Page 9 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)

Chapter Five

VILLAIN

I stepped off the bus into a rush of heat and aridity that sucked the air from my lungs. Past the bus station, one way was an endless stretch of blue sky and shimmering heat that rose from the beige dirt; the other way was a freeway that ran past dusty high-rises.

Las Vegas.

I’d been on the bus for two days and eighteen hours to get to the magical capital of fun. So much fun that I wanted to turn around and climb right back on that bus. It would hurt to climb up those steps though, because my whole body was one big bruise. Maybe I’d beaten myself up a little too much.

In our cellar of disasters were a bunch of abandoned projects we’d made over the years.

One was a ninja trainer, which had knobs and sandbags that would whirl around and take you out.

I’d never managed to turn it into an actual challenge, but it had done a very thorough job beating me up, turning me into the helpless damsel Dirk couldn’t resist.

Being weak was the worst.

I looked around again, like maybe the view had changed in the last three minutes, and then started down the side of the road.

It was maybe a mile and a half, maybe two, to the casino where Nix Death-Hammer’s team had their show tonight.

I could use the exercise after being cramped on the bus, although the further I walked from the bus station, the more my stomach ached and the worse I felt.

It was so freakishly hot for November. Toni’s sweatshirt was sticking to my skin by the time I made it to the intersection that ran past the airport.

A car honked, making me jump, which sent a sharp pain through my insides.

Toni would have flipped them off, but maybe not when she was worried about internal bleeding.

I’d spent too much time with the ninja trainer, and I’d never been hurt so badly. I’d spent most of the bus ride passed out, just trying to breathe through the pain in my cracked ribs. I was going to nail this damsel in distress thing so hard. Hopefully, somewhere Dirk Dagger could appreciate it.

I kept trudging along with my head down, pale pink hair falling over my face. I stared down at my boots. Not my boots. Toni’s old black engineer boots now wore a fine coat of orange dust. You couldn’t stab people with these shoes, but you could probably do brain damage.

It took forever to make it to the Strip, and it was still hot and miserable in the shade of the first building. I pulled off the sweatshirt and tied it around my waist, continuing in the hot-pink and black skull print crop top. It was too hot to worry about the bruises showing.

In spite of the heat, I shivered and hunched lower under the backpack. Was it heavier than before or was the world just blurrier? I edged around a guy passing out nudie cards. I’d officially arrived.

He glanced over my arms, then down over my legs under the pink leather skirt, a frown forming between his blurry gray eyes.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Wrong unexpected hero. Also, I had no intention of being one of the girls passed around on the strip. I gripped the straps of Toni’s backpack tighter and kept plodding towards the MGM.

Dirk Dagger wouldn’t notice that my eyes were a slightly different shade of blue than Toni’s had been, not with all the black and blue going on.

Being here, feeling so incredibly lousy, like I was coming down with the flu on top of my self-inflicted bruising, I wasn’t so sure about my plan.

I wasn’t sure about anything, though, like what day it was, or whether these buildings were real or just a mirage.

A big sign said, ‘Mirage,’ and I stopped for a second just staring before I shrugged and continued forward.

I kept walking, one slow step after another, past the big buildings. Everything was so new but already dead. No, not dead, undead. These zombie buildings came to life at night and ate people, spitting them out in the morning.

My head ached, and buzzing filled my ears. I shook my head and wished I had music to calm me down. I’d play Bach. Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach to be exact. But no. I had resigned myself to life without a cello for ages.

I finally got to the back of the MGM. I walked down the alley towards the side doors, past a guy leaning against the wall.

“Hey, baby!” He grabbed my arm and spun me towards him. He reeled drunkenly and pointed at my hair. “It’s pink!”

Ow. My whole arm was a bruise. I jerked away and glared at him.

“Yeah. Real quick, Sherlock.” I tried to channel Toni’s ‘screw you’ voice, but my head pounded and I shuddered with cold in the deeper shade between buildings.

Maybe I was sick. I hardly ever got sick.

Would a hero want to rescue me from the flu?

I could still remember the warmth of his hand cupping my face as he chased away my fears.

Or maybe that was a throbbing bruise. Either way, he’d love taking care of the delicate female. I was so delicate.

The drunk leaned closer to me, so I got a good whiff of his breath. Wow. That probably wasn’t a hallucination. I winced and shook my head to see if I could dislodge his scent. Nope.

“I can deduce that you want to have a good time.” He winked very slowly.

His face swam in my vision. I should have kicked his balls and kneed his face, leaving him a bleeding pile on the sidewalk, but any physical contact would hurt me, and if I moved too fast, I might fall over.

Also, I didn’t want to touch so much ew.

I was supposed to be a damsel in distress, not the offal in this dress.

“Hey! What are you guys doing back here?” A bald guy built like a brick wall came down the back drive chewing his gum aggressively.

The drunk backed off. “Nothing, man. Later pink!” He ran back down the alley laughing like he was getting away with something.

The guy couldn’t run in a straight line.

Was he going to knock himself out when he tried to turn the corner?

He hit his shoulder on the wall, spun around, but somehow kept to his feet as he staggered out of sight.

I shook my head and focused on the gum guy. I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to act like. Toni. I knew how Toni acted, but I felt so terrible. How did she act when she’d gotten beaten by a man? Like that would happen. She’d kill him with her bare hands.

“Hey, you with the pink hair! You got a reason to be here? State it or take off.”

I looked up at the bouncer, and his face softened.

“You came down this way to get away from that yak? Look. I’ll let you hang here for five before you’ve got to head out. They’re coming in soon, and we don’t want anyone to get run over.”

He turned and headed back to the garage doors.

I followed quickly. “Wait. They? Are you talking about Death-Hammer’s team?”

He crossed his arms and flexed his enormous biceps. “Yeah. They come in hot, particularly Dragon. Stay away from her wheels.”

“But that’s who I want to see.”

He frowned at me. “You want to see Trixie ‘Dragon’ O’Hara?” He gave me a different kind of look, like he was trying to put me with the other woman. Did I look butch? Maybe I wore too much leather, but the pink screamed Barbie.

“Not, um, Dragon. Nix. The leader. I want to talk to him about a job.” If I didn’t pass out first. What was wrong with me? I was supposed to appear delicate, not actually be five seconds from unconscious.

He frowned and then shook his head. “Sorry, hon, you’re too young for Nix’s team. He only takes the best and the most serious. I’d tell you to head over to Horse’s Band of Demons, but he doesn’t take chicks. Not unless you want to be eye candy. No offense, but you don’t have the right look.”

Seriously? I curled my lip just like Toni would have and let her rough Boston accent get stronger. “Wow. Thanks for that. I’m actually a makeup artist.” This was my excuse, but they’d only hire me if they felt guilty about Nitro’s death.

“Huh. Not really advertising your skills, are ya?”

I was supposed to look like a mess. My makeup was perfect for my performance. I really was going to hurt him if he wasn’t careful.

He glanced around and then took a few steps closer to me. “Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but you need some time to figure out what you’re doing before you approach Nix. You aren’t going to get anywhere in this town looking like a run-over rat. Appearances mean everything in Vegas.”

“I just walked from the bus stop after taking a three-day bus ride from Boston! You think I should look fresh? I’ll give you fresh!” I unslung my backpack and kicked his knee out.

He went down, and I lunged towards him, but before I could break his nose, someone grabbed me and hauled me off my feet, holding my back against a very solid chest.

“Tom, what’s up? Picking fights with the tourists?

” The guy holding me had no accent; his voice was low, and he smelled really, really good- woodsy and crisp.

I was certainly out of my mind if his scent did so much to me.

His hands tightened on my arms, and the pain had me kicking and struggling in a pathetic reflex that wasn’t going to hurt him nearly badly enough.

“Easy,” he said, wrapping his arms tighter around me.

I twisted my head around to snarl at him.

When I saw his face, I just stared. Dirk Dagger looked more hardened than he had five years ago, but that only made him more dangerous and, apparently, attractive.

He looked like James Dean and Cary Grant had had a baby.

Mussed hair, chiseled jaw, kind of sarcastic tilt to his mouth.

That was not the mouth that said ‘miss’ to people they were holding like an escapee from a psych ward.

That was a mouth that could erase an entire universe with a kiss.

He stared at me with surprise before he blinked, and for a split second, softness filled his brown eyes. “Easy.” His voice was lower, a growl that made my heart pound much too fast. My heart felt so fragile, like it was about to beat its last.

“I’m not easy,” I whispered. Toni would never say that. I wanted to smack myself, but he still held onto me.

His lip curved as he glanced down at my lips.

I started hyperventilating. I did not like being close to him, not when I still remembered how he tasted.

I was supposed to seduce him, not be seduced by him.

I needed to follow the plan. What was the plan?

He felt so good. He was holding me gently now, like he knew that I wasn’t going to kick him, not when I’d seen how beautifully bad boy he was.

“No, you aren’t.” He put me down and stepped back, crossing his arms like Tom, who had watched the whole thing without any expression on his face.

I’d forgotten all about him. I wove on my feet.

Would it be a good idea to faint and hope that the hero caught me?

What if he didn’t? I didn’t need a concussion.

“Cars are coming in soon,” Tom said, staring at me but clearly talking to Dirk Dagger.

He looked so dangerous. He didn’t look like a hero, he looked like a bad boy who would know every devious thing in my heart. Why had I thought this was going to work?

“Trix’ll make mincemeat out of the tourist,” Dirk said.

Tom nodded. “Pity. Pink smears are the hardest ones to scrape off the pavement.”

Dirk smiled. “Are they? I thought it was blue. I think pink would be good. Trix would hate it.” He said it as if he knew the driver well enough to tease her.

Was I jealous or just nauseous? I should have eaten more on the bus.

Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that sandwich from the machine in Colorado.

I stepped closer to them. “Look, I just need to talk to Nix for a second.” I needed to start with Nix.

I needed to get Dirk’s notice in a much subtler way than this, but I sounded so pathetic and everything wobbled on the edges of my vision.

“Yeah?” Dirk raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Tom leaned over and said, “She says she wants a job doing makeup. You know any makeup artists who start interviews kicking out knees?”

Dirk gave him a look. “Any makeup artist who worked for Death-Hammer’s team would have to know how to start negotiations with violence. I’d love to see a cute little lady like Pinkie here try to tell Jezebel how to put on her face.”

“She wouldn’t have a face after that. Your call, Dirk.”

Could I really say it? Could I really deliver this lie? I was so dizzy. I swallowed, took a deep breath and then made my bed. “I’m Nitro’s cousin. She always said I should come out if I got the chance. I mean, she’s gone now, but I thought…”

Dirk grabbed my hand, dragging me past Tom. “We’re getting you out of the drive before Trix gives you a heart attack. She’s rounding the end of the parade route now. She’s always aggressive after those things. They’re slow. She doesn’t like slow things. What do you want me to call you?”

“I forgot my backpack.”

He shot me a look. “It’s a little long.” There was something like a smile in his eyes as he let me go and started jogging back towards my bag.

At that second, an enormous assault vehicle, bigger and scarier than the one Nitro had driven, screeched around the corner and drove towards my backpack at forty, fifty miles an hour.

Dirk darted forward and grabbed my bag. I watched the driver’s eyes narrow, and then there were screeching tires, smoke, the smell of burning rubber and asphalt.

I put out my hand to the brick wall while everything got weird and unfocused. I’d killed the only man I’d ever liked kissing. Good, right? It didn’t feel good. It felt absolutely terrible. Those were my last thoughts before everything went black.