Chapter 33 Villain #2
“Where’s my hero?” Trixie growled, right on cue.
I looked up from Dirk’s neck and stared at her. Other than the bandage on her head under her crazy curls that looked much better than the one I’d put on her, and the crutches she wielded like weapons, she looked fine.
“You,” she said, nodding at me. “We need to talk. Dirk, out.”
“Well, I’d hate to interfere with hero worship, but she’s clinging to her man like he’s her hero, so maybe you can tone it down a notch and sleep off the head wound,” Jezebel said, pushing her down to sit on the end of the truck.
“And you,” Trix said, scowling at Jezebel. “I will need your specialized expertise. Someone shot your camel out from under you? Did you break anything?”
“Not yet,” Jezebel said with a pleasant drawl, then turned to Dirk. “Scoot, honey. We’re having a little feminine powwow. We’ll let you know when you can take Daniela to bed.”
“I’m not leaving her,” Dirk said, scowling at Trix and then Jezebel, while his arms tightened around me.
I held onto him because I didn’t want anything else, even if it was a lie. If he hated me, as long as he held me, I’d hold on to him and pretend it was real.
“Hey, Dirk, I need you for something,” Nix said, showing up at the back of the ambulance. “This looks like an afterparty to remember. Trix, you look amazing, as always. Jezebel, mad enough to eat horseshoes.”
“Spit nails,” she corrected, glaring with a smile. “Go on, Dirk.” She stepped aside.
Dirk hesitated, then kissed my cheek and let me go, slipping out of my arms like all good things did, because Nix summoned him. Was Nix in on his game too? Would I have to break him and the rest of them? Horse too?
Dirk gave me a soft smile. “I’ll be right back, Daniela. Be careful these women don’t drag you off to a taco bar or something wild.” His soft eyes were worried as he gave me one last look and walked off with Nix.
“In,” Trix said, pushing Jezebel into the back of the ambulance, and pulling the doors closed behind her.
“Now, Daniela, you need to tell me what happened after we got hit. We landed on the side, my side, and that door was crushed. You got that truck back up on its tires and got my door open. Tell me about it.” Her eyes were intent, needing me to be honest, but I didn’t know what was real.
I shrugged because nothing seemed to matter if Dirk hated me and my psychotic family.
“I lifted it up. I think it was adrenaline, but Philippe said that it was a super serum. He killed Dirk’s sister, and now I’m just like him.
” I closed my eyes tight and pulled up my knees, hiding my face against them.
“So, no one’s talked to you about this super serum before now?” Jezebel asked, voice cold, like my grandfather’s when he was dealing with an important yet impersonal issue.
“My grandfather used to lecture Philippe a lot about controlling his instincts, making reason and logic his master instead of his emotions, but I didn’t have emotions to control, not until now.
” Emotions hurt so much, so much pain, so much crushed hope that had been such a delicate sprout, pushing out of the weight of the soil to find sun, only to be stomped by Philippe’s big, ugly murder.
“This Philippe, he’s here?” Trix asked, leaning close and putting her arm around me, protective, like I was Minx, weak right up until the point where she shot you. But I couldn’t pull the trigger.
I sniffed. “He was. He’s behind the attack, probably all of them. My grandfather is very powerful. He has a lot of men who work for him, people who like hurting other people.”
“This is the first time you reached down deep and let the monster off its leash? You’re doing really well, honey,” Jezebel said, and draped her arm over my other side, so I was surrounded by what felt like love and safety. All I needed was Dirk for everything to be perfect.
“He paralyzed me so he could tell me…” I swallowed hard.
Jezebel bumped her head against mine. “Nothing good.”
“I have to get Dirk to work with my grandfather, or…”
“Or what?” Trixie asked, sounding annoyed. She patted my hair. “No one is going to break your hands.”
She had heard me during my nightmares. I would have been humiliated, but I was already past the point of that. Fear clawed at me instead. “They’ll kill him.” I said it in a cold voice that was only slightly ruined by the sob at the end. “My cousin will probably do it personally.”
“My, my, what a fine specimen of manliness. I think he deserves a place at the top of the list of gentlemen I’d like to get to know better,” Jezebel purred.
I lifted my hands and then dropped them.
“I don’t know what to do. If I leave, he’ll kill Dirk.
If I stay and can’t get Dirk to comply, he’ll kill Dirk.
If I can get Dirk to do what my grandfather wants, then he’ll be safe, but only as long as his compliance lasts.
He won’t do it, not after what they did to his sister and Nitro. ”
“Why aren’t we taking this psycho out first?” Trix asked, puzzled.
“Because,” Jezebel answered for me, patting my shoulder.
“Poor thing’s been terrorized her whole life and doesn’t realize that there are other options.
They used fear to control her since she was just a puppy, and now she’s trying to overcome years of conditioning, but once she starts working through it, someone comes along to put the fear back into her.
No offense, Dani, but I’m not loving your kin too well.
If they’re all suped up, that explains a lot of it. ”
I raised my head to stare at her. “What do you know about the super serum? Is it real?”
“You lifted up my car,” Trix said, nudging me. “You also put a seal on the tank to keep it from blowing and drove like Nitro. I’ve never been so terrified in my life.”
“It’s real enough,” Jezebel said, rubbing her chin. “I don’t know much about it, but there’s some who do. Is that the priority? How long do you have to test Dirk’s ‘compliance?’ What would that look like? You should do that, which is probably being happy together and lots of PDA.”
“How can I do that when he hates me?”
“Your family isn’t you,” Trixie said gently.
“But, Phillippe said that I’m just like him.”
“He’s a liar or stupid. Do you go around messing up people’s lives for the fun of it?”
I nodded at her. “I came here to destroy Dirk, to ruin his reputation, steal his tech, and break his heart. I’m a supervillain, or maybe just a villain. I don’t feel like there’s anything super about me.”
“You picked up an armored off-road vehicle.” Trixie smiled broadly. “You’re definitely super something, but you saved me, so I’d say superhero.”
I rolled my eyes, because that was too ridiculous to seriously contemplate.
“Why not?” Jezebel said with a shrug. “Your origin story’s pretty intense, but not more than mine, and I’m firmly out of villain territory.”
“Some might object to that,” Trix said with a wink.
“Hero, villain… they’re just words, but the important thing is to find out who is causing these problems and go on the offensive at the source.
If it really is your family that attacked Nix’s team, Nix is going to fight them, and so are we.
You’re part of the team. Will you fight with us? ”
I stared at her while my blood ran cold and I couldn’t breathe.
Fight with them against my grandfather? We’d all lose.
And then everything would be broken. But what was the alternative?
I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see anything.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on the stretcher while Trix and Jezebel were arguing above me.
“She should stay out of it,” Trix said, shaking her head. “She has the strength to fight, but she has to dig it up out from under years of fear and trauma.”
“It’s her life. If she doesn’t fight for it, she’ll always be a victim. If she doesn’t start now, then when?” Jezebel returned without the slightest drawl.
“She needs to feel safe before she can take control of her life.”
“She’ll feel safe once she is in control; she just needs to commit. Dirk’s beside the point. If she can use their love to give her strength, fine, but if he’s just one more reason to fear, to steal her power, then what good is he? She needs to trust herself and stop letting fear control her.”
I grabbed her arm, and she jumped. “I’m right here.”
“Good,” she said, flashing a bright smile at me. “Let me know when you decide that you’re interested in fighting. Trix here is one of the best trainers there are.”
Trix snorted and climbed to the door of the ambulance. “We’ve got to stand for our second-place prizes. Bulldog’s the winner. Aren’t we proud of him? Every other team got hit, but not him.”
“The night is young,” Jezebel said with a wave at her friend.
When Trix had left, closing the door behind her, Jezebel turned to me and gave me a serious frown.
“It’s after the Three-Hundred. You can break him if you want.
I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He might hate your family, but you’ve gotten under his skin with your music and your impulsive violence.
He wants to save you, because that’s the stuff he’s made out of: hero fibers, although I have no idea where he gets it from.
Certainly not his mother, who’s a villain if ever there was one.
I don’t think you’ll ever be happy wrecking lives, but it’s not about your happiness, is it?
It’s never been about your happiness, just survival.
” She sighed heavily and leaned over to straighten up a fibrillator.
“I’ve been where you are, choosing which horse to ride, and whatever the consequences may be, that’s your choice to make.
” She crawled towards the door. “I can’t believe Bulldog will be above me on the podium.
I should put something scary in my bra so when he looks down it, he screams from fright and tumbles off, into Horse’s arms. They placed third.
Nix is going to be seriously… I don’t really know, because he’s never not won the Three-Hundred since he invented it.
Come on, Daniela. You’re part of the team, and that means that you get to suffer with us.
” She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the ambulance with her.
My legs were wobbly, and didn’t feel entirely connected to my body, but Jezebel kept me on my feet as we walked. My mind was still spinning, my body shaky, numb, not exactly in the best shape to take a silver trophy, but I wouldn’t have to hold it.
The entire ceremony passed in a blur of loud and insulting speeches while Horse glowered, blue eyes practically glowing with his rage as he stared down Bulldog, and Trix leaned her head on Jezebel while she closed her eyes, maybe passing out. We needed to wrap this up.
Dirk wasn’t on the podium with us, and I didn’t see him anywhere.
When a car blew up in the middle of Bulldog’s insulting speech, the crowd screeched and Nix moved, whispering something to Trix before he headed into the crowd.
“Nice effects, dontcha think?” Jezebel said, linking arms with me and Trix and guiding us out of there, like a nurse between two old shuffling patients. “Dirk’s always had a good touch with explosives. What do you think, pass out at my place, or get tacos?”
“Cowgirl, you’re going to kill us,” Trixie growled.
We walked through the crowd until a large limo parted it, coming towards us at a snail’s pace, but not much slower than we were going.
“Ah, the ride is here.” Jezebel opened the door and got her two charges inside.
“I’m fine,” I said, as I flopped face-first onto the seat.
“At that angle, not even I’d be fine,” Jezebel said, helping Trixie on the seat across from me. “You’re both going to be on my special IV after this.”
“How did you not get hurt if your camel got shot out from under you?” Trix asked, then grabbed Jezebel in a hug. “I’m sorry about Mike. I’ve never met a more ornery animal, but he was part of the family.”
Jezebel sniffed and patted Trix back before pushing her back onto the seat. “Who said I wasn’t hurt? I’m just a lot tougher than you ladies. One of my hips is bruised to the bone and has a few nice barbs in it from the cactus I hit. This is going to be the quietest weekend I’ve ever had.”