Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(43)
Author: Gena Showalter

"One day soon, we will. I promise. For now…just be careful out there, Wonder Girl. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you." Click.

I stared at the phone for a long while, shaking my head, wondering if I’d imagined what had just happened. With the week I’d had, I wouldn’t doubt it. Hallucinations had to be par for the course. But no. I couldn’t fool myself for long. It had happened, I just hadn’t gotten the results I’d wanted. I’d gotten the opposite, actually. The wrong man was determined to win my affections.

"He’s going to be fine , Belle," Sherridan said as we settled into the Honda.

I took the wheel. Bad a driver as I was, I was still better than There’s-No-Such-Thing-As-A-Brake Sherridan. "Who is?" I asked, inserting the key and twisting. The engine roared to life. Though only an hour and a half had passed since I’d last stepped outside, it was far more humid. Humid enough to melt the Wicked Witch of the West. Which, to some people, I probably was. I cranked the air-conditioning as high as it would go, but sadly, that didn’t help. "Memory Man?" I hoped he’d be anything but fine.

Kind of. Damn him. I didn’t wish him ill. For the most part. Damn him, damn him, damn him, I thought again.

My emotions were all tangled up where he was concerned. He’d said he wasn’t a bad guy, and he hadn’t seemed like one. And yeah, somewhere during that conversation, I think I’d even stopped hating him. For real, not just for a few seconds while my dumb little heart softened. I was still pissed as hell, but I no longer wanted to cut off his balls and wear them as earrings. At all. Proof: I was thinking about him but steam wasn’t coming out of my nose. He’d just been too sweet. Too devoted. To me. The dummy.

I guess Rome’s hypothesis had been right. M-Squared wanted me to love him. I couldn’t, and that made me wonder if I should indeed fear what would happen. Would he become desperate? Start hurting the people I did love?

To be honest, he hadn’t seemed the type to go down that violent road. He wanted me happy, he’d said.

He wanted me safe. I mean, he’d called me to tell me to be careful. Not the actions of a man who would next try and off me.

"Hello. Are you listening? You know who I was talking about," Sherridan said. "Mr. Sensitive. Your sidekick. Our horny roommate."

Ah. "I can’t talk about him." Not without crying. I hated leaving him, felt guilty, like a horrible friend.

"Let’s talk about me, then." Her favorite subject. One of mine, too, truth be told. "What superpower do you think I’ll get?" she asked as I maneuvered the car out of the driveway.

To my surprise, a dark sedan with tinted windows started forward, too, maintaining a perfect distance.

When I’d first come home, it had been parked a few houses away. I’d noticed it because it had been the only other car currently on the road. And because sedans gave me the creeps. All agents – good and bad – seemed to use them. You’d think they’d come up with something more original, but no. Was I being followed? So suspicious. Well, I had reason.

I made a left turn. Waited. The sedan turned left, as well. Next I turned right. Waited, again. Again, the sedan turned right. No doubt about it. I had a tail.

Rome? was my first thought. I glanced into the rearview mirror. The windows were too dark to see inside the car. Not Rome, I decided anyway. Love me or not, he wouldn’t have wanted to scare me.

Was this courtesy of John? Had he sent someone besides Rome to monitor my abilities? That theory was more plausible. As my vehicle eased through the neighborhood, taking turns I didn’t need, I kept an eye on the sedan. I couldn’t head toward my destination until I knew who was behind the wheel.

"All right, Grandma," Sherridan said, drumming her coral-colored fingernails into the console between us. "It’s okay to put a little pressure on the gas. You have my word you won’t skid out of control if you pump it up to ten miles per hour."

"Very funny. Don’t look, but I think we’re being followed."

"What! By whom?" She immediately twisted in her seat, peering out the back window.

"I said don’t look. Jeez!"

She turned, facing front and going stiff as a poker. "What should I do?" she asked, her voice shaking.

With fear? Excitement?

"Just…I don’t know." Nervousness rushed through me. "Get my cell out of my purse." Bending down, she dug through the contents. Finally, she pulled out the little black device. "Rome’s on speed dial. Press one."

She did. Then, "What next? Should I talk to him?"

"Press speaker," I said. I didn’t want whoever was behind me to know I had someone on the line.

Bring, bring.Pause. Bring, bring. He had better answer!

"Miss me already?" Rome asked huskily.

I shivered, then cursed under my breath. There was no time for that. "Did John put a tail on me? And be honest. This could be a life-and-death situation."

"Shit." His voice lost all hint of husky entreaty. "Someone’s following you?" Okay. That answered that question. "What should I do?" Always before when we’d been chased, Rome had been the driver. Now, everything hinged on me. Had I been alone, I wouldn’t have been quite as frightened. But Sherridan’s life rested in my hands.

"Give me two minutes," Rome said. "I’m on my way to you."

"I’m headed south on Cedar, and I’ll keep going straight."

"Good. I’m calling John. Don’t answer your phone for any number but mine." Click.

Sherridan dropped the phone in her lap. "Could be nothing," she said, rubbing her hand against her jeans. "Just a regular Joe on the way to the private airport no one knows about but us." She was reaching, but man, I wanted to agree.

"No one would follow you so blatantly. Right?"

"I wouldn’t think so." Unless…was this Memory Man? Trying to keep me safe?

But why scare me like this? Fear hadn’t been the emotion he’d wanted to incite in me.

My hands were shaking on the steering wheel, my knuckles so tight they’d already leached of color. The bones felt brittle with cold. God, do not let me freeze our car. We’d be immobile. Even, dare I say it, helpless. I had powers, sure, but as unstable as they were without my filter, I couldn’t use them and risk destroying the entire neighborhood.

I kept my attention riveted to the rearview mirror. The sedan maintained a steady pace behind us, the driver not the least bit concerned with my slow speed, it seemed. I pressed the gas, increasing to about twenty miles per hour.

The sedan sped up, as well.

Up to twenty-five.

The sedan preserved the same, short distance between us.