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  Sidekick

  Auralee Wallace

  Sidekick

  Auralee Wallace

  Heroes meets Bridget Jones in this brilliant, hilarious debut novel about a girl who just wants to save the world…

  Bremy St James, daughter of billionaire Atticus St James, has been cut off from the family fortune and is struggling to survive in a world that no longer holds its breath every time she buys a new outfit. To make matters worse, her twin sister is keeping secrets, loan sharks are circling, and the man of her dreams — a newspaper reporter — is on assignment to bring down everyone with the last name St James.

  Things are certainly looking bleak for the down-and-out socialite until a good deed throws her into the path of the city’s top crime-fighter, Dark Ryder. Suddenly, Bremy has a new goal: apprentice to a superhero, and start her own crime-fighting career.

  Ryder has no need for a sidekick, but it turns out the city needs Bremy’s help. Atticus St James is planning the crime of the century, and Bremy may be the only one able to get close enough to her father to stop him.

  Now all she needs to do is figure out this superhero thing in less than a month, keep her identity secret from the man who could very well be The One, and save the city from total annihilation.

  Well, no one ever said being a superhero would be easy…

  About the Author

  Auralee Wallace has played many roles in her life, including college professor, balloon seller, and collections agent. She is now living her dream of writing humorous women’s fiction. When this semi-natural blonde mother of three children (and psychiatric nurse to two rescue cats) isn’t writing or playing soccer, she can be found watching soap operas with lurid fascination and warring with a family of peregrine falcons for the rights to her backyard.

  Acknowledgements

  First, I would like to express my gratitude to Kate Cuthbert and Escape Publishing for making a home for my offbeat little book. Also, thank you to my parents and all of my extended family for keeping their fingers crossed every step of the way. Much love and gratitude goes to my children for being the happiest mini cheerleaders a mom could hope to have. And finally, to my husband, I can never thank you enough for working so very hard to make all of our dreams possible.

  To Andrea, for always loving my writing even when she didn’t. You know I always write for you first.

  Contents

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing…

  Prologue

  As a kid, I had a recurring dream where my identical twin sister and I flew matching Wonder Woman jets up to the stars. Nothing could stop us in those dreams. Pure freedom. Pure power. I had the dream again about a month ago, but this time I was flying alone towards a distant planet. As I got closer, the massive orb turned, and I realized I had made a mistake. It wasn’t a planet at all, but a giant balloon with my father’s face on it.

  I did the only thing I could.

  I blew it up.

  And Luke thought he had daddy issues.

  Chapter One

  “Little Bremy, do you have my rent, or will I cut off your fingers and wrap them in pastries like those little…what is the English name?”

  “Pigs in a blanket?”

  “Yes! The little piggies,” the thickly accented voice sounded through my phone. “You are so helpful, little Bremy.”

  There are some conversations you never imagine yourself having.

  This was one of them.

  “Mr. Pushkin—”

  “Please, call me Mischa.”

  “Um, right, Mr. Pushkin, you see the thing is—”

  “Oh Bremy. Oh no. Do not tell me this you see the thing is. I hate the you see the thing is. The only thing is money. You agree, yes?”

  Hard not to given my upbringing.

  I did have some money. In fact, I had nine hundred dollars. Unfortunately, I owed Mr. Pushkin a thousand. Not that far off, right? I mean, what’s a hundred dollars? But in the brief time I had known Mr. Pushkin, I had learned a few things. One, he had six fingers on his right hand. Two, his brother dug out his left eyeball with a fork when they were kids—a custom-made marble now rolled around in his head. But the most important thing I had learned about Mr. Pushkin? He did not have a reasonable bone in his body.

  Maybe his brother dug that out too.

  “Mr. Pushkin, it’s just—”

  “Just! Just! This is another English word I hate. Mafia business is tough business. If I let all of the little girls get away with just, what would the other tough guys think? No, no, Bremy.”

  “Well, you don’t have to cut off my fingers,” I said trying not to sound as panicked as I felt. “You could just kick me out.”

  The words escaped before I could stop them. Even if my apartment most closely resembled a walk-in closet, and I knocked my head on the side of the toilet every time I rolled over in bed, I needed this place. Then again, I also needed my fingers.

  I looked to my bedside clock. Seven in the morning. Why did bad days always start so early? Didn’t tough guys sleep in? I could have sworn I caught a whiff of last night’s vodka coming through the phone.

  “There is no fun in this kicking out. Then all of those dirty street rats think they can use my establishments as squattings. A month here, a month there, and they still have all their fingers? No. This does not work.” He sighed heavily. “Where are you from, little Bremy?”

  “I’m—”

  “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. You see, you remind me of the children of the ice plains not far from my home.”

  “Oh, um, thanks. But Mr.—”

  “No thanks. You would be dead before you could walk. Frozen. A little blue popsicle-child. You see the thing is you have to find your way in this disgusting pool of filth. This city, it is broken, rotten,” he said, voice growing louder. “It hums like huge, black juggernaut, and you, little Bremy, will be crushed in teeth of its giant wheels. The dust of your bones will scatter over the streets then collect in gutter with other human garbage.”

  “That was very poetic, but—”

  “Yes, in my homeland we are raised on books size of three dictionaries, not stories of boy witches.”

  “I see. Now about the money—”

  “Do you have a job, little Bremy?”

  “Not at the moment. I—”

  “I have friend. He owns club. Maybe you see it? It has funny pink sign of animal in the neon. What is it called?”

  “A beaver?”

  “Yes, the beaver. I do not understand this. Some girls at club have
no teeth, but not big teeth that eat tree. The beaver is not an animal for the sexy.”

  My jaw dropped. No amount of money or threat of bodily harm would get me to explain that one.

  “A nice, pretty girl like you would make the money, even with your small beebies.”

  “Boobies.”

  “Yes, boobies. Such a helpful girl.”

  “Oh thank you, but—”

  “Do you have my money?”

  “Um, yes, but—”

  “Okay. Now we can do the business. I come by at four o’clock. I have to go to court.”

  “Oh really?”

  Please be for unpaid parking tickets. Please be for unpaid parking tickets.

  “A misunderstanding…with a machete,” he said. “My machete fell on a man’s wrist and took off his hand. A misunderstanding—this man, he says so himself—but police, they have nothing better to do in this city than bother legitimate businessmen. Anyway, that business should be done by two, then after I go to plastic surgeon.”

  Please be for Botox. Please be for Botox.

  “For Botox…and to have my tattoos removed.”

  “Oh,” I said, definitely not in the form of a question. “Well then—”

  “You see, I have little tattoos on each knuckle finger, all eleven, for every man I kill back home. You know, the kid stuff.”

  “Right.”

  “Now you be a good girl, Bremy, and have my money. I don’t want to get new set of tattoos for little girls who don’t want to show beebies to pay rent.”

  “Okay,” I said trying not to choke on the gulp making its way down my throat. “I—”

  He hung up with a beep.

  I collapsed back into the little cot I called a bed and yanked the thin quilt over my face. Sadly, I could still see blue popsicles and finger-shaped wieners in my head.

  ***

  I hurried down the street under the steely clouds gathering overhead as the smell of exhaust and rotten vegetables filled my nose. I hated walking in the city.

  Exactly one month ago, my life was perfect. Well, a lot of imperfect, horrible, evil stuff was going on behind the scenes, but I didn’t know that—so to me, it was perfect. I lived in my pick of mansions, I had a horse for every day of the week, and my identical twin sister Jenny and I spent our days by an Olympic-sized swimming pool, drinking experimental margaritas, and planning our classes for the upcoming semester.

  Now I spent my days scuttling around puddles of urine in inappropriate footwear, trying to find a job to pay my rent.

  Still, no good would come from cowering in my bed by the toilet. I had a hundred dollars to make appear out of thin air, and I had to do it by myself. Something I didn’t have much practice at.

  Right on cue, my pay-as-you-go phone chimed. Jenny. I didn’t even have to look at it. She knew I was thinking about her. Stupid twin powers.

  Where are you?

  Please talk to me.

  She sent me the same message every morning. I thumbed in my same reply, ignoring the pain in my chest.

  I need a little more time.

  Please trust me.

  A second later, my phone chimed again.

  Douche.

  I smiled. People didn’t expect Jenny to say things like douche. When they saw her wheelchair or heard the robotic voice that speaks what she types, they somehow just assumed she didn’t have a personality. She handled it better than I ever could.

  I picked up my pace.

  If for no other reason, I would make this work for Jenny. I had taken too much from her already.

  ***

  “How do I go about getting a hundred dollar loan?”

  A teller with faded red hair stared at me from underneath droopy eyelids. I was pretty sure her expression would have stayed the same if a stray cat jumped on the counter and puked on her keyboard.

  “You want a hundred dollar loan,” she finally answered, revealing a bit of purple lipstick smeared across her teeth.

  “Actually, two hundred would be better.”

  “We don’t give out loans for two hundred dollars.”

  “Why not?” I asked a little too loudly, sending my words echoing up the bank’s marble columns. A few people turned to look.

  “Because that’s stupid,” she replied disinterestedly.

  Huh, she obviously never had a mobster for a landlord. “Okay, well, what does one do in these types of situations?”

  “Don’t you have a credit card?”

  Oh, at one time I had enough credit cards to fill a private jet. I used credit cards for bookmarks. I, I…

  “No, but can I get one?”

  She tiredly reached for a form underneath her desk and began to slide it across the imitation wood counter. She got halfway when her hand froze. “Do you have a job?”

  “No.”

  The hand slid back, and the form disappeared.

  “Then you can’t have a credit card.”

  “Isn’t that discrimination?”

  “Yes, against the stupid.”

  “I’m starting to hate you.”

  “My heart’s breaking.”

  I handed her my bankcard. “Okay. In that case, I would like to take out the balance of my account.”

  I watched her purple nails fly over the stained keyboard of the computer at her desk. “Wait a minute,” she said, almost showing a flicker of interest. “Your name is Brianna St. James?”

  “Yeah, I’m not that Brianna St. James.”

  Actually, I was that Brianna St. James. The media always used my nickname, Bremy, though. As kids, Jenny and I had trouble figuring out where one of us began and the other ended. Jenny mixed with Brianna got us Bremy, but somehow the nickname only stuck to me.

  “Didn’t think so,” she said, attacking the lipstick on her teeth with her tongue. “She would have more than nine hundred dollars in her account.” Then she made a noise, which sounded something like the dead relative of a laugh. “She’s better looking too.”

  We stared at each other for a moment while her coffee and cigarette laced breath wafted over the partition.

  “You want the entire nine hundred dollars?”

  I nodded.

  “It would probably be better for you to write a check to whoever you owe. I don’t feel right giving you that kind of money in cash.” She shook her head. “I would feel better giving that kind of money to a gerbil.”

  “Mean with a conscience. That’s an interesting mix.”

  She half-shrugged her rounded shoulders.

  “Well, how do I get checks?”

  “Normally it costs twenty-five dollars, but you can get ten free sample checks.”

  “Fine. Sign me up. But give me the balance too.”

  She looked skeptical but began typing away. I doubted that Mr. Pushkin would take a check, but if he did, not only would it buy me a few days, but maybe the overdraft would save me a couple of fingers. If he didn’t, I would still have most of the cash to throw at him before running away.

  Suddenly the teller’s computer began making music. Her hands stopped, fingers hovering over the keys.

  “What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “You won.”

  “Won what?”

  “Our monthly draw for opening a checking account.” She moved to count out bills.

  “That sounds exciting. What do I get?” I asked. “I’m hoping for service with a smile.”

  “A hundred dollars.”

  My brain slammed into a brick wall. A hundred dollars. That couldn’t be right. That was the exact amount of money I needed. And that couldn’t be right because the universe had been spitting all over me for the last thirty days without so much as offering an umbrella. It just couldn’t be right.

  “Did you say a hundred dollars?”

  “Yeah, the irony of it all is making me weepy.” She scratched at the hairs on her chin. “I suppose you want the hundred in cash too.”

  “Uh huh,” I said holding out my hand, making
the universal gimme-gimme gesture.

  A warm tingly sensation came over me. The universe was still on the side of Bremy St. James after all. Karma. I had done the right thing a month ago, and now I could collect my hundred dollar reward.

  A party kicked off in my head. Champagne bottles exploded. Balloons popped. Bells clanged.

  “I think you had better get down,” I heard the teller say, which was funny, because she had suddenly disappeared.

  Then I realized the bells weren’t just in my head.

  Alarms rang frantically from every wall.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! The show’s about to begin!”

  Chapter Two

  “That’s right! Hurry now!” a male voice screeched. “Take your places on the floor! She’s coming!”

  Somebody killed the alarm.

  I peeked underneath my armpit in the direction of the voice. The man with the hyena-sounding shriek stood in the middle of the bank floor, arms outstretched, hands clawing at the air. He wore an undershirt, black and white striped pants held up by suspenders, and a beaten-up top hat with a daisy. When he turned to look about the room, a long, thin Pinocchio nose sliced through the air.

  Great, a clown.

  I hated clowns, and this one must have consulted a scary clown stylist because his look scored a ten on the heebie-jeebie meter.

  Just then, an entire crew of characters tumbled into the bank through the giant glass doors.

  I didn’t know where to look first.

  A bald man with no shirt and black genie pants swallowed a sword while another identically dressed performer blew fire. Around them swirled a small woman juggling balls that gave off plumes of smoke, making the air hazy, and an outrageously tall, thin man with boxing gloves danced circles around a ridiculously short, fat man throwing air punches. In the other direction, a woman in a silver leotard rolled around the bank like a wagon wheel, dodging a little person with a cigarette dangling from his lower lip. I say his because he had a beard, but his floral dress and heels made me wonder if I was being too hasty. Finally, an old woman in a black cape floated through the crowd. In between the folds of her gown I caught a glimpse of a crystal ball.

  It took me a second to put it all together.