Free Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) by Susan Bischoff

out, giving him another shove. Now that he was on
his feet, I only succeeded in pushing myself back a step, which
made me look like an idiot.
    He laughed and I lashed out with the one
weapon I could think of, “How’s your mom these days?”
    He jerked in reaction before he could stop
himself, then took a drag on his cigarette. He held the smoke for a
moment, blew it out slowly, watching me the whole time through
narrowed eyes. “Fuck if I know.”
    “She’s never getting out of the nuthouse, is
she? And it’s sad, the risks your parents took to get away from her
family and hide a Talent like you from organized crime. Does your
dad tell her what you’re into? It must just break her heart, not to
mention what’s left of her mind.”
    “Like I give a shit. And like you’re one to
bring up fucked up family to me. At least I’m doin’ something.”
    “What are you doing? The bookstore thing?
The same petty crap you’ve been doing. It’s tired and it’s boring.
We’re too old for this shit and you’re a moron.”
    “Yeah, we’ll see who’s bored when I own this
town. We’ll see how you feel when I’ve got everyone in it under my
thumb, especially when I’ve got Joss under me, wr—”
    “I told you—” Someone grabbed my arm and I
looked to see that it was Eric yanking me back a few steps.
    “Cool it, you guys. Assistant Principal Sims
and Mr. Dobbs are standing right over there watching you.”
    I followed his glance. Sims gave me a nod
when our eyes met, that I’m keeping my eye on you, son look.
I was pretty familiar with it, and I didn’t need another
suspension. I turned back to Marco who flicked his half-smoked
cigarette into the planter.
    “You may not think much of me, but I am
telling you now,” I said, low, slow, and deadly serious, “I know
what’s in your head, and if you ever touch her I will find
you where you sleep and I will put a knife in your ribs. I don’t
need your kind strength for that. If you hurt Joss, nothing that
was between us in the past is going to keep me from fucking killing
you.”
    Marco laughed in my face. “Thanks for the
warning. I’ll have to remind you about that while I’m making you
watch.”
    “All right, we’re done now,” Eric said,
stopping my lunge by putting himself between us and walking me
backward. “Just cool it,” he said to me in a low voice. Dobbs and
Sims were on high alert, just itching to come over and break
something up. I let Eric keep pushing me. After several steps he
spun me around, got a grip on my shoulder and marched me off toward
the parking lot.
    The power play wasn’t necessary, I couldn’t
take Marco and I knew it. I was letting Eric lead me off. It was
just a show for the benefit of anyone else who’d been watching.
Because Eric was cool like that.
    “Thanks,” I told him.
    “You can’t let him get to you like that.
Anyway, we’ve got a date with pizza and destiny.”
    “Can’t. I have to find Joss.”
    “She’ll be there. Kat’s looking for her now.
Matt’ll bring the girls over, but I saw you with Marco and figured
we’d go on ahead.”
    “But Marco—”
    “Is already leaving.”
    I turned and saw Marco strolling off toward
the faculty lot. My gut was churning with frustrated rage, and
pizza was about the last thing I wanted to think about. I found I
wanted to think more about killing Marco with my bare hands, and
that wasn’t like me.
    I thought about Joss.
    Maybe it should be.
     
    * * *
     
    Marco
     
    “ I will find you where you sleep and I
will put a knife in your ribs.”
    I snorted at that as I made my way around to
the back of the building and the faculty parking lot. You could
try, asshole.
    The thing that surprised me was that he’d meant it. Fucking ungrateful piece of shit. We’d been like
brothers and he’d turned his back on me over a girl. I kept
thinking he’d get some of that, get over it, and come crawling
back. And I would have let him, too. After some heavy-duty
groveling and