Chapter 31

Marks' eyes flickered over a dozen or so pictures spread out in front of him. All of them were either pictures of Darius Clarke, Alex Porter, Cassandra Walden, or Anna Cook. His eyes focused on one then another and so on and so on. Most of the time, however, he found himself looking at the pictures taken of Anna. After seeing her photo, his memory suddenly snapped into razor sharp focus and he finally realized why her name had sounded so familiar. She had been one of Rich’s girls. He’d even boasted she was one of his top earners. He didn’t mention how he got her to work for him and Marks never asked. As long as she was bringing in money, he didn’t care what tactics were used to bring her under control.

The problem, however, had come when her boyfriend, Darius Clarke, found out about his girlfriend’s extracurricular activities and who forced her into them. After that, he was out for blood. The half a million dollars stolen from him had to have been a ruse. Marks was pretty certain of that. If he had to guess, he used the money as a way to get his friend, Alex Porter, to help him. From what he’d been able to learn about Mr. Porter, he was poor and struggling to find the money to finish paying off his tuition. Mr. Clarke had used that to tempt his friend into using their powers to rob him.

Indestructible. Speed. Strength. Marks repeated the words inside his head many times, still having trouble with the truth that two men with superpowers (actual powers) had robbed him and effectively amputated all the power he’d amassed over the years.

He grinded his teeth in anger, his jaw muscles clenching and unclenching as he did.

I don’t fucking care what kind of powers they have. I will destroy them, he thought darkly.

He stared at the pictures of Anna and Cassandra a little while longer and then glanced up at his clock. Then he rose from his chair and stepped outside his office. It was still mostly wreckage, but the crews he hired to rebuild it were starting to make progress now. When he walked out, onto the loft area, a man fell into step beside him. He was average height, or maybe a little under, but the sharp intelligence in his light brown eyes gave away how dangerous he was. His dirty blonde hair was shaved almost down to the skin on the sides and back of his head while the hair on top was cut into a flat plateau. He looked ex-military, most likely marines, and the heavy muscle of his body marked him as a capable fighter.

The man had been acquired shortly after the robbery from one of the best security firms in the city, coming highly recommended. After what happened, he was intent on making sure no one could touch him, not even a pair of super-powered freaks.

They came to Marks' car, a black sedan with dark tinted windows. The bodyguard opened the door for him and he climbed into the backseat. When he was safely stowed inside, the man got behind the wheel and started driving. He glanced at Marks through the rearview mirror, eyes questioning.

“Destination, sir?” he asked.

“Ashebrook University. Hill Hall,” Marks replied, a smile creeping onto his face as thoughts of getting his own vengeance played out in his mind. “I’ve got something there I need to pick up.”

“I know I said I would drop it, but why did those two break up? It’s been driving me crazy,” Cassie asked as they settled onto one of the Court’s many benches after Alex made sure to sweep away the inch or two of snow that had gathered on it.

“It’s not really my place to talk about it,” Alex said. He tried to shut out his feelings of nervousness. He was lying to her. He didn’t want to but the alternative, the truth, felt more frightening to him. Darius told him all about why Anna broke up with him, that she thought he had turned into a monster. It surprised him that after everything, Darius was willing to open up to him again but in doing so, he also created a deep well of fear inside Alex in regards to his own relationship. He was scared Cassie, if she knew the real truth, would say the same things about him. He didn’t like that idea at all so he figured covering it all up was the safest course of action.

Looking at her now, he was scared that she would see his guilt written on his face and burning in his eyes. However, she smiled at him instead and he felt a little more at ease. Then she moved onto a different subject.

“So, why’d you want to come here before we went to the restaurant?” she asked him, her soft brown eyes focusing only on him. “And you better hurry too because if we wait here much longer, I think my butt is going to freeze to this bench.”

“Well…I…,” he began, grinning sheepishly. He reached into his pocket and brought out the small box he had placed in there.

His body was trembling like he was freezing despite the fact that he wasn’t really affected by cold weather anymore. He hated that trembling too, more than anything, but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it.

Cassie gasped in shock and his nervous smile faltered a bit. His already shaky confidence was starting to crumble and the trembling in his hands caused the box he held to shake uncontrollably in his hand. He felt miserable and pathetic. He tried once again to control his overwhelming nervousness but it only seemed to make things worse. Instead, he decided to focus on his reasons for what he was doing, thinking about how quickly it had come about. He knew, without a doubt, that he wanted her in his life. He knew, without a doubt, that he was madly in love with her. And he knew, without a doubt, that he didn’t want to waste another day without her knowing those things too. So he used those feelings to steady himself and, miraculously, he felt the trembling in his body and hands start to subside a little. His confidence came back.

“I know this sounds crazy and fast. Really fast. I don’t care about that though and I hope you don’t either.” He took another deep, steadying breath and went on, his eyes locking on hers. “All I know is what I feel for you. I want you in my life, Cassie. I need you in it, actually. It’s a desperate kind of feeling and I hope that doesn’t scare you but I can’t really seem to help it. I don’t want to go through life without you there with me. Anytime I even imagine my life without you, I feel actual pain deep in my chest. I know we haven’t known each other that long and I know that would scare some people, but it doesn’t scare me. It actually makes me kind of happy. It will give me more time to spend getting to know everything about you. And I want that. I want that more than anything.”

He moved in front of her and dropped to one knee on the ground, noticing the silent tears running down her cheeks. She brushed them away hurriedly while urging him to continue.

“Cassandra Guinevere Walden,” Alex said, looking her in the eyes. “Will you marry me?”

Her tears came down even faster. Even through the puffy eyes and slightly red nose, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

She wouldn’t answer at first and Alex’s nervousness hit him again, full force. He was starting to feel like a complete idiot.

“I’m sorry,” he said, regret and shame heavy in his voice. He was just starting to rise from the ground, cursing himself for thinking he wouldn’t scare her off when she stopped him, tenderly placing her hand on his shoulder.

“I want all those things too, Alex,” she said, her voice choked from the intensity of her feelings. “It might be crazy, hell probably is crazy, but I still want it.”

She grabbed the sides of his face affectionately and pulled him to her, kissing him so deeply that everything else just floated away. All his worries and fears. His past, present, and future. The only thing he knew or cared about was that single, precious kiss. He knew that no matter what happened to him and how many years went by, he would remember that moment with crystalline clarity.

Eventually, she pulled away and he settled back down on the bench next to her.

“So…,” he asked, his grin switching from happy to goofy-looking. “Is that a yes?”

She held out her hand and Alex opened up the box. A dazzling, one-carat diamond threw rainbow sparkles into the night air. It was a round cut diamond set into a platinum band and when Cassie saw it she gaped in pure amazement.

“The jeweler said it was one of the finest diamonds he had. Went on and on about the four ‘Cs’ or something. I took his word for it.” He placed the ring on the third finger of her left hand and she held it out, admiring the mini-rainbows the diamond created.

She looked up at him and lightly slapped his shoulder.

“I told you to never say my middle name,” she joked, smiling broadly. “It’s really beautiful, Alex. How did you afford it? It must have cost you a fortune.”

“Don’t worry about that. I took care of it already.” He brushed the question aside and leaned in to kiss her again. He was so happy, he could barely contain it. All he wanted to do was shout, scream, laugh, and whatever else he felt like.

She said yes!

It was the happiest day of his life.

Then the world suddenly slowed to a stand still around him. The snowflakes that had been fluttering down from the dark sky were crawling sluggishly toward the ground.

Alex broke away from their kiss and his focus suddenly snapped toward the roof of the administration building sixty or seventy yards away.

There! his mind screamed at him.

A bullet ripped through the night air. It was sluggishly coming straight at him. At least, that’s what he thought at first. It wasn’t until it got much closer that he realized it wasn’t coming for him, but heading right for Cassie.

Without thinking about it, he pulled her to him and put his back to the bullet. A second later there was a soft thump as it fell into the snow. There were four or five more shots and then nothing. The world resumed its normal speed. He looked around wildly, making sure there was no one else waiting to jump out with a gun. When he couldn’t find anyone, he sped off, not giving Cassie time to ask questions. In his hurry, he didn’t notice that she saw the deformed bullets in the snow and had picked them up. She stared at them with a worried look on her face.

He darted through the snow, all but flying into the administration building where the bullet had come from. He leapt up the stairs, reaching the top floor in just a few short minutes. A metal door blocked his way to the roof but he plowed completely through it, tearing it off its hinges.The shooter hadn’t even attempted to flee and Alex found him standing near the edge of the building.

Gravel crunched under his feet as he walked toward the assassin. The shooter was dressed in plain clothes, nothing remarkable about them at all. He had a matte-black rifle gripped in both hands with a silencer covering the barrel to muffle his gunshots. He shuffled his feet in anxious fear, trying to decide his best course of action. He moved stiffly too, as if he’d recently been hurt. Alex realized then that the man looked familiar. It took another second to place him. He was the same man he had thrown through a wall during their heist at Exclusive.

No, no, no. He works for Marks. That means…

But he didn’t have time to think about that.

His fear and worry was suddenly replaced with white hot anger. He stalked over to the shooter, anger in every stride he took. He grabbed the man’s gun and violently twisted it out of his grip. He held it up in both hands and snapped it in two, the ends jagged and sharp.

The man backed up until his back was against the retaining wall near the edge of the building.

“I hope Marks offers you guys a great medical plan,” he growled, snatching him up and hanging him off the side of the roof like he weighed no more than a little girl’s doll. “The fall won’t kill you, but you’re gonna be in a lot of pain when you wake up.”

The shooter’s fear abruptly vanished, gone as if it had never been there. Instead, it was replaced by an arrogant, petty grin. The bottom fell out of Alex’s stomach as he realized his mistake. The shooter was the decoy, the lure, and deliberately set up there so he would come after him.

“That’s right,” the man said, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction. “It’s too late now. She’s ours.”

He laughed and Alex’s rage and fear coalesced into something he’d never felt before. It was like a sharp, twisted pain in his chest.

He threw the man with a powerful, backward throw and turned to watch as the would-be killer bounced and skidded along the gravel of the rooftop. He’d been thrown so hard and fast that his clothes were shredded almost instantly. The man’s flesh followed after that. Alex watched him slam into the wall where the stairwell was. The shooter slumped to the ground like a limp bag of potatoes and did not get up again.

He left the man there, jumped easily onto the ledge of the building, and then without any fear, jumped off the side and plummeted to the ground. He landed on both feet and sprang back up in a split second, then raced toward where he left Cassie as fast as he possibly could.

Too late! I’m going to be too late! his mind screamed at him.

When he reached the bench where he left Cassie, a flash of panic threatened to overwhelm him. She wasn’t there. He searched around, his heart thumping erratically against his chest. He couldn’t find her anywhere and his heart sank when he realized Marks’ men had taken her. He slumped to the ground and put his face in his hands, sobbing harshly.

“Hey!” a voice called.

It was Cassie. It was her voice.

Relief flooded through him so hard and fast, it made his head spin. He got up off the ground and turned around. Cassie was coming toward him from around the other side of the fountain. When she saw he had been crying, apparently grief-stricken, she ran to him. When she got within a foot or so of him, he hugged her to his chest firmly. She let him fold her into a somewhat crushing embrace. He held her like that for a few minutes and then he held her out a bit from him, looking her over to try and make sure she was really okay.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“N-nothing,” he told her quickly. More quickly than he meant to. “Where were you?”

“I was trying to find you,” she replied, a slightly angry tone to her voice. He didn’t mind that she was angry with him. He was too busy being glad she was fine. “You took off so fast I didn’t get a chance to see where you went.”

He ignored that and just pulled her into a hug again, holding her there. His heart was still pounding away with the after effects of his fear. She hugged him back, liking very much the way they fit so well together.

After a while, he pulled away from her again, an apologetic look on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “Something sort of popped up. I have to go talk to D right now. Can we postpone dinner and a movie?”

“Yeah, we can do that,” she said, waving away his apology as unnecessary. “Does it have anything to do with why you just took off?”

“Yeah. It does.” He kissed her again and then started walking quickly toward Creek.

He was about to run all out but stopped when he found that Cassie was following along beside him.

“What…,” he started to ask.

“Whatever just happened, I’m here with you. That’s what this means.” She held up her hand with the ring on it. “Saying yes doesn’t mean I let you walk off when something obviously bad is going down. We will face whatever is going on together.”

“But it will be dangerous,” he tried to warn her.

“Trust me, I can handle myself.” She winked and smiled at him.

He returned her smile. Truth be told, he didn’t mind her being there at all. In fact, he was glad. He wanted her close to him. As long as she was with him, he could protect her like he just did. He also decided he was going to tell her everything that happened with Marks and why the drug lord was targeting him and Darius. She deserved to know the truth. Not only that, but the guilt of lying to her was already weighing heavily on him.

He held off for the moment, however, because there were more important things to focus on. He grabbed Cassie’s hand, urging her to hurry up. His blood turned to ice as he ran. He was scared he was going to be too late to warn Darius and Anna.

Back at the fountain, the body of the second attacker the shooter mentioned was floating face down in the water, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. The shifting, colored lights that normally lit the fountain up had been conveniently shut off. If Alex hadn’t been so worried about Cassie, and then relieved when he found her alive, he might have asked himself why they were turned off. The next morning, however, the body was gone and no one would ever know it was even there.

Not long after he’d started running toward his dorm, Alex sped through the doors of Creek and raced up the stairs with Cassie. When he pushed through his door and into his room, he found it pitch black. He could hear Cassie breathing hard next to him, but that was all.

Darius was gone.