Page 33 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)

Chapter Seventeen

VILLAIN

“ T here’s a com in the helmet and a tracker on the suit, so we won’t lose you. This way you won’t miss the play-by-play,” Jezebel said, rolling her eyes in the vestibule that led to the garage or the front.

“I’m off,” Minx said with a little wave. She was still wearing the sundress that tried to hide her assets, but failed miserably. Her wedge espadrilles were the opposite of my serious boots.

“Don’t take any shortcuts,” Jezebel warned. “Stick to the plan or we won’t get tacos.”

Minx nodded and shot a stunning smile at Jezebel. “Make sure you take your own advice, cowgirl.”

Felicia came out, wearing a harness holding an assortment of tech gear over her black army pants and tank top. “We’ll be watching you, Minx. Don’t get too flirty. We’ll be right with you.”

I drove the pink car behind Jezebel’s blue Betsy, with Felicia taking the rear in a beat-up red hatchback that had seen better days.

We drove on the highway south for a few hours.

Finally, we parked in a deserted motel parking lot’s barn off a smaller highway that didn’t get a lot of traffic even on a Friday night.

“You’re with me,” Jezebel said, nodding me towards a truck and trailer. A moo and a kick came from inside.

“Is that a cow?”

“A bull,” Jezebel said, climbing in the truck. “Are you coming?”

“Where’s Felicia?” I hadn’t noticed her not following me until we parked. I settled in and buckled up.

“She’s taking the helicopter with Trixie. We can’t all meet at the same place. That would be suspicious.”

“Right. It’s much less suspicious to drive into the middle of nowhere with a cow.”

“Bull. He’s due to be put down because the poor misunderstood creature keeps killing people.”

I shot her a look. “Maybe you should tell me exactly what kind of Girl’s Night Out requires a bull, tacos, and a helicopter.”

She sighed and tapped the steering column.

“All right. First, there’s going to be a diversion.

That’s Minx. She’ll be parked on the side of the road with a broken-down car.

Second, there’ll be the bull. He’ll be parked in the middle of the road, and when the semi swerves or hits it, we go in and clean up. ”

“You want to cause a car wreck?”

“It’ll be going slow around that curve, particularly after they see Minx. It’s what men do when they see her. There won’t be any fatalities, and it’s the safest thing for everyone involved.”

I swallowed my outraged confusion because this wasn’t my evil scheme. If she wanted to wreck a truck for no reason, who was I to judge? “Okay. Thanks for letting me know. What am I supposed to do?”

“If the bull isn’t dead, you’ll put it down before it gores someone, or to end its suffering. If one of the drivers gets out too fast, you can put a bullet in his leg.”

“Sure.” It was totally normal to shoot people in the legs after the bull gets loose. She was insane. Maybe this was all an elaborate con or delusional fantasy, except there was a real animal of some kind in that trailer.

“You don’t mind spending the evening with a bull, I hope,” she said, batting her lashes at me.

“No. Sounds fabulous.”

“You turned off your inner critic. I appreciate that.”

“No problem.”

She snorted, and the conversation ended.

I dozed off a few times, but woke up when she pulled off the road, bumping off the shoulder and fifty more feet or so where a ramp had been dug down into the dirt with enough room for the truck and trailer.

Jezebel backed expertly in and then unhooked the trailer.

“Is this hay for the bull?” I asked, nodding at the pile on the side.

She nodded, and a thud and snort came from the trailer.

“Bo will get his last meal, and then he’ll say goodbye to this world.

I never thought I’d be a cow executioner.

Stretch your legs if you’re so inclined.

” She grabbed a pitchfork and started throwing straw to the bull while I wandered back up the ramp and shivered in the cold air.

The altitude was higher here, the sun going down, leaving the air chilly.

If only Dirk were standing behind me and I could lean against him while he wrapped his strong arms around me to keep me warm.

He’d tell me why he liked violence and I’d tell him why I really liked stabbing.

I shook my head. No, I’d flatter him and seduce him, and he’d infuriate me and seduce me a hundred times more.

I was the villain. I was here in this crazy place with these crazy people to bury him.

That’s who I was. I couldn’t choose anything else.

I was cold, vicious, cruel and malicious.

I had to take care of my enemy before they took care of me.

Dirk was my enemy, and I was nothing but the woman who would rip out his heart.

On this trip, I could use whatever Jezebel did against her. It was time I got the upper hand with her. I nodded and walked over to see Bo eat his last meal. It was terrifying.

The process of getting Bo into the middle of the road was more exhausting than I expected.

Jezebel wasn’t kidding about the monster being seriously dangerous.

She staked him down with two ropes as she maneuvered him towards the road with hay.

The trouble was that the bull didn’t want hay; it wanted human flesh.

I stood by with a rifle, ready to shoot it in the eye. If I could. If it got loose.

Eventually, it was strung in the middle of the road on four lines that Jezebel kept checking along with her watch and the sky.

“It’s time,” she said, and I heard her voice in my ear and across the road.

“We’re situated,” Trixie’s no-nonsense voice said along with Minx’s giggle.

“No giggling, chica,” Felicia snapped. “We’re on a job.”

“I’m getting into character.”

“Save it for the stooge.” Felicia sounded as serious and hard as Trixie. Maybe the racer had rubbed off on her.

“Is he on target?” Minx asked, sounding nervous.

“He’s running a few minutes off the targeted arrival,” Felicia said. “Still, Minx, work those legs.”

“Yes, sir.” I could hear her breathing and then nothing.

“How are you liking Girl’s Night, Pinkie?” Trixie asked in her husky voice. “We rotate monthly. Jezebels are always the most elaborate.”

“I can’t complain.”

Trixie snorted. She might have said something else, but Minx said, “I see dust.”

“Is that bull ready?” Trix asked.

I held the rifle in my arms and glanced at Bo, where he strained against the lines. He made quite a picture against the bluff in the fading light. Jezebel frowned at me. “We need to get off the road.”

“Here he comes,” Minx said, apparently just up ahead. “He’s slowing down. I shouldn’t have smiled at him. He’s ugly. Bald. His friend’s not too handsome either. Um, Jezebel, we have a problem. Ugly and his friend are pulling over.”

Jezebel stared at me, a look of shock on her face. “They wouldn’t stop, not with what they’ve got in their truck.”

“What exactly is in their truck?” Trixie asked. “I can hit them with an explosive. I can be there in three minutes.”

“No explosives,” Jezebel spat. She held very still for a few seconds and then she pulled out one of the stakes holding down the line.

“Looks like I’ll be bull-riding this morning.

And to think that I forgot my spurs. Pink, you’re going to take the bike from the back of the truck and ride it south.

If either of the men are touching Minx, you shoot them. In the head.”

I only hesitated for a second before I nodded and ran for the truck.

The bike was light, sleek, modern, and when I pulled it upright, it purred almost silently instead of roaring to life.

It had the usual gears and accelerator. I climbed on and took off, shooting over the dirt like a rocket.

When I got to the road, Jezebel was on the bull, ropes flinging all over the place while she hung on somehow looking calm and at ease, like she did this every day.

She whipped him around, trying to get him headed in the right direction as she turned him with the halter she’d somehow gotten on his muzzle.

“Go,” she growled, and I heard it in my ear, through the helmet.

I nodded and raced down the road, crouched over the small bike, hugging the road as I took the curve right before the truck.

“I’m waiting for my boyfriend,” Minx said in a soft voice that wasn’t for me. I couldn’t hear the guy’s response, but if he was close enough to talk to her, that was a problem.

She giggled and sounded slightly hysterical. “Oh, right? There isn’t a cell signal right here. I don’t know if he’d come, anyway. I think he’s cheating on me.”

“Why don’t we have a sniper?” Felicia demanded.

“The sniper’s the honey pot today,” Jezebel responded, sounding calm and in control. “Pink, can you see them?”

I came around the curve and saw the truck parked with its long trailer. Two men were on either side of Minx, gradually moving closer, trapping her. I gunned the bike and pulled out the gun in my holster, getting in sight.

The strangest thing happened as I got close enough to take the shot: my hand froze and I couldn’t pull the trigger. I veered behind the truck, jerking to a stop at the end of the trailer, and dumped the bike.

“I couldn’t get them. I’m behind the truck.

” I kept my voice low while my heart pounded and frustration made me want to cry or scream.

How could my body betray me at a time like this?

It had to do what I needed it to do, or I wouldn’t survive.

I shook out my hand, staring at it like it was a stranger.

Come on. I could do this. I’d shot at targets a million times and hadn’t missed for years.

“What are you guys doing?” Minx asked, sounding anxious.

I could hear one guy answer, keeping his voice low and soothing, like that would fool her. “We’re going to help you get your car running. My friend’s going to look under the hood while I have a little fun with you.”