Waiting for a Miracle - Chapter 15

“Is that a hickey?” Greg asked.

He stood at the front door of Wallace’s house, watching me with a wicked grin. I was waiting for Wallace, and the little boy had run downstairs to study me with an expression so intent that it had seemed like I was under a military inspection.

Giving him a half smirk, I knelt down to look him in the eye. “How would you know anything about hickeys?”

“Please, I’m ten, not a toddler.” Greg pulled his collar down a bit to reveal a hickey on his collarbone.

Barking a short laugh, I asked, “Who gave you that?”

“There’s this girl named Sarah, and she goes to a few of the same classes as me.” Greg breathed on his knuckles and buffed them on his shirt. “She likes me a lot.”

“Is she pretty?”

“You bet! She’s got long black hair like Leona’s, but she doesn’t have any—” Greg stopped as he heard Wallace coming down the stairs. He looked over his shoulder at his father, and then leaned out the door, putting his hand to the side of his mouth.

“We’ll talk later,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper before trotting out the door.

I watched him run two houses down and then dash across the street to a single-story brick house. Before he could knock on the door, it was opened by a girl who indeed bore a striking resemblance to Leona. She was lacking a few details below the neck, so Greg probably hadn’t meant that she didn’t have ears like Leona.

Shaking my head, I looked at Wallace and gestured at his son going into the girl’s house. “I suppose you don’t mind him being a little Romeo?”

“Perish the thought.” Wallace’s mouth twisted in a crooked smile. “Why would I want my son in a filthy thing like a heterosexual relationship?”

Wincing, I asked, “You aren’t going to get up on a soap box here, are you?”

“Yes, but only with one foot.” Wallace put a hand on my shoulder. “Look, although you haven’t admitted this, it’s obvious you haven’t had any kind of sexual relationship since you killed your father. He abused you, and...I think you should make an effort to explore your sexuality to find out if you’re really gay or not.”

“And you think I should be with Leona,” I said, feeling surprised when Wallace shook his head.

“I think you should find someone. It doesn’t matter if it’s Leona or a cute guy you meet at a club tomorrow. You need to let go of this game with Miracle Man. I know you’re desperate to keep this fantasy going, but it’s an awfully one dimensional life. The comic book version of you has more of a life than you do, but only because you keep pining for a relationship that can never be.”

Wallace started walking to his car.

I followed him, shifting a duffle bag with my “kidnap supplies” on my shoulder. I got into the passenger seat and set the bag in the floorboard, absently nodding as we pulled out of the driveway.

“I really do miss him,” I confessed.

“Duggan, the game may be over for him for good.” Wallace put the car in gear and glanced at me. “If this plot of yours fails, why not just get out of the game? It’s not fun without him, is it?”

“No,” I said. “I mean, I like being with you, but at this point we really are just playing games.”

“Try to remember, you hired me to help you retire. I’ve been gracious enough to play your games because I thought it could draw you away from this life. You still long for chaos and unpredictability. It’s only my professional opinion, but I think Leona could give that to you. Maybe you don’t agree, but perhaps the final piece of the puzzle in your retirement is someone to share it with.”

Wallace rose up from his seat dig in his pocket, and then he handed me back the love letters I’d lent him.

“I’ve read all of those, and I can tell you that Chet isn’t that person. There’s millions of people who would throw themselves at a man as handsome as you if you just let them. So you should find someone you connect with and get out of this stupid game as fast as possible. If you really want fear, then you can rest assured knowing that people will be trembling at your name for years to come in my comic book.”

“Wallace,” I said quite suddenly when a thought struck me. “Who writes the scripts for your comic book?”

“Why, whatever do you mean?” Wallace asked, his shoulders shaking as he tried to laugh quietly.

“You rat bastard!” I tried to fake anger, but I think my laughter gave me away.

Wallace shrugged. “I decided that I needed some kind of nest egg, and the comic book is selling faster than my book ever did. As for your relationship to Leona, the fans demanded it.”

Arching one eyebrow, I asked. “In the first issue?”

“Hey, look, there’s Leona,” Wallace said as he pulled up to the curb just a block from Vicky’s building.

Leona was indeed waiting for us, having already staked out the building to make sure Vicky hadn’t gone anywhere. Her tail was waving quickly back and forth, showing how excited she was.

Her tail would end up being trouble just a few minutes later, but at the time, our plan was simple.

Wallace and I slipped through the revolving door together using the stealth collar that I was wearing. Leona came in one door behind us, and we took the stairs to Vicky’s floor.

I phased through the door and unlocked it silently, letting the others in before I began to search for Vicky. I was the first to find her in the kitchen, and I walked behind her as she prepared something on the stove.

Slapping a piece of tape across her mouth before I pulled a pillowcase over her head, I got Vicky down on the floor and bound her hands to her waist using the same titanium cables that I’d used on Wallace.

I latched another cable lock around Vicky’s neck to hold down the pillow case and hefted her over my shoulder. Turning around, I shut off the stove with my free hand to avoid burning Vicky’s apartment down and went back to the front door, where Leona and Wallace waited for me.

I gave Wallace a signal that Leona should scout the hall, and that’s when the trouble began. Instead of whispering to her to phase out the door, he opened the door for her. He then promptly shut the door on her tail.

“Yeow!” Leona shrieked, trying to tug her tail loose. As soon as Wallace opened the door to free her, she went flying through the air and into the wall on the other side of the hall, setting off an alarm.

I groaned and handed Vicky off to Wallace, rushing to help Leona up. “I should have known,” I mumbled.

“I’m so sorry,” Leona whimpered apologetically as she rubbed her tail.

I shook my head, hiking a thumb over my shoulder at Wallace. “Nope, this one is definitely his fault,” I said as I walked back into the hall. “Way to go, buddy. Now we’ll probably have to kill somebody to get out of here.”

Wallace said, “We could phase out and—”

“And leave your car for the cops?” I asked.

We went downstairs, not really surprised to find the lobby empty. From outside the revolving door, I heard a bullhorn squeal. “This is the police! You have one chance to surrender!”

“This is Light Master!” I called back in a menacing tone of voice. “You have one chance to drive away before I kill you all!”

Despite my reputation, I was still surprised to hear tires squealing.

A moment later, I laughed at the voice on the bullhorn shouting, “Hey, get back here!”

When we exited the building, there were only a handful of uniformed officers cowering behind the chief of police. So I set my shrink ray to a timed setting and shrunk the whole group. In an hour they would return to their normal size, but until then, their infinitesimally small guns were no threat to us.

Wallace nodded approvingly “That was a good idea, but they’re in the middle of the road.”

“Yeah, don’t worry,” I grumbled. “We’ll get them.”

What is it with good people and these petty details, anyway?

Leona and I went to gather them up when we heard someone shout, “Give me your wallet, dumbass!”

I turned around and cringed when I saw a mugger pointing a snub-nose revolver at Wallace.

“Well, geez,” Wallace said. “I hadn’t really thought to bring my wallet. I’m in the midst of a kidnapping, you see.”

The mugger looked at him blankly. Or, I assumed he did, since his face was squished under a stocking.

At the very least, he was staring for a while without saying anything. He turned to glance at us when Wallace pointed in our direction, and then looked back at Wallace.

Honestly, Leona and I could have done something for Wallace, but we weren’t sure what he had in mind. So, being the morbid people that we are, we of course waited to see what would happen.

“So...you’re with them, huh?” The mugger surmised. A trace of confusion still remained in his voice despite nearly a minute of complete silence to ponder these facts. Clearly, he was not the brightest criminal in City.

He went to scratch the side of his head with the barrel of his gun, and Wallace reached up and fitted his finger into the trigger guard over the mugger’s gloved finger.

There wasn’t room for two fingers in the guard. The trigger fell and the top of the mugger’s head vanished in a red mist.

I jumped, surprised by the total randomness of the moment. “Wallace!” I called in a shocked voice as I ran to him. “You didn’t just shoot that man, did you?”

“You’re damned right I did!” Wallace yelled. “He deserved it too!”

I smiled and gave a curt nod. “Okay then,” I said, returning to the task of rounding up micronized officers with Leona.

We put the cops on the curb and then ran to Wallace’s car, driving away with plumes of smoke rushing away from the squealing tires. I looked back at the building, wondering if getting one hero back on his feet was worth all this trouble.

The ride to Leona’s apartment was blessedly uneventful, and after we set Vicky down, we rushed to get everything else ready.

“Get this pillow case off of me,” Vicky fumed, catching us off guard.

“Hey, didn’t you tape her mouth shut?” Wallace whispered.

“She probably ate through it,” Leona said.

“You think?” Wallace quipped. “Come on; let’s free her before she chews a hole in the pillow case.

I said, “Wait—”

“Fuck waiting!” Vicky said, cutting me off. “I know who you are anyway, so stop playing games!”

I unlocked the cable and slid the bag off of her head, almost cringing at the hateful look she shot my way. “Now, Vicky—”

“What are you, stupid? Do you really think I’ll go back to Chet just because you kidnapped me? What, didn’t I make myself clear when you shot my damned plane out of the sky?”

Vicky’s skin was slowly getting redder and redder, and it was hard to remember that she was pretty with her face twisted in such an ugly scowl.

“Hear me out.” I pointed at Wallace. “Or rather, hear him out.”

“The new hero?” Vicky asked.

“Well no, I’m actually Duggan’s doctor. As I think he told you before, I’m not going to be patrolling the city for much longer.”

“Ah, so you want to my to perform a civic duty and screw that freak?” Vicky commented bitterly, shaking her head. “You can forget it. There’s no way in hell that I’d ever go back after I found him dressing in my clothes.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” I asked.

“He was wearing one of my cashmere sweaters and my favorite rubber skirt!” Vicky shouted.

Leona snorted from the door of her kitchen, bringing in a tray that had several ice-filled glasses and a bottle of cognac. “Wait, you mean you own a rubber skirt, but he’s the pervert for wearing it?”

“They’re my clothes!” Vicky yelled.

“Vicky, calm down.” Wallace held up his hands. “This isn’t the real issue, and you know it. Can you at least tell me if you left Chet over his fetish, or over how people would look at you if they found out about his habits?”

The venom and color both quickly drained from Vicky’s face. “You don’t understand. If my father found out about this, I’d be cut off.”

“Bitch,” Leona muttered under her breath.

“Excuse me?” Vicky bristled.

Wallace took her hand in his, trying to calm her down. “Vicky, do you still love him?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

I shook my head. “It does matter, Vicky. If you still love him, then don’t worry about how he dresses in private. I know he still loves you.”

She looked up at me, her eyes shining. “And just how would you know?”

“I asked him,” I said.

Vicky stared at me with until Wallace repeated, “Do you still love him?”

Vicky was silent, staring at the floor to avoid answering.

Huffing an exasperated laugh, Leona said, “Oh, this is bullshit.”

Leaning over the couch, she pinned Vicky to the back cushions by her shoulders. “These guys will play around all day with you, but I won’t. I would have given my left tit for a one night stand with Miracle Man. How long have you had with him?”

“Four years,” Vicky said.

Leona gave a quick nod. “In four years, how many times did he tell you that he loved you?”

“I lost count,” Vicky conceded in an even quieter voice.

“And when he laid you down in your bed and made love to you, was Miracle Man...well, miraculous?” Leona asked, smirking with sarcastic mirth.

This caused Vicky to blush as she nodded.

“So let me get this straight,” Leona said. “You’d give up four years with a man that I would gladly kill to be with, a man who loves you and knows how to ring your bells, all because your daddy wouldn’t approve of his hobby? That, you bitch, is truly shallow!”

“You don’t know who my father is,” Vicky whined defensively.

“I give a rat’s as who he is. I’m asking you what’s more important to you, love or money. So far, you’ve shown how pathetic you are by clinging to money.” Leona was leaning in so close that Vicky flinched, looking away.

Leona took her chin between her thumb and index finger, forcing Vicky to look her in the eye. “I would gladly kill you this instant if I thought it would bring my hero out of hiding, but it won’t. His heart is broken, and you did that.

“I would love to be the one to mend his heart and share his bed, but as Duggan said, he loves only you.” She let go of Vicky’s chin. “You left him over the flimsiest of reasons, and you want to be mad at us over wanting to get him back in our lives. Don’t you get it? Either one of us would want your place by his side, and you’re throwing it away over something so childish. Damn it, look at me!”

Vicky looked up, her eyes spilling over with tears. “Just stop—”

“No, you just listen. There’s a lot worse things that you can find out about a man besides his desire to wear your clothes. He could have been abusive, you know? He could have beat the crap out of you and made you afraid to say anything that might anger him. But your man isn’t like that, is he? Has he ever once hit you?”

“No,” Vicky said, wiping her eyes.

Leona nodded, wiping at her own eyes and sniffling as she straightened up. She filled a glass with cognac and handed it to Vicky. “So what do you say, bitch? Will you give us a chance to save this city?”

Vicky laughed, but her expression became guilty a moment later. “It’s too late. You don’t know the things I said to him before I left.”

“You mean like ‘panty sniffing gutter slut?’” I asked. “Chet told me a lot more than you can imagine. Hell, he told me a lot more than I ever wanted to know, but through it all, he kept crying because he loves you. Leona is right, and you’ve broken his heart. But it’s never too late for you, Vicky. He would take you back without a second thought.”

Vicky looked from me back to Leona, giving a small nod. “I’ll try, but don’t be too surprised if he won’t take me back.”

“Oh trust me, after I get done, the big guy will take you back,” I said. “After that, it will be up to him if he’s willing to go back to being a hero.”

I outlined my plan and Vicky laughed, smiling at Leona as she took her refilled glass. “So, I’m going to go home, and then you’re going to kidnap me, again?”

“Believe me, I want to get Miracle Man back on patrol,” I said. “I’d like to do it without any more casualties.”

“But you’re supposed to be the bad guy,” Vicky said before emptying her glass in one long pull.

“I used to be,” I said. “Now I’m just trying to get one stupid plan to go right before I retire.”

“Okay, so take me home,” Vicky said.

“I’ll do it.” Wallace said.

Leona and I poured ourselves fresh drinks, watching Wallace leave with Vicky.

“Do you think this will work?” Leona asked in a worried voice.

“Well, thanks to your unorthodox method of persuasion, phase one was successful. Now we need to see if the other phases go more smoothly. Phase two is Chet taking the bait.”

Leona snorted. “You know, I always thought he looked like a Chet.”

I grinned at that. “You too?” I stood up, pulling her up from the couch. “Come on, let’s get out of here for the evening. I’ll buy you some ice cream.”

“Ooh, fudge ripple!” Leona said, her ears perking at a jaunty angle.

“You just picked my favorite flavor,” I said.

My voice rose in a chuckle when her tail wrapped around my waist and tickled my side.