Chapter 38 Villain #6
My heart didn’t buy it. Dirk was looking at me with his heart in his eyes because he loved me. And nothing would ever be unhappy again.
My mind whirled with questions. How had the police officers gotten here so fast?
Had Minx managed to get out of her sniper nest before they found her?
I needed to call Jezebel, but she didn’t want me to contact her until everything settled down.
I had things to do, but I didn’t move while Dirk stayed on one side of me and the doctor worked on the other.
He was just so handsome playing the hero.
“Will she witness against family?” the old man asked, bushy brows coming together in a severe frown as he studied me.
Dirk’s frown had a tinge of cold justice to it. “She doesn’t have to. New evidence has come to light tying this person to several instances of assault and sabotage resulting in death.” He nodded at Philippe, a hint of distaste to his curled lip.
Philippe shook off the old man’s grasp and moved so fast, I could barely see him, grabbing me and pressing a gun to my chin.
“If I go down, you fall with me,” he murmured and then pulled the trigger.
I braced myself for the pain, for the end as a bullet took both of our lives, wishing that I could just kiss Dirk one more time. A second drew out then two, and I realized that I wasn’t dead.
“Were you looking for these?” Toni drawled, tossing bullets that had been in Philippe’s gun. Where had she come from? I ran over the last few minutes and realized that she’d been the waiter, but it hadn’t registered. She’d emptied out his gun? How diabolically twisted and brilliant.
I beamed at her then bashed Philippe’s face with the back of my head. Ow. He had such a hard face.
Four men jumped on Philippe, dragging him away from me, cuffing him and pulling him towards the door while he kept his eyes on me, his nose running red.
“I will always come for you, Ma Cherie. You’ll never be free of me.”
I smiled at him. He was the one who wouldn’t ever be free again.
“Hey, Vil. Are you okay?” Toni asked, her voice low, still tossing those bullets. “Sorry for the whole gun threat, but I knew it wouldn’t bother you. I figured it would be better if he was caught trying to kill you, you know, another layer of unquestionable proof.”
Dirk growled, a feral sound that sent a shiver through me. “I told you to disarm him, not empty the gun and put it back in his pocket.”
She rolled her eyes. “My way was better.”
“If you’d missed a bullet, my wife would be dead.
” He put his arms around me and kissed my hair, my cheek, then the side of my neck, moving lower, down to my shoulder, my arm, where the fresh bandage was over the newest bullet wound.
“You’re feeling terribly delicate. I’m afraid that I have no choice but to carry you away.
” He picked me up in his strong arms while I tried to look helpless and pale, so the witnesses could testify of the situation clearly, if there were any witnesses that Dirk didn’t bring.
There probably weren’t. He was the kind of hero who brought his own witnesses.
Which definitely made him a villain. My villain. My hero.
We walked through the crowd of police, followed by Toni and the ridiculously handsome sadistic doctor.
The elevator was a bit crowded, but Dirk didn’t put me down, and I didn’t do more than kick twice.
My head was pounding and my whole body was coming more and more alive as adrenaline hit me.
Philippe was in custody of a very incorruptible judge, who would take personal interest in the case considering his ties to Dirk’s family.
His son, Trevor, had been engaged to Dirk’s sister before Philippe started playing his devastating games.
I shuddered and pressed my face against Dirk’s neck. The game was over, Philippe was tied up, and Dirk had no reason to stay close to me, unless he still wanted compensation for damages. I couldn’t ever pay him back for what my family had taken away from him.
“Justice?” he murmured, his low rumble sending shivers through me the opposite of Philippe’s.
“No kidding,” Toni said cheerfully. “It was brilliant, of course, because no one would expect you to set him up with a life sentence over a bullet to the brain, so he didn’t see it coming.
He probably would have seen a bullet, which would also be satisfying, but still, this way is more unexpectedly brilliant. ” She patted my leg.
I raised my face and looked at her. “Where did you come from?”
“When I realized that you were in town, and that my FBI boy was actually an independent working for your man, I naturally insisted on coming along.”
Dirk rumbled deep in his chest, the vibration sweeping through me and bringing all my nerves to life.
“Next time, I’m knocking you unconscious and locking you behind bars.
Daniela’s safety is the priority.” He kissed my hair and snuggled me back into his chest. “I don’t like that you had someone shoot you. ”
I snuggled into him. “It was part of the plan. How long are you going to hold me?” I shouldn’t have asked, because I didn’t want to know how long he’d think that he had to not put me down.
Getting Minx to wing me was the least dangerous part of this plot.
She was the most talented marksman I’d ever met.
Dirk growled, “I’ll hold you in the car, and then once we get to the house, I’ll carry you inside, and then we’ll eat. Can I hold you while we eat? I don’t see why not, and then I’m going to hold you until we fall asleep. Then I’ll be holding you when we wake up.”
My heart pounded too fast, and I went light-headed. “The house?”
“Mm.” He rubbed his nose against my neck in a way that made me light-headed.
“My sister and I called it the Holiday House. We used to stay there when we went to visit my grandparents for holidays. Toni’s going to stay in the pool house, so she’ll be close enough to see you, but not too close, because we have so much therapy to do. ” He bit my ear.
I gasped and sat upright, but he pulled me back close, so strong, so implacable. “Therapy?”
“You asked me to fix intimacy for you.”
I swallowed hard. “You mean, before you break me?”
Toni scoffed. “Like I’d let him do that.”
“It’s okay. It’s what Philippe did to—”
Dirk kissed me harder than I expected before it melted into something so deliciously soft and sweet, I only vaguely heard the elevator ding as we arrived on our floor.
Toni did, and punched Dirk’s shoulder so he stopped kissing me. It was my turn to hiss at her.
“Don’t touch him, he’s mine.”
She raised her hands, but there was a smirk on her mouth as we left the elevator. Once we got to the street outside, Roger turned and walked off through the swirling snow while Toni opened the door of a big black car, so Dirk could duck inside, still carrying me.
I squeezed his biceps. “Super strength?”
He raised a brow and scooted over so Toni could climb in after us. “It seems like it must be, but no, that’s just weight training. What do you want to do?”
I stared at him then glanced at Toni. Was he serious about finishing our therapy marriage, of making it last until Christmas?
She was in the car, so we probably shouldn’t work on intimacy now.
I looked up at Dirk while my heart pounded and butterflies threatened to shake me apart. “What do you want to do?”
He smiled the most mischievous, dangerous smile in the world. “Everything.”