Sweet Release (A Bad Boy Mafia Romance) (26 page)

I flew over as fast as I could. I still wasn’t great at putting fire out with my powers, especially not the bigger blazes, but I could at least do what I could to help.

When I got to the building though, what I saw shocked me.

The building wasn’t on fire at all.

Instead, a tall man with impeccably combed brown hair, looking to be in his early 30s, was standing next to a pyre. He had about six fire extinguishers piled next to him, and was looking at me as I flew over, warily.

I landed next to him and got a closer look. The flames cast moving shadows across his face, which didn’t give anything away. He was stern, tall, definitely a military man given the way he stood. There was a softness to his mouth that implied that he was nicer than his demeanour made him seem. Still, he was obviously a man that meant business.

“You saw my signal, I’m glad,” he told me, holding out a hand. Reluctantly, I took it. Was this some kind of trap?

“Don’t worry,” he continued, as if reading my thoughts. “This isn’t a trap. It’s just me. I used the fire to get your attention. Any chance you can give me a hand putting it out?”

What the hell. At the very least this could give me some more practice with bigger fires.

I focused all my energy on the fire, willing it to extinguish itself, and it suddenly dropped to about a quarter of the intensity of before. The man, obviously Nathan Miller, grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the rest, and we began to chat as the embers of the dead fire crackled one last time.

“I apologize for the rudimentary method of contact,” Miller started off. “But it’s not like you’re listed in the phone book.”

“What do you want?” I asked, a little bit cautious. I wasn’t sure if this guy was on my side, or wanted me locked up.

“For us to come to an agreement. And to see if you can help me. I think we want the same thing, here.”

“And what’s that?”

“For the crime rate to go down.”

That wasn’t exactly what I wanted. What I wanted had wavy brown hair, round blue eyes and lips plumper than a fresh strawberry in June. Still, a lower crime rate wasn’t a bad goal. I nodded.

“Now, obviously, I’m not in a position to endorse you. The chief of police can’t be going around telling vigilantes that it’s ok to take justice into their own hands. But quite frankly, I’m out of options. The police force in Olympus is a terrible combination of corrupt and incompetent, and it’s going to take time before I can fix either of those things. They’re not going to happen overnight. And until then, criminals are more or less going to continue to have the same free reign to terrorize the city as before.”

“So why the chat?”

“I want you to try and be more public about your rescues. I know I’m asking a lot. You probably don’t want any attention, given your… powers. But right now, I know you’re stopping a lot of people. And a few of them are making it into the news. But they’re on page 8, next to an article about a mom who thinks vaccinations cause autism. It’s not exactly a high-volume part of the paper.”

“But won’t that make the police force seem even less effective?”

Miller shrugged. It was a weird gesture on him; he seemed like a man who didn’t much care for casual gestures. He almost seemed like a robot trying to pretend to be human.

“Yes. But at this point, it’d be hard for the police to seem less effective than we actually are. And what it might do is scare these wannabes that have been committing petty crimes the last few months to take a step back and figure it’s not worth being beaten up by a superhero and arrested if they’re seeing other people being taken down on the front pages every day.”

“So you basically want me to start showing off.”

“Yes. Fly around during the day. Show that you’re patrolling the streets. Call reporters with an “anonymous” tip when you’re going to stop some bad guys. I’m asking you to do this for your city.”

“Quite frankly,” I growled, “This city isn’t my favourite place in the world. It hasn’t done a lot for me.”

“Well, however you want to justify it, I’m asking you to please do this. I don’t want us to be enemies. I don’t want you locked up, I don’t even mind you stopping criminals, as much as the old establishment would tell me how wrong that opinion is. I’m just asking that you do it a bit more publicly.”

“I’ll think about it,” I told him.

“Ok. And before you go,” Miller reached into his pocket and handed me a burner cell phone. “Can you hang on to this? It’ll be safer for everyone, and way more convenient for me if I need to contact you again. Don’t worry, I won’t be calling you every night for advice. But just in case.”

“Fine,” I growled, taking the phone from him. Why did it feel like I was working for this guy now? I wasn’t sure I liked him. But I also wasn’t sure I disliked him. After all, his idea actually made sense, and he didn’t seem to worried about raking his own name through the mud for a while if it meant getting some longer term results. Maybe he wouldn’t be so bad.

“Thank you,” he told me. “You understand that in public I’m going to have to denounce you as a vigilante. But in private, and as a citizen of this city, thank you.”

I nodded, then flew back off into the night. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

It was funny, it wasn’t as though I wasn’t used to the media. I was a football player. For years I’d been used to journalists coming up to me after games and asking questions, interviews, scouting, everything. Being the center of attention had never really been a problem before. Especially not for being able to do something exceptional.

So why wasn’t I sure I wanted to do it as a superhero?

I knew why. Because I was a fake. A phony. I was a damn good football player. I really fucking good one. But I wasn’t a hero. How anyone could consider me one was beyond me. I didn’t want the attention because I didn’t like people thinking of me that way. But what if it was time to grow up? What if I could do more good this way? Shouldn’t I just pack up my own baggage and give this a shot?

I hadn’t seen Inferno in two weeks. Well, not in person anyway. It seemed like his face was all over the news lately, and the weird thing was, I couldn’t get him out of my head.

It had to just be the sex, I told myself. It couldn’t be anything else. After all, he was a brute; a man who beat up people for a living. Bad people, sure. But my previous boyfriends had been a computer science major for whom the closest thing he got to a tan was from his computer monitor, and an engineering major who thought argyle sweaters were the greatest invention known to man. Neither one were exactly the daring superhero type.

And even if I did want to see him, I had no way of contacting him. It wasn’t like he had a phone or anything. Honestly my best bet when it would come to finding Inferno would be committing a crime and hoping he would get there before the cops, as he seemed to be doing the last few weeks.

That’s why it was such a surprise when I got home one day after an afternoon spent walking in the park with Annie and a couple of other friends and I found a message on the floor of my apartment, beneath the window I’d left open a few inches to let in a bit of fresh air.

There was no fire escape in my building, only one person could have possibly slipped this message into my apartment.

Wanted to thank you for what you did for me. The roof. Tomorrow. 8pm. Dinner?

Was Inferno asking me out on a date?

I was pretty sure he was. How had he figured out where I lived? Well, that couldn’t have been that hard. After all, Valerie wasn’t the most common name. It wasn’t like I was especially careful about hiding my address either, there were probably a hundred different ways to find out where I lived for someone who really wanted to know.

Then I had to figure out if I was going to go.

I mean, instantly my brain went no. I couldn’t. All he wanted was to get in my pants. He didn’t really care about thanking me, men like that didn’t care about anyone. He just wanted to have sex with me again.

But another part of me, a part of me I didn’t know existed until the last few months, wanted to do it. That part of me didn’t care if he had an ulterior motive. That part of me
wanted
him to want me. Wanted him to ravage me again, wanted him to give me another orgasm so mind-blowing I still thought about it now, over a month after it had actually happened.

He’s asked me to go out with him
I finally texted Annie, she’d know what to do.

Did you say yes?

Dunno. I don’t know if I should.

Well duh. Obviously you should do it.

What if he wants to have sex with me?

Then have sex with him if you want, or say no. What are you, twelve years old?

So Annie had a point.

Fine
I finally texted back.
I’ll go.

Good. And you’ll have fun. Loosen up a bit. I gotta work tomorrow but you tell me everything when it’s done, ok?

I had to smile at that one. Annie was a sucker for gossip.

Deal.

Fine. Annie had helped me make up my mind. Tomorrow, I was going to go on my first ever date with a superhero.

* * *

I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be the next day. I spent way longer than I had expected trying to find the perfect thing to wear. August was fast approaching, and the nights were still long and warm. Eventually I settled on a white sundress with a cute little strawberry print with red flats and a matching headband. I admired myself in the mirror and had to admit, I looked pretty good.

I wasn’t sure where we were going, or what the dress code would be, so this was a good mix of casual and formal.

Are you excited??
Annie texted.

I wasn’t sure if excited was the right word. Nervous, yes. Definitely. Excited? Maybe just a little bit, if I forced myself to be honest.

At five to eight I was going up the stairs of the building that Inferno and I always seemed to meet at. It had become our spot. As I stood in front of the door leading onto the roof, I paused for a second. Once I went through, there was no turning back. I was going to go on this date.

Standing tall with determination, I grabbed the handle and pushed down, crossing the threshold onto the roof to start my date.

What I saw made my mouth drop in surprise.

I thought we were just going to meet on the roof to go somewhere else for our date. But no. The roof
was
our date.

Inferno had set up a nice little table for two, with antique style chairs, towards the edge of the roof, on the side of the building that overlooked Centennial Park. A red and white checked tablecloth covered the table, which had two plates, knives and forks, and a couple of wine glasses to go with the bottle of red wine sitting in the middle.

Rose petals dusted the ground next to the table. A string of garden lights had been connected to the edge of the roof, casting a soft, warm glow on everything.

It was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen. The only thing missing was Inferno, and he arrived a minute later as I was slowly walking towards the table, wondering if I was imagining things. He was holding a brown paper bag in one hand, and a small bouquet of flowers in the other.

“Great, you’re here!” he said. “Perfect timing.”

He handed me the flowers and kissed me softly on the cheek.

“Thank you, they’re gorgeous,” I said breathlessly, still not quite believing this could be real.

“I’m glad you like them. I hope this is ok,” he continued as he took some take-out containers out of the brown bag. “I would have gone with you anywhere, obviously, but I thought maybe if we showed up at a restaurant somewhere it might result in a bit more attention than you’re comfortable with.”

Was I wrong about him? I mean, I always assumed he was like all those other bad-boys, but this was so… thoughtful. He was right, of course. And I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

Of course he was going to draw attention if we went anywhere. And it wasn’t like he was about to take off his mask and show me exactly who he was. That’s third date material, at least, I joked to myself.

A minute later our dinner was served. Inferno held my chair for me as I sat down in front of a steaming hot plate of spaghetti carbonara, the aroma of the parmesan cheese floating up to my nostrils and making me realize just how hungry I was. He sat across from me, in front of a bowl of baked Ziti.

“I hope I wasn’t too forward by ordering for you,” he told me with a grin, and I laughed.

“This is great, thanks. How did you know anything cream-based was my absolute favourite?”

“It’s pretty hard to go wrong with bacon carbonara. So tell me, how long until my favourite doctor gets her degree and stops treating me in favour of actually working for money?”

“Hey, if you had the student loans I’m dealing with, you’d understand,” I replied, laughing.

“Oh believe me, I know,” he replied.

“Wait, so you’re a student too?” I asked. That would have explained why he was on campus that day when I was attacked, he must have just been going to class.

“Yeah. Or at least, I was. It seems like the universe has different plans for me than what I was studying.”

“How did it happen, anyway? If you don’t mind me asking. It seems like it was so out of the blue.”

Inferno shook his head.

“I don’t mind you asking. And honestly, I wouldn’t  mind telling you the answer, except that if I did it would immediately give away my identity. And it’s way too dangerous for me to have anyone knowing who I really am.”

“Ok. But can you tell me what it feels like? To be able to control fire? To fly? How do you do it? Does it feel weird? If I’m being way too intrusive here tell me, but I’m really curious.”

Inferno laughed. “No, it’s not intrusive. I’d be just as curious as you are in your shoes. It’s actually pretty cool. To fly, all I have to think about is where I want to go. And it just sort of… happens. Like, you know when you’re a kid and you go on those trampolines where you’re held up by the bungee cord, and then when you get to the top there’s that split second where the bungees are loose and you feel like you’re just floating in the air like an astronaut? That’s what it feels like. Except for a lot longer.”

“That’s so cool,” I told him. It wasn’t like I was some kind of daredevil or anything, but a part of me was kind of jealous, I wanted to know what it would be like to fly.

“As for the fire, well, I just need to look at it, and it’s like I just need to command it in my brain, and it does what I tell it to. I’m not great with big fires though. I’m much better with small ones. That’s why I always carry this around,” he told me, pulling out a Zippo, lighting it, and then making the flame dance in circles around us for a minute until he made it slip back into the lighter.”

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed as the flames danced around us for a minute. “That’s amazing!”

He laughed. “It’d be a lot more useful to have been able to put out that big fire that time. But I’ll get there.”

For four hours, we talked. We drank more wine. We talked some more. It turned out Inferno had brought a nice fleece blanket for me in case the weather turned a bit cool, and we placed it down on the ground and lay next to each other while we spoke. The sky turned dark, and then we watched the stars. Inferno was kind, gentle with me. He was always considerate. We spoke way more about me than about him, and I had a feeling it wasn’t just because he didn’t want to inadvertently give anything about his real identity away. He seemed to actually care.

“Is it hard?” I asked eventually. “Having to balance two different identities. Like, do your friends and family start to notice that you’re leaving suddenly? Do you find yourself starting to fly somewhere and realizing you’re in the middle of a group of friends?”

I looked over, and for the first time ever, Inferno looked like he might have actually been kind of sad.

“It is hard,” he replied. “But not necessarily in that way. To answer the second part of your question first, that’s part of why I wear the costume. I realized pretty quickly that if I wasn’t paying attention to things I could start flying pretty suddenly. So I started to train myself that I was only allowed to fly if I was wearing the costume. And it’s working pretty well. But it’s still something I need to be focused on a lot of the time, or I will probably at one point screw it up and give myself away, which I know would be incredibly dangerous for myself.”

He sighed. “As for the other stuff, well, I don’t really have any family anymore. As for friends, Acid and Strong Spice were two of my best friends. The others have just… fallen by the wayside, a bit. Especially after the falling out with Acid. We were really close. And honestly, sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision to split apart from them.”

I looked at him carefully. It was obvious he was lonely. He must have been. After all, the only other two people on the planet who could remotely understand what it felt like to be him were now his enemies.

“I’m sorry,” I told him finally, quietly.

“No, don’t be. I made my choice, and I’ve accepted it. And in the long run, I’m going to be a happier person for having made that choice. After all, what kind of friends go around robbing and hurting people just because they can?”

He turned and smiled at me. “Besides, Strong Spice going crazy was the only reason I met you, and I wouldn’t give that up for the world.”

I could feel that familiar blush crawling up my face once again. Who would have known that this date could have gone so well? I certainly hadn’t been expecting it.