Banging the Superhero by Rebecca Royce Page B

looked like he'd aged ten years in two days.
    "Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help you too."

Crumbling, Grayson landed on the wood floor. In a fit of sobbing and hiccups, he began to explain.
    "I got into some financial trouble."
    Ace squatted to be closer to Grayson's eye level. "Gambling?"
    "Horse racing."
    "That's tough."
    Ace didn't have a gambling problem; in fact, he'd never made anything but a friendly bet in his life, but he understood it could be a debilitating thing to get involved in.
    "I went to the network. I take a cut of all of Alice's deals. They told me the only way she could renegotiate for more money this year was if the ratings sky rocketed."
    Grayson sniffed. "I came to her with a bunch of ideas. I wanted her to film from a cruise boat surrounded by her fans. We could charge for the cruise. She said she was not spending a week in the blistering sun on a boat talking to strangers all day."
    That sounded like Alice. He wasn't sure what made him want to grin more, the idea of Alice in cruise apparel cooking steaks or the way she'd told Grayson no way in hell would she do it.
    "Go on."
    "I wanted her to branch out to clothing. We'd had some offers . . . ."
    Ace thought of Alice trapped in the elevator, probably fuming by now, and he knew this couldn't continue. Ace's eyes watered from the strain of maintaining control.
    "Tell me about The Mask."
    "Finally, I decided I had to be more original. I thought I could scare her on television. She'd be really freaked out. It would generate interest. New people would watch. Ratings would soar. He wasn't supposed to kill her; he was supposed to scare her. Then I saw what happened. I didn't know what to do and you showed up like a perfect solution. The one man who could save her presented himself. I thought, oh thank god, I can fix this."
    Grayson blubbered. No other word Ace could think of to describe the amount of tears, snot, and desperation pouring from Grayson's insides.
    "How did you find him?"
    "I went to a bar, a shady place downtown. I asked the bartender if he knew anyone who had superhero powers and would do this kind of thing. He gave me a card."
    Grayson dug into his pocket and pulled out a business card. Handing it to Ace, he sniffed again. "I called the number, told the fellow what I wanted, he told me it would cost fifty thousand dollars."
    "I thought you said you had money problems."
    "Fifty thousand is a drop in the bucket compared to what I owe. But then it got strange; they called back and said their operative wanted to do the job for free based on the publicity. I thought that sounded great. I had no idea the demon I'd be setting loose on Alice."
    Ace had to get out of there or he was going to pound on the man's head so hard it would break him in half. "Here's how this is going to work. You are going to go down to Sarasota on the next flight. You are going to stay there with your sister. She's not nice and you're an ingrate. You're perfect together. You'll stay there until Alice decides what she wants to do with you. And know this"—he pointed a finger right in his face—
    "Wherever you go, I will find you. There isn't a machine in the world that won't tell me where you are."
    "I won't run, Mr. Hudson." He sniffed. "Is there any chance you can keep Alice from pressing charges?"
    If Ace had his way, she'd be pressing charges the second they got out of the building.
    "Sarasota. Stay. There."

    * * * * *

    Landing outside of his house, he ripped the blindfold off her eyes. She sputtered as he placed her on her own two feet.
    "Goddamn it, Ace." She grabbed onto his chest and shook him. "Don't ever, ever throw me in an elevator like that again. I didn't know I was claustrophobic."
    "I'm sorry. Your safety was my only concern. The frickin' Mask tried to get at you the whole time you were in there."
    He stalked away. This was bad. He had to get out of here before he could go any further with this. He needed to find some music and he needed to find