Heels and Heroes Read Online Free

ask Justice more questions, sort out the specifics of The Council’s plan, but he’d touched on her sore spot. Made her angry. Accused her of being jealous . As if he knew what it was like to be in her shoes.
    Brenda shook her head to clear her thoughts. She had to focus. An administrator filling out a bit of paperwork could afford a distracted brain to a certain extent; a pharmacist couldn’t.
    So for the next two hours she kept her attention on work. Thoughts of superheroes and villains and Justice moved to the back of her brain, and she focused on filling the prescriptions that might very well mean life or death to the people they’d been ordered for. Requiring superpowers or no, it was a hefty responsibility.
    Superheroes weren’t the only ones who saved lives.
    “It’s Ms., not Miss,” an icy voice said from the counter. The voice was familiar enough to pull her from double-checking the information sheet she was stapling to a prescription bag, but she couldn’t quite place it.
    The woman who corrected Maria’s use of her name didn’t look familiar. Short, brown hair, graying at her temples, did nothing to cover an ordinary fortyish face that sat on top of a body that wasn’t exactly overweight but didn’t appear to get a lot of gym time, either. Her too-tight T-shirt that proclaimed she was a fan of the local high school football team didn’t ring any bells.
    Brenda moved closer to the counter to get a better look. She still couldn’t place her, and it felt important she did. The woman noticed Brenda’s stare, and returned it with one of her own.
    “Can I help you, dear?” she asked, voice only slightly more kind than the one she’d used to correct Maria.
    Recognition hit Brenda. Maybe it was the “dear” that did it; most people didn’t call strangers dear—not in Chicago. Or maybe the slightly condescending motherly tone triggered her recall. Whatever the cause, she knew without a doubt that the woman standing at her counter was Violet. Violet in her normal clothes.
    “No, sorry. I thought you were someone else,” Brenda stammered, and a flush crept up her cheeks for the lie.
    She pursed her lips and looked Brenda up and down thoughtfully but didn’t say anything else. Instead, she snatched the prescription bag from Maria’s hand and turned to leave. She stopped after a couple of steps and pivoted back around, just enough to give Brenda one last considering glance before she walked out the door.
    A loud chirp made Brenda jump. She glared at her cell phone and then grabbed it to silence the noise.
    “Another emergency?”
    “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ll explain—”
    “Later, I know.” Maria grinned and waved her away.
     
    ***
     
    Operating on little sleep, Brenda had left the house without packing a superhero outfit with her. Luckily, she had the extra mask she always carried in her car—it was regulation, after all. So after parking, she tied the mask on and tried to look as official as she could while wearing a superhero mask with a pair of slacks and a button-up blouse. She had half convinced herself it was working until she met up with Justice at the crime scene.
    “What the hell are you wearing?” he asked, after taking in her outfit and shiny red mask.
    “It’s regulation,” she snapped back.
    He frowned at that, but didn’t argue with her. He of course wore his normal gear, and she wondered if he ever took it off. An image of him showering in all that black leather flashed in her mind, and it was all she could do to suppress a giggle.
    “Something funny?”
    One of the bank’s double doors hung from a single heavy hinge, and the other was nowhere in sight. Rubble decorated the once-professional lobby, and peeking inside revealed that much of the debris came from the second story, which had half collapsed on the floor below it. Brenda backed up, not eager to test the stability of what remained of the two-story building. “This…doesn’t look like our guy.”
    “I agree,