Free Banging the Superhero by Rebecca Royce Page A

Ace turned with equally surprised looks on their faces. "You're a smart woman. You saw what happened to me on television and what's happening with this lunatic. I'm only alive because of Ace."
    Oh God, had her voice just broke? Ace stepped forward and she held up her hand to stop his advance. She couldn't show weakness in front of her mother. Or, at the very least, any more weakness than she already had.
    "Someone knows about the dreams. I don't think you hired this man to kill me. It would cost a lot of money—and you never take any from me—plus, you would have to admit you were my mother to someone who didn't know. So tell me, who knew about the dreams?"
    Her mother sighed. "No one outside the family except the doctor knew."
    That didn't surprise Alice. Not one bit.
    Ace interrupted. "Did you hire The Mask to come after your daughter?"
    Alice exhaled a loud breath. No, her mother hadn't done that.
    "I most certainly did not."
    Ace nodded, walking to Alice's side. He didn't touch her, which was a smart move because if anyone tried to handle her while she felt this out of control she would explode.

    "Who else knew?"
    Her mother exhaled. "My brother."
    Alice closed her eyes. "Grayson."
    "Alice?" Ace's voice made her open her eyes to look at him. He narrowed his blue eyes as he stared into hers. "Grayson is your uncle. The man who hired me, the one who met me by the elevators and brought me to you."
    "He's Uncle Gray."
    "Damn it."
    Ace tapped his foot on the floor. She looked down at it. Ace was such a put together person. The foot moving seemed a completely unconscious gesture.
    "What's wrong? This is a good thing. We needed to know who knew."
    "I can't talk to you right now." He spoke the words through gritted teeth and Alice's eyes got wide. Ace stormed through the door to the front yard, evidently expecting her to follow. She would. There were things, however, she had to do to first.
    Shaking her head, she sighed. "Why do you hate me?"
    Her mother looked up from her roast, eyes wide. Then she burst out laughing.
    "Wow, you've finally grown a backbone."
    "I've always had one." She wasn't going to let her mother insult her way out of this. "Answer the question."
    "It's not that I hate you, Alice. I simply don't feel we have very much in common.
    You have your life—and it seems, from all accounts, to be a good one. It's got nothing to do with my own."
    Alice wanted to pound on something. "You're my mother."
    "I am and I raised you up as well as I knew how. You turned out well." She did?
    That was a strange compliment from her mother. Maybe the first she'd ever gotten. Her mother walked to a drawer and pulled out a note card. "I was going to mail this to you."
    She took it from her mom's outstretched hand. "What is it?"
    "Read it."
    Alice stared at the card, realization dawning on her as she read the words. "This is your pot roast recipe."
    "It is. Practice making it and you'll get it just like you got all the other ones."
    She wasn't sure what to say. "Thank you."
    "You're welcome." Her mother stared at the door where Ace had exited. "If you're banging that long-haired boy make sure you use protection."
    Alice gasped. "Mother!"
    "I don't want grandchildren out of wedlock."
    Okay, now she was leaving. "Thank you, mom. Talk to you next week."
    Turning on her heel, she fled from the room before their decent moment was wrecked or Dora could say any more about sex.
    Ace paced the front yard. As she came out onto the porch, he turned to glare at her with wild eyes.
    "If I had known Grayson was your uncle, I'd have begun with him. Now, we've wasted time." Ace ran a hand over his hair.
    Alice rolled her eyes. She'd gone from one crazy person to another, evidently. "I didn't know you needed to know he was my uncle."
    "This is part of the problem with having you not talk about anything."
    Now that wasn't fair. "Am I supposed to start with my birth? With the birth of my brother? What part of my life should I start talking about and