Sweet Release (A Bad Boy Mafia Romance) (29 page)

Two minutes later, it rang again.

Fuck him. Fuck him and his military stance. Fuck him and his stupid ideas about reducing crime. I did everything he fucking wanted me to, and the only result was that now I was mourning my best friend.

The third time the phone rang I chucked it down onto the street and watched it shatter into a million pieces.

The destruction made me feel a little bit better. I punched the ledge of the building, and the bricks I was sitting on began to crack. I punched it again, and blood from my knuckles began to mix with the mortar dust I was bringing up.

Good. I deserved to fucking bleed. I deserved to hurt.

Suddenly, I heard the door to the roof open.

I looked back, and saw
her
.

Valerie. She looked over at me, and I saw the surprise register on her face.

“Zander? Zander Keats?” she asked, coming over. The sun was behind me, and she was squinting to see me. I could have flown off, and denied it was me, but I knew it was too late. Valerie was clever. She had already recognized me.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, coming up to me. Her mouth was parted just a tiny bit in confusion, and it took all I had not to devour her right then and there. Suddenly, her eyes widened in recognition.

“Ohhhh,” she whispered, and I knew she’d figured it out. I nodded.

Zander Keats had been the last person I’d expected to see when I came up on the roof.

But of course, when I did, everything began to make sense. There were three of them. They’d started robbing everyone just after the particle accelerator accident. Zander had saved me from the campus rapist just outside a building in which we were both in the same class. Strong Spice had that same bold red hair as Samantha Collins.

No wonder my brain had recognized something when I saw Inferno, I just couldn’t place what.

Now he was standing in front of me, and I had no idea what he was feeling. I just knew I had to be there for him.

I hadn’t realized that he was Zander until I got up on the roof, but I’d seen enough to know that Inferno was affected by Acid’s death.

I had only been three blocks away from the bank when everything went down, doing some shopping at the Chinatown markets. So when people started talking and heading that way, I joined the crowd. I didn’t see exactly what had happened, but I saw the body. I didn’t need to touch him to know that Acid was dead.

Then all of a sudden a ball of flame consumed him, and I knew exactly where it had come from. I remembered that Inferno and Acid had been friends once, that originally they all stole things together. So I waited. I wanted to give Inferno time to himself, and after an hour or so, I headed to the roof. Just in case he wanted to talk.

And now I was looking into the eyes of Zander Keats, the asshole on the football team who also went by Inferno.

Who I’d had sex with twice.

Who I’d gone on the best date of my life with right here just a couple days earlier.

Whose life I’d saved, and who’d saved mine twice.

“Do you want to talk?” I asked.

“No,” he replied, walking back over to the ledge and sitting back down on it, his legs dangling down below. I walked over to where he was and sat down on the roof, my back against the ledge. I didn’t say anything. We just sat there like that for I don’t know how long. It had to be at least an hour.

I spent the whole time thinking about how I didn’t put two and two together before. How I’d never figured it out before.

In hindsight, it was so obvious. That group of three couldn’t have been anyone else. How I hadn’t seen it before, I wasn’t sure.

And of course, now I was going to have to change my opinion of Zander Keats, wasn’t I? After all, I knew him a lot better now. Of course, I knew him as Inferno, but they were still the same person.

I remembered how close Zander and Keith Andrews were, too. They were always together in class, and everyone knew they were the two best players on the football team. I figured he must be hurting right now.

Eventually, Zander spoke.

“What’s the point of trying to be a hero when there’s no real justice in the world?”

I wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, but Zander kept talking before I could think of what to say.

“I know, those do-gooder pussies out there will all say that he shouldn’t have been trying to rob that bank in the first place. Well you know what? Fuck them.”

He swung his legs back over the ledge and turned so we were facing the same way.

“Keith was getting out, you know? He came to see me yesterday. He said he was ashamed of what he was doing, and that this was going to be his last heist. One last rush, before he moved on with his life. He was going to play in the NFL. He was going to have a life.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I replied. I hadn’t realized that Acid was about to stop robbing people. I hadn’t realized this was going to be his last heist.

“And you know what? It’s my fault he’s dead. It’s my fucking fault. It’s happened again.”

“What do you mean, it’s happened again?”

Zander looked down at me, and the pain in his eyes was so deep, I knew this was something big. He waited for a minute before answering, like he was trying to decide if it was ok to tell me.

“You have to understand,” he finally started. “I’ve never told anyone this before.”

“Ok,” I said softly.

“When I was twelve years old, I pretended to have a stomach ache, so the school called my mom to come take me home. She was at work. She was a single mom; I never knew my dad. She worked really hard, and we didn’t really have much, but she always taught me to be a good person. I knew I wasn’t being a good person by lying about my stomach ache, but I really didn’t want to write the math test we had to do that day.”

He paused for a minute. I waited with bated breath. I knew what Inferno was telling me was eating away at him.

“Normally I’d just walk home. But she didn’t want me to, not with a stomach ache. So she splurged on a taxi to come pick me up and take me back to our apartment. Three blocks from the school a businessman on his phone T-boned the cab. My mom was killed instantly.”

My breath caught in my throat. I hadn’t realized Zander Keats was an orphan. That story was an absolute tragedy.

“I’ve always blamed myself. I never told anyone about the fact that I faked the stomach ache. I was too embarrassed. Too ashamed. If I hadn’t been such a fucking pussy, if I’d just failed that math test like a man, my mom would still be here today.”

“God, you were twelve years old. It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known that was going to happen.”

“But I knew that faking the stomach ache was wrong. And knowing or not, because of my actions, my mom died. And today, the same thing happened. The same fucking thing. I knew Keith was going to steal that shit. And I’d decided to let him do it. I was standing there, in the crowd, watching. I wasn’t going to interrupt. One last heist, then he was done. And because I decided to hang back and let him do it, he fucking died. I’m not a hero. I never was a hero. Heroes don’t make bad decisions. Heroes don’t end up getting their only parent killed. Or their best friend.”

My heart absolutely broke for Inferno. Zayne. However I should be calling him now. I reached up and took his hand in mine.

“All I know is that if it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead right now. You’ll always be a hero to me. Everyone makes mistakes. Even people who can fly. You did what you thought was the best move with the information you had at the time. That’s all anyone can ever do. No one can see the future. Not even you.”

He squeezed my hand, gently.

“You know, you’re really special, Valerie,” he told me. “I wish… I wish things didn’t have to be like this.”

“Be like what?”

He stood up and helped me to my feet.

“I’m leaving, Val. I can’t be here anymore. I can’t be Inferno. And I can’t be with you.”

My heart sunk like a rock at those words.

“What? Why?” I found I cared a lot more than I thought I did about my relationship with him.

“It’s too dangerous. Everyone I get close to always ends up dying. Especially now that I’m Inferno, the risk is just so high. What if someone found out who I was? What if someone found out we were seeing each other? If they went after you to get at me. I just wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

“So you’re just going to shut yourself away? Live like a hermit for the rest of your life?”

“If it meant saving yours, I’d never speak to another human being again,” he told me, one of his fingers brushing my cheek lightly before slipping a loose strand of hair back behind my ear.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Tears filled my eyes. I realized, I cared. I cared about Inferno. I wanted to be in his life.

“You don’t have to do this, you know. This is my life. I know the risks, I can accept them.”

He closed his eyes and shook his head.

“No, you don’t know the risks. You can’t know them. Even I don’t know all the risks associated with me. I could drop dead any second. No one knows what happened to us. No one even knows why we’re alive. You’re a much better person than I am, Valerie. You deserve happiness. You deserve health. You deserve a long life. You’re not going to get any of those with me around.”

He leaned down then and kissed me softly on the lips. Then he grabbed the back of my hair and pulled me to him as he kissed me hard, passionately. I pressed back against him, wanting to touch him, wanting to meld with him, wanting to become one so he couldn’t let me go. Then, before I knew it, he pulled away. He looked at me sadly, and flew off towards the sun.

Inferno had flown too close, and he’d been burned.

So how come I was the one who felt like breaking down and crying?

Letting Valerie go was one of the hardest things I’d ever done in my life. I wanted more than anything to take her in my arms, fuck her senseless, and make her mine forever.

But I knew I couldn’t. I had to let her go. It was for her own good. She’d be safer away from me. I was a dangerous guy to be around.

I knew my identity would be safe with her. I trusted Valerie more than I trusted anyone else in the world. She was a good person. Too good for someone like me. I wasn’t a good person. I wasn’t a hero.

I flew back to my apartment and put on my suit. Inferno was coming out one last time.

Flying over to the police station nearest to where Keith had died, I landed on the roof of the building opposite, and waited. I had to be quiet, there were a handful of reporters waiting outside, and I didn’t want them to see me. No one could know I was there.

It took three hours before the guard who had shot Keith was finally escorted out of the building. If he had been led away in handcuffs, that would have been one thing. But no, he was being flanked by the cops like they were his bodyguards. He had a grin on his face as he beamed for the cameras that came running forward. They were treating him like a fucking hero.

A true hero wouldn’t have killed a man over a few million dollars. It wasn’t even his money. He killed a guy because it was his job. His $20 an hour fucking job.

The lighter was already in my hand. I flicked it on, letting the flame sit at my side for a minute. Then, I ordered the flame downwards.

A javelin of fire pierced the air as it dove down from the roof towards the guard. He looked up at the last second before it hit him, and I saw the flames reflecting in his eyes as he faced his death, the same death Keith had suffered at his hands earlier that day.

As soon as the fire hit him, the man’s clothes combusted. He began screaming as the cops around ran away. One went towards the car, presumably to fetch a fire extinguisher. I didn’t care; I could outdo a fire extinguisher any day of the week.

I watched the man burning to death, the man who had killed my best friend.

Suddenly, I thought of Valerie. I thought of what she would think. And for fuck’s sake, I realized I actually gave a shit.

She’d tell me that Keith’s death wasn’t my fault, but that this one would be entirely on me. She’d tell me about how the man was just doing his job, even if I disagreed with it. She’d tell me that there was a whole other family out there that would be feeling just as shitty as I was feeling now, and was that really right?

I grabbed at my head. I didn’t want to be feeling her touchy-feely shit. I didn’t want to feel guilty about this. I just wanted it done. I wanted to get my revenge on the man who took my best friend from me.

I cried out, suddenly, and the fire engulphing the guard was suddenly extinguished. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill a man in cold blood. And it wasn’t even because I wasn’t that heartless. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was I knew how disappointed Valerie would be.

The reporters were so focused on the man, now lying on the ground, smoke rising from his extensive wounds that they didn’t bother looking up to the roof where I stood over them, watching. I didn’t know if the man was going to survive. That wasn’t up to me anymore. And I didn’t really give that much of a shit anyway.

I flew off to my next stop. Keith’s apartment.

It didn’t matter that I didn’t have a key, I knew he always left his bedroom window unlocked, since he liked to leave it open a crack at night, even when it was minus a billion degrees out. I flew in and looked at the bed. The bed Keith had slept in thousands of times, and would never sleep in again.

Fuck.

The whole place felt eerily silent. I made my way to the cupboard, where Keith had told me he kept his stash of money. Suddenly I felt something brushing against my leg.  I looked down and saw Potato, Keith little white and orange cat. Potato had been a stray kitten who followed Keith home one day. Keith brought him to the apartment and fed him some tuna, and Potato decided to stay. To heart Keith tell it, he didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

It turned out Potato was still fiercely independent after living his first few months on the street, but Keith still loved the little guy. I wondered what the hell he was doing brushing against my leg; Potato rarely allowed anyone to actually touch him.

He moved over to the door and meowed at me. I walked over towards him, and Potato left to go into the living room. When I made my way out there, I saw him sitting in front of his food dish.

“Oh, you haven’t decided you miss me, or Keith, you’re just upset no one’s fed you in a few hours,” I muttered to myself as I went into the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards to find some cat food.

Leaving the cat to munch away at his late lunch, I went back to Keith’s bedroom. I found the spot he meant in the back of the cupboard, and a few minutes later I had literally tens of millions of dollars’ worth of jewellery, cash and artwork sitting on his bed. I was pretty sure one of the works was an original Rembrandt.

What the fuck was I going to do with all of this?

I wondered what Keith would have wanted. Would he have wanted his family to have it? No, he would have had to explain how he came across millions of dollars. Plus, his family had always been middle class. They weren’t starving or anything.

Would he have wanted me to sort out what belonged to who, and give it back? I almost laughed at the thought.

Would he have wanted me to have it? Even if he did, I didn’t want it. I had enough of the money from my few heists with him and Sam that I didn’t need it.

Maybe I could sort this out later. For now, I had to get this stuff out of Keith’s apartment, so that when people realized he was missing, they wouldn’t find the stuff and figure out he was Acid.

I found a couple big duffle bags and shoved everything into them. They were packed to the brim. Damn, he and Sam had been busy, no wonder he was expecting to be able to retire from thieving after today’s take.

Making my way back to the window, I opened it and got ready to fly out when I heard a meow behind me. Potato was sitting on the bed, his tail swishing slightly, his face accusing.

“You know Keith’s not coming back, don’t you?” I told him, sighing. Keith loved that cat. Everyone else hated him – he was so independent, and just never wanted any affection from anyone – but Keith always insisted that Potato just had his own personality.

I couldn’t leave him here to starve. Who knew how long it would be before Keith’s family didn’t hear from him for a while and reported him missing? I wasn’t sure how often he spoke to them. It could be days, but it could also be weeks, or months.

“Fine,” I muttered, heading back to the kitchen. I took all the cat food from the cupboard and added it to the duffel bag, along with a full bag of cat litter, then found a small Camelback bag Keith used when he’d go mountain biking. I took the water holder out and went over to Potato. He didn’t fight me as I picked him up and put him in the bag, zipping it up so his little head still poked out, but the rest of his body was secure. It was like he understood what was going on, that I was here to help.

I put the camelback on my back. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of having Potato’s teeth so close to my head, but there wasn’t really any other way to get him out of here. I looked outside before taking off. Luckily Keith’s window looked over an almost-always empty alley, and so even though it was the middle of the afternoon in Olympus, there was no one around watching.

Flying up to the top of the alley above the buildings, I made my way back to my apartment, Keith’s takings and my new pet in tow. Potato, at least, seemed to enjoy the flight. He was silent, except for the occasional meow, and he didn’t try to eat the back of my head, for which I was pretty thankful. As soon as we made it into my place safely, he ran behind the couch and stayed there.

“Fine,” I muttered to him. “I kind of wish I could hide from everything too right now.”

I put the duffel bags full of money in my closet, grabbed a beer from the fridge and drank to Keith, the man who would have been an NFL player if he’d made it through today.

Fuck everything.