So Not a Hero by S.J. Delos Read Free Book Online

lying on the ground next to the entrance and I could hear the boys laughing as someone, sounding an awful lot like Natalie, pleaded for them to go away. Then came the sound of flesh hitting flesh and the resulting cry of pain. My jaw tightened and my fury became a conflagration. I’d had no place to go and these people had taken me in. Now someone else was treating them like cheap entertainment.
    Not on my fucking watch.
    I walked around the building and crossed the parking lot to stand behind the Camaro. I gave the car one final appreciative appraisal before I brought the length of steel over my head and slammed it down on the convertible. The weight of the beam, augmented by my strength, bisected the vehicle length-wise. The two halves remained upright for a second or two before each fell in opposite directions.
    The ruckus probably carried for blocks.
    I leaned against the mangled remains of the Chevy as everyone came rushing out to see the source of the commotion. The frat boys were first, of course, and Surfer Boy froze upon seeing the destroyed vehicle. Derek was the last to emerge and his eyes widened at the sight. Then he looked at me and covered his open mouth with his hand.
    “My car,” Blondie wailed, grabbing at his hair as he staggered to the side. One of his friends, a nearly moose-sized redhead, caught him around the shoulders to keep him from falling over. “What happened to my car?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know, dude. I was just walking past and this beam dropped out of the sky. Guess it’s lucky you weren’t in it, huh?”
    The rest of the punks looked up to try and locate the origin of the car-smashing hunk of metal. However, Surfer Boy glared at me as if I’d just broken his favorite toy. Which, I guess, I’d actually done.
    “You did this, you bitch! You broke my damned car!” He pulled himself free from his friend’s arm and stalked over to me, hands balling into fists.
    “How did she break your car, boy?” Derek moved forward to stand between his people and the rest of us. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Look at her. She’s what? Five feet tall?”
    “Five-six,” I countered.
    The boys looked from Derek to me. Then they looked at the huge steel beam.
    “You think she just picked that thing up and hit your car with it?” He chuckled and Antonio and a few others chimed in. “It probably weighs ten times what she does.”
    The blonde boy didn’t take his eyes off me. “She did it somehow. Maybe she’s a Freak .”
    I rose up off the car, my own hands becoming fists. “What did you call me?”
    Derek turned to the boys. “How much have you guys smoked this evening? Two joints? Three? Probably did a little nose candy, too. Am I right?”
    The four of them looked at each other, guilt plastered all over their Abercrombie faces.
    “Now,” the old man continued, “you boys can call the cops and say that this little girl, who may or may not be Enhanced, smashed up your car. Maybe when they get here, they call the EAPF to check her out. Maybe not. But I can guarantee that they will take you little punks downtown for possession and public intoxication. Good luck explaining that one to Mommy and Daddy.”
    Blondie looked back over his shoulder at Derek and then faced me again. The old man’s sobering logic might have given his buddies something to consider, but the big boy looked as if he were still planning to do something that wasn’t going to end well for him.
    Or me.
    “Bitch broke my car, man,” he growled, taking another step closer. “She’s going to pay for that.” His glassy eyes looked me up and down and the sideways grin that appeared on his face told me where his mind had gone. It was the same look that a lot of guards at the Max had when they looked at you. Like they wondered how you were in bed and enjoyed the daydream of finding out. “I’m gonna take it out of that sweet ass.” He stalked towards me with a look in his eyes that made every alarm in my