Free Even Villains Fall in Love by Liana Brooks Page B

records and newspaper printouts
by the minions, and none of it was alphabetized.
    Blessing snuggled on his lap as he flipped
through the reports on superheroes unmasked. Delila and Maria
helped the minions sort the Morality Machine parts, and Angela
thumbed through a thick book.
    “Here we go,” Evan said, shifting Blessing to
his knee. “The Rainbow Dane, also known as Thane Mitely, raised by
a single mother named Ava Mitely. It’s rumored that his father was
the Roaring Thane, and that’s where his name came from.” He set the
papers down. “I don’t remember the Roaring Thane.”
    Hert tilted his head. “I’ve read about him, sir.
He was one of the early super heroes. Super strength, if I recall
correctly.”
    “Who did he fight?”
    “Everyone, sir. He fought any and all crime. If
he saw a wrongdoing he’d roar, hence the name, and attack.”
    “So, what, drug dealers and hippies? Corrupt
cops? What was his MO?”
    “Anything, sir. Jaywalkers, clerks giving wrong
change, people who ran stoplights. He said once that he could tell
someone was going to commit a crime even before they acted.”
    Evan shook his head. “Sounds psycho to me.”
    “The police objected as well, but he helped
enough that they were hesitant to stop him. He was killed in a
fight with the Magenta Fox, who in turn was killed by the Roaring
Thane’s mother. She called herself Lady Grimoire and her super
skill, if you call it that, was potions.”
    “Interesting.”
    “When the super heroes first appeared in the
public they weren’t under any code of conduct with the government.
The only thing separating a villain from a hero was media
perception,” Hert said.
    “I can’t say the registration card scheme has
changed that.” Evan drummed his fingers on the floor.
    “Daddy?” Blessing asked. “What does this say?”
She pointed to a caption under a black and white photo of a little
girl on a swing in front of pine trees.
    “Zinnia Perl, age four, near her childhood home
of—” Evan gasped, taking the book away from Blessing. “I’d
forgotten all about this. It’s in her book, the one we wrote the
year she was pregnant. Some news reporter kept calling to demand
the official story of her life, so she finally wrote the
autobiography just to keep people from asking questions. It was her
tell-all book!”
    “Daddy?” Blessing pulled the book back. “Is this
Mommy?”
    “Yes. Her parents took her to Aspen for
Christmas that year. It was a generic snow picture.” He had sorted
hundreds of old photos trying to find the ones that didn’t have
enough detail to unravel her false history. Evan snapped his
fingers. “Hert, listen. I have two theories.”
    “Very good, Master.”
    “The first is that the Morality Machine breaking
somehow caused Tabitha to lose her memory of everything that’s
happened since I turned it on.”
    “A possibility, Master. Although an unlikely
one.”
    “Right. The Morality Machine shouldn’t show
precise brain damage like that. Maybe it would affect impulse
control, but not memory. My second theory is that someone has
taken, or suppressed, her memory.”
    His minion frowned. “I haven’t heard of anyone
working on memory, sir.”
    Evan sighed. “Yes, that’s where it falls
apart.”
    Angela walked over and sat in his lap. “When do
we get to see Mommy?”
    He studied the girls for a minute. “How does
tomorrow sound?”
    Their eyes lit up. “Really? Tomorrow? Promise?”
The cacophony of four piping voices drowned out his reply for a
good minute.
    Evan waited it out. When they finally fell
silent, he smiled grimly. “Daddy needs more data so he can prove
his theory. Do you want to be my ice cream minions tomorrow?”
    Maria raised an eyebrow in an exact copy of his
favorite cynical pose. “What’s an ice cream minion?”
    “It means I pay you in ice cream cones to help
me follow Mommy.” The clapping started. “One ice cream cone per
person. Not multiple cones per kid,” he