Page 34 of Hero & Villain
My car was nearly charged when Jezebel came out, a gun holstered on her hip. “Dagger. My, how pretty you look in the light of day. I should have skinned you for coming around at night like a petty burglar.”
“I sent him,” Nix said, a blatant lie that caught both of us off guard. “Look, Jez, Toni is under my protection, since I agreed to take her on for the sake of sentimentality. You don’t get to keep her as your pet, however bedraggled and helplessly cute she is. I expect both of you at the compound by eight. We’ve got a lot to do if we want to have a nice long break after the Three-Hundred. Is that all right with you?” Nix’s voice was friendly, easy, but his eyes were colder and harder than steel.
Jezebel smiled a gleaming smile that gave me shivers and holstered the gun I hadn’t noticed her pulling. She was like that. “Well, honey, I didn’t realize she’d touched a corner of your sentimental heart. I’ll be sure to wrap her up real good and deliver her right away. Should I put her in a sequined push-up bra or something sheer? Maybe black leather and lace is what you want her for.” Even without a gun in her hand, she was scary as her voice got tighter and harder.
Nix’s smile was as charming as it could be. “She would be a pretty little thing no matter what she wore, but she’s going to spend her time in the office working on the year’s paperwork, so she should wear whatever will suit the air conditioning. She’s the kind that runs a little cold, I think.”
Jezebel studied him for another second and then nodded before glancing at me. “Paperwork? And here I thought you were above revenge. I’ll have to watch my back around you.” Shespun on her heel and went back inside the metal gate to her compound’s courtyard.
Nix chuckled and unhooked the adapter to charge my car. “I’d be delighted if you were to set me up with a version of that hot little number you’ve got on, after all,Toni’s not the only one who runs a little cold.”
I fingered the flap of my suit. “Remind me why I’m running with a cold-blooded shark like you?”
He slapped me on the shoulder, flashing that charming smile that matched Jezebel’s in a lot of ways. “I’d never presume to know another man’s reasons for doing something. The why is much less essential than the what. As long as you’re the best videographer, you’re welcome on the team. I don’t even care if you have a pink fetish.” He climbed into his monstrosity and revved the engine a few more times before driving off, leaving me with nothing to do but climb into my own car and get to work.
Chapter Twelve
VILLAIN
The next morning came way too soon. Jezebel burst into my room, shoved a green sludge drink in my hand and pulled a cute skirt outfit from the closet, pink kitten cardigan included. She laid it over the bed and then patted my head and left with a cheerful, “Five minutes to go time.”
There was no point in getting out of bed. He knew that I’d lied about being Toni, and then I’d dumped him in the desert. There was no way he’d ever let me get close to him after that. I should go back to Boston and tell my grandfather that I’d completely ruined a job that should have been simple for someone with my skills. The thought of going back to my grandfather inspired me to try again. Maybe I could steal Dirk’s tech or blackmail him for something.
With that happy thought, I bolted out of bed, took the world’s fastest shower, dressed, and was in Betsy with the drink before Jezebel pulled out of the garage.
“Look how fast you can move when you’re motivated,” she said with a sunny smile. Her makeup was impermeable, so I couldn’t see whether she had circles under her eyes, but I certainly did. I should put on makeup or something that wouldkeep me from looking like I’d been dragged backwards from the grave. I tugged self-consciously on the kitten-print cardigan and smoothed down the skirt. This was probably the least seductive outfit in the world, unless there was some man who found kindergarten teachers attractive.
“Am I not doing manual labor today?” I asked.
“Nope. Today you’re in the office with Nix. Paperwork. Try to be gentle with him. He’s a beast. He can’t help being slow.”
Whatever that meant. He certainly wasn’t slow physically.
I walked into the building on the opposite side of Dagger’s tech building, which I didn’t look at directly. Maybe this would be my last day here. I couldn’t blame him if he threw me out for knocking him unconscious and leaving him in the desert. What if something happened to him? He’d be fine in his reinforced suit, although with blood on his face, maybe it would attract rodents and he’d get some kind of disease. No, he’d be fine.
I walked into the office with as little limp as possible. Nix looked up from the desk piled with papers that were way too high. His expression brightened. “I’ve heard that you can do paperwork.”
“I mean, I can do some kinds of paperwork. Usually business related, specifically legalities.”
He smiled, and two dimples made a mockery of Dirk’s smaller one. He looked at me as if I were his Christmas present. Usually when people looked at me like that, I was wearing a different outfit. I adjusted my sweater. It definitely wasn’t a sexy secretary outfit, more frumpy librarian. Even the skirt was long and shapeless.
He stood up and gestured for me to come around the desk. “Sit down. Make yourself comfortable.”
I shot him a look. Was he seriously going to trust his company's business to a complete stranger? Surely someone had mentioned that I wasn’t actually Nitro’s cousin, not thatthat would stop my criminal tendencies. I sat delicately in the massive leather tufted chair. The whole thing was a mix of industrial and manly that hadn’t been curated by anyone with any semblance of taste.
“What do you want me to do?”
“You know how to do spreadsheets?”
I nodded.
“Good. Enter these numbers into these columns, and then let me know the totals.” He exhaled and ran a hand through his short blond hair. “You’re a godsend. Jezebel said that you’re completely trustworthy. She’s the most paranoid person I’ve ever met, so I feel our company is safe in your hands.” With that, he gave me another devastatingly charming grin and left me to it.
I groaned and put my face in my hands. Dirk and Jezebel knew that I wasn’t who I said I was, so Jezebel would be watching to see what kind of mischief I did with these books. I’d have no choice but to work meticulously, not to make the slightest error that could get me locked up or worse, knowing Jezebel and how she didn’t need me to stay alive until the end of the season. Did Nix really not know who I was? He may have been slow, but he had her to watch his back.
I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. The last time anyone had made an effort to organize the business had been last year around this time. They probably had to have things in order to go on their vacation over Christmas. If these papers were correct, January was when they curried investors and made deals with the networks for the coming year.
It was fairly mindless to enter numbers into boxes once I had the first pile of papers slightly organized. There was so much paper. Jezebel had taken several exotic trips in the last few months that Death-Hammer Corp paid for. I wonder if he knew about those. Just dealing with a few weeks showed that Daggerput more money into the business than he took out of it. He wasn’t even on the payroll. Did he get a cut on the other end? No, there was Geotech, sponsoring the last four Three-Hundred races.
