So Not a Hero Read Online Free PDF

with a couple of buckets in their hands. They walked away from me, towards the rusted fire hydrant on the corner. The man pulled a large wrench out of one of his pails and used it to open the valve on top. After a few seconds of heaving and grunting, the water finally began to flow out of the side. The woman quickly put a bucket beneath the stream.
    I approached them slowly. The last thing I wanted them to think was that I was going to attack them. When the man finally realized I was there, I quickly held up my hands. “Not here for trouble. Just looking for a place to crash.” I jerked my thumb back at the factory. “Any room in there for little old me?”
    They looked at each other, sharing that silent transfer of information that comes from being with someone for a long time. Or maybe they were Enhanced and speaking telepathically. Either way, the woman finally turned and looked me up and down. With my ruined pants and dirty face, I probably looked destitute enough to be safe-ish.
    “You’ll have to ask Derek,” she said. “He’s the one in charge around here.” The man behind her nodded.
    “Derek?”
    “If he says you can stay with us, then you can.”
    “Fair enough.” I didn’t think I’d have much success getting that approval. Just the way these two deferred to this Derek person told me that I’d stumbled upon a close-knit homeless group. Strangers usually equaled danger to people like them. Once, when we were actively recruiting, it had taken Martin and I almost a year to earn the trust of a similar group. “Okay. Let’s see what Derek says.”
    We walked back to the warehouse, with me leading. No way were they going to turn their back on someone they didn’t know. The woman introduced herself as Natalie, and the man with her was her husband, Jeff. I waited outside while she went in to speak to this mysterious Derek. I sat down on a pile of rubble flowering out of the parking lot and rubbed at the back of my neck. Getting bashed around earlier had given me stiff shoulders. The man sat down on a stack of cinder blocks and looked at me warily.
    “You aren’t hurt, are you?” He said as he pointed at the tears in my pants. “We don’t have a lot in the way of supplies. Especially medical and such.”
    I smiled and shook my head. “I’m fine. Just dirty.”
    He nodded, visibly relaxing. “Well, we do have a shower of sorts.” He pointed at the buckets. “Just have to bring your own water.”
    The wooden board that served as a makeshift door opened and Natalie returned with a guy who looked to be anywhere from forty to sixty. His dark brown skin was lined with wrinkles and cracks and the shock of pure white hair that stuck out from beneath his cap twisted into fluffy curls. He nodded to the man and then looked at me, smile shifting into a neutral expression. The hackles at the nape of my neck stood up and I couldn’t quite place my finger on where I’d seen him before.
    The woman gestured in my direction. “She’s looking for a place to sleep for a day or so. Wants to stay with us.”
    I smiled and stuck out my hand. “Nice to meet you,” I said, keeping my voice as pleasant as possible. “I’m Karen.” He didn’t immediately reach out to respond to my greeting. Instead he looked me up and down a few times, as if trying to get a read on me. After my time with the horny boys at the bus stop, I was glad he wasn’t ogling.
    “I don’t appreciate trouble,” he said, taking a step back. “Or anyone looking to make any. Is that you, Karen?”His brown eyes sought out my own and held them in a grip. For a moment, I imagined he was seeing through the pupils into my core. Thankfully, there was no tell-tale feeling of my thoughts being probed. If he’d tried to go into my head without permission, he would have ended up in a world of hurt.
    “No sir. No trouble, believe me. I just want to have someplace to lay down and sleep without me or my stuff getting messed with.” I smiled and