Page 44 of Hero & Villain
“Did Nix send you to get me? He doesn’t need me and Jezebel at a fight; I don’t care if it raises ticket sales.”
Right. Let’s explain why I was here and hope she didn’t notice my leg wound. I crouched down next to her. Ow. But it wasn’t that bad. “It’s not that. I got paid today, and I was thinking of blowing it all on the fight. Who do you think will win?”
She studied me, first my face, then shifting her attention to my clothes. The look on her face was incredulous as she tugged on my kitten cardigan. “I know this sweater. Minx bought it for Jezebel one Girl’s Night. I think that she sincerely thought that Jez would like it. Maybe she did, who knows, but she couldn’t wear something that cute or people would think she was accessible.”
“Minx?”
She waved her hand. “Dagger’s good, really good, but he’s not invested. I think he loses half the time just to piss off Nix. You know, his whole ‘no one can tell me what to do’ thing. If you want him to win, you’ll have to give him something worth fighting for. Do you like him?”
I blinked at her. She asked just like that. “I…Well, I sort of…”
She exhaled and grabbed my arm, pulling me upright. “You’re bleeding. Did that miserable cat get you? Were you looking for Dirk at his shop? Marcus Licinius Crassus is his most rabid fan, probably because he’s always feeding him burgers. You can’t negotiate with extortionists. Didn’t anyone ever tell him that?”
She dragged me across the warehouse to an area in the back I hadn’t noticed. Was it a dressing room? She picked me up and put me on a counter like I weighed nothing, and I let her, because I wasn’t sure how to object to the Amazonian once she had her trajectory set.
“So, do you like him?” she repeated as she started washing out my leg under the sink, twisting my leg awkwardly, but not uncomfortably, like she was used to cleaning out wounds of people she didn’t know.
“Um. Yeah. I guess.”
“Because he likes you, but he’s kind of gun shy about women, probably because he doesn’t know how to say no to them.”
I blinked at her. “You think he likes me?” My heart exploded into butterflies, while I tried to lock all my facial expressions down.
She grinned at me. “Sure. So, if you want to inspire him to win the fight, and maybe put it out there that you’re interested, maybe you should wear something else.”
I looked down at my kitten cardigan. “He doesn’t like cardigans?”
“It’s office wear. Maybe you should look like a date instead of a co-worker.” She shrugged. “Dating is not my forte, but I know someone who has it down to an exact science. I’ll call her.”
I inhaled sharply, and it might not have been from the antiseptic spray she put on my wound. “I don’t know if this isa good idea. I mean, betting on him is one thing, but putting myself out there…” I’d dumped him in the desert.
She slapped a skin-colored bandage over the wound and straightened up to stare into my eyes with disturbing intensity. “If you’re willing to bet on him, why not bet on yourself?”
Something about the way she looked at me made me feel completely naked, faced with an honest question that burrowed into my soul.
I was this close to stabbing her or bursting into tears when she turned away and pulled out her phone.
“Minx, do you want to play dress-up? My friend is trying to make an impression on Dirk. Pink. Of course I’m going. She’s going to wear her heart on her sleeve. I wouldn’t abandon someone that brave.”
She actually said that. Was she mocking me? How could she not be mocking me? She gave me a smile and a nod that said, no, she wasn’t mocking me; she really did think it was brave to put yourself out there when you liked someone.
“She’s about your size. Mm-hm. Nice. See you in twenty.” She lowered her phone and nodded at me. “Do you mind ordering something while I shower? It takes forever to get the grease off my hands.” She headed into another cubicle while I sat on the counter, still reeling from the whole thing.
Okay. I was dealing with strong, weird, very strong personalities. Also just strong. I could definitely order dinner while I hyperventilated about wearing my heart on my sleeve for Dirk Dagger. Was I actually doing this? Maybe it would somehow lead to seduction. It was much likelier than knocking him unconscious and dumping him in the desert.
Chapter Fourteen
VILLAIN
Two hours later, I was walking into the MGM in a pink satin dress that barely covered the top of my thighs. The sweetheart neckline was low enough to make me nervous about bending over. My pink hair was pulled back with a heart-shaped clip that matched my glittery heels. They were only three-inch spikes, so Trixie made me look delicate and little, like Minx on her other side. Wearing my heart was a literal theme.
Minx matched me in her strapless dress with a heart bodice and poufy skirt accented by an enormous bow. Her red lipstick was the exact shade of her hair, like my pink pout matched mine, and we both had so much sparkly makeup, you couldn’t tell what we really looked like. In other words, you could see my heart and my cleavage, but not my face.
She’d shown up with cupcakes and bags of dresses and makeup, like playing dress-up was absolutely normal for grown women to do. I’d never done it as a child, but she clearly came from a different family culture.
She’d chatted a little about color theory of all things, but she was shy around me until Trix came in, and then she relaxed. It was easy to see their dynamic, that Trix was the dragon whoprotected the princess Minx, who was the kind of woman that men automatically saw as prey.
Out in public, Trix played the role even more aggressively. She was the perfect hourglass in her black leather halter corset that left her strong shoulders bare, but there wasn’t anything soft about her obvious femininity. An impressive scar covered the top of her right arm, while another white scar interrupted her left eyebrow. She wore a skirt, but it had two front slits that were high enough to see the tops of her thigh-high leather boots.
