Page 16 of Hero & Villain
She patted his cheek, making him flinch. “Sometimes when we think we’re losing, we’re winning. And vice versa.” She put her hand on my forehead, and her eyes tightened slightly. “How long were you out in the sun?”
“I… An hour? I walked from the bus stop.”
Dirk sat on the edge of the couch, somewhat between me and the woman, like he’d step in if she tried to bite me. “Jezebel is as close as we come to having a vet. At least she’s better with animals than with people. Tell her if she’s hurting you. No, tell me if she’s hurting you and maybe between myself and Nix we could stop her. Torture is her forte.”
“Oh, hush. The sweet child won’t know you’re joking.” She didn’t look at him, just frowned into my eyes and then checked my pulse on my neck and then my wrist.
I flinched from bruises, and her eyes went glinty and hard, reflecting the light like only contacts could. “I had an accident,” I said, glancing at Dirk with a slightly crazy smile.
He shook his head with a frown because this wasn’t a joking matter anymore.
“I’d say. Take off your shirt, sweetheart.” She whipped my sweatshirt off before she finished the words and then pulled up my crop-top. I tried to shove her off me, but Dirk restrained my wrists, letting the woman have full access to my ribs. I snarled at him and snapped my teeth at his nose.
He smiled only slightly before looking down at my body. I looked where they were looking, and then I froze as I stared at the damage. I was supposed to be gently damaged, attractively bruised, not battered like an apple that had fallen off the truck on the freeway and then been run over a few times.
I gritted my teeth while the woman cocked her head and carefully moved her hands over my ribs. I inhaled sharply as agony pierced through me.
“Right there, a hair fracture probably, but not a clean break. I don’t think anything’s punctured. There would have been more swelling, and she’d probably be dead by now. What is this? Three days old?”
I blinked at her. She knew way more than most people knew about bruising. “Yes.”
“And you aren’t dead, so you probably won’t start now. Lucky you. Really, though, after this sort of thing, you shouldn’t traipse across the country to be a makeup artist, however glamorous it sounds.”
“As in not at all?”
Her smile sharpened as she studied me. “Dirk, let her go, or I’m breaking your arms.”
He released me immediately, but somehow I’d forgotten that he was holding me down. “I’m pretty sure she can take care of herself,” he muttered.
“On a good day, maybe, but this is clearly not that day. Your hands are in good shape, sweetheart. Didn’t you try to defend yourself?” She sounded more curious than accusatory, but how could she not take me for a weak and pathetic female when she’d seen my body?
There was no point in lying when I didn’t have to. “I’m a musician. I can’t damage my hands.”
“Are you any good?”
I exhaled and shrugged. “I wouldn’t call myself good.” Good implied that I lacked drive and talent. I worked far too hard to be merely good.
“Ah, so modest. Look, honey. We have a show to put on. If you’d rather hang around here instead of going to the hospital, I’ll fix you up a concoction, give you some compresses, and then you can wait it out right here until I can take you home.”
“Home?”
“Jezebel, that’s not necessary,” Dirk said with a dark scowl that made me blink. In my head he was a hero and therefore weak, but he was not weak in this world. He was more dangerous than most men I knew, and he wasn’t at all what he seemed. I couldn’t forget that he was also Prescott of the coveted Geotech, the bored billionaire who got his kicks from playing war in the desert.
“She can stay with Trix, but everyone knows how OCD she is. Sugar will misplace one of her shampoo bottles, and then Trix will eat her alive. I’m a much safer bet.”
“You’re a man-eater.”
Jezebel fixed him with a stunning smile that made the hair on the back of my neck rise. “I’m sure that you’ve noticed that Nitro’s cousin isn’t anything close to a man. It’s either my place or the hospital. Which do you choose?” she asked me, like that was a choice.
The room was spinning, and everyone was staring at me. I swallowed and felt like I was falling off a cliff that I was supposed to be pushing other people over. “Thank you. I appreciate your hospitality.”
Chapter Seven
HERO
She was so…pink.
I stood on the roof overlooking the strip with my glass clenched in my hand, but I didn’t see the view. All I saw was her eyes flashing with pain when I held her too tight.
