Reality Hero (21 page)

She was very close to the room, able to see in from her vantage point where she remained hidden in the shadows. Her best weapon was surprise. Dina peeked around a corner. There was a row of old windows. In the dim light, she could see the reflection from space’s interior. Counting, she noted at least four big men in the room. They didn’t look special, and she’d no idea how they’d been able to take both Zane and Ella down. She had to even the numbers. Running in a crouched position, she sank down behind some crates, still holding her iron rod. Grabbing an old tin can from the cement floor, she threw it away from her in the dark as hard as she could.

Two men instantly went running into the darkness. She could totally take two men.
It’s not as if they’re expecting feisty me to come at them, swinging.
Jumping up, she ran. Mindlessly, she swung the handle and hit the closest man from behind. He dropped down like a stone. Dina jumped over his fallen body and went after the second man. He pulled out a gun. She stopped. Zane groaned, and she heard Ella mutter something under her breath.
Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.

Dina spoke calmly to the man. “I’m going to put this down on the ground next to you, okay? Please don’t shoot me.”

His expression never changed, there was something oddly blank about his face. He wore dark sunglasses. The room’s only illumination was a single bare bulb, so it was very strange that he’d be able to see in the glasses. He motioned to the ground with his gun. He seemed to be looking passed her shoulder, not directly at her. She wondered if he were blind, yet he seemed to know she had a weapon. She crouched down, but didn’t actually let go of the handle. Zane rolled a bit, groaning. The man seemed distracted by Zane’s movement for a second, and she used the chance to take him down while he wasn’t pointing the gun directly at her. She whacked him in the back of the knees as hard as she could, and he fell. Then she hit him in the head with the rod. There was a sickening sound. He no longer posed a threat. She felt sick, but she had to protect her family.

Rushing over to where Zane and Ella lay, she couldn’t figure out why they weren’t getting up, until she touched Zane. Screaming, she jerked her hand back. Her hand throbbed from the shock of the electric current running through him. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it had to hurt like hell.

“My God, how long have you been like this? I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.”

Dina went to her sister and was just about to touch her when Ella’s soft voice stopped her.

“Don’t touch me, Dina. There’s more electricity in me. It’d kill you.”

Dina stepped back a safe distance. She looked around for any trace of the source of the electricity, but couldn’t see it. No obvious cords or wires lay around them. It was perplexing and frustrating. Her damaged hand and side hurt like hell.

They needed a hero. It was someone else’s turn to save
their asses
. She looked around, but found nothing that would help her stop the current.
I’m all they have. I need to figure this out.

She began to feel the walls and floor of the dimly lit room. It seemed impossible, but it was as if the force generated directly on top of them. Feeling the air over them, she felt no cords, wires, or anything that could be causing it. They lay locked in a prison of agony. It made her physically sick watching them suffer. Anger burned inside of her.

A soft whisper slid over her. It made her skin crawl. Turning, she was held transfixed by the sight before her. There’d be no turning off the electricity. Ian stood in the dark doorway at the back of the space. He was wearing a God-awful get up, something that even an acrobat or magician would feel foolish wearing. Half-white and half-black spandex covered his legs and torso. It had lightning bolts running up the legs, and she swore she saw sequins glittering in the dim light.
At least his clothes advertise the crazy inside the kook wearing them.

Even with her life at stake, she felt amazed any man would voluntarily wear that. A pair of young, big-haired, brunette women who resembled rock video rejects flanked him on both sides. They looked so similar that Dina wondered if they were twins. They rubbed against him likes cats in heat. It looked like the 1980s had thrown up the worst of the decade all over them. Worse, they wore outfits that matched Ian’s. His cruelty extended to the wardrobe of his minions.

Forcing herself to focus, she glanced back at Zane and Ella. They were writhing. Ian’s proximity must be increasing the voltage. She couldn’t believe he’d torture people he’d once called family. She didn’t know how to stop him, except to kill him, and the iron rod was all she had. Now she wished she’d listened to Ervin a few years ago when he’d tried to get her to go to the range. He wanted her to know how to shoot, and have a carry and conceal permit. A string of attacks in the studio parking ramp had him looking out for her. She’d decided the only safe way to carry a gun was to be willing to use it. She wasn’t willing then, but gun would really come in handy right now.

Ian had grown into a tall, well built, and very handsome, albeit tasteless, man. Knowing he’d thrown away all his positive potential made her ache. In her heart, she still wanted to help him. Dina still saw the scared boy behind his eyes.

They just stared at one another. Dina frowned. She could tell she was the last person he’d expected to see in his abandoned warehouse. He looked as if he were trying to decide what to do. She could sympathize because she was trying to think of a way to kill him. She knew he was the Electrocutioner, but actually seeing it herself was heartbreaking. The electricity related crime spree should have given him away, but she’d hoped she was wrong. After he’d left, she’d always hoped he’d found a way to live a normal life—be happy.

Turmoil raged on his face, and Dina wanted to reach out to him and help him stop the madness he’d created. She lifted her arm ever so slightly and took a small step forward as if to go to him. The men who’d left the room earlier suddenly returned. They were all dressed in black suits and wore sunglasses. All of them had that slack blankness in their expressions.
Creeptastic.
She shuddered. The minions raised their guns simultaneously.
Creeptastic-er.
She saw it as if it were slow motion. Her senses seemed to sharpen as mortal fear for her life kicked in, making her hypersensitive to the danger. She heard the shot and closed her eyes. Certainty she’d be dead filled her with resignation.
If only I’d saved them, it would have been worth it.
Dina felt no pain. She felt no wound. Opening her eyes, she saw the men lay dead. Her mouth fell open, but no sound came out. Confused and terrified, she looked back at Ian. His spandex kitties backed away from him, looking at him uncertainly. She realized that he’d killed his own men.

“How could you kill them?” she asked quietly.

A booming laugh came out of him, and the spandex twins backed farther away. They looked truly terrified. He suddenly stopped laughing, his head snapped forward, and he pinned Dina with a dark look.

Now she knew why the women looked scared. She saw the electricity in his eyes. It hadn’t been there a moment earlier. The realization that he could kill her immediately with a look took a moment to sink in.

“Please, Ian, stop this now. I want to help you. You’re not a killer. This is wrong— What have you become?”

She saw the electricity crackle more intensely.
Me and my damn big mouth.

His booming laugh now had his kitties hunched down shaking, but still flanking him.
How much electroshock therapy does it take to make your minions that devoted and devoid of style sense?
Dina thought she detected genuine humor this time as he laughed. When he stopped, the look he gave her was the oddest one she’d ever seen. His hard face softened slightly. Yet he still appeared lethal.
When he kills me, I hope it’s fast and painless.
He’d not spoken to her, but his gaze seemed intensely transfixed on her. He’d always given her soul-deep stares, but this felt edged with a matured hunger. She experienced white-hot terror mingle with the adrenaline.

Dina took a step back, and it seemed to break his focus.

“Should I kill you, Dina? Should I kill Zane or Ella and make you watch? What am I going to do with you? I never thought that I’d be near you again, but here you are. It looks like you wanted to come for a visit very badly.” When he spoke, his voice sounded hard and unfeeling. He glanced at her bloody hand and side.

She said nothing, afraid to make him more unstable. She regretted her rash dialogue earlier. She might’ve sealed all their death warrants.

“It’s a reunion. I received a lot of money to bring you two here and hold you.” He turned toward Zane and Ella as he spoke. Then he looked back at Dina. “Poor Dina just came here to give me a little bonus. I’m sure my employers would pay an additional amount for her. Zane, I see how you’re straining to free yourself. You should stop and save your energy, because you’re going to need it. I wonder if I should keep Dina for myself. My employers need never know I have her. Dina, you’re the only thing I ever wanted but didn’t get. I’m wealthy—crime pays. I can buy anything, except…”

Fear coursed down her spine as he trailed off, looking vacant. Zane groaned with his struggles behind her. This wasn’t going to end well for any of them, but she feared that it would go extra badly for her if Ian decided to keep her. Death was preferable to rape. Dina wanted to run. Yet she couldn’t abandon her sister and Zane. If she ran, he would fry her like the guards. Indecision made her crazy with all the various possibilities.

One of his little sidekicks must have become offended, because she suddenly did a few wild backflips and Dina found the woman’s hand lethally against her neck. Her body pressed against the wall. Kitty used her gym pass. The woman was scary strong. It hurt. She gasped, trying to breathe. She knew the woman could kill her.

Ian spoke coldly. “Bolt, if you do what you intend, I’ll kill you, and it won’t be quick.”

Bolt dropped her hand, but Dina saw pure hatred in her eyes. Dina wondered what he’d named his other pet. Bolt moved to flank her man again.

You can have him, I don’t want him
, Dina thought, giving the woman a wary look. She coughed and rubbed her neck.

Ian stepped forward, almost protectively, as to shield her from his gymnastically inclined girlfriends. He touched her face. She gasped, closing her eyes tightly and turning her head to the side. She was certain that he planned to electrocute her. Her whole body grew stiff, braced for the lethal impact. She felt his thumb stroke her cheek, and cautiously opened her eyes. He was looking down at her with that fiercely intimate look again. She shuddered. He opened his hand. She felt herself become frozen, unable to move or scream. An unseen force held her immobilized. Dina lost consciousness.

Chapter 15

Zane struggled frantically. Ella moaned as she tried to free herself. He knew he’d fight to the death to save
his
Dina. She’d been genuine when she’d confessed her love and willingness to be with him in the RV during his flickering. He refused to accept he’d won her heart only to lose her so quickly.

Ian held her in his arms as if he’d just found a long lost toy. With Ian so completely distracted, Zane realized he felt a lessening of the electric force. Hating himself, he knew that he no choice. He freed himself the only way he could—by leaving.

* * * *

Ella smiled grimly as she saw Zane go, but the small triumph was short lived as Ian growled his anger, sending more electricity into Ella. She screamed, feeling the worst pain she’d ever experienced. Her life was draining. He was killing her. He must have realized he was ripping up his paycheck in anger, because Ella felt it lessen just enough for her to survive. She hated the bastard fiercely. Zane was their only hope. She was too weak to put up a proper fight.

Ian whispered something to his pets, and they both left the room, sulking. Ella wondered what he’d told them. He went over to a table and lay her sister down. Ella wanted to scream. She didn’t want to lie helplessly as the maniac raped Dina. Ian just touched Dina’s face as he adjusted her tenderly on the makeshift bed. Ella was relieved when he stepped away. She hoped he didn’t have some way to turn her willful, funny sister into one of his obedient pets. While he was distracted, she struggled slightly. It was no use. She couldn’t escape.

Zane hadn’t flickered back in. He must have gotten away. At least he’d escaped. Dina had unwittingly saved him.

Returning, the spandex sisters brought more guards. These men were ones Ella hadn’t seen, and she wondered where Ian had kept them stashed. He must have a very bad temper to have to keep spare associates on hand.

“Electrocutioner, shall we put the women in the van?” one of the suited guards asked in a strange wooden voice. Ella thought they looked dumb wearing sunglasses in the dim room.

“Yes, take that one to the van, but this one, I keep. Take my girls with you too.”

Ella saw both of his pet’s crestfallen expressions. She felt less pain, but she was just as immobile. Being unceremoniously plucked from her place on the ground and hoisted uncomfortably over the guard’s shoulder was humiliating.
Buddy, you just bought yourself an ass-kicking when I’m free.

They walked through the warehouse. Ella watched as some of his dark glasses and suit wearing lackeys removed a large padlock and one of the minions pushed the big doors wide apart. A van drove in and she was plopped in the back of it. She saw Ian holding her sister in his arms as the guard closed the van doors, separating her from her helpless sibling.

Ella looked up at the guard. “Do you like hurting defenseless women?”

He didn’t give her any indication he heard her angry words.

She was irate. “Hey, stupid, do you hear me?” Ella shouted loudly at him.

No response.

She found she could move slightly, being away from Ian lessened the effect he had on her. Ella kicked out. It caused a box to fall out of hanging netting that ran along the top of the van’s interior. The box hit the mute guard on the head and caught the side of his dark sunglasses. When the glasses fell off his face, Ella found herself unable to repress her shriek of horror. His eyes—or what had once been his eyes—were burned out of his head. Strange blue electricity bounced around the empty sockets, as if it were some kind of battery, keeping Ian’s zombie mobile. Ella turned her face away, shutting her eyes. Ian was sick and twisted, even more than she’d ever have guessed. This was stomach turning.