“Okay, I’m listening. What could I possibly understand about your life?”

“I’m having a conflict with Zane. My feelings are all jumbled up, and I can’t make myself stick to the plan.”

“What do you mean ‘conflict’?”

“Zane and I, we…had sex, and I told him it was just sex, but it wasn’t. All the old feelings are back. I know Zane would do anything to protect me. But if his enemies, the thugs he’s been keeping in check, find out about his feelings for me, they’ll use me to hurt him. I just can’t be the instrument of his destruction. I love him, and I have to let him go. Are you still going to do the show and be my surprise twist? Maybe if he sees you’re the better one for him, I won’t have to feel all this guilt.” Dina beseeched her sister, and the pleading sounded pathetic even to her own ears.

“Again, get over yourself, Dina. You want me to take your leftovers off your hands and out of your bed so that you can feel all warm, fuzzy, and noble. Screw you. I’m not going to do it. I care about Zane, and I think I could love him if he looked at me the way he looks at you. We only live once, and the kind of connection you two have is rare, a onetime thing.” There was a long pause.

“Are you still there?” Dina asked quietly, her throat closing on the words.

“Don’t go throwing me a bone because you gave him the boner. I want a man to look at me like Zane looks at you, and, yes, having a man who understands what I do at night would really be a plus. I don’t want someone who wants me because I look like you. Let it go and just be with him. We’ve been playing around with this thing for years, and I’m sick of it. I officially step out of the love triangle, which makes it a love straight line. Now you have no choice.”

Dina didn’t know what to say. She sighed.

“Give up the show if you love him. I would if I had a man like that—one who loved me even though he knew all the annoying things I do, how bad my hair looks in the morning, and how I snore if I sleep on my back. He’s letting you be a selfish bitch. Just stop. If he still wanted to be with me, I sure as hell wouldn’t be pimping his ass out for job status. He could have any woman, hell, even men if he wanted, but still he’s chosen you. It’s not just history. He never outgrew you. He never gave up on you, Dina. You gave up on him. You outgrew us.” Ella sounded tired, but not angry when she finished her diatribe.

Dina said nothing, she was crying, her whole body shaking with the force of her sobs. Ignore the truth of her sister’s words would be impossible. Ella was right.