Super Born: Seduction of Being (37 page)

“
Going somewhere?” said Carmine
Camino, fresh off the front page of the newspaper, the leading
suspect in the beer truck explosion that had almost killed the
B.I.B. He was the only one who didn’t have his gun at the
ready.

I backed back into the apartment, holding
Rebecca behind me. The six of them followed me in. “Nice shit hole
you have here,” Carmine said, looking around at my place. When he
caught me glancing at the windows, he added, “Don’t even think
about it. There’s four more of us outside waiting. You’re not going
anywhere…anywhere I don’t want you to go.” He moved toward Rebecca
as the others surrounded her. “So this is her, huh?…The ‘B’ fucking
‘I.B.’”

“
What? You think she’s the B.I.B.?”
I asked, astonished and a bit relieved. “Don’t you look in the
papers, or at my website?” I turned to the laptop, which Rebecca
turned on, and surfed to the picture of the B.I.B. “That look like
her to you? If she was the B.I.B. you’d be splattered over the
walls by now. This is my…girlfriend, Rebecca. Sorry to disappoint
you.”

Carmine checked the laptop picture and several
others on the site. From beside him, Dennis Mastrangelo, the thug
who had bragged to the paper about cutting the B.I.B. with a knife
during the Tony “The Tool” escape attempt, chimed in. “It ain’t
her, boss.” When Carmine was satisfied, he gave a mean look at one
of his men, and the big thug shrugged apologetically.

Carmine appeared to think for a moment as he
paced. He stopped and nodded to the man nearest Rebecca, who then
lowered his gun and took hold of her arms and pinned them behind
her. Rebecca yelped.

“
You know,” began Carmine
thoughtfully, “if she’s the B.I.B., I don’t think she’s gonna let
me shoot her.” He gestured to another of his men who put his gun in
Rebecca’s face. “And if she isn’t, I don’t think you’re gonna want
me to be killing her. Care to test my theory?” he asked, getting in
my face. “I’m gonna have them pull the trigger in a minute. If
she’s the B.I.B., let’s see her outrun a bullet from an inch
away.”

“
Don’t do that. She’s not the
B.I.B.; she’s totally innocent!” I begged them.

“
Well then, my friend, I’m not
leaving empty-handed. If she’s not the B.I.B., you, my friend, know
where the B.I.B. is. Tell me, or we pull the trigger and find out
for sure.”

I hoped desperately that the B.I.B.
was about to crash through the door and dispose of these
mugs.
Allie, where are
you
? I wondered. I wanted anyone to be in
charge of saving us, anyone but myself. “No, no wait!” I
pleaded.

Carmine appeared disgusted. “What kind of man
are you?” he asked, putting his gun to my head. “You’re gonna let
me kill her when you could save her? Tell me, or we do you both,
right now!” He gave me a minute to respond. When all I could do was
stammer and plead, he nodded to his gunman. “Maybe watching her die
will make you remember.”

The gunman showed no hesitation and pulled the
trigger—or should I say, tried to pull the trigger. Carmine’s gun
wouldn’t budge either, or his gun would have gone off in my face.
Thank goodness Rebecca had talked to her mechanical friends and
told them to freeze.

As Carmine ripped the strap off his shoulder
and prepared to hit me with his gun—and I prepared to ward off the
blow—Rebecca went limp in the thug’s arms, her eyes turned black,
and translucent, vaporous clouds began to form around Carmine and
the three thugs nearest him. An instant of surprise and awe flashed
across their faces before they faded and disappeared with the
clouds, leaving only black stains on the floor and a stench in the
air.

With no gunman left to hold her up, Rebecca
fell to the ground as I caught Carmine’s falling gun, drew back the
bolt, and pointed it in the direction of the remaining henchmen. It
was my best, and only, James Bond move of the night, but I found
the front door open and heard the sounds of the henchmen’s boots as
they beat feet. As the escapees exited my apartment building, I
heard more voices, yelling, and the sounds of fighting. Was another
group outside waiting for us? Was it the B.I.B. come to stop them?
I only had a second to wonder.

I slammed and locked the door, then ran over to
Rebecca. Her eyes began to clear, and she started to make erratic
movements with her arms and legs. She seemed drained of all energy.
When her eyes were bright again, I sat her up. “You
okay?”

She appeared dazed and uncertain of where she
was. She looked around the room to the black marks and assault
rifles that marked where men had been. “Where’d….what…” Then a look
of terror covered her face. “I killed them, didn’t I? I killed them
all!”

I wrapped her in my arms. “No! You saved us!
You saved me! They were going to kill us, whether you stopped their
guns from working or not.”

Rebecca’s lips began to quake and tears formed
in her eyes.

“
There’s no time!” I tried to shake
her. “There’s no time for this! We have to go!” I dragged her to
her feet. “Come on,” I said, as I grabbed for her bag with one arm
while cradling her in the other. She was still sobbing as we walked
down the hall, down the stairs, and into the basement. Above us, I
could hear the shuffling of feet running into my apartment. I
quickly led her to the old door.

I was right; it hadn’t been opened for some
time. But I was wrong in thinking I was going to open it. Three
pushes and a shoulder-butt later, I was convinced that it wasn’t
going to move. I looked Rebecca in her tear-filled eyes. “Rebecca,
Rebecca, focus. Can you open this door?” I shook her by the
shoulders. “Open this door or we’re gonna die! There’s more of
them! They’ll find us here!”

She shook her head. “What does it matter who
kills me? I’m a killer myself!”

I shook her again until she looked up at me.
“You’re no killer, you pizza-eating pain in the ass. You saved my
butt, and now I’ve got to get you out of here. I need your
help.”

She sniffled, smiled and seemed to settle down.
“It was sweet the way you stroked my hair.”

I was stunned and suddenly felt
guilty, as I’d thought she was asleep. Then came the other
surprise.
Me? Sweet?

Then she looked at the door. It shook and
quivered, then popped open with a screech. The stairwell outside
the door was full of debris and surrounded by bushes, offering
perfect cover for us. I watched as two more men dressed in black
ran toward the front door. It was our chance, and we hunched over
as we ran into the darkness.

Chapter 32

The Flight to Nirvana

When I saw the mess of his apartment, I knew
he’d be looking for a place where no one would find him. Either
that or they already had taken him away, as his car was still in
the lot. Something intuitive told me he had escaped. I just felt
it, but what of Rebecca? Who had made this move on him? Where was
that bitch Jennifer?

Well, in this town, if you wanted to go where
no one would find you or even think of looking, there was just one
place to go: O’Malley’s. It’s where I had gone to disappear. I bet
that he was there too.

When I entered, I turned to the old barkeep,
who was drying glasses behind the bar. With his towel, he gestured
at the booth where Logan an I had had our dinner and drinks that
night. The booth appeared empty, but when I lifted the plastic
tablecloth, there he was, sitting on the floor, surrounded by empty
bottles. “Logan, you look like shit,” I said. The barkeep just
shook his head, shooing away an RFD who was climbing on the bar
like it was a jungle gym in a playground.

I dragged Logan out from under the table. We
sat together in the booth, side by side, for greater privacy. “What
happened?” I asked.

Logan sighed. “It was the mob, the new guy,
Camino. They thought Rebecca was you. When they realized the
mistake, they tried to make me tell them where you were. They were
going to kill us both.”

I put my hands to my temples. “This is getting
serious.”

He nodded. “Oh, yeah, you can say that,” he
said, taking a drink from the bottom of the bottle that climbed out
from under the table with him.

“
Where’s Rebecca? How’d you get
away?”

He looked up at the ceiling for a long moment.
“She’s on her way up into the mountains. There’s a little B&B I
know about. Very private and untraceable…She’ll be safe,” he said,
nodding, as if in agreement with himself.

I put my hand on his shoulder. ”What happened?
Where’s Camino?”

He laughed. “Gone! They’re just
gone.”

“
How? What do you mean?”

He finally noticed my hand on his
shoulder. I let it drop.
“Rebecca did it
all. I was useless. She made their guns jam, then she vaporized
them, poof, gone “What do you mean, gone?”

Logan gave me a serious look, as if from the
grave. “Her eyes went to black and I watched Camino dissolve into
the air…He had this shocked look on his face. He couldn’t believe
what was happening to him. Then he and his men were gone. I’ll
never forget the look on his face…or that smell.”

“
Now we know she’s a killer,” I
said, lowering my head.

“
No, it’s not like that. She didn’t
want to kill anyone. She only did it when they were about to kill
us. It almost drained the life out of her. She fucking
cried!”

I put my finger over my lips as we had done
those nights before, “shhhing” him.. He responded by nodding and
putting his finger over his lips too, but it wasn’t amusing
now.

I thought for a moment. ”They’re after you too.
So, if you don’t think she’s in on this, why aren’t you up in the
mountains with her?”

Logan locked his eyes on mine. “Because of
you.” He raised his hand and ran it over my cheek and down my neck,
following it with his lips. My mind raced, even as my neck extended
to invite him. Then he looked at me and ran his hands over my
shoulders like I was a work of art. In a flash, his chest was
against me, and his lips were pressing mine. It was a remarkable
and intense kiss. If I had let him, it would have lasted all night
long. But then thoughts of those searching for me, along with
images of Paige and the college boys I’d left in the hotel in Vegas
flashed in my head. Despite the warmth and excitement that his
contact had stirred, I pushed him back. I sat without speaking for
a long time. “Guess I know why you’re here and not up in the
mountains,” I said with certainty.

Finally I said, “If Camino is gone, who else is
after you? Jennifer Lowe?”

“
At least,” Logan answered, “There
were three, four, five cars following me at the end. Everyone
thinks I know how to find you. Camino’s men were fighting with
someone else as they ran away. It’s like sharks with blood in the
water now.”

“
Sorry I got you into this
mess.”

He laughed out loud. “I’ve got no one to blame
but myself. You didn’t ask for any of this. It was me. That’s
right; it was me…I’m not proud of putting you at risk with my
website, but other than that, you know, Allie, I wouldn’t change a
thing, not a fucking thing!”

I put my fingers to my lips, but it still
wasn’t funny.

Logan took my hands in his, and the electric
warmth spread all over again. “Allie, I wanted to find you, and now
I have. I wouldn’t change that for anything.”

What a sweet…deluded, drunken man, I thought.
Why was I giving Logan such a hard time, pushing him away every
time he tried to get close? He seemed sincere, and after all, I was
the one who had marked him in the first place. But what was the
use, if he was just another man I would break? His touch felt
different, though, electric…and that kiss…

* * *

With my bravado and razor-sharp reasoning that
night, I ultimately convinced the B.I.B. that I knew someone who we
could trust, someone who could help us. We sat in the booth while
the RFDs flew by in a tragic Chair-idiot race.

“
His name is Dr. Jones. He lives
nearby. You must have seen him on TV.”

“
Not really.”

“
I was with him the first night we
met…right over there,” I said pointing to the Jones-and-Logan
memorial table.

“
That creepy little guy?”

“
Yeah, that’s him.”

“
How is he going to
help?”

“
He is the foremost expert on you
Super Born women. He knows all about where you came from, and the
epsilon particles that made you the way you are.”

“
Epsilon?”

“
It’s a long story. Let’s just say,
he knows what’s going on, and he has the connections, money, and
resources to protect us, all of us. He’s our best
chance.”

“
I don’t know. I know you’re your
friends and everything, but I think there’s something weird about
that guy.”

“
You can say that again. I’m not
asking you to trust him, just trust meHe just lives a few miles
away. I don’t know who’s watching my car. Why don’t you fly us over
there. No one could follow us then.”

Okay, maybe it wasn’t my razor-sharp reasoning,
but eventually Allie agreed. She slipped into the ladies room and
returned wearing the black jumpsuit and mask she always wore while
flying.