Read Online Heroes Lost and Found by Sheryl Nantus - Free Book Online

among both the supers and civilians who might still think of the Protectors as a bunch of lucky underdogs.
    The green-eyed monster reared its head, pointing out I might be a wee bit jealous of Kit Masters showing up.
    It went without saying he’d take over the team whether I agreed or not. It’d be a race between the man’s ego and the public demanding an Alpha in charge.
    But there was something about the way he tilted his head to one side, something about the way he spoke about Dykovski…
    “So you’ve told Dykovski to come here to meet Harris and recruit him for his band of thugs.” I fiddled with the soaked paper label on the beer bottle. “Sort of like Parris Island coming to the Marines.”
    “Yes.” Kit reached up and scratched the burnt area. Flakes of skin floated down to the hardwood floor. “From what we gathered online they like to do it that way. Less chance of being found out if they go to the mountain, in other words.”
    “And after they leave with Harris, we follow them back to their base and then take them out.” I drew out the last few words, looking for a reaction.
    He frowned. The lone eye stared at me, unblinking and cold.
    Bingo.
    Harris bounced again between the two of us. “Sure. That’s the plan.” His face changed from enthusiastic to confused as he stared at Kit. “Right?”
    Kit snorted. “Guess it’s time to tell you about my little change to the plan.” He put his hands together and cracked his knuckles, the bullet shots snapping in my ears. “Dykovski’s coming here either alone or with a few of his thugs so we tag and bag him right here in Kensington Grove. I’m not letting him out of my sights. I’m not letting him get back to his base and go underground like the slimy worm he is. He gets back to his box of goodies, who knows what he’s going to pull up, toss in our way to escape.” He shook his head. “No. Never again.”
    The small tinkling alarm bell in the back of my head evolved into Big Ben.
    “No, we can’t.” I pointed with the neck of the beer bottle at the window. “There are people out there, civilians. I know Dykovski doesn’t give a shit about them. He was willing to kill them in Vegas to send a message. He won’t have any problem killing them here to delay or distract us.”
    “So?” Kit scratched his cheek again. “Not my problem.”
    I put the beer bottle down on the table. “It is our problem. We can’t fight in the middle of Kensington Grove. Innocent people will die.”
    Kit snorted. “Fuck that shit. No one’s innocent in this, Surf. Not the Agency and sure as hell not the people out there.” He stood up, almost knocking his head on the low ceiling. “They knew we were too good to be true and they didn’t care. They let the Agency continue to trap and enslave us, use and abuse us, and never gave a shit about our lives, our families, the people who cared about us.” His arms swung around, waving at the world outside the small apartment. “They bought the posters and books and action figures and never asked what we really wanted. They never cared as long as we gave them a good show.”
    “They didn’t know.” I stepped towards Kit. “The Agency made sure of that. You can’t put them in the middle between Dykovski and us.”
    “They’ll do fine.”
    “They’ll die.” I looked at Harris. “You really want Bernie to be on the front line? You saw what happened in Las Vegas. You think she’s going to survive that?”
    Harris shook his head, addressing Kit. “We gotta take it outside, Kit. Outside the town. You said we’d follow them out, that’s what you said when we set this up.”
    The Alpha let out a sharp laugh. “What I said and what’s going to happen are two different things. I’m not going to let Dykovski walk away because there’s a bunch of civvies in the way. I’m not saying to aim for them. But if they get in the way, I’m not going to stop and hold their hand, walk them to the other side of the street