Temptress (9 page)

I dropped my towel and slipped in, stealthily glancing under the water. Tank was wearing boxers. I sipped the wine to cover my blush. One-track mind, much?

“So,” Tank said.

“So.” I slipped closer to him.

He set down his beer and shrugged an arm around my shoulders. “What are we doing?”

“Don’t know.” I gazed up, and Tank met my eyes. His expression was complex. Confused and worried, but half-lidded with desire. I wanted to touch him so bad my fingers tingled. “Can we just go with it?”

“Hell.” Tank swung across my body, pressing me to the tub with his hips, and it felt like lightning wherever our skin touched. He pinned my arms above my head and kissed the line of my jaw.

He hadn’t gone for the lips. This wasn’t about powers. My chest constricted, and I wrapped my legs around Tank’s body, drawing him closer.

I was so falling for him.

Tank pulled back and gazed down at me with naked desire. “If we do this…” his voice was husky.

“Tank.” I yanked him closer. “Shut up.” I didn’t want to talk consequences. I wanted him. Slowly, he lowered himself to kiss me.

I closed my eyes, waiting. Waiting.

Still waiting.

I peeked through my lashes and froze. It was like time had stopped. The whirlpool jets cut, and Tank hardly moved. His eyes glassed over. I reached for him, but my hand wouldn’t move.

“Well, this is awkward.” A female voice spoke from the doorway. My eyes were like rusted bowling balls in their sockets, but I managed to get a look. Red hair. Tight dress.

Deena.

“Drake isn’t going to like it,” she said. “You good, Sam?”

A minion with a goatee nodded at her shoulder. This would be the time freeze guy. Why were they at my place? And couldn’t they have waited half an hour?

Frickin’ A.

I reached for any power I could grab, but the minion knew what he was doing. Nothing. Tank’s gaze was empty, but at least I was still with it.

Sam and Deena hoisted Tank from the water while I sat frozen. As soon as he was out, Deena brushed the droplets from her dress with a scowl. “Get Thinktank back to base. I’ll take care of her.”

The scene blurred, and Sam disappeared with Tank in tow. Deena muscled me out of the tub and let go. My butt thwacked the concrete. It stung, but it was nothing compared to the kind of pain I was used to. That, and my system ran on Vicodin.

Deena pulled a tiny gun from her clutch and fiddled with a rectangular case. I caught a glimpse of feathered darts.

The bitch was going to tranq me?

My toes twitched. Goatee guy’s power was loosening, but I wouldn’t be able to beat Deena in a fight. Best tactic? Save her for later.

It took all my strength to summon the power I wanted. I controlled the energy, targeting the phase shift directly at her feet. This time, she couldn’t get away.

The ground rippled, and Deena screeched. She jumped, but as soon as she landed, she plunged to her calves, and her case of darts tumbled away. I let the power go and the floor solidified, trapping her where she stood. She couldn’t reach me or her ammunition.

Which was good, because a lance of pain jabbed my body. I’d thought I was recovered from the scene at the casino, but apparently not.

The world fuzzed. I hoped Tank was okay. Wherever he was, I’d get him back.

We had unfinished business, and I wanted my kiss.

Water soaked me. Ice cold. Not from a hot tub. My eyes wouldn’t focus.

Where was Jenny?

“Finally awake?” The guy sounded amused, and his voice was slightly nasal. I could already tell he was a douche bag. When I finally blinked him into focus, my assessment was confirmed. Frosted tips, clothes out of a menswear catalog and a cocky smile. I would’ve hit him, but I was tied to a chair.

“Drake,” I guessed.

“Knew you were a smart one.” Drake took a seat on the other side of a sprawling mahogany desk. Four monitors surrounded him, and a fifth one faced me, recording with a web cam.

“What is this?” I strained against the ropes, but it was a professional job. I hardly had room to breathe, though I managed to turn my head. It was a bland office, with no Jenny in sight.

“An auction.” Drake rattled off some keystrokes. “And the bidding begins at one million. You’re going to make me a rich man, Mr. Hero. Well, a richer man.” He leaned forward and the glowing screens reflected in his eyes. “Hope you were being good to my Jenny.”

“Your—” The web cam showed the vein pulsing in my neck. “What did you do to her?”

“Left her right at home where she’s safe. I’ll stop by later and hide all this from her memory. You too. I don’t like heroes messing with my girl’s heart.”

“I’ll kill you.” It came out as a growl. Who was this bastard?

“Yes.” Drake’s fingers flew over his keyboard. “Get angry. One of the heiresses just upped it to fifty mil, though between you and me, I’m hoping the villains win out.”

If he was serious, I was royally screwed. The villains I’d worked against would pay through the nose to get me on a rack, and they wouldn’t kill me. I’d just
want
to die.

I needed my powers. In three seconds I could hack his mind, read every thought he’d ever had and overtake his will. Without powers, I couldn’t get myself out of the fucking chair.

“She won’t come for you,” Drake said. “Temptress isn’t the rescuing kind of girl. I made sure of that.”

No? I smiled. “You don’t know her as well as you think.”

Chapter Nine

My skull throbbed, and a really annoying bird kept screeching in my ears. I shivered. Night had settled in, and I lay on the balcony in nothing but a string bikini.

Deena was screaming.

Red marks scored her legs, but no amount of clawing was going to get her free. I bet the points of her heels poked through the ceiling below us.

I wrenched myself to my feet and staggered for her. The bitch tried to slap me, but I grabbed both of her wrists. “Before I do this, I have to say that you’re really not my type.”

She tried to turn her head, but I lunged, head-butting her as I stole my kiss. Her perfume made me cough, but I held on until her powers rushed into me. As the energy left her, she slumped. With feet stuck, her knees bent back until her shoulder blades touched the ground.

That had to be uncomfortable.

I spat. I should’ve interrogated Deena before taking her powers, but I wasn’t in the mood for reason. Where was Tank?

I could picture him in the moment he’d frozen, inches away from a kiss that I was pretty sure would’ve rocked my world. The penthouse was quiet without him. It had only been a few days, but I was already used to having Tank around.

I wanted him there permanently.

But how was I going to find him?

At the thought, one of my powers resonated, and I pulled it from my internal pile. It still smelled vaguely of perfume.

Deena. What was her power?

I rolled it around, but it was hard to say when I’d never seen Deena do anything. She mostly stood around or chased after people.

Chasing. The power gave another throb of resonance. Was that what she did? I eased into the ability and thought of Tank. Dark, caring eyes, muscles for days and his fabulous waffles.

It was like gazing down from a satellite. An office building grew in my vision. It was in Manhattan, surrounded by a haze that reminded me of Drake’s invisi-bubble, but Deena’s powers cut through like clear air. A security force armed with assault rifles guarded doors and hallways, but the ones without guns were more worrisome. Supers. Dozens of them. I recognized them from the federal database. Mostly petty criminals or ones that hadn’t been seen in a while.

They shouldn’t have been working together, and there was no way in hell an operation like that could go unnoticed in the middle of Manhattan. The picture zoomed to an office on one of the upper floors. Drake sat surrounded by computer monitors, while Tank thrashed against the ropes binding him to his chair. I jerked so hard the power slipped from my grasp and stumbled under a wave of dizziness.

Why did Drake want Tank? Between the vision of our past and the sight of Tank helpless, I didn’t have a choice. It was my fault he’d been taken. And I’d be damned if I didn’t get my kiss.

I had to go after him.

Leaving Deena where she’d collapsed, I stormed inside. Tank’s coat still hung over a chair in the kitchen. I clutched it, inhaling his cologne. It was strange how he’d rooted himself in my life so quickly.

A weight shifted in the coat’s pocket, and I reached in, coming up with his cell.

Calling for help wasn’t in my playbook, but even at one-hundred percent I’d be hard pressed to take down that kind of force. Scratch that. I could do it, but there wouldn’t be any survivors. I needed allies, and lucky for me, Tank had a ready set of them.

I punched the first number in call history: Red Ruin.

“Brother,” Ruin answered after a ring. I could hear the other heroes clamoring in the background. “You were supposed to call. We—”

“This is Temptress speaking,” I lowered my voice, making it as sultry as a phone sex operator. “Ruin, right?”

“Where’s Tank?” The background noise went silent, in a coiled kind of stillness. Tank’s buddies were not going to be happy with me.

“Kidnapped,” I purred. Might as well play the role.

“You—”

“I know where he is. We need to rescue him. Now.”

Ruin gripped the phone so hard I could hear his knuckles. “Where?”

“I’ll come to you. Fifteen minutes.” I flipped the phone closed. They’d absolutely go without me if I gave them the info, and with Deena’s power, I could find the Ten at their doorstep.

First, I needed to get out of my bikini.

Regular Jenny would’ve saved the day in yoga pants and a tank, but I was channeling my alter ego. I wanted my man back, and I’d see Drake in cuffs before the end of the night. Kicking ass was easier when I played the part, and even seasoned heroes tended to pause and ogle. Showing skin was the secret to my success.

I bee-lined to my closet, rummaging piece by piece for the most ridiculous Temptress outfit I could assemble. There was a lot more black leather than I remembered. I unearthed a pair of skintight shorts that laced up the sides and a scandalous leather bustier with pops of lace. The ensemble paired nicely with thigh-high red boots. For the hell of it, I threw on the scarlet cape I’d worn for Halloween.

I took a running start and leapt off the balcony, triggering Deena’s powers while I flew. The Manhattan Ten were staying at New York, New York. It must’ve made them feel like they were still guarding their post.

Letting the image go, I dropped a few feet as dizziness swamped me. I battled waves of nausea through the air and finally careened onto the balcony at their suite.

As side effects went, it wasn’t the worst, but it made me more vulnerable than I wanted to be, and every power I used added to my exhaustion. I wasn’t eighteen anymore.

The Ten had closed their curtains, but the sliding door was open. Typical heroes. They thought they were invincible. I went invisible and waited for a gust of wind. When the curtain shifted, I slipped into the room.

“She’s got two minutes.” Ruin paced the living room. The whole bachelor party crew—minus Steel and Tank—was assembled. Cyclone, Jet and Annihilator sat on barstools while Panther sprawled on a couch. Thunder stood about a foot from me, leaning against the glass door. As long as I didn’t sneeze, they’d never notice me. Without Tank, they were as lost as I was.

“Do we have a plan?” Panther scratched his whiskers.

“We get him back, and then we take care of that bitch.” Ruin smacked the wall.

Thunder turned to squint at the curtain blowing behind me. I must’ve made a noise. So much for stealth.

“You got the first part right.” I flashed visible, flipping my hair over my shoulder.

Thunder jumped, and an ear-splitting boom echoed through the suite. The other heroes leapt from their seats, calling their powers until energy crackled like Fourth of July fireworks.

“Temptress.” Red lightning danced over Ruin’s arms as he approached. “Where is he?”

I appreciated that his leader and best friend had been abducted because of me, and that I was on Ruin’s turf, but I liked being threatened even less than I liked being called a bitch. Tank had stopped my powers, and I was guessing he could stop theirs. I channeled him, but moved deeper than mind reading as I focused on the heroes surrounding me. It was kind of like holding a paper shield in front of a herd of stampeding elephants, but I gritted my teeth and forced it to work. One by one, their powers fizzled.

“You really have them.” Ruin stared at his arms, naked without their lightning.

A headache built at the back of my skull, but I held on. I couldn’t show weakness. “I’ve got the plan too.”

I swept past the heroes. Rows of liquor bottles and shot glasses lined the bar. I poured a quick shot of Grey Goose and knocked it back. The cold booze stung the back of my throat as it went down. I was going to need the extra support to survive the night.