All the King's Men Read online

  “Ridiculous?” Another gust blew through the room. “Hey, how about I just found out the guy I brought to the Ward, someone who followed me home, and acted like he’s been a friend or whatever turns out to be the son of our goddamn enemy? Maybe you were planted at Monroe.”

  Charlie huffed, “What about that file told you that I’m linked to Monroe? And Carter?”

  Hot button. Everyone loved to throw around his name around her.

  Danika blinked. Her jaw flexed at his question. “You shouldn’t even know that name,” she snarled.

  “Everyone on base talks about him, how could I avoid that? Him and Monroe, whatever the hell that was. I know the words, yes. Am I supposed to know what they mean?”

  She stared at him a minute, silent and lost. Everything was wrapped up in files marked CLASSIFIED. Was she supposed to reveal all of this to him, if he was potentially an enemy? “Now’s not a good time.”

  “When will it be a good time? Huh? It’s you and me, on even ground. Alone. Who is Carter?”

  “You come here to argue, Counselor?”

  “I don’t want to argue, I just want to know who he is—”

  “Fine.” Her face twitched, lips already trembling as he trudged on, forcing her hand, forcing her to spit back. “Fine. Monroe. Carter. It happened because of King. The same man your file showed was your father!”

  “So, King is my father, but what does that have to do with Carter? Who is he?!” Charlie pounded his fists on the table, and the conviction in his eyes sent Danika over the edge. “And what is Monroe?!”

  “For fuck’s sake, Charlie—Carter was my husband!” Danika stood up, and the gust of the wind rising within her blew through the room. Danika’s mind was a pit of despair, struggling for almost two years to fill the void her husband left behind with endless bottles of Jack and self-deprecation, hiding from her responsibility to help the Alliance because being there only brought back the pain she’d been working so hard to tuck away.

  Charlie recoiled. “Your…h-husband?”

  Danika turned away from Charlie. She looked at her hands. She tried so hard to get the Gale to settle down, until the light eventually faded. “Julian Thomas Carter, Powered registry callsign Brimstone, and my dead husband. Is that what you fucking wanted?” Her left hand closed, her right hand placed over it, searching for the diamond that used to rest on her ring finger. An ache in the bottom of her heart throbbed just thinking about him. “Carter was killed during a rescue attempt. Monroe.”

  “Monroe…” He echoed.

  “Monroe was the name of the operation, a code we set for one of the prime targets in the building. Philip Monroe. We got intel that a hit was placed on several Powered individuals in the area, and we were supposed to extract them from the building at Wyndham and Parks Boulevard. Place went up in flames.”

  “That was my place.” Charlie breathed out, in disbelief.

  “I didn’t recognize you at first…there were a lot of people there that day. But then everything in your file lined it up. The time, the place, the pictures.”

  Charlie looked stunned; he recalled that night vividly as Danika explained her account.

  “Pyrokinetic.” Her voice was empty, listless, resentful. “Carter was our pyro, and the god damned assholes in the media decided to blame him for the deaths of the people that night because the place went up in flames. But he had nothing to do with the fire. He went back in to save a few others. A family, parents with three kids, and—”

  “Me.” Charlie’s voice was barely a whisper on a faint breath. “Shit.”

  Danika was crying now, the tears endless, thick, and bitter. The more she blinked, the more it stung. “He sacrificed himself for Frost and…and my uncle, maybe a dozen other men and women and children that were housed there, we were tied up and he said he was the only one who could get through, and he knew there were others still in there.”

  “My God…” Charlie uttered, somberly.

  “You wonder why you didn’t hear much from the Alliance after that? Well…there you go.” Danika clicked her tongue and laughed to herself, a mix of mania in her sorrows. “Are you fucking happy now?”

  Charlie narrowed his eyes, “No. No. I’m not. Danika, how can you say that?”

  “You wanted to know about Carter and Monroe and all of the other deep dark secrets in exchange for yours—well, there you have it.” Danika was bawling now.

  “No…hey…shh…”

  Before she knew it, Charlie wrapped her in his arms. The scent of musk and sage, a cool, breezy scent she tagged as his. The embrace calmed her, like a security blanket wrapped around her that she didn’t know she needed.

  Charlie pressed his cheek against the top of her head, and just held her. “I was out of line. I didn’t mean to upset you, I just wanted to know, and I had no idea that was him I…I’m sorry. Please don’t blame me for that, I-I didn’t know.”

  She nodded, her head buried in his chest as she’d given into his hold. “I know you didn’t kill him. I know it’s not your fault…it’s not…”

  “Dani…Nothing I can say will bring him back, but I’m deeply sorry. For everything.” He was sincere, holding her close, but loose enough to let her escape if she so chose.

  Then, it just spilled over. The feelings she’d been holding back all this time, since losing Carter, since she’d lost her parents…it was bound to spill over sometime. Danika melted into his arms, feeling drained by the pure, unadulterated sorrow churning inside of her. No one could get this close to her, no one knew what sadness plagued her thoughts—not even her uncle—so getting the opportunity to vent was new territory. She hadn’t talked about Carter’s death since the week it happened; it had been pent up for so long that she didn’t know what to do with it, so she just cried, right into the chest of the man she’d just spent so much time hating.

  Charlie brought his hand up to the back of her head and stroked her hair, making one pass, then another, before resting his hand on her back. He let her cry for as long as she needed, which came in waves of painful sobs for a few moments. Eventually, when she settled down, Charlie softly chuckled.

  “What?” She whispered, her breathy voice so quiet it was nearly unheard.

  “You know, you would have made a great lawyer.”

  Danika just snorted and proceeded to keep her reddened, tearful eyes down at his chest. “No. Absolutely not.”

  “I mean, if you ever change your mind,” Charlie urged, seeing an opportunity to brighten the otherwise dark and gloomy mood.

  “Never.” She laughed, as she sniffled back a few tears. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “This doesn’t mean that I forgive you.”

  Charlie’s dark eyes found hers, those hypnotizing chestnut irises she seemed to take for granted. Flecks of turquoise, gray and amber danced in them, encircling his pupils. “Maybe someday you’ll forgive me for this…” His tender fingertips brushed her hair behind her ear, and traced underneath her chin to pull her attention up to him. Before she could blink, Charlie moved even closer and kissed her, brushing his lips softly against hers.

  The air picked up around them. The magnetism between them was so strong, she found herself unable to pull herself away, nor did she want to. This moment, though stolen, was enough time for her to get lost into his arms. As she reiterated to herself that no one had been able to get that close to her in a couple of years, he managed to close the distance in a matter of weeks.

  His hand slid back to cradle her neck as he deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his tongue and delved in with a warmth of passion. Danika melted against him. He tasted of whiskey and peppermint, with a dash of oceanside aftershave. Her shoulders tensed as she pressed herself against his chest, her hand placed against that scruff on his chiseled jaw like a puzzle piece snapped in place. He had his free hand around her at the waist and he pulled her close, and she bit down on his bottom lip, teasingly.

  The air picked up again…

  There was a knock at the
door.

  Charlie licked his lips as he pulled away and pressed his forehead against hers. “Expecting someone?”

  Before she could shake her head no, the door exploded inward, tearing loose from its hinges and flying across the entranceway. The crash was so startling the two of them ducked. Danika took cover behind the couch and Charlie dove toward the counter, tucking in between the barstools along the counter. There were three people invading her home, two Powered, dressed in black and white suits.

  “Ms. Carlisle. I believe you’ve taken something from Mr. King.” Standing between the two Powered operatives, leading the charge, was one man: tall, dark hair, sharp glasses…blue suit.

  Danika narrowed her eyes, trying to see beyond the bluish-purple glow. Dmitri? What the hell is King’s right hand doing here?

  “Get down!” Charlie leapt over the couch, pushing Danika out of the way of the orb Dmitri hurled toward them. They tumbled together and landed side by side. Charlie had his arm outstretched, reaching for her but she couldn’t move. The orb landed with a warbled, rumbling sound, as if someone broke open a subwoofer and she could feel the bass vibrations in her chest, it was tremendous. The room was filled with the blue light, and all they could hear were the words: “Tear it down.” before succumbing to the power of the light.

  “Char…lie…” Danika whispered, weakly, reaching towards him, searching for his hand, but no matter how far she pushed herself, he was nowhere to be found. Her eyes were so heavy.

  Two years back…

  “Let’s come back alive...” It was Morgan’s voice, trailing off with a slight echo, as he gave his prompts from the Monroe operation. Carter was there standing beside her, with Sloane and Frost standing close by.

  Rewind.

  Most of her memories involved the Alliance, when it was at its strongest. Morgan. Tess. The small crew they had built. They were revered as pillars of the community, praised for their good deeds when the Powered were finally accepted after the Turning settled. The Alliance was sought after to keep the city safe. They were heroes.

  Rewind. A bit faster now…

  Her family dinners. Her father’s laugh. Her mother’s singing voice. The day Carter proposed to her…their wedding…

  Flash. Forward this time.

  Danika heard a loud scream, but it was her scream. There was a strong smell of gunpowder. Then sulfur. Soot. Flames…

  Fast forward. Maybe the not too distant future.

  She couldn’t see figures anymore, everything was just moving by like a smear of light on a dark canvas. An argument was happening, voices were shouting, voices she could hardly make out, yet she could feel the intense weight of their conviction, their passion, in her chest. When she could see again, there was a dark room. One stool under a shaft of brilliant light from the grating on the window above.

  It was focused on the man on the stool.

  Charlie.

  He sat with a blank expression until he leapt for the bars of his jail cell with his eyes full of… guilt.

  “Danika?”

  The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance, be she was sitting in the dark.

  “Danika? Can you hear me?” Charlie’s voice was in her ear.

  If she made any attempts to respond, they were lost on her. She felt an immense pressure on her temples. When she opened her eyes, she saw it wasn’t Charlie hovering above her. Those intense eyes were hard to miss, though completely unexpected since she’d been with Charlie just moments before. The lines of his face became clear once she could focus, wearing worry on his handsome features.

  He slowly relaxed into a bit of relief. “There you are.”

  “Sloane? What…h-happened?”

  Sloane grunted as he pulled her up from the ground, hiking her arm over his shoulder to get her feet planted and ready to walk. “We gotta get going, siren says five-oh are already close.”

  “And you want to run?” Danika whimpered as he felt the pops and crackles in her shoulder, and just how wobbly her knees were. She was in no condition to run anywhere, much less walk.

  “Yeah. I called someone over to get this place covered in case they ask too many questions…you know, all that fun stuff…”

  “Anon?” She asked, a name she hadn’t spoken in a great while.

  “Yep.”

  “Dammit.”

  Anon was one of Sloane’s secret connections who came around to make sure his work wasn’t looked at too closely by the police or any government entity. She’d never met them before, but that meant this place would be tagged as a Powered hideout—the one thing she didn’t want to do to her home.

  “Alright Sunshine, let’s go.”

  Sloane made sure she was stable on her own two feet before taking her away from the rubble. She gave the room a once over; The entire living room she had repaired was destroyed again, left in a worse condition than before. The partition wall had been destroyed, glass, wood, plastic shards and pieces everywhere.

  “Where’s Charlie?” She groaned, squinting her eyes at him to try and focus.

  “They took him and the files.” Sloane whispered pulling her towards the kitchen, and he leaned on the counter for a moment when she fell deadweight into his grasp. “Careful…” He warned her of the debris they needed to avoid on their way toward the door.

  “The files?” Danika hated when people parroted things she said, but as everything swirled in a mess of chaos around her, voices, whispering, crackling, and the settling of broken items in her home—she needed some clarification. She tried to hold herself up, but her head felt so weighted, throbbing intensely as she tried to shift her weight in his arms.

  “They got everything, yes, but come on, darlin’, we gotta get going.”

  She couldn’t ignore the dread in the pit of her stomach as it finally settled in. Charlie’s file, the information relating to his reconditioning camp, and the proof they needed to possess to out King’s intentions to take over, shape and reform the city…

  Charlie.

  They were all gone.

  Blowback

  “You’re back!” Callie’s lavender eyes lit up like it was Christmas Day.

  “I didn’t want to be. Trust me,” Danika grumbled as she limped beside her escort, Sloane. His driving was more jarring than his teleportation, and having experienced both in a brief period, it hurt her insides.

  Frost strolled up beside them to assist, and his cool grip under her other shoulder soothed her aching body. “I saw activity on the grid—police on their way to your place on the account of explosions or some sort of tremors on the lot?”

  Sloane walked her over to the nearest chair and set her down. “No worries, I have Anon working on it right now…”

  “Anon—” Frost’s neck jutted back in surprise. He was more than familiar with Anon than most of the current team, since he’d used their help a couple of times before, “Jesus, D. That is some grade A shade you’re working in…did someone get to you? What is going on?”

  “I was hoping you’d tell me,” she grunted. Once she was up on a chair, Sloane stood back and out of her way, putting his hands on his hips. His tongue flicked out to his lips for a second before he spoke up: “It was Dmitri. He came in and completely destroyed her place, had Powered reinforcements, from what I could tell.”

  Danika looked over at Sloane. “Wow…Investigator Hyde is faster than the average first responder, and he knows all the details. You stalking me or something, Ian?”

  “Hey,” he shot a glare at her, “you’re welcome.”

  As she pulled off her hoodie with her one good arm, Danika grunted and tossed the sweater to the side. “It was the girl. Ol’ what’s her name…”

  “Tabitha?” Frost asked.

  “Yeah sure. When I ran into her before at the bar, she ran her mouth, some grandiose speech about how she’d been watching me, blah blah. Knew I worked at Dz’s and said she knew where I lived but she probably followed me or something. Got my location. Bitch.”

 
; “So, you’ve been sloppy.” Morgan chimed in.

  “Hey!” Danika clicked her tongue and turned her head a little too fast, she felt the nerves in her neck catch so she whipped back to face forward and brought her hand up to gently massage the muscle. God dammit!

  Morgan was standing on the top landing of the stairs leading to his office, his combat boots flat and his hands on the bannister as those brown eyes stared down at them. He had his usual authoritative look about him, but he seemed more disappointed above all. Danika was grateful the Turning didn’t grant him special laser eyes, with the look he was giving her.

  “You keep your distance, you watch your back, you cover your tracks. Danika, you know better than that. Because of this mishap, we’ve lost the intel we went in for…and a lot of proof. Mr. Matthews wanted answers on his past, we needed ways to get to King—and that was our key. Now we have neither.”

  “No, you can’t blame this on me. He broke into my house.” She stated, matter-of-factly.

  “What was all that doing off-base in the first place?” Morgan asked, in an austere manner that had enough weight behind it to stop everyone else from their idle chatter around the scene.

  Danika cringed, and a wave of bitterness swept through her.

  Sloane stepped forward in her defense, with his hands raised. “Oh look, the room, meet elephant. Let’s address it, shall we? Yeah, I read that file. I think most of us did. We know who his father is, and we know that his father is a downright douchebag, but that doesn’t change the fact that Charlie-boy has been here. He’s seen our faces, knows our lives, knows how to get to and from here—”

  “Well, can move the portal doors to—” Callie started, but when Sloane held up his finger to shush her, she stopped.

  “Changing our location isn’t going to erase the fact that he knows some of our secrets. Morgan—you took a gamble on that kid.”

  “I’m aware of that, Mr. Sloane, but I implore you, before you continue, please remember that you’re in my house.” Morgan’s neutral expression immediately shifted to something darker, to punctuate his firm place at the head of team.