Page 17 of Hero & Villain
She was Haversham’s granddaughter, the seductress who had taken down Clint with a gesture of her pinkie. But she was also very very pink. Also purple and green and blue. Someone had beaten her so badly that it made my whole soul quake with absolute rage.
Yes, I’d engineered her being here, but I hadn’t planned for it to be like this. She was supposed to break me, so why was she the one so thoroughly broken? It was probably her cousin. I was going to tear him apart so viciously, so thoroughly, you wouldn’t be able to find all the body parts, no matter how hard you looked.
“She’s here, if a little later than you predicted,” the mastermind said, leaning against the glass rail like he wasn’t worried about falling to his death. He wasn’t. With what he had running through his veins, that kind of fall probably wouldn’t kill him or even keep him down for long. It would, however, ruin his hat, and that sort of thing he was serious about.
“Exactly on schedule according to your information. You’re scary,” I smiled and then threw back my glass. Ginger ale. I wasn’t drinking anything that put me at a disadvantage ‘til Haversham was buried.
It was one thing for him to destroy his enemies, but his own granddaughter? Monstrous didn’t begin to cover it.
“So I’ve heard.” Horse sipped from his own glass, blue eyes glinting with anticipation. This is the kind of thing he really enjoyed- seeing people run around like rats in his maze. Not that he personally manipulated anyone. Which is why I was there on his roof when I had so many other things to do. “I also heard that Jezebel took her under her wing.”
I winced and eyed his glass, mostly from habit more than from any actual desire I had to get drunk. What I wanted was to touch her hair and see if it was as soft as it looked. I could probably get drunk on her pink hair easily if you consider how I’d reacted to drinking from her water bottle. Drunk. “You know how hospitable Jezebel Whiskey is.” I took another sip of my ginger ale. It would look like whiskey from a distance, which served my image. Jezebel also didn’t drink. In fact, Nix’s team was entirely sober except for Trixie’s sporadic binges.
Horse nodded. “As in not at all, yes, I am quite aware of her self-isolating habits in spite of her Dangerous Dames’ efforts to draw her in.”
He made their little group of psychos sound practically poetic.
I leaned closer. This was pertinent. “What do you have on Jezebel? She’s actually a psycho killer assassin from Russia, right?” I wasn’t going to let Daniela get into another pair of claws, even if I had to kidnap her myself.
He shrugged and managed to look slightly uncertain and cocky at the same time. “I have no idea. She didn’t exist before she came to Vegas.”
I scowled at him. “No history? You can dig up anyone’s past.” I really wanted to rescue Daniela from Jezebel. But I couldn’t do that without a reason. Unless I wanted to. But we had a plan to take down Haversham. I couldn’t trash years of planning just because I wanted to kidnap someone. I mean, save them. Obviously.
Horse sighed. “Her fingerprints aren’t in any databases, but her accentless Mandarin does give an idea. If you haven’t found anything on her, how could I? You’re much better at following digital trails than I am. Hopefully, her influence doesn’t negatively impact Daniela while she’s at this impressionable stage.”
I grinned at him. “You think she’s impressionable? What gives you that impression?”
Horse knew things. If he thought that her path to villainy wasn’t carved in stone…
He gave me a look, dark brow raised over dark blue eyes. “Impressionable impression? Seriously?”
I shrugged off the nonessentials. “She’s here to destroy me, but I don’t mind being destroyed. Think of the revenge if she abandoned her family and chose true love instead.” I sipped my ginger ale while Horse studied me with a flat expression.
“Indeed, just think of the revenge. Think about the power of true love and abandoning one’s family to attain it.”
Those words were full of spikes through the chest. My sister had been destroyed by love. She’d abandoned me, leaving me alone with my parents. I grimaced and made a face at him. “That’s why Trixie doesn’t like you. You aren’t a romantic.”
His eyes darkened slightly. “There are lots of reasons Trixie doesn’t like me. Probably the biggest reason is that I keep trying to manipulate her.”
“You can manipulate anyone. Why don’t you actually do it instead of keep trying?” I waved a hand. “But what would be the fun of that?”
“It’s better this way.”
“Better for her or for you?”
“Her, obviously.”
I grinned at him and patted his broad shoulder. “Now that’s romantic. Self-denial for her own happiness? It’s also incredibly egotistical, but that’s your brand. What has you thinking twice about Daniela being on the brink of a change of heart?” That’s the only thing I was really invested in. Her hair looked so soft.
“The way she handled Clint makes one think she has no heart, but the way she plays…She has something inside her that she’s kept sensitive. She’s never been free before, not really, so she might get distracted from her duty to destroy you and find other interests. Jezebel is a wildcard. I didn’t see her getting involved, and it makes me nervous. I don’t want Trix getting dragged into the Haversham mess.”
My stomach knotted while the memory of twisted metal and Nitro’s broken body made me clench my teeth. Trix was Nix’s driver. It was too easy to tamper with an assault vehicle. I’d never forget the wreckage or the closed casket.
I swallowed hard until I could speak normally. “You aren’t worried about Jezebel?”
He shrugged and raised his glass. “I would personally be relieved if she were taken out of the picture.”
“Why? What do you know about her?”
