Chapter 21 Villain #3
His eyebrows rose almost to his hairline, and he nodded rapidly. “Yes, madame.”
I headed back to the elevator, scanned the black card against the bowler hat button and then gripped the railing while the elevator rose this time instead of descending.
The mirror in the elevator showed a woman with perfect posture in a discreet sheath dress in every way other than the hot pink puppy sequins across the front of it.
The black clothing had elements of pink that didn’t show upon first examination.
Dirk had a death wish, mocking me for my puppy slippers, but I’d have to wait until after the Three-Hundred to kill him.
Maybe I’d have to wait much longer than that.
The doors opened onto a lush Berber forest, my heels sinking into the deep pile.
It wasn’t practical for a hotel to have such luxurious carpet, particularly in the halls.
This was a statement rug—we are too wealthy to be practical.
He must host a lot of high rollers here. Did he do therapy for all of them?
I walked down the hall, ignoring the closed doors I passed, then knocked at the one at the end.
When it opened without a sound, I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
I wasn’t surprised to see the empty room.
Having self-opening doors meant someone was always monitoring the hall.
It was standard procedure for anywhere dangerous people came together to see how they could profit even though there wasn’t any trust between them.
I was surprised by the cello in the middle of the masculine room, dark wood and peacock wallpaper offset by oil paintings of beautiful women.
Was that a Turner? Yes, this was definitely where Horse liked to showcase his money.
I walked past the cello to the far wall with its windows and narrow balcony that overlooked a busy street.
You couldn’t hear a whisper from outside, not even if you pressed your ear to the glass.
You wouldn’t be able to hear anyone scream from in here either.
I shivered. I couldn’t take anyone down, even to defend myself. I was so helpless.
“Dani? Shall we begin?”
I whirled around, heart beating in my throat, and saw Horse for the first time in a suit and tie. He filled it out like a Greek sculpture, but the ice bag he held on his face diminished the aura of untouchability.
“Do you play?” I asked, nodding at the cello.
I didn’t move from my position near the window, as far from him as I could get.
My heart wouldn’t stop beating so fast. I couldn’t trust him, but what else was I supposed to do?
I should have told Jezabel I’d be here. She could save me. I hated needing to be saved. So much.
He squinted at me. “I thought you might want to relax before I got here. Stupid of me.”
It was actually. As if I’d relax in a stranger’s place when I was trying to talk myself into talking. “What happened to your eye?” I nodded at him with my chin, staying as far away from him as possible.
He winced and touched two fingers to his eye.
“Trix kicked me. I was only trying to keep her from falling off the bar. I don’t know if she even did it intentionally; she was that hammered.
She doesn’t usually kick you in the face.
She punches.” He smiled fondly at the memory of her punching him in the face.
What was his deal with her? Was he really her stalker? I’d take care of him. Except that I couldn’t do anything about anything. I clenched my fists and frowned at him. “Don’t tell me that you went to every place that sold tacos and margaritas until you found her.”
He didn’t answer right away, taking the ice off and frowning at it.
“I’m not her stalker. I came to Vegas after she did, it’s true, but she moved into the hotel after me, like she walked into the most expensive and currently popular club in town after I was already there.
Perhaps she’s stalking me. You should have gone with them.
It’ll be a long time before Trix goes to town with that much enthusiasm.
” He put the ice back on his eye and focused on me with the one eye- dark blue, piercing.
“How’s your arm? It took a lot of effort to get the blood out of my carpet. ”
I shuddered at the memory of Dirk and his friends doing surgery on me, knocking me unconscious.
How dare he! But at the same time, I wasn’t dead.
I clearly needed saving, so it was idiotic to be furious about it.
Didn’t change the roiling emotions though.
“Let’s skip the pleasantries, shall we? I’m here to get my body back under my control.
What is going to get to the root of the problem the most quickly and efficiently? ”
He shifted the ice pack, seeming to be focusing on that instead of me. “Tell me something you don’t tell anyone. Lay yourself bare, and then I’ll know what I have to work with.”
I took a deep breath while my hands trembled. I didn’t know Horse, didn’t trust him, didn’t want to know him or trust him, but I needed to fix this problem, and the only thing to do with fear was to face it.
“I have night terrors. I’ve had them for as long as I can remember.
My mother used to stay with me all night, but she killed herself, threw herself off the roof and tried to take me with her when I was four, so I’ve been dealing with them on my own since then.
Naturally, I don’t sleep with people, since screaming is disruptive. ”
He dropped the ice bag and stared at me, shock mixing with something else, his ice bag forgotten until he slowly picked it back up, studying me with fresh concern. “The pink hair doesn’t mesh with your willingness to dive right in and get dirty.”
“I’m very good at getting dirty, at least I used to be. Now, I can’t even pull a trigger to save myself.” Not to save someone else, either. What if it had been Toni instead of Minx? She wasn’t a sharpshooter, however good she was with her hands.
He studied me for a second and then shook his head. “I’m going to sit down. You sure know how to knock the legs out from under a man.”
“That’s true. Aren’t you supposed to tell me to sit down and relax?”
“Do what you want.” He collapsed onto an enormous dark leather couch that looked like butter. He put his feet up on the cushions and his head back on the arm, propping the bag of ice over both eyes, fully relaxed.
He was so comfortable. I felt neurotic standing by the window, like I’d jump out if he got too close. He was big, powerful, but not a threat to me at that particular time. Whether he was actually a therapist or not, I couldn’t tell, but I was here because I needed to talk to someone.
I curled up in an overstuffed chair with odd embroidered patches that had muted pictures of fairy tales beneath the soft throw over the arm. “This is a strange chair.”
He squinted at me before returning to ice his eye. “You chose it. Some therapists have ink blots; I have chairs.”
He did have a variety of different seating options in wildly different styles, but all dark and subtle. “I chose this chair because it faces the door, the windows, and you.”
“That also says something about you. Tell me about your best day.”
“My what?”
“Best day.”
“How is that relevant?”
“Humor me.”
The day with Dirk, learning how to drive like a respectable civilian, popped into my head, but I shook it away.
What about the day I graduated from the academy and Toni was there with a big bouquet of balloons even though I hadn’t been able to have audiences at any of my final performances?
That was a good day. We’d gone out and robbed a pawn shop afterwards, because they wouldn’t sell back her dad’s war medals she’d sold in a moment of weakness.
Or conquering my fear of heights and kissing Dirk Dagger on top of a tower.
No, Dirk Dagger didn’t get to be any of my happiest days.
“The first time I met my best friend was pretty good.”
“Why?”
I’d been in juvie, determined to show my grandfather that his money couldn’t control me.
I’d gone the one route out of his grasp.
“She was surrounded by a bunch of Hens. If you’re going to have a gang name, why wouldn’t you pick something with a little more bite?
I was walking by when one of them bumped into me.
Naturally, I stabbed her with her own fork and proceeded to pile up all five of them.
Toni thought I was coming to her rescue.
She followed me around for the rest of the day, telling me how awesome I was.
” I smiled at the memory. Toni had streaks of blue in her hair that matched her big eyes as she looked at me worshipfully.
“Hens?” He raised his head and gave me a disbelieving look.
I shrugged. “Why did you want to hear that?”
He rubbed his chin. “Toni’s Nitro’s cousin? Did you teach her how to defend herself?”
“Of course. I don’t like using my hands.”
“It’s better for other people to do your dirty work?”
“No, I enjoy getting my hands dirty, but I’m a musician, and hands are delicate.
I couldn’t play for a month once. I didn’t want that to ever happen again.
” I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to talk about the time I’d displeased Grandfather so much that he’d punished me the only way I really cared about.
Horse wanted to talk about best memories.
That certainly wasn’t one of those. I took a deep breath and forced myself to continue.
“I couldn’t play last night, but that was from too many emotions. So, what’s the solution to my problem?”