Page 74 of Breathless Recruiter

The clown reached behind his back and produced a gun. A gun? That didn’t seem very clown-like. With a bang, a pole with a red flag poked out. I was about to ask if it was a gag when the pole launched forward, spreading into a net that surrounded Orion. He dropped out of the air, unable to tear himself free.

“We’re not doing so well,” I shouted. If Janet found out we had been defeated by a trio of clowns, we’d never hear the end. She’d have us all wearing red noses for a week.

Drew faded into view behind the boss. With a precision kick behind the knee, he knocked down their leader. With a spin, the back of his heel clipped the clown, knocking the crown off his head. Drew ducked a swipe of the rubber chicken before getting the clown in a chokehold.

“Don’t worry,” he said between ragged breaths. “I’ve got this one.”

A few seconds later, the clown’s body went limp, and Drew eased him to the ground. For a moment, I thought he had killed the bad guy. The snoring eased any fear Drew had turned into a cold-blooded killer.

“I’m going to give us a C-minus,” Orion said, using a laser from his gauntlet to cut through the net. “No, that was horrible. We failed. Clowns. Clowns! We were bested by clowns!”

“Come on,” Drew said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We stopped them from?—”

I looked around for innocent victims. There were no children trapped in cotton candy. I expected a group of adults being forced to endure their routine until they laughed to death. For a moment, I feared we had just flown in and attacked a group of innocent clowns… well…mostlyinnocent clowns.

“Guys, what exactly were they doing wrong?”

Drew and Orion glanced at one another before shrugging. I opened the HeroApp™ and flipped to the alert. Oh! “They were involved in a Tupperware party pyramid scheme?”

“I prefer when they rob banks,” Drew said.

“Kidnapping is my crime of choice,” added Orion.

None of the clowns appeared to be up for another round. It wasn’t the prettiest team-up, not like with Discord, but we had won the fight. I dropped to the floor, crossing my legs. Now came my favorite part.

“Shouldn’t we haul ass out of here?”

It was hard to tell if Orion rolled his eyes behind the visor of his helmet, so I just assumed. I shook my head. “We have to wait for the police to get here. Can’t have them running away and joining another circus.” I didn’t add that I looked forward to giving the police a statement. If I was lucky, they’d take me on a tour of the police station and give me another plastic badge.

“They don’t tell you about this part in the hero manual.” Drew plopped down. “Think we’ll be waiting for long.”

Orion punched a few buttons on the back of his gauntlet. His rocket pack shifted down his back before transforming into a stool. He dropped himself on it. With a tap of his helmet, the front turned translucent. His eyes glowed a faint blue.

“I can hear their radios. They’ll be here in about three minutes.”

“So…” Drew dragged the word out while rocking back and forth. “How’s everybody’s day going?”

“I’m babysitting clowns,” Orion said. “Not how I imagined my night.”

I checked to see if I had received a text from Dustin. I couldn’t tell if I was, as Janet put it, being a needy bitch. Fighting fiscally irresponsible clowns was fun and all, but I wanted to do this with Discord. If I couldn’t, I wanted to tell him all about it. Was the delayed response because of something I said?

“Hey, big guy, what’s got you down?” Drew scooted closer until he could wrap his arm over my shoulders. “Does it have something to do with your new man-friend?”

“Boyfriend,” I corrected.

“Whoa. That’s a big step. How are you feeling about it?”

Good… wonderful, even. I don’t know why applying a label made it more important, but it did. He could have been busy all day at work. There were a million reasons why he hadn’t responded, but it tugged at me. Then there was the whole thing with Zaster using me to complete his work at Synergy, but I’d worry about that later. Boyfriend first. Arch-nemesis second.

“We haven’t talked since…” I said. “Maybe I did something wrong.”

Orion chuckled. I wasn’t trying to be funny. He shook his head as he pulled his stool closer. “Wyatt, I’ll deny it if anybody asks, but you’re one of the nicest guys I know. Well… other than Drew.”

“Thanks.” Drew gave a slight wave.

“Dustin would be lucky to have a boyfriend like you.”

I waited for the rolling eyes. Wait. Had Orion just been nice for the sake of being nice? “Gasp.” Lunging forward, my arms wrapped around his chest as we flew through the tent. I never thought the day would come, but Orion had said somethingnice. I’d mark this on my calendar.

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