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AUGUST
I carry Landon down to the conference room since he claimed that his legs have never had so much exercise in their life, and he was afraid that walking one more step might make his bones shatter. I think it was just an excuse to get me to carry him to the conference room. Honestly, I don’t mind. I love any excuse I’m given to be close to him.
When we reach the room, Valerie is waiting for us, rather impatiently since we did linger a bit there on the bed. I pull a seat out for him and set him in it while Valerie just shakes her head at us. She even tsks as I sit down beside him.
“While you guys were gone, something happened,” Valerie says.
“Like?” I ask, a bit uncertain.
“I was just… Wyatt and I were standing near the vehicle just outside City Hall—we had a meeting at two. I get out of the car with Wyatt when suddenly someone just… they just came at me. They were going to kill me and… here, just let me show you.”
She slides her tablet over and the video begins to play. It looks like it’s from a reporter’s camera since they catch them leaving the car. Just as they exit it, Valerie stops while Wyatt turns to look at her. Then Valerie jerks back before she starts attacking him. Thankfully, she didn’t have any weapons on her, or she could have caused him real harm before he managed to grab her wrists and pin her hands to the side with some struggle. Within a few seconds, she seems to snap back, but by then, the damage is done.
The manager of Superheroes United has been recorded attacking her assistant who was only trying to get her to stop.
“Is Wyatt okay?” Landon asks.
“Yeah, he’s fine. I did send him in to get checked out because I was afraid I broke something when I punched him in the ribs. He claims he’s okay but I’m still paranoid,” she says since she does have some superhuman strength. Not much, but enough she could do damage if she really thought someone was trying to kill her.
“So someone did to you what they did to Landon?” I realize.
“Looks like it,” she says.
“You need to put out another statement like you did for me. Surely people aren’t dumb enough to assume that we’re just going around and bashing people for the fun of it,” Landon says. “I mean… sometimes it’s fun, but we wouldn’t beat up Wyatt. He’s like a puppy dog.”
“Media can be toxic,” Valerie says. “It doesn’t matter what we say, it doesn’t matter if we can prove it, there will be people who will use this against us. People don’t always love supers. They don’t always see them as people there to protect them because, quite often, the people who are doing bad shit are supers as well. Get rid of supers, and maybe the whole world would be a better place.”
I sigh as I rub my head, wishing the mess from earlier was all I had to deal with today, but I’m clearly wrong. Of course it’s not. Of course there’s more shit; there always is. It gets unreasonably exhausting, but it’s been better since Landon came into my life.
“So basically, someone was keeping us preoccupied while this happened… they wanted us out of there to get the perfect shot and make sure we couldn’t stop them,” I say.
“Right,” she agrees.
“Did you already put up a statement?” I ask.
“Not yet.”
“This is exhausting and ridiculous,” Landon declares as he flops down on the table and closes his eyes. “What’s it fucking matter what they think? At the end of the day, if they want their asses saved, they can stop being little shits and work with us. We can back away. We can let the city get ravaged by idiots and assholes.”
I understand what Landon is saying, I truly do. It’s absolutely unfair that we have to continue to cater and coax and coddle these people along. I’m so used to just sucking up to them. Saying what they want us to say. Doing everything I can for their approval.
“Just… tell them what happened and inform them that we’re avidly searching for the person responsible,” I say.
“Or give everyone a wooden rod and tell them to stick it up their ass if they have a problem with how we’re running things,” Landon mumbles. “Now my body is rejecting itself. It’s curling up into a shriveled state of pain and torture.”
I reach over and rub his back as I look over at Valerie.
“I’ll write something up. I want you two to stay here until this is solved.”
“Absolutely not,” Landon says. “This place is torture. There aren’t even any windows. I want to go home. How the hell are we ever going to catch the person if we’re hiding in the basement of headquarters?”
Valerie lets out a sigh. “Then we’re having security cameras put up that will be monitored twenty-four seven,” she decides. “I’ll call for that now.”
And with that she starts barking orders as Landon opens a single eye to look at me. “My body is rejecting everything.”
I grin at him. “It’s not that bad.”
“I’m having book withdrawals.”
