Page 14 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)

“Arena, menagerie, garage,” she said pointing at three buildings through her gas-guzzling blue beast’s windshield, “And then you have Dagger’s warehouse, which is carefully air-conditioned so all his gadgets don’t get overwhelmed by this desert heat.

That’s where you’ll be. Nix has decided that you’re going to help Dagger run drones today. ”

“I have no idea what that means.” I climbed out of her blue Cadillac, following her towards a long building between the arena and the garage.

“I don’t either. Tech. Dagger does the tech for the outfit.

Fighting and racing are nothing without an audience.

The only way that Nix can stay afloat is if we have people watching and gambling on the games.

Dagger makes sure that our team gets the best coverage, and thus the best payouts from the channels.

He was never the best fighter, but he was always the best videographer, and Nix is lucky to have him.

He’s raised percentages twelve percent since he joined the team. ”

“You care about percentages? Do you own stock?”

She sighed heavily, sending her sequins sparkling. “Oh, honey, if only that’s all I owned. If we’re under-funded, I have to get donations from investors. Putting on my sparkly sequin bra for anyone other than Dewdrop puts a rock in my craw.”

“What’s a craw exactly?”

“Wrong question. Don’t let Dagger keep you all day. You still need something to drive.”

I checked out the cars parked around the tech building. A bright pink hybrid stood out from the rest. “Like that?”

“That’s Dagger’s baby. Sometimes the man’s an island, other times he’s just embarrassing. What kind of tough drives a pink car?”

“Maybe it was his sister’s.”

She snorted. “Don’t be indelicate; only I’m allowed to be like that. It’ll be a long day, so don’t wait up for me.” She left me with those words to face the warehouse on my own.

This was my first glimpse of Geotech. I was going to take everything from him, and he was going to beg me to do it.

Right? Confidence was the only way forward.

I hesitated for only a second of shame. I had been so hideously weak the last time he’d seen me.

I pushed open the door and stepped into the cool open space lined with shelves.

It wasn’t empty. Half a dozen people worked at tables in an open area that looked like any meth lab in the world.

Dirk Dagger leaned over a project that may have been one whole instead of many pieces once upon a time.

He looked so good with his chiseled jaw, soft lips, and eyes so focused and alive.

You felt like he was going to devour you.

And his arms. He was so strong, strong enough to catch me and carry me without the slightest effort.

I walked over slowly, weighing different greetings in my head, trying not to ogle him. When I got close enough to speak, he stood and pushed the chair in with a flex of those muscles, fixing me with mesmerizing eyes that had an angry glint.

“I see that she didn’t kill you,” he said, then squinted at me. “Or did she? You’re still pale.”

I crossed my arms and tried not to feel pale and wan.

I was supposed to be a weak female so he could rescue me.

I just didn’t expect it to be so easy. Think cute and charming.

Smile! “I think that the jury’s still out.

What am I supposed to do? She said I’m supposed to help you today.

” Okay. That wasn’t completely lame. Right?

His chiseled jaw clenched for a moment before he gave me an easy smile. His smile was so pretty. “We’re going to check a few charging stations on the race route.” He walked past me.

I turned and followed him. “Why would you need me for that?”

“I don’t. You’re a new part, we’ll move you around, see where you fit best.”

“Ouch. So, I’m completely unnecessary, but you’ll let me follow you around since I’m Nitro’s only family? Thanks.” I wasn’t an incompetent idiot who couldn’t…Except that’s exactly who I was supposed to be.

His muscles were visibly bunching under his t-shirt. So many muscles. What was he muttering?

“Three days you were with Whiskey. Nix said she was carefully nursing you back to health. I can’t see it.” He shot me another skeptical look.

I tried to smile. I should be funny. Right?

Yeah. Toni was super funny. “No? What do you see? Raves and orgies?” I winced.

No, funny was definitely not part of Toni’s personality that I could adapt.

Stick with sweet and charming. What was sweet and charming again?

Smile! No, don’t bare your teeth at him, just smile softly.

I was like that, struggling to smile like I wasn’t a psychopath when a tiger sprang from the nearest shelf.

A tiger? No, tigers have stripes. That’s what I got for mixing my metaphors.

The metaphor gods had decided to strike me down.

I was frozen, watching fate descend when Dirk grabbed me and spun us out of the way of the beast, ending with me against a shelf, him pressed against me, his nose brushing mine and his lips so close I could taste them.

I was clinging to his neck, the feel of his hard breathing against me making me hyperventilate. He felt so good. Like safety and danger and excitement and peace, all wrapped in one gorgeous, brilliant monster.

His eyes were soft, a hand brushing my hair as he leaned in. He was going to kiss me! My eyes drifted closed, and my back arched ever so slightly, preparing for the bliss.

The cat’s yowl sent shudders through me and made the hairs on my arms stand up straight. I also flinched back and hit my head on something I might be able to steal. I wanted to steal tech, not kisses.

The lion yowled again, and Dirk spun us to the side, out of the beast’s paw swipe. I clutched at him, frankly freaked out. I’d never had to deal with a big cat. Was it guarding the precious tech? Maybe it could smell my bad intentions?

“Marcus Licinius Crassus, meet Toni. Just because she looks like cotton candy doesn’t mean she’s edible.” Dirk pulled a granola bar out of his pocket, ripped it open and tossed it to the beast.

It caught it in its mouth and then padded away, casting a dark look over its shoulder before it disappeared into the shadows.

I stayed clinging to him for another long moment until Dirk looked down at my hands gripping his shirt and then into my eyes.

“You good? We’ve got work to do.”

I stumbled away from him, smoothing down my shirt and jeans like they’d gotten rumpled. “Yeah, no, that was super normal. I’m totally not freaked out because a lion just tried to eat me!”

I swallowed hard and tried for a soft, sweet smile. If he laughed at me, I was going to kill him. No lie.

“Yeah, that’s his thing. He holds everyone hostage for food. I’ve got the scars to prove that he’s serious. He wouldn’t actually kill anyone. Unless he was really hungry.” He tugged on my shirt and turned, heading for the door. “I recommend you keep some snacks on you in case of emergencies.”

“Lion emergencies?”

“Mountain lion. Like all weird and dangerous things, he belongs to Jezebel.” He glanced at me before putting on his reflective sunglasses and stepping into the glaring bright sunlight.

I followed, wincing at the light. I needed sunglasses before I developed all kinds of wrinkles from squinting. “He’s Jezebel’s mountain lion? She could have warned me that he was in your garage.”

“She didn’t know. The cat can break into most of the buildings. Except for Nix’s office. One time of his messing up the paperwork was all it took. So, what were you up to with Jezebel?”

“I was sleeping. She kept me unconscious for three days. I should probably go see a doctor, but I feel much better.” I really did.

At least other than my heart racing too fast from adrenaline.

Fight or flight had never been so confused.

And now I had the perfect excuse to find some chocolate. Mountain lions like chocolate, right?

He grunted. “Not having sunstroke or internal bleeding will do that for a person. Not Mink,” he said as I went towards the pink car. “Today we’re taking Fred.”

“Pink Mink? Are all the cars named?” I asked, climbing into the old red Ford truck. Fred Ford?

“More or less.” He put the keys in the ignition. He had a rabbit's foot keychain.

“Why is your car pink? And what do you have with rhymes?”

“Only sometimes. Hang on.” He put the truck in gear and pulled out in a cloud of dust. We rocked down the highway towards the desert while I hung onto the handle and tried to think of ways to seduce him.

My mind was completely blank. Not really.

I was still spiraling after the mountain lion.

And the almost-kiss. Like I’d been distracted enough by being so close to him to forget about the mountain lion. Maybe I was concussed.

“What exactly are we doing?” I finally asked after we’d been bumping along on bad roads for twenty minutes, the city left far behind. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t try to kill me in the middle of nowhere, but either way, I wasn’t too worried.

“Mm. The long final race of the season is called the Three-Hundred because it takes place over three hundred miles of rough desert terrain. Certain areas can’t be covered by the larger vehicles, which is where Jezebel and her menagerie come in.

It sounds crazy when you try to explain why sections of Jezebel riding a camel are necessary, but it looks good on film.

On those spots, the only media coverage will come from drones, but they need to be charged periodically.

We’re making sure the charging stations are up and running. ”

“Cool. Your warehouse seemed to have a lot of other things besides drones. What else are you working on?”

He flashed me a lazy grin. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

“You’d have to try.” I leaned closer to him, trying to see the tech guy beneath the muscles and chiseled jaw.

Flattery. I needed to feed his ego. I looked up at him through my lashes and tried to look delicate and feminine.

“Why do you do it? If you’re so good with tech, shouldn’t you be at MIT or something, solving world hunger?

” Ugh. I sounded like such an idiot. That was a good thing, right?

Men loved to feel smart. But did the geniuses who left all of that behind to beat people up in the desert love to feel smart?

They just were smart. Brilliant actually. But his weakness was playing hero.

He laughed and patted my head. Somehow, I didn’t bite him. “I’m not sure that’s what they do at MIT, but I doubt it’s that. I’m not a saint. World hunger is for better people to worry about.”

That didn’t go too badly. Head pats were good.

That meant that he didn’t see me as a threat.

I tried to look impressed. “You’re not a saint, but you are a hero; otherwise, you wouldn’t have caught me when I fainted.

” Gag. I was going to throw up right now.

That came out so breathlessly and sincere.

Like I really was all flushed and hot at the idea of him picking me up and carrying me away.

Although it had been pretty mind-blowing.

But only because I had heatstroke and possible internal bleeding.

He gave me a broad grin. “Passed out.” He took a moment to let the words sink in before he added, “Fainting is much prettier than that.”

I flinched and then turned to face the window so I wouldn’t accidentally slam his face against the steering wheel.

So it hadn‘t been pretty, huh? Of course it hadn’t been, because he was right, I had passed out, but to say that to me?

Rude! Not heroic. He clearly didn’t respond well to direct flirting and flattery, because otherwise, he would have said something nice.

Like, ‘You make me want to be a hero,’ but no.

I took deep breaths and watched the endless sagebrush roll by. He wasn’t being particularly heroic this morning, and that’s what my whole entrance was supposed to set up, but I had managed to get into close contact with him, so maybe I should count it as a win.

He sighed heavily and tugged on a strand of my hair, like he wanted me to look at him. Nope. I wasn’t getting distracted by his flexing arm muscles when he didn’t think I was pretty.

“Pinkie, I’m not a hero. Those don’t last very long in this world. I might have a guilt complex, but I don’t have a hero’s.”

I smiled slightly but didn’t look at him.

That was a hero complex talking. Specifically, he now felt bad for making me feel like I wasn’t a cute fainter.

I slowly turned to look at him and gave him a cute, soft smile.

I hoped that’s what it looked like. “Okay, although taking responsibility for the helpless damsel and challenging Jezebel is definitely heroic. Even the dragon couldn’t be worse than her. Who knocks people out for days?”

He gave me a sharp look. “Right? Jezebel is the circus. Trix isn’t bad at all. She’s got a tough exterior, but on the inside, she’s a puppy.”

I frowned and glanced at him. Why would Jezebel Whiskey keep me away from her co-workers for three days?

It couldn’t be random, however senseless Dagger found her.

It didn’t matter. Figuring out Jezebel’s motives wouldn’t help me with seduction.

I should draw him out, feed his ego, get him talking about himself.

Feeling incredibly awkward, I brushed my fingers over his bare forearm.

I’d touched him not too long ago, and the shock had been pleasurable.

This time, I flinched away from him as if he’d assaulted me.

I curled my fingers and uncurled them, staring at them like they could explain my body’s reaction, the wash of emotions that left me wanting to cry.

No. Feelings weren’t allowed to do whatever they wanted, particularly when I was on a diabolical mission.

“Everything okay, Pinkie?”

I shot him a glare. “Of course. Peachy, not pinkie. How long will this take?” If I burst into tears, I’d have to kill us both.

“You have somewhere to go?”

I crossed my arms while my heart pounded.

I should touch him again, smile and flirt, but the thought of reaching out and connecting with him made my skin crawl and my eyes burn.

Why would it do this now when earlier it was just fine?

Maybe Jezebel did something to me that would ensure I didn’t break his heart until after the race.

Come to think of it, that really was incredibly heartless of her not to care about whether her coworker got heartbroken.

I definitely wasn’t the only one putting on an act.

What were her intentions, and how could I possibly seduce James Russell Jefferson Dirk Prescott if I couldn’t even touch him?