Authors: Ashlynn Monroe
“Hi, Mateo. I’m Dina.”
She opened the door and threw several suitcases in the back and then three smaller bags.
Great. Just what the show needs—another diva.
“Is this everything?” she asked, praying the answer was yes.
He nodded and opened the car door. He sat down in the passenger seat and buckled up.
“Thank you for coming on this short notice, Mateo. I need a man who can stand up against some very appealing competition. Are you up to the job?”
“I can’t believe I’m going to be on TV. This is my dream come true. Will I have my own room and enough space for my things?”
Oh God, please don’t let him be gay. I need a straight guy to woo those women. They’ll smell a fraud coming a mile away. Don’t panic. Maybe he’s just metrosexual.
Her desperate mind raced with indecision. Did she just come out and ask him or was that a lawsuit waiting to happen?
“Did GiovAlexi tell you that this is a dating show and that nine
women
will be waiting for you to sweep them off their feet?”
She hoped he’d tell her if that was going to be a problem. He smiled, but said nothing. Her suspicions weren’t alleviated.
Going for the gusto, she opened her big mouth. “Okay, don’t sue me or get mad, but I need to make sure that you do want to date women. If you’re the winner, will you seriously want to date the woman after the show has aired? That’ll also keep your face in the tabloids if you’re out in public a lot and especially if there is PDA involved.”
“Why are you asking me that?” He sounded upset
Great. Make him mad before you even get out of town. Great start.
The voice in her head was not always her biggest cheerleader.
“I’m sorry, Mateo. I just want to be sure that you can fulfill the contract that you’ll sign when you get out there, and it’s a three hour drive back if you can’t check yes to all the questions. I also need to ask if you’re married or have children or communicable diseases.”
He looked only slightly appeased. “I have married no children with communicable diseases.” He looked pleased with himself.
His answer only heightened her suspicions. If he were straight, he’d be asking for bra sizes instead of hoping for enough room for his products when he was ready to unpack. Having several gay friends who she dearly loved and wouldn’t change for anything in the world made her gaydar fairly accurate. She had no problem with him being gay, except that she needed a man who could make the women hot for him instead of Zane. She absolutely didn’t need a man who, instead, might fall in love with Zane.
That could make for some good drama.
Her producer brain was running full speed ahead, but she refused to speculate on the potential ratings that twist would give her.
“I just want to make sure you understand you have to convince nine women—there are only nine now—that you’re sexier than a man with super powers, and you’d make a better boyfriend. You have to actually want to date them, not just smile pretty when the camera pans over you.”
“I’m straight, lady. Do you think I’m gay? I’m pretty enough to be gay, and I’ve had offers, but I am
not
gay.” His feathers were definitely ruffled.
“Mateo, you’re a very good looking man, and you know what they say ‘gay or taken’, so I just had to be sure. You don’t have children and you’re single, correct? No angry girlfriend going to blast the show to the media the day it airs?”
“Lady, you’re really not very nice. I’m straight, single, no child support to pay, and I have a clean bill of health. Do you want to check my teeth and interview my grade school teachers?”
“No need. I started a full background check on you as soon as you told GiovAlexi you’d do the show. I did the same thing with the other contestants. No need for the media to air any dirty laundry someone forgot to own up to. I’m actually a very nice girl, however, this has been a trying week and a long day. I wish I had the luxury of time to be tactful.”
He laughed, and his laugh was very sexy. He’d do. They talked about his background and the show and actually got to know each other. Dina liked him. He was very affable, and she enjoyed the ride back, even with the worry constantly nibbling at the back of her mind.
She hid Mateo in Vinny’s RV, and Vinny took over an unused cabin.
She helped Vinny carry his personal items to the cabin. “Are you sure you’re okay with this, Vinny?”
“Those little tin cans make me claustrophobic. I’m happy to let Pretty Boy use it,” he assured her, but then she noticed he was staring at her. “You are doin’ okay, D?”
Giving him her most brilliant false smile, she nodded. “I’m great. Why?”
“I’ve known you for a long time, and I’m good at spotting trouble. Your face has trouble stamped all over it.”
“Gee, that makes me feel pretty.”
“Really, is there something going on with the hero? I saw the way he was after the boat incident. Now he’s not showing up and you’re running off and leaving production to me. You spring some model on me and tell me about a secret twist. I know damn well you haven’t approved this with Ervin or the network. What the hell is going on?”
“I’m going to level with you, Vin. We might not have a show. Mind Man is MIA. The show must go on. This stays between us, but I know I can spin this.”
He was silent for a moment. “I’ve seen you work magic, at least in the old days. I’m not saying a word.”
She slapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, Vinny.”
“No worries, just don’t get my ass fired.”
“Got it.”
She gave him a quick hug and went back to her own piece of privacy. She looked at her phone to see if anyone had texted or called…nothing. Dina set it down, plugging in the charger, and sighed.
Where are you? Please be okay.
Kicking off her shoes, she noticed her damaged feet. When she returned home, she was going to put each pair of heels she owned into a wood chipper.
She flopped down and began rubbing one of the aching, misused feet. A hot bath and soft bed would really help her stress decrease. She stood and walked to the back of the RV. Her shirt was off quickly and she’d just unzipped her skirt when a loud sound startled her. Dina snatched her shirt off the floor to cover her breasts as she peeked her head out of the tiny room. What she saw made her blood run cold.
Zane flickered in and out. He was lying on the floor in his bloody street cloths just appearing and disappearing, curled up in agony. The shock brought her to her knees, and when she tried to stand her legs were too wobbly. She crawled the short distance to where he was lying. He looked like a ghost, unreal. Her hand hovered above him. She didn’t know if she could touch him, or if contact would make things worse.
“Zane, what’s happening? Where are you?”
He didn’t seem to notice or hear her.
She spoke louder until she was almost screaming at him. “Zane, can you hear me? Where are you? Please help me find you.” Taking a deep breath, she decided she had to try to reach him. Dina grabbed him as soon as he flickered in, and he suddenly felt more solid and real. “Where are you? How can I find you?”
“Stay…away…wants…to…I love…you.”
She fell forward. Nothing was under her hands anymore. He was gone. She might have thought it was a hallucination, except there was a puddle of blood on her floor. He was hurt and needed her. Panic rose in her chest.
Not bothering to put on her shirt, she went running across the campground to the RV her audio-video woman, Farrah Jones, lived in. Crickets chirped loudly, somewhere a lone coyote howled. Dina ignored it all as she rushed toward the only person she could imagine had what she needed. Desperately, she pounded on the door until it opened.
When Farrah saw her standing there, looking frazzled and half-dressed, she raised an eyebrow. “So, has this become a clothing-optional establishment?”
“I need your help. Can you keep a secret?” Dina had to risk trusting the woman. She might be the only one who could help.
Farrah nodded, her eyes narrowed, and Dina could see that her interest. “I can and will if you promise me I won’t go to jail for it.”
“You won’t. I’m scared. I know you toy around with surveillance, GPS, and those types of techie things. Please, you can’t tell anyone, but Mind Man is my friend, I know he’s being hurt and needs help. I have to help him, but I don’t know where he is.” Dina sobbed on the last word.
“Wow, slow down. Why do you think that he’s in trouble?” She looked genuinely concerned yet there was a note of disbelief in her voice.
“Everyone knows he can just disappear when he wants. He hasn’t always been able to control it, at least not as he can now. He just showed up in my RV flickering in and out and bleeding. We have to go there and see if you can find him. He emits a frequency when he goes. In his current state, he was probably broadcasting loudly. He’s learned to control how far the signal travels, but when he’s out of control he can’t disguise or hide his signal.”
“How on earth would you know that?” Farrah asked curiously.
“Again, you’re the only person on Earth I’ve ever told this to, so please, for God’s sake, promise you won’t ever tell anyone any of this.”
“Hey, Mind Man saved my little brother’s life a few years ago. If I can do him a solid, he has it. My lips are sealed. He deserves some help for all the good he’s done.” She stopped suddenly, looking at Dina with large astonished eyes. “You’re her. Rain. I see it now. Wow, how have you managed to keep that a secret working in TV?”
“I’m not her. She’s my twin sister. Again, please don’t tell anyone any of this. I’m just a regular girl, but I run with an amazing crowd. Now let’s get going. He’s analog, not digital, so do you have anything that might work with that kind of a signal? He’s almost like a radio wave.”
“How do you know all this? Even if you’re his BFF, you seem to know a lot of about how he works. Are you like his secret doctor or something?”
Dina was getting frustrated with the questions. If she wasn’t so terrified she’d be amused, but right now she just needed to help her man. “Not a lot of time here,” she ground out. “Hero dying. Run now, talk later.”
Farrah made a gruff sound in the back of her throat. Her question remained dangling. She grabbed an assortment of gadgets and whirlymagigs that looked like junk to Dina. Farrah handed her a shirt.
“Thanks.” Dina slipped the shirt over her head. She grabbed some of the equipment and the two of them rushed back to Dina’s RV. It was late and dark. Dina hoped no one noticed them.
Farrah began to set up. She made some impressed noises as her gizmo seemed to respond to the bloodied area on the floor. Expectantly, Dina waited for Farrah to come up with a location.
“If he pops in again, slap this baby on him discreetly. It will track him anywhere on the planet. I can definitely pick out his particular signal, but it’ll only do us good if we get within a mile of him. I’m sorry. This is the best I can do.” Farrah went over and sat down on the little sofa next to Dina. “This had to be a hard secret to keep. Why’d he decide to do the show? Is he really that lonely?”
“I begged him. I wanted to stay on top and keep my job. If I hadn’t had him burning the candle at both ends, he would probably be all right. I’m sure this is entirely my fault.”
“Hey, you don’t know that for sure. You’re great, honey, but the world doesn’t actually revolve around you and your decisions. If he found you once, he’ll be back. We’ll take shifts waiting by that spot for as long as it takes, and I can set up a way to alert us to his signal. If he suddenly pops in we’ll get this tracker on him. It’ll be okay. So how did you find out how he works? Is he an alien? Is your sister an alien? Are you an alien?”
Dina made a frustrated noise. Why did anyone who was “different” always have to be an alien? “No one is an alien. I feel like an alien sometimes, but as far as I know, we’re all human and mortal. It’s a long story, but the short version is we were unwanted children and a group of sick scientists set up an orphanage. They worked for the government, and tried to…change us. I don’t know why. Maybe they wanted to make super soldiers or something, but it got bad.”
Farrah looked completely engrossed so Dina continued.
“I think my folks were dealing drugs. Someone shot them. Ella and I were little, and we ended up in the system. We were moved to the Sunrise Home for Orphans when our foster parents had their own baby. I guess three kids were more than they wanted. Kids were there and then they were just gone. We assumed they’d been adopted, naïve of us since no one ever came looking to adopt. It was two years before they started with us. They caged us like animals and gave us chemical cocktail injections. Then they’d torture us until we were almost dead. They were trying to make us evolve. I heard one doctor call it Human Spontaneous Evolution, but all it was really was sick. It was minimally invasive and only a little frightening at first. Then it became horrific. I still have nightmares. I guess we were lucky that so many ‘adoptions’ had come before us, because we survived.”
“God, that’s sick.” Farrah wore a disgusted expression. She reached out and squeezed Dina’s hand.
“Tell me about it. My sister started showing signs of changing first. I was her twin, identical. They snatched me up and just went to town repeating what they had done to her. I don’t remember most of it, thank God. Some things are better blocked. I remember just staring up into the big, blinding light and thinking that I was ready to go see the angels. I wanted the angels to take me away and back to my mother. Ella said I didn’t scream except for the one time when they broke bones.”
“Why don’t you have a power too? Did the creeps that tortured you go to prison?” Farrah’s cheeks were red. Dina saw anger in her eyes.
“The bastards are dead now. All five of the others changed and became something different, but not me. I fought to remain as I am. Sorry to lay this all on you right now. I’ve never told anyone about it. I’ve never really even talked to the others about it.”
Farrah said nothing. The sat for a while watching the drying blood and waiting for Zane, Dina fought her tears. She heard a sniffle and looked over at Farrah, who then threw her arms around Dina and began to sob. The embrace was extremely uncomfortable for Dina, and all she could do was pat Farrah’s back awkwardly.