Page 30 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)

Chapter Fifteen

HERO

I went through the orchestration Roger added to her second performance after she’d taken off her coat. I did the editing personally, because no one else was going to see my goddess of death in a spiked corset, at least not until I published it for the world to see. Judge. Desire.

I groaned and pressed my palms to my eye sockets.

I needed to kill something. I had to block out the whimpers she made when she was lost inside whatever memories she wouldn’t tell me about.

Of course she wouldn’t tell me. She was here to seduce me, destroy me, bring me and my business to its knees, but instead she was sporting a bandage from Marcus Licinius Crassus, who needed to die, and having the worst panic attack I’d ever seen.

Not that I hadn’t been seduced. I’d been happily on my way to inviting her into my house, where she could peruse my stealable tech without a blinking mountain lion attacking her.

And I’d keep her there, where I could protect her from the real enemy.

She was a victim of Haversham as much as I was. More, because he’d been in her life longer than mine.

I knew that Haversham was evil, but what kind of sick and twisted man would hurt his sensitive granddaughter so badly that it left her…

I shook off the memory of her seizing up, the whimpers, the not breathing.

When I was kissing her, it felt like the perfect moment with the perfect woman, who had bet everything on me, even after she’d been exploited by so many men.

Whatever she looked like, and whether she dressed like pink cotton candy that was just waiting for me to consume, or a goddess of death, she had absolutely no idea what she wanted.

I had no problems with that. I wanted her and revenge. In that order.

I shook my head and put away my laptop, walking through my monstrous seventies fever dream home to my eight-car garage, and slid into my pink hybrid.

I wouldn’t be able to focus unless I did some damage to somebody, myself or someone else; it didn’t matter.

I wasn’t going to hurt her, not when Maples was dying.

Was there anything more tragically adorable than her attachment to the doorman’s dog?

Maybe the way she carried her glitter shoe, prepared to stab anyone who got in her way.

Or the way she talked about stars. Or the way she kissed me to shut me up.

Or how proud she was of how well she could knock someone unconscious without any lingering headache afterwards.

And how she felt in my arms, like I was holding the entire world and all its happiness.

I wanted to adore her, not fight her, but she was here to take me down. Eventually she’d remember that, and then… Well, I’d probably enjoy her stabbing me. Somehow I doubted she would enjoy it nearly as much.

I pulled up at the MGM and let the valet take the car while I walked towards the lounge needing to break something.

It was bright and loud, exactly what I wasn’t in the mood for.

I wanted Daniela to play her cello while I held her.

I wanted her to know that she was perfectly safe and always would be.

There would be morning cartoons and blankets under the stars.

Instead, it was games. Murder in the Dark, or Panic in the Park.

“Dagger! A win and an after-party? It must be my birthday.” Nix greeted me with a slap on the back, one arm around my shoulder as he pulled me into the little group of Death Hammer stars and investors.

I glared at Trix, who stood talking to Jezebel about tires while Minx nibbled on a breadstick and tried not to notice the older man who was trying to peer down her dress.

If Trix saw what he was doing, there would be violence.

He had the sense not to ogle Jezebel, in spite of the sequined push-up bra that advertised her surgeon’s impressive skills.

Jezebel had cemented her terrifying reputation a long time ago. She needed to control her menagerie.

“I’m looking for a fight,” I said without preamble.

Nix lowered his sunglasses, so I got to see his bloodshot blue eyes. He was burning the candle at both ends. “What kind of fight?”

“Ugly.”

He pursed his lips as he calculated, then pulled out his phone and texted somebody. “Fifteen minutes in the back alley should do it. Do you have a problem rematching Bulldog? That would give the most bang.”

For the buck. Nix would profit from this fight like he profited off of everything.

I didn’t mind, because you knew what you were getting into with Nix.

Business was always business, and fighting was his business.

Above all, his team was his family, and he took care of family, as long as it didn’t get in the way of business.

“I didn’t like the way he looked at Daniela. I’d love to break some teeth.”

“Yours or his? You don’t care. I’m breaking it up if it gets too messy.

Your tech skills are worth more than your gloves, although tonight you really did demonstrate some technique I thought you’d lost a long time ago.

I didn’t think you’d show up tomorrow morning, much less tonight.

She was wearing your colors, or was that a personal expression? ”

I glared at him. “She’s not a prize to be given out to the winner because she’s wearing his colors.”

Jezebel’s head turned, and she frowned. Trix raised an eyebrow for a moment before she continued her tire diatribe.

Nix’s expression was analytical for a moment, sharp and aware, a look he didn’t ordinarily show.

“Good, then she’ll be at work tomorrow and can keep shuffling papers around.

Still, she went to that fight specifically to inspire you to greatness, and you stepped right up.

She bet her whole paycheck on you, down to the last cent. ”

“She did what?” Jezebel demanded, stepping between us to glare at Nix.

“She wanted to do something reckless,” Trix said with a shrug. “She wasn’t even shocked at being my date. A little confused, but not shocked.”

“She wasn’t your date,” I snarled.

Nix put a hand on my shoulder. “Settle down. Of course she wasn’t Trix’s date. Trix just does that stuff to irritate Horse and drive up ratings. Oh, no, that’s me, because I sell myself for the team, when you all are above it.”

Jezebel shook her head. “I’ve seen Dani’s neat work with the spreadsheet, and you’ve been doing what on company expenses?”

He pointed at her. “And the trips you take?”

“None of your concern.”

Trix looked from one to another and then shook her head and came over to me, draping an arm over my shoulder and leaning into me. “They’re so cute when they fight.”

Cute. That term had bothered her, but… “There’s nothing wrong with being cute.”

“Cute girls end up messing with you. I’ve seen it countless times,” Nix warned. “She’d want to marry you.” He shuddered at the thought.

Jezebel laughed. “And now we know who’s drunk. What’s wrong with being married?”

“Would you ever get married?” Nix demanded of her and shook his head. “No, of course you wouldn’t, because then the next thing you know, you’re locked in a dungeon for thirty years, all because of a cute girl who seems innocent but is actually the most diabolically cunning monster alive.”

We all stared at him while he breathed hard.

Jezebel patted his hand. “Oh, honey, don’t worry. There aren’t any scary cute girls around here who would lock you up with marriage and morals. Why don’t I get you a drink and a nice puppy that can fetch your slippers?”

That reminded me of her cocker mutt, Maples, who was dying.

She needed care and safety, protection, but I wasn’t a hero.

I’m the one who had manipulated everything so that she’d come after me as the soulless granddaughter of Haversham, but the reality, this woman who had been broken by every man she’d ever known, wasn’t someone that I could play games with, not like that.

“Are we going to fight tonight?” Trix asked, redirecting the conversation to business.

Nix nodded, shaking off his nerves. He was genuinely terrified of marriage and cuteness, putting them together as the ultimate death. “Yeah. Let’s get your fists wrapped. Tom, is everything set up?”

He’d been standing on the edge of our group, waiting for someone to notice him. “Sure thing, boss. Bulldog is champing at the bit. Ben’s got tech ready. You didn’t want a costume, did you?”

Nix started wrapping my fists. He was the best and the fastest because he’d been doing this the longest. “Naw, we’re good. It brings me great happiness to ruin one of his pink shirts.” He winked at me and then finished wrapping, and pushed me towards Tom.

The alley was already roped off, so the quiet, more private audience hopefully wouldn’t get a stray punch. Wealthy individuals were placing bets while I stretched my neck and slipped out of my shirt. Buttons could kill you.

Bulldog grinned at me behind his teeth guard. Right. I needed one of those if I didn’t want to be in a dentist’s chair all night.

I turned to Nix and instead found a grinning Trevor right in front of me.

Trevor had gone to Harvard, but I have no idea how he didn’t get expelled since he seemed to do nothing but drink and consume other chemical substances. Maybe he was going into pharmaceuticals, literally.

“Dirk! I told Roger that we’d be glad we'd come to Vegas. You know he’s not happy unless he’s jumping out of a plane without a chute.

Are you still sober? You are.” He wrinkled his nose and then grinned at me.

“I’ll drink twice as much to make up for it, and hey, after this fight, Rog can stitch you up without morphine.

You know how he loves that, and if you’re morally against mind-bending substances… ”

“We’ll talk later,” I said, putting my mouth guard in and ducking under the rope.

Seeing Trevor made everything snap into sharp focus.

He’d been engaged to my sister. He reminded me who the enemy was, Haversham, and who the victims were, everyone else, except Phillipe, who was the old man’s evil twin.

I took a deep breath before I turned and faced Bulldog in time to take his charge in my gut, knocking me down on the pavement.

For a second I couldn’t breathe. It reminded me of Daniela. Maybe I couldn’t breathe, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fight. She fought every day to keep her head above water.

Fighting is one thing I couldn’t help doing. I would fight as long as there was life in me, but now I had someone to fight for.