Tekgrrl (4 page)

“Where’s Lainey?” Paul asked, walking into the room, dressed in his usual crisp suit and tie that were stylish enough to speak of money but not trendiness. You can take the scientist out of the lab but not the lab out of the scientist. With his close-cropped dark brown hair, serious dark blue eyes and hooked nose, Paul could be cute if he wanted, but he probably would never bother. The semifashionable suit he was wearing had probably been encouraged by Kate.

“Haven’t seen her yet today,” Toby said, distributing the last of his coffee cups before taking a seat next to me, careful to smooth out invisible wrinkles in his expensive yet casual suit jacket and dress pants. Such a slave to fashion! “Min and I sent her and Wesley to bed early and told her we’d get everything set up for her.”

Paul’s narrow eyes and set mouth conveyed his displeasure. Why he was always on Lainey’s case, I’ll never know, but it was likely due more to Wesley than Lainey herself.

“Give them a break, Paul, they’re young and in love,” Kate said, gliding in like the love goddess she was. Her tall, willowy figure was clad in the latest fashions, which were clingy yet modest. Her glossy brown waves of hair looked like she had just stepped out of the salon and not the shower. It must be nice to be a never-aging immortal goddess. And Luke used to date her. Why did I have to be surrounded by staggeringly beautiful women who reminded me how inadequate I was?

“You do remember what that was like, don’t you?” Kate continued, sipping her drink and flipping through the society pages of the newspaper in front of her, not bothering to look up. Her barb hit her supposed boyfriend, and he suddenly seemed interested in fiddling with buttons on the console in front of him.

Toby kicked me under the table and gave me a significant look. I nodded at his unspoken thought.
Yeah. Trouble in paradise.
It was going to happen sooner rather than later. Kate seemed to be mentally stuck back in the heyday of the gods, when relationships were a bit less monogamous. And I couldn’t see by-the-book Paul being okay with that.

“Well, now I suppose we’re going to spend another hour waiting on them to drag themselves away from each other to come to work,” Paul complained. Judging from his grumpiness, and by Kate’s comment, I wasn’t the only one jealous because I wasn’t getting any.

Wesley walked in just then, forgoing the business wear that everyone else here but me seemed to affect, clad in a simple red sweater and dark blue jeans and boots. He looked like a twenty-one-year-old college guy ready to take a cute coed to dinner and a movie, not a member (and possible leader) of the greatest team in the country, if not the world.

“I sent Lainey to entertain our guest while we discuss her possible hire,” he said in his soft, cultured voice, taking the seat that, up until his death, had been occupied by Dr. Benjamin Rath, our previous team leader.

The subtle power play wasn’t lost on Paul, who looked ready to explode—which wasn’t necessarily an empty threat from a guy who controlled heat molecules. “Nice of you to finally join us,” he snapped. I wondered if he should switch to decaf.

Wesley ignored Paul’s ire and took a sip of his own coffee. “Who brought this?”

“I did, sir,” Toby said, all Southern gentleman, as he could sometimes be.

Wesley nodded. “Thanks.”

It was at that moment I realized another member of the team was missing. “Where’s Luke?”

“He had a meeting scheduled with that mystic group. He couldn’t get out of it,” Wesley said. “I told him he could skip out.”

Paul’s face darkened. “Well, then, what the hell are we all doing here? You’re clearly making all the decisions for us.” He slammed a fist down on the table.

Toby and I were the only ones who reacted. Kate didn’t look up from her paper and Wesley just looked bored. I hate the smell of theatrics in the morning.

“I thought we were here to discuss the possibility of hiring this girl, Granite,” Wesley said. “That’s the only reason I turned up at all. You know I think these meetings are a waste of time. We should be out there on the streets, helping people, not sitting around discussing it.”

“It’s not all discussions of strategy. There are other reasons to meet. Even though senior members make the decisions on whether or not to hire someone, we like to consider the opinions of the others on this team—and that includes Luke, whom you’ve excused,” Paul growled. I could tell by his gritted teeth that he was seething.

“He already told me he agreed with my recommendation: to hire her,” Wesley said. “He spent some time with her last night and thought she’d be an asset.”

An
asset.
I inwardly winced.

“Well, we still need to discuss it,” Paul said. “I think there are some points that we need to take into consideration.”

“I’m for hiring her,” Kate spoke up, flipping a page of her newspaper. “Wesley’s for it, and he’s a senior member. Toby?”

Toby recognized he was in the middle of something he didn’t want to be, but he admitted the truth, anyway. “Well, I approved her way back when we offered her the job the first time around…”

“So that’s a yes.” Kate glanced at me. “Sorry, Mindy, you’re not a senior member, so you don’t get a vote, same as Lainey. So, that’s majority. We hire her. End of story.”

I began to worry Paul was going to have a heart attack, the way he was sputtering. “B-but…b-but…”

“Excellent, I’ll tell Lainey to give her the good news,” Wesley said. “I suggest she team up with one of the senior members for our nightly patrols. As a matter of fact, it’s probably a good idea for us all to continue to pair up for the meantime.” After years of the EHJ only showing up when summoned, the Reincarnist had us all back on the streets for patrol. It had met with a mixed response from the gang. “Now, if there are no other pressing matters, I’ve got to go wake up Emily and make her breakfast.”

“There’s talk the government’s looking into starting a committee related to the hero teams,” Paul blurted, clearly not controlling the meeting and hating it. “They’re sending over some aide today to get our input.”

“Our input? ‘No. It’s a bad idea.’” Wesley stood. “If you’ll excuse me.” He exited the room, coffee in hand.

“I’ll meet with him if you want, Paul,” Toby said, always the peacemaker.

“Yes, thank you, Toby,” the shell-shocked Paul responded. I noted that he truly thought it was important yet pawned the responsibility off on someone else. Figured.

“I’ve got a lunch with the editor of
Fashionista,
” Kate said, rising. “I’m up for best-dressed celebrity again this year. Extend my congratulations to Selena.” She exited the room, leaving me and Toby alone with a fuming Paul.

I had no responsibilities for the day, but wasn’t going to admit that—not with Paul looking the way he did. Tapping the screen of my PDA and getting a growl in response (darn sentient technology) I said in a possibly too bright voice, “Oh, look, I’ve got that thing with those scientists today. I’d better go get ready.”

“Do you need help carrying stuff to your car?” Toby asked.

“Yes, please,” I said, and we stood and beat a hasty retreat.

We booked it down the hall as fast as we could, leaving Paul alone, fuming. “I don’t know what I’m doing today, but it’s something that keeps me out of this building,” I said.

“No doubt,” Toby agreed. “You could have cut that tension with a knife. Now I’ll be spending the day with some stuffed shirt.”

“Keep your hands on your wallet at all times. Politicians are made up of equal parts trickery and greed.”

At that moment, Lainey walked in the front door of the building. She was carrying a takeout cup of coffee, and the glamorous bane of my existence sashayed in her wake.

“Hey, guys!” Lainey looked between Toby and me, and she quickly read the stress on our faces. “Uh-oh. What did I miss?”

“You sure you want to do this?” Lainey’s eyes were wide in disbelief.

“I don’t back down from anything.”

“You’ll never be the same afterward.”

“I know. I’ve made my peace with it.”

“Are we dyeing or not, ladies?” The stylist was not amused.

I nodded. “Take me back to my natural color.”

“Honey, are you sure you even remember what that was?” The stylist poked around my roots, tsking. “Besides, it doesn’t need to be
your
natural color, just
a
natural color. Maybe some highlights, some lowlights in red, maybe a bit of blonde around the face. Just nothing that looks like it came out of the spray can of some graffiti artist.”

“Whatever you want, I’m in your capable hands.”

The way his eyes lit up, you would think the stylist had won the lottery. “And if anyone asks where you got your hair done, you’ll mention me?”

“I’ll practically take out a billboard.” With my wild punk look, I was easily recognizable as Tekgrrl on the street. Lainey could more easily blend in, and with her daughter in tow could have been any of the posh mommies that could afford to have their hair done here. Soon though, I too could start walking down the street incognito.

Lainey gently pushed the stroller next to her back and forth as a sleeping Emily threatened to stir. “So, how bad was he?”

“Who?”

“Wes. I knew I should have gone to that meeting, but he practically insisted I occupy Selena so she wouldn’t have to sit there and feel on the spot as we all talked about her. I should have known he’d take the moment to wind Paul up.”

“It’s not like he did it on purpose.”

Lainey gave me a look. She knew her husband better, I guess.

“It’s just that Paul is so easily wound up right now,” I said. “He’s been like that since Rath died. Rath gave Paul the job as field leader after he stopped that terrorist from killing all of those children back when I was a teenager. And Paul might be a pain a lot of the time, but he’s always been good at his job. He wants to step into the position of overall team leader…only I don’t know if he thinks he’s ready, judging by how tense he is. And it seems everyone else has unanimously decided on Wesley.”

“They’re going to have to work this out on their own. It’s getting ridiculous,” Lainey said. “Wesley has no patience for meetings and group dynamics and all of that, but he’s just going to have to get over it and deal. I don’t care if he is old and stuck in his ways.”

I smirked at her phrasing, considering his supposed twenty-one years of age. “Paul’s going to have to relinquish some control that he never had in the first place. Yes, he’s good at making command decisions on a mission, but that doesn’t mean he immediately gets the promotion to team leader. Maybe we just all need to sit him down and tell him we want Wesley to be the new boss. I think right now they’re both operating on the assumptions they’ve made, right or wrong, and maybe the team needs to sit down and tell them what’s what.”

Lainey shook her head. “Men. If we weren’t on the team, they’d probably end up beating the hell out of each other over something stupid, never bothering to sit down and talk about it. But I’ll tell Wesley to try to be a bit more diplomatic.”

“Maybe we can have Kate say something to Paul.”

“Yeah, but if they’re not getting along…”

“What’s up with that? Pretty bad when our own goddess of love can’t hold on. She’s the one who always ends up complaining that the relationship is boring and leaves. I bet she’s never actually been in love.”

“That’s actually kind of sad, really.” Lainey was such a softy. “To have lived as long as she has and to have never really loved anyone…”

“Why’s it so sad for her?” I groused. “I’ve been so wrapped up in work and…other things that I’ve never given any of the guys I’ve dated a chance to turn what we had into a relationship.”

We both knew that the unspoken “other things” were my unrequited feelings for Luke, but Lainey wisely left that well enough alone.

“Now that you’re giving the new hair and clothes thing a try, I think your dating life should be a fresh start, too. Who do we know that’s single? Heroes, of course.”

“On other teams?” I thought about it. “I don’t know. Desmond’s kind of cute.”

“Desmond the Comet?” At my nod, she frowned. “Isn’t he dating that Brazilian supermodel?”

“Like they all don’t date supermodels at some point.” The guys in our set were nothing if not predictable, either dating the drop-dead gorgeous female heroes whose uniforms looked like lingerie, or dating the women that actually modeled lingerie.

“What about the Illusionist?”

“We hooked up once when the EHJ and the Justice-bringers had to team up to stop that villain who was poisoning everyone with mind-control spores. He maintained the illusion that he was a decent guy until the next week, when he kept dodging my calls through his secretary.”

“Well, what about someone who’s not a hero?” Lainey resolved.

“What, like a villain? Interesting thought.”

She laughed. “No, like why don’t
you
date a hot underwear model? Or a quirky movie actor? Heaven knows you’ve attended enough social gatherings with celebrities.”

“They don’t like smart women.”

“What about a scientist then? You’re always helping them out.”

“They don’t like women smarter than them.” I sighed. “There really aren’t any quality single men in this town.”

The stylist shot me a glare. “What am I, chopped liver?”

“No quality, single,
straight
men,” I amended.

“With this new look, they’ll be flocking to you. You won’t have to hunt them down.” The stylist took my drape off with a flourish and turned me toward the mirror. “Ta-da!”

I hardly recognized my reflection. I had been transformed from someone trying to rebel into someone, well, glamorous. Nowhere near as glamorous as Kate or Selena, but someone less hard and more feminine. My wavy hair was now a dark chocolate brown with red highlights dancing among the waves, and the light blonde around my face somehow made my eyes bluer.

Lainey was grinning. “I love it! Do you love it, Min?” She looked nervous.

I was still staring at the stranger in the mirror. “Wow. I’m…pretty.”

“Never knew you had it in you, huh?” The stylist grinned. “Make sure you sing my praises now.”