Page 36 of Hero & Villain
“He got a PhD in psychology at Harvard before I was there. He’s older, wiser, and he’s seen it all.”
I gripped the card until it bit into my fingers. I didn’t need a therapist. Dirk kissed me like he wanted me. If I could control my reaction to him… Not that I’d been doing great at that. Maybe I did need a therapist. “He’s confidential?”
“Extremely.”
“It’s not that I need help.”
He kicked my shoe. “We all need help, Princess Pink. Call him, and I’ll forget about you dumping me in the desert. A scorpion about ate off my face.”
I studied the card while my heart pounded for no rational reason. He wanted to help me instead of get rid of me? He really was a hero. “You haven’t mentioned the lying. I used your guilt over Nitro’s death to get you to help me. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Is that an apology? I’ll take it whether it was or not. If you’re Toni or Dani, you’re connected to Nitro. It’s the same thing to me. You have my protection if you want it. You can think of me as the big brother you never had.”
My heart ached as I looked up at him hesitantly. “You kissed your sister?”
He winced. Right. His sister was dead. Don’t joke about dead siblings. “Yes, although not like that. Look, you’re clearly in trouble. Feel free to stay here as long as you want until you can get your feet under you. You should probably watch out for Jezebel and Nix, though. They’re both crazy.”
He was crazy if he was willing to help me after I broke his nose and dragged him into the desert. I held up the card. “Is he their therapist too?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. He’s very confidential.”
I hesitated, then tucked the card into the pocket of my kitten cardigan and continued towards the biggest building that housed the vehicles while my heart pounded. Dirk Dagger fell in beside me, but didn’t mention anything else about yesterday’s debacle.
Could he actually forget something like that? He’d been in my room while I slept. I was not okay with that, except that he’d retaliated from my breaking his nose by kissing me and giving me the number of a therapist. It’s not that I needed a hero, but I was supposed to be the helpless damsel that needed rescuing. He was probably even serious about helping me without taking anything in return, as if family was naturally that generous. I fought down the strong impulse to grab his hand and crossed my arms instead. I didn’t need a big brother to watch out for me, but at least he wasn’t kicking me out before I’d taken him down.
Inside the enormous tan warehouse filled with a wide assortment of vehicles from helicopters to what looked like tanks, an Amazonian woman with dark curly hair in a messy braid walked towards us with a wrench in her hand.
“I’m Trix,” she said, shoving the wrench in her pocket and wiping her palm on her dark blue coverall before holding it out to me. Ah, the dragon. I could definitely see it.
“Dani,” I said, shaking her hand.
She frowned as she gripped my hand with her strong, tough one. “I thought you were Toni. Nitro’s cousin isn’t Toni?” she asked Dirk, still gripping my hand, and squeezing a little tighter, like we were men challenging for the hand strength contest. She won. There was no challenge.
He shrugged. “What’s in a name, Dragon?”
She snorted and refocused on me. She finally loosened her grip. “You’re staying with Jezebel. Are you okay? If you need help, I’d tell you to call me, but there’s no way I’d get there intime. You’re basically screwed.” She turned and yelled at a man with a plump dark mustache who was under the hood of a go-cart. “Brew, take over for me. Dani needs a ride.” She refocused on me. “What’s your speed?”
“I drive moderately?”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the nearest truck, a monster machine with tires as tall as my head. “Can you drive a stick?”
I gaped at the truck. “I want a car with tires I can lift.”
She nodded. “That’s sensible. Any other specs?”
“I like good gas mileage. And big enough that you can fit bodies in the back seat.”
“Not the trunk?”
I glanced at Dirk, who stood with his arms crossed, devoid of any expression on his ridiculously handsome face. “That would be a plus.”
“Perfect. Come and meet Prudence. She’s an uptight librarian if ever there was one.”
Is that what I was? It was almost humorous that I gave that impression when I was so capable of holding my own, but it would be better to be underestimated. Also, I wasn’t sure what I was holding in this place, but it wasn’t capability. I followed her around the monster truck and past a few other vehicles to a low car underneath a gray cover.
Dirk swore under his breath. Did that mean I would or wouldn’t like what I was about to see? Trix yanked back the cover in a dramatic swirl of fabric that revealed her showmanship and the pink boat that looked like Elvis had been there. Also an irritated Marcus Licinius Crassus, who looked up from his meal of doughnut with pink sprinkles with a yowl.
I leapt away from the cat and the car while Trixie leaned forward, pointing out.
