Free Wicked Ink by Misty Simon Page B

here.”
    She still didn’t even blink an eyelash. “Did you find Marta?”
    He sighed. So she was going to keep asking and he was going to have to keep answering, if for no other reason than that she’d saved him from the chair for the second time. He still didn’t get what it was about her that eliminated the need for him to jolt an electrical current through his every cell, but he owed her a debt of gratitude nonetheless.
    “Yes, I found her today, that’s why I wasn’t able to jog home next to you on your way back from work. I wanted to, but I was in a bad place after I saved Marta from the warehouse where they were keeping her.”
    “And did you kill anyone there? Did you hurt them for taking someone who was important to you?” Her eyes narrowed.
    What was he supposed to say to that? He’d hurt Bert, and he’d enjoyed it more than he should have. But he’d do it all over again with Marta’s sobs ringing in his ears and her hands gripping him hard enough to make him wince. “Yes, okay? I hurt the guy. I broke a couple of bones and left him to the mercy of whoever paid him to draw me out. I don’t know who’s targeting the people around me, but it has to be because of me. They know my name, something about what I can do. So I promise I’ll stay around long enough to figure it out and stop them. But then I’ll disappear. I won’t make you all suffer.”
    “And what about me?” she whispered. “I’m the only woman left in the building who hasn’t been taken or hurt. What are you going to do about that?”
    Her whisper hit him in places he shouldn’t think about, not when he was planning on leaving this place. His gut tensed as he wished things were different. How he would love to just sit here with this beautiful woman, enjoying her fragrance, the way her soft hair looked, thinking about something other than death and destruction. But there was no arguing with reality, and the faster he got her out of here, the faster he could go back to bringing about justice and moving on.
    “I’m going to watch over you and track down the people who are after me. Then I’m going to make them stop. Now, please leave, Dory. I can’t do this while you’re sitting there like a visitor at the zoo, staring at a new exhibit.”
    He knew the second his words hit her like a slap. When she got up and went to the door, her arms were wrapped tightly around her ribs, her whole body seeming to collapse around itself like a protective shell. “I don’t need your protection, Garrett. Now that I know what these people want, I know to be even more careful. I can take care of myself. I’m not being stupid or stubborn, but I will not let you save me if it means you have to electrocute yourself again.”

Chapter Eight
    Dory stood under the spray of the shower long after the water turned cold. Her thoughts were chaotic as she tried to process the fact that, for all intents and purposes, she lived next to a superhero. She’d read all the comics when she was younger, devouring the stories about a way of life that was good and pure, where the bad guys always lost and good guys always came out ahead.
    She’d already washed her hair and her body, but still she stood there in the streaming water. How could this be possible? How could she live next to a superhero and not know?
    Eventually she shut off the water when her skin turned pruny and her teeth started chattering. She didn’t need to get sick right now. Tax season would be upon her before she knew it, and sick days were not a luxury she could afford.
    But an honest to God superhero. Crazy! And yet, so very cool. She had a crush on a superhero. It was like she was Mary Jane and Lois Lane all wrapped up in one.
    And now she was giddy. This was serious stuff. Superman had never felt the need to almost kill himself every time he helped someone. No matter what Garrett said, there was no way the electricity running through his body was not hurting him in some way on a permanent