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Gina Zambetti was not very fond of her boyfriend at the moment.  In fact, she hadn’t been fond of him since he’d started on his “we should have sex” campaign last month.  Barry Walters, she thought, was well on his way to becoming her ex-boyfriend.  At the moment, though, she was letting him kiss her, and she had to admit he had a phenomenal pair of lips.

Of course, her opinion of his lips changed when they moved down her neck as his fingers sneakily moved in to unbutton her top.  She pulled away immediately and glared at him.  “What did I tell you, Barry? I meant it when I said I’m not going to have sex with you right now.” She hitched up the collar of her shirt.  “Why don’t you get it?”

“But Gina,” Barry began, his eyes pleading with her.  “I love you so much, baby.  Let’s just try, and, if you want me to stop, I will.”

“Barry! You’ve been trying, and I’m saying no.” She turned on her heel to march away down the darkened park’s sidewalk.  “I’m going home.”

Her scream didn’t have time to materialize when Barry grabbed her from behind, clamped his hand over her mouth to muffle her yelps, and pulled her off the sidewalk and into a dark alcove.  

“You stupid bitch,” Barry muttered as he shoved her to the ground and straddled her.  “Why won’t you just listen and do what I want for once?”

When his hand lifted from her mouth, she struggled to plead with him.  “Come on, Barry.  Let me up.” Fear fluttered in her heart.  “Please, I swear I’ll listen to you.  Don’t do this.”

Barry looked down when her hands clutched at his arms. He could see the fear in her eyes and felt instantly disgusted with himself.  Sighing, he moved off of her and reached out to help her up.  “I’m sorry, Gina.  I don’t know why I just-”

His words were cut off when he was dragged away by an unknown attacker.  Gina screamed as she heard the pounding of fists against bone and Barry’s pain-filled shouts.  When she saw the gleam of silver against the attacker’s dark mask, her brows shot up, and she hurried forward.

“Please stop!” she pleaded with the Avenging Angel.  “Please, he didn’t hurt me. I swear.  Let him go please!”

Brian barely flicked a glance her way as his fury drove him to teach this jerk a lesson.  Guys that thought they could take advantage of women were so low.  In his mind’s eye, he saw AJ pull Mac into the alley, and his fury doubled. Beneath his fists, Barry grunted in pain.  With every punch, the sight of AJ kissing Mac burned in his brain, and he couldn’t stop.

Gina started yelling at him.  “Look, he made a mistake, and he apologized.  He’s just stupid sometimes! Please stop hurting him!”

She was right, he thought after a few moments.  Reigning in his temper, Brian took a deep breath and, standing up, hauled Barry to his feet to face Gina.  The young man was bruised, and his nose was now crooked and bleeding.  “Listen up, moron,” he growled menacingly.  “You better have a damn good explanation and apology for this innocent woman.  Why were you about to rape her?”

“I wasn’t,” Barry gasped.  “I…swear!”

“See?” Gina reached out to grab Barry’s hand tight.  “He’s sorry, and it was just a mistake.  Barry understands now that I don’t want to have sex with him.  Right, Barry?”

Barry gulped a little.  “But Gina! I didn’t mean that it was okay that we, uh, never have sex.  Baby, I thought you meant we could maybe do it on our next date.”

Gina’s jaw dropped, and so did Barry’s hand from her grasp.  She turned to Brian.  “I’m sorry.  I guess you were right.” Huffing a little from irritation, she turned on her heel and stomped away.

Barry was left to look into the gleaming eyes of Avenging Angel, and he began to panic at what would happen to him now.  Squeezing his eyes shut, he worried at the possibilities.

Brian stared at the quivering, terrified young man huddling on the ground in front of him and shook his head.  His fury was gone, his anger deflated.  Taking out a piece of rope, he tied Barry’s hands and feet together.

“I’m going to call the police,” he said calmly.  “I hope your girlfriend presses all sorts of charges against you.  You’re police business now.”

So saying, he walked away.

***

How could he have done that? Brian thought, as he sat on the edge of the rooftop of his hotel building.  Streaks of pink and yellow were visible on the horizon, and a new day was about to begin.  But, for Brian, his actions a few hours ago were causing him a great deal of worry.

He’d always tried to be objective in his rescues and crime-busting, but he’d broken the leash on his control that night.  Avenging Angel had never been known for his violence; in fact, he was known for his relative non-violence.  Now, Brian had ruined that reputation.  Not that the guy hadn’t deserved it, but still.

He didn’t know why seeing Mac and AJ kiss had caused him to go off the handle like he had.  After all, he knew AJ had always been quite the ladies’ man, and Mac was her own woman, free to do what she wanted with whoever she wanted—as long as it didn’t affect her job.  Brian knew he was just her employer and had no say in her choices, but, for whatever reason, it bothered him a lot that she’d kissed AJ.

Well, whatever had happened, happened, he told himself.  There was no point in dwelling on what he could’ve and should’ve done better.  Maybe he’d broken Barry’s nose, but he couldn’t exactly go back and change it, could he?

Brian stood up and stepped away from the building’s edge.  His hands were in pain, and his knuckles were swollen from how hard he’d punched Barry.  He should probably get some ice for it, he thought, and hope the swelling went down before the show.

Lesson learned, he thought as he headed inside.  He was just going to have to work doubly hard to be objective and be in control two hundred percent of the time when he was Avenging Angel.  Not to mention, he’d have to deal with being supportive of Mac and AJ’s budding relationship.

It didn’t occur to him, as he climbed aboard the elevator to go down to his floor, that he hadn’t once thought of Leighanne that night.

***

The blaring ring of her cell phone jolted Mac out of a deep sleep an hour before she had to be up to start her day with Baylee.  Blinking groggily, she reached out a hand to find it on her bedside table.  She winced as her arm knocked other things to the floor before she found the phone.

“Hello,” she grumbled.

“Mackenzie Adams, you’d better wake up!” Jake’s voice was tinged with excitement on the other end.

Mac shoved her hair back and sat up.  “What? Why? What happened?”

“Have you read the paper yet? Holy crap, Mac! You’re gonna flip out.”

She squinted to read what time it was on the digital clock next to her. “Jake, you just woke me up at—what the hell time is it? No, I haven’t read the paper.  What does it say?”

“ ‘Everyone’s favorite superhero draws first blood,’” Jake read from his paper and had Mac instantly awake.

“What?! Keep reading, Jake,” she ordered as she leapt out of bed, narrowly avoiding stepping on her glasses.  Snatching them up, she shoved them on her nose and pulled out her notes.

“ ‘The Avenging Angel did a bit more than simply rescue Gina Zambetti from ex-boyfriend Barry Walters’ over-amorous advances.  He broke Walters’ nose and blackened the twenty-two year old’s eyes.  According to Zambetti, Walters “deserved the broken nose and everything else the Avenging Angel did.” However, police across the western US, where the Avenging Angel has been sighted numerous times, are now beginning to worry that the increasingly popular masked figure may be spinning out of control.’” Jake paused.  “So, that’s the news here.  Got anything to tell me, Mac?”

Mac scrunched her nose, annoyed.  It had to be Jeff, she thought.  He’d vanished from sight, and he must have taken off to break some poor guy’s nose.  “No,” she said finally.  “I think I might have been able to stop it, but I got caught snooping.”

“Oops.  Well, Riley called me in early today to tell me that, since you’re off on vacation, he’s assigning me to the case.  I’m in charge of investigating who the man behind the mask is.”

She smacked a hand to her forehead.  “I told him he should listen to me before things started going badly! Ugh. Well,” she sighed, “at least he put you on the case and not someone else.”

“Yeah, but Mac, how long do you think it’s going to take before my investigation sends me your way?”

She hadn’t thought of that. Maybe she’d figured out the Backstreet connection so quickly because she was a fan, but that didn’t mean Jake or any other skilled agent wouldn’t eventually come to the same conclusions.  “Look, Jake. I need you to fumble around for a while before you head towards the Unbreakable tour.  I need some time, but I swear I’ll make it worth your while.  I’ll collar this guy soon. I can feel it.”

“I trust your instincts, Mac.” Jake paused.  “I’ll see what I can do, but I thought I’d give you the heads up.  The FBI is officially on the Avenging Angel’s ass.”

When she hung up with Jake, Mac leaned back against her bed and sighed.  If she hadn’t run into AJ, she probably would have been able to stop Jeff from turning into the Avenging Angel.  But she hadn’t, and she wasn’t about to dwell on what she could or should have done.  She would simply do her job as Baylee’s nanny and work twice as hard to keep an eye on Jeff Sanders.  The next time he broke from the group, she’d get him.

She never considered the possibility that someone else could be the Avenging Angel.  After all, looks can be quite deceiving…

***

Flexing his swollen hands, Brian strolled towards the breakfast buffet at the venue they were to play at that night.  The ice he’d used had managed to bring the swelling down a little, but his knuckles still hurt like hell.  He just hoped he could use the excuse that he was cold to explain away why he was wearing tipless gloves.  They covered up his raw, red knuckles, and he was glad Denver was beginning to get much cooler as it only helped his excuse.  

He spotted Nick, Howie, and Leigh huddled together around a newspaper and wrinkled his brows.  What were they up to?

“I’m telling you, Howie, Avenging Angel only broke the guy’s nose because he was a jerk to his girlfriend! He’s still the good guy!” Nick insisted, waving the paper slightly.

Brian’s eyes widened slightly as he grabbed a plate and began to work his way down the buffet.  His ears were perked for every piece of conversation he could hear.  He supposed Avenging Angel’s break from non-violence had made the news.

“Look, Nick, I’m not saying he’s bad.  I mean, I bet he has the best intentions he can.  But you know what they say about intentions,” Howie pointed out.

Nick sounded confused.  “No.  What do they say?”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Howie informed him.  “I still think this guy’s got plenty of screws loose.  He needs to be in therapy, not roaming all over the country.  Now, look.  He’s broken some guy’s nose.  What if he starts killing people instead of leaving them for the police to find?”

Nick shrugged.  “I just know he won’t.  You can think what you think, but I know he’s a real superhero.”

Brian didn’t get to hear the rest because Leigh spotted him and, walking over to where he was, began talking to him about how great Baylee was when he spent the night with her and Howie.  Sighing a little, Brian smiled and tried to pay attention.

***

After the quick rehearsal that morning during which Brian missed notes but nailed every dance step exactly, he slipped away from the group headed to lunch.  His hands were aching again, and he needed ice pretty badly.  He remembered seeing an ice machine in one of the back hallways by the venue’s concession stands, and he headed there.

He filled a plastic bag with ice from the machine and, knotting the bag to keep ice from slipping out, began to walk down the hall. He pulled his gloves off gingerly, wincing at the way his fingers were so stiff.  When he put the ice to his knuckles, though, he sighed in relief as the numbing effect of the ice pushed his pain away.

“Brian? Oh my gosh, what happened to your hands?”

Brian’s head jerked up to find Mac hurrying down the hall towards him.  Her eyes were on his hands, and his mind raced to come up with excuses.  “Uh, it’s nothing,” he managed to say before she reached for his hands.

She examined the way his hands were swollen and the way his knuckles were raw and red.  “Oh, Brian.  It looks like you were punching something to pieces.  What did you do?” As soon as the words were out, Mac froze.  No, she told herself, it simply was not possible.  Brian couldn’t be the Avenging Angel…could he? She hadn’t kept an eye on him at all the night before, so it was certainly possible.  His hands were torn up, too, as though he’d punched someone’s face.  Carefully, she lifted her eyes and met Brian’s.  “Did something happen?”

“Huh? What?” Brian tried to play it off, though his heart was racing.  Not only did Mac’s hands feel absolutely marvelous as they stroked over his sore hands, but he could swear there was a suspicious gleam in her eyes, as though she knew his secret.  But she couldn’t, he told himself.  “No, I was just working out this morning,” he began.  “I, uh, sometimes visualize the man that killed my wife when I use the punching bag.” He glanced down at his hands.  “This morning, I guess I got a little heated up over it. It’s no big deal,” he added.  “My hands are killing me, but I’ll live.”

Mac studied him for another moment before nodding.  “I’m sorry.  It must be hard to live with her loss.  Especially since the police never found who did it.”

Brian tried not to let her soft voice affect him.  “It’s hard, but I deal with as best as I can.  If it means taking out my anger on a punching bag,” he shrugged, “I guess it’s better than crying all the time.  Which is what I did for the first few weeks after she was gone.”

“I’m sorry,” Mac murmured and patted his hands gently before taking the ice bag from him to apply it to his hands again.  “The only person I’ve ever lost was my grandfather.  He was like a third parent to me, so when he was killed during some convenience store robbery, it hurt like all hell.” There was a slight twinge in her heart as she remembered.  After all, his death was what led her to wanting to be part of law enforcement.  “It’s not quite like losing your wife, but it’s close.”

“Yeah.” Brian could smell the fruity, floral scent of her shampoo.  “Well, um, I guess I should go find Baylee for lunch,” he said, trying to change the subject.  The smell of her and the feel of her touch were causing all sorts of sensations inside him; ones he wasn’t sure he was ready to analyze.

“Oh, yeah.  Well, actually, AJ dropped by to pick Baylee up,” Mac explained.  “He said you wouldn’t mind if he took Baylee out for lunch.  If you want, AJ told me they’d be in the ball pit at the nearest McDonald’s.”

Brian chuckled, trying to relieve the weird feeling in his stomach.  “Oh, AJ.  McDonald’s is his crack.  I should’ve figured he’d be there.  Thanks for letting me know.”  And then, because he couldn’t quite prevent himself from asking, he blurted out, “So how are things with the two of you? You know, you and AJ, the whole dating thing?”

“Oh!” Mac let him have the ice bag back and stepped back with a smile.  “Well, actually, we’ve decided we’re better off as friends.”

His brows shot up.  “Oh, really? That’s, um, interesting.” He didn’t know why he felt like doing cartwheels down the hallway.  “That’s not what most women want to do with AJ.  Be friends,” he clarified, his cheeks turning pink when Mac lifted a brow.

“Yeah, it wasn’t my intention either.” Mac laughed a little, remembering her time with AJ the night before.  “We just realized that there isn’t that attraction between us.  I mean, yeah, he’s outrageously attractive, but I guess he’s not my type.”

“Oh.” He nodded. “Okay.”

Mac took a chance and reached out to pat his shoulder.  “Anyway, you’d better get over to Mickey D’s and get lunch with them.  I’ll see you later?”

“Sure, yeah.” Brian smiled.  “I like this, Mac.”

“Hmm?”

“You know, this thing with us.” He gestured to the two of them.  “The friends thing.  We are friends, right?”

She smiled, knowing it was true.  She actually liked being around him now.  It didn’t feel awkward or stilted anymore.  “Definitely.  And I like it, too.”  And she was definitely sure he wasn’t the Avenging Angel.  There was no way.

Later, when Brian stepped outside, he smiled to himself.  AJ and Mac weren’t together, and, for whatever reason, he was thrilled with the idea.  Whistling a bright, happy tune, he walked down the street towards the McDonald’s.