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

you’re out, it’s hard to get back in.
We’d tried, and they’d told us we had to prove ourselves. Tony and
I had been in a competition to see who could do that first.
    And I was doing really well. I was gonna
show them that I had leadership quality. I had a crew. We were
tight, organized, and they did what I told them to. Little shit
yeah, but I had a plan. I was building to something. The bank job
was going to be a big payday for me, and that was going to get me
noticed.
    Until Dylan turned on me and fucked it all
up. Tore up my crew and made the bank job impossible. And all
because of that little bitch girlfriend of his.
    “Marco, you fuck, are you even listening to
me?” I really wanted to punch Vivian in that pretty face of hers
but I stopped myself. The Syndicate had noticed what we were doing,
and now I had to work with her, impress her, if I was ever going to
get in with the big guys in Banner.
    “I’ll find another place. Something better.”
I shrugged like it didn’t matter. “It was time to move on from
there anyway.”
    “Whatever. Look, you need to get it together
and stop fucking up. So far I am not impressed.”
    “Last night wasn’t part of the plan. We just
happened to run into Joss and we wanted to mess with her. Then when
Tony and I weren’t there, things got out of hand. It won’t happen
again.”
    “Yeah, well, see that it doesn’t.” She
signaled to her goons with a jerk of her head. We were well away
from the school now, on a side street without any traffic. Richie
swung to the curb suddenly. Poe reached across me, popped the door
handle, and shoved me out of the car.
    I stood there in the middle of the street as
it sped away, clenching and unclenching my fists. I wasn’t the one
fucking up. It wasn’t my fault Vivian had dragged Tony and me out
of there—for no good reason but just to see us run when she called.
I’d left those guys with one girl, tied up and blindfolded, and
they still couldn’t manage her. It was Joss screwing with my shit
all over again. Joss and Dylan. And I wasn’t about to let
them get away with it.
     
    * * *
     
    Joss
     
    After school I looked for Dylan. At his
locker, as I moved through the halls, and I looked around when I
got outside. I was half afraid that I would find him.
    “ Nope. Never.”
    Well what did that mean? That was a joke,
right? Right?
    I was trying to be understanding about the
whole avoidance thing, because, as much as I wanted to see him
right now, I was kind of feeling it too. But… grrr.
    “There you are!” Kat bumped into me, and she
and Heather caught me in a flanking maneuver.
    “Wasn’t hiding,” I muttered.
    “Imagine that.”
    “Wish I’d thought of it.”
    “Someone’s in a mood today,” Heather
said.
    “You know exactly what kind of mood I’m in,
and I’ll thank you to keep it to yourself.” Heather always kept
stuff to herself, so that was unnecessary. It wasn’t her fault she
could hear all my thoughts, and she had really strict rules about
how she used her Talent. But I knew she knew that I’d been
replaying Dylan’s kiss in my head all afternoon, which made me
blush, which made me peevish. Which she also knew, so she could
just deal with my mood.
    “Dealing!” she said, throwing up her hands
in mock surrender.
    “Am I missing something?” Kat asked.
    “Is that actually possible?” I replied.
    She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t know
what took you so long. Come on. We’re going to the Pit. The guys
went on ahead of us, but Matt’s waiting to drive us over.”
    “Thanks, but I don’t want pizza. Actually,
if we could go someplace else, I’d really like to talk to you
guys.”
    “She wants to talk? She wants to talk! I am
totally missing something. And you know what it is.” Kat
reached around behind me to cuff Heather on the back of her
head.
    “Joss’s mind is a complicated place. I’m not
really sure what she wants.”
    Oh, nice, Heather. That’s so helpful.
    “No