Page 4 of Hero & Villain
Harlem led me to the large car while my heart pounded faster and faster. If I were sealed behind that door, I’d have to kill Harlem and the driver if I wanted to be free. Philippe wasn’t the only one I’d been happily avoiding for the last two years.
I stabbed the small nerve paralyzer I kept in my trench’s inner pocket into the base of Harlem’s spine, then draped his arm over my shoulders before he fell. I hauled him towards the barbershop beside the drugstore instead of the car while he held perfectly still. The paralysis would last a few hours, long enough for me to figure out what was going on before I was locked behind my grandfather’s thick walls. I felt delicate, breakable beneath the weight of the big man, but I had determination and panic to see me through. Also chocolate.
I hauled Harlem through the door and propped him in the nearest barber’s chair with a sigh of relief. I hadn’t broken my back doing that. Well done, Vil! Well done. I flashed a smile at the bald proprietor. “If you could give him a shave and a trim, that would be great. My uncle’s had a bit too much to drink. He’ll just relax while you do your work. I’ll see you later, Uncle,” I said brightly, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Harlem’s eyes bugged, but other than that, he didn’t do anything while the barber whipped a plastic cover over his suit and started lathering him up. “Sure thing, Miss. I’ll have him tidied up in no time.”
I slipped out the back and ran down the alley in my ridiculous heels. My grandfather wanted me back home. Why now? I’d failed to infiltrate Harness Global, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t handle all the other business interests I had on my own.
I pulled out my phone and called Toni as I sprinted.
“Vil! I’ve been trying to get ahold of you! Your grandfather pulled all of your contacts from their positions. Why would he do that?”
I blinked at the end of the alley coming up ahead of me. Would the car come after me, or would the driver go and retrieve Harlem first? It would come after me. I turned to the nearest door and picked the lock. It was rusty and took a second longer than it should have before it opened and I spilled into the back room that reeked of curry.
It was the Indian place around the block from my apartment. Clint’s apartment, not mine.
“Check Clint’s merger,” I said as I leaned against the cinnamon-colored wall and caught my breath. Those were the files that had been missing from my laptop.
“Hold on.” She tip-tapped keys on her end and then inhaled sharply. “The merger went through, but with Geocorp, not Haversham. How is that possible? This was your deal. The culmination of two years of Thursdays.”
I stared at the painting of a vase of incredibly ugly flowers on the opposite wall.
My feelings roiled under the surface, threatening to rise up and destroy absolutely everything. My voice was cold. “That’s not possible. Who is Geocorp? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Right. It’s a new company. Some guy named Rodney Buckster is the CEO, but that sounds like a cover name if I’ve ever heard one. Vil, you should come to the evil lair until we figure out what’s going on.”
I gritted my teeth while my chest felt too tight. Thursdays were the worst, but they didn’t usually spiral so hard.
“Stay there. I’ve got to get Straw first.”
She exhaled a frustrated breath. “Your cello is fine where it is, at the symphony hall.”
“If you really think that, you’re not channeling enough villain. You stay safe. Smart. Boringly safe and smart.” I hung up and then called Clint, my fiancé, the man I’d sold my virginity toin the most traumatic way possible. Not that he’d known I was a virgin. Virgins didn’t usually wear leather and carry whips.
My heart ached, literally, as I waited for him to answer. For some reason, the scent of curry didn’t make me hungry. The anger was almost eclipsed by this desperate drowning sensation I hadn’t felt for two years, not since Toni’s ‘accident.’
Finally, he picked up. “Daniela, you don’t usually call me during the day. Is everything all right?” His voice was languid, bored, the careless playboy who couldn’t be bothered.
I wanted to smash something over his head to get a proper reaction out of him. “Everything’s lovely. Why wouldn’t it be? Who is Geocorp?” My voice was spiked daggers that matched my bustier.
He cleared his throat. “You’re too beautiful to trouble yourself over dull business.” He’d actually said that? Did he want to die? Those were death words.
“Is that really your answer?”
He sighed heavily. “Why don’t we discuss it over dinner?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Dinner isn’t for hours.”
“I’ve lost my appetite forever.” Seriously. My stomach was tangled up in my chest, knotting in my heart. Such crap days should be outlawed. First Maestro, then the Scooby Doo Hacker, Mr. Maples, and now this. Two years of Thursdays with nothing to show for it except more trauma. Like I needed more trauma. I didn’t. I needed zero more trauma forever.
He laughed. He actually had the nerve to laugh! “You aren’t usually melodramatic. I like it. I’ll pick something good from the wine cellar. What are you in the mood for?”
“Arsenic,” I said, still cold, icy, but this feeling in my chest was chaos, shrapnel, explosion after explosion. Maybe I really was having a heart attack. I wish it would just get it over with and kill me already.
He laughed again. “You’re upset that I’ve broken with your grandfather? You’re not him. He’s not looking after your interests. We can do better without him. You can do better without him.”
