Page 31 of Wicked Beautiful (Wicked Games 1)
er beam gaze, so I finally relent.
“Remember Captain America from Xengu?”
She snorts. “You mean the one you were sucking face with in the middle of the dance floor at Cipriani?”
I cringe. “You saw that?”
“I don’t live under a rock.”
Right. The whole world probably saw that picture. I take a deep breath. “Well, he’s the one who’s taking me on a date tonight.”
Her brows shoot up, almost disappearing beneath the edge of the scarf. “Oh, reeeallly.” Without blinking, she stares at me, waiting for me to say something else.
“And he’s here. Like, now. I have to go get the door.”
I turn and scurry away. Darcy follows hot on my heels.
“If I’m not mistaken, and I never am, this is the same Captain America you said you had a ‘past’ with?”
She’s behind me, but I know her, and I can tell she’s making air quotes around the word past. I keep walking.
“A past that didn’t end well? That he apparently didn’t even remember because he didn’t recognize you? And last week you kissed him in front of four hundred people and then slapped him silly, and now he’s here to take you on a date and you’re wearing a coochie-grazing dress, fuck-me heels, and a face like the wolf that ate Red Riding Hood’s grandma, and you have no idea what I’m talking about?”
We’re in the hallway now, headed past the sunken living room.
“You see why I didn’t want to say anything? You’re overreacting.”
She barks a laugh. “Overreacting? Girl, I know you. If I thought you owned guns, I’d be calling the police right now to report a pending homicide.”
The doorbell rings. I pull up short, my hand at my neck, a cat’s angry hiss rising in my throat. Slowly Darcy walks around to face me, a wry twist on her lips. She jerks her chin at me.
“This is bad juju, V. I can see it a mile away. Do not answer that door. Tell the Captain you fell and broke your ankle, or choked on a chicken bone, but don’t go on a date with him tonight. Or any other night. This won’t end well.”
I look at her. “I know it won’t, Darcy. I’m counting on it.”
“Victoria—”
“There are some people who deserve everything bad that happens to them. And he’s one of them. Trust me, he’s one of them.”
She examines my face in silence for a moment, and then sighs. “I believe you. But you know the old saying.”
“Which old saying?”
“‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.’”
I can feel how vicious my smile is. “One for the upper half of his dead body and one for the lower?”
She blinks. “You’re planning on sawing him in half? Shit, girl, what did he do to you?”
Without thinking, I say vehemently, “He broke me, Darcy. He not only broke my heart, he broke my soul. And that was before all the other bad stuff he’s responsible for.”
The doorbell rings again. Darcy and I stand staring at each other in silence, until I begin to turn away.
“Wait.” She rests a hand on my shoulder.
When I pause and look at her, she shakes her head as if she can’t believe what she’s about to say.
“Let me answer the door. If we’re gonna roll this pigeon, we might as well do it right.”
