“I’m not sure.”
“I know we didn’t want to make a big deal out of this, but…”
“…we thought what Melvin was doing wasn’t a big deal,” Mark finished. “Unlike him, these guysdohave something in the works.”
Joan nodded in agreement. “We can’t ignore this.”
“No, because the damn Supers dragged us into it.” He wiped at the water dripping off his dark wig.
Joan glanced down at her gloves. Her squeaky, wet Spark suit. “What are we supposed to do? We failed our mission. The Supers don’t trust us. Now these guys hate us.”
“We go back to the food truck. We told the Supers this was a bad idea. I don’t want to get dragged into this.”
“We’re already in it.”
Mark dropped another angry f-bomb and skittered an ice ball down the back alley. “I hate the power they hold over us.”
“The Supers?”
“Supers, Villains, that whole frickin’ world.”
He was really and truly mad. Mark was always so blasé about everything, so this was clearly bugging him.
“I’m sorry, bud,” Joan said.
“Eh, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have gotten out at all.”
Ricki’s words rumbled around her head. That she’d do anything to protect the peace in Vector City. Which was a bit extreme. She’d fight for her new life, and sure, for the people she cared about. It was self-serving, not heroic. Not harming the norms was just basic human decency, which apparently Ricki and Derek did not possess.
“I’m not a hero,” Joan murmured.
Mark’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”
“We’re entrepreneurs. Food truck restaurateurs. That’s who we are now. I’m not letting your dream slip away, and I’m not putting Sadie in harm’s way again.”
“And Perry doesn’t need any encouragement to backslide.”
“So we’ll return our suits after they dry.” She pulled her gloves off. “This is the Supers’ problem. We can at least give them the intel about the new guys having a real plan.”
Mark unzipped his suit. “That’s more than they had before.”
“If they want to keep checking on us, fine. Let them. We’ve got nothing to hide.”
They passed under a harsh floodlight. Mark did a double-take and squinted at Joan’s face. “You’ve got a cut under your eye.”
Joan touched the tender spot below her right eye. “Great.”
“You think the Supers will reimburse us for medical treatment?”
“I’m sure.”
“We can always overcharge them for fries.”
“Done.”
CHAPTER8
The afternoon prep work vibe inside Hot and Cold was upbeat, only Sadie could tell Joan and Mark were tired and slightly forcing it. Their ordeal the other night had resulted in them working out in the warehouse this morning.
