2. Dragon
Chapter Two
DRAGON
When I came into the hotel lobby, covered in dust and craving solitude, there was Minx waiting for me. She wore a bright red dress that matched her hair. She was also leaning on Horse’s well-muscled forearm.
I saw red, literally and figuratively. Minx was mine to protect.
There was no way I’d let Horse, the biggest player in Las Vegas, make her one of his pathetic groupies.
I never should have moved into the hotel where he lived, but it was the cleanest place in Vegas with reasonable long-term tenant rent.
Minx giggled as he said something I couldn’t hear that was no doubt a blatant come-on. Was she going to end up falling for him? Not on my watch.
“What’s wrong with you?” I shoved him back, away from Minx and just in general, putting him off balance.
I should have shoved his shoulders, not his pectorals, because he’d flexed on impact, and the feel of those muscles made me snarl more than was necessary.
He really was put together remarkably well.
And he knew it. And he knew that I knew it.
His dark blue eyes narrowed as he looked me up and down. I grabbed his cleft chin and forced it up to my eyes.
“If you don’t get control of your driver, I’m going to put a bomb under his hood,” I ground out. “I’ll make sure you’re in the cab when it goes off.”
His eyes widened, and he smiled an easy grin to go with his devil eyes.
“You’re losing your touch, Trix. You’re supposed to issue threats when there isn’t an audience, unless this is part of the show.
” His smile turned slippery seductive. Was that a come-on?
It felt like a come-on, but everything he said felt like that.
He knew how to look good and make a woman feel desirable.
Suddenly, I realized how close we were, that I was still touching his face.
I pulled my hands away, rubbing them on my filthy clothing like that would help me get the feel of him as well as his annoying subtle aftershave off my fingers.
“It’s a promise and a warning. I don’t do threats.
Talk to Pixel before he gets himself killed under my tires. ” My poor, beautiful, mangled tire.
I turned and grabbed Minx by the elbow, dragging her to the elevator while the man-whore chuckled behind us. I let go of her once the doors had closed.
“Are you okay?” she asked, frowning at me in concern.
I blinked at her. Maybe I had overreacted, but Minx didn’t need another heartless, soulless, devout user-of-women to play her.
I shook my head. “His driver’s getting stupid. He could have gotten himself killed along with me if I wasn’t expecting his idiocy. Horse shouldn’t encourage that kind of thing from his team members. Nix never would.”
She gave me a look with those big green eyes. “Oh. Of course that’s what it was. For a second, I thought you might be jealous.”
I frowned at her, confused. “Jealous? His truck has a really great body, but I wouldn’t trade my custom beauties for his set-up.
” Although his car the last three hundred had been a thing of beauty.
The body said Class 1, but the engine growled with at least 800 horsepower.
How did he fit so much power into that kind of body?
She smiled at me and patted my shoulder. “Jealous of me because I was talking to a handsome gentleman that you seem more than slightly interested in.”
I frowned. “What do you mean, I seem interested in him? Horse? Just because he makes me want to punch him doesn’t mean I like him. I’m not in middle school. Violence does not equal affection.” I’d really enjoy punching his smirk off his face.
She raised a perfect dark red brow. “Are you sure? It’s almost like you didn’t like me touching him.”
“Of course I don’t. He’s…” I shuddered. “You deserve better. If you really want to date him, that would be impossible because he doesn’t date, he just plays with as many women as possible.
” I hated that about him. Not that I didn’t hate everything.
Except for the chocolate he gave me during the last 300.
And the one before. I shouldn’t have eaten it, but it was Belgian.
I had to get better at resisting temptation.
She smiled slowly. “Sure. Everyone knows Horse’s MO, but this is Vegas. Compared to most, he’s pretty harmless.”
I snorted. “Harmless like a jaguar.”
She frowned as she studied me, her hair as red as her mouth. “But don’t you have a jaguar in the menagerie?”
Did we? I thought that Jezebel was up to her limit of felines. Nix had a line at five cats, because we rarely used them in shows and they were so expensive to keep.
I shrugged. “Either way, you don’t cozy up with them or try to bring them home.”
She frowned at me and then nodded thoughtfully. “Unless you’re Jezebel. Can you imagine if she decided Horse was going to belong to her?” She whistled. “Now that would be something.”
I stiffened. If anyone could tame a man, it would be Jezzy, but the thought of her and Horse made me want to drive over someone. Horse. I wanted to drive over Horse. “I’d hold him down for her while she branded him. Even then, I wouldn’t trust him not to play around.”
The bell dinged on our floor and we stepped out into the tidy blue hall. I stopped walking and turned to frown at Minx. “What are you doing here? And your dress isn’t really hospital volunteer attire.” Maybe she’d changed her mind and wanted to go clubbing instead.
She giggled and held up her shopping bags. Maybe she had a different outfit in there. But the way she was smiling at me brought back the last time she’d tried to dress me up.
I held in the groan. “Let me guess. There was a sale. Two for one?”
She beamed at me, big green eyes glowing with happiness. “There was a sale, two for the price of one, and when I mentioned that this would be perfect on you, the guy halved that price, so two dresses, seventy-five percent off!” She looked like they’d just declared international world peace.
We’d officially left my comfort zone. The only thing I liked shopping for was tires. Also engines. And anything else that involved metal and gasoline.
“Wow. That’s a great deal.” I took the bag as we walked down the hall.
“He practically paid you to take them off his hands. How could you refuse?” And I wouldn’t be able to refuse, either.
Minx was so adorable and delicate right up to the point where she shot you from four hundred feet away through your pupil.
She beamed, as happy as a puppy. Out of all of us, she was probably the most deadly, also the most mentally unstable, probably because she kept putting her feelings out there where people could trample all over them.
I’d never been good with other people’s feelings, but I tried, particularly when I realized how much courage it took to open up after you’d been hurt.
We got to my room, and I pulled out the dress, a strappy thing with a short skirt, in shiny blue satin that would look great with Horse’s eyes. I gave her a look.
Her big eyes were nervous. “I know you don’t usually wear a lot of color, but you’d look so nice. And I was thinking that since your cars and coveralls have color, why not you?”
I held it up so the skirt was at her eye level.
“Okay. I guess color could cheer someone up who was stuck in a hospital bed. I hate being stuck in hospital beds. Especially on IV. Is anything worse?” Some crazy people didn’t seem to mind not moving, but for me, it was torture being trapped in a cage.
She beamed at me. “We’re only going to be there for forty-five minutes, tops. Pinkie will wear pink, of course, Kitten yellow, Jezebel’s wearing sequins, and you’ll be blue! We’ll look like a pack of unopened crayons.”
“Only slutty.”
She gave me her big eyes and looked like a poor puppy dog someone had left out in the rain as she tugged on the dress’s strap. “You think it’s slutty?”
I forced a smile. “No. It’s fine. I’m just used to fabric that can stop shrapnel.
The fabric is thin, like the straps. I guess I’ll go put on a strapless bra.
” The horror. Strapless bras didn’t give enough support.
I needed to learn how to say no without hurting people’s feelings. Feelings were so hard to navigate.
She beamed at me. “It’s going to be so fun! What are you going to sing for karaoke?”
“Uptown Girl.”
She froze for a moment, fighting to hold on to her smile. “Uptown Girl? Where the guy’s singing about getting girls?”
I shrugged and took the dress to my room. “Absolutely. It’s a classic. Good tune. In my range. Is that a problem?”
She blinked at me and shook her head. “Of course not! It’s perfect!”
Yeah. Horse would have something to say about it, because if there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was me accepting the role that the rest of Las Vegas had given me.
He didn’t understand that it wasn’t about that.
I couldn’t be a cute female, and I didn’t want to be.
I was myself, scars, strength, and dubious taste in music.
If that gave people ideas, let it. What other people thought about me was none of my business.
I stripped and got in the shower, relieved when the hot water pounded on my sore muscles.
I’d wear the dress, but I wasn’t wearing heels to a hospital or anywhere else.
I’d wear my boots. And of course I’d have my leather jacket over the top.
Maybe some leather leggings underneath. If I were going to be on a stage, it would be reckless to not wear something solid. There could be shrapnel.
The dress was the color of Horse’s eyes, which I got to see widen when he caught me walking through the lobby on our way out.
He looked at me like I was the hottest thing he’d ever seen, and that he was desperate to get burned. Forget the fact that he had three women hanging on him while a fourth came from the side.
Such a disgusting slab of unselective meat.
Minx wobbled on her heels, and I grabbed her arm, stabilizing her. And now I looked like I was dating Minx. Better Minx than Horse, who had started glaring at me. He hated my reputation far more than I did. As long as no one sued me for sexual assault, what did it matter?
“I told you, boots are a good idea,” I said.
Unfortunately, my leather leggings were at the cleaners, so I was stuck with bare legs, but the boots and jacket helped me feel like I was still myself.
Mostly. I was still self-conscious about the vulnerable bare skin, but who would take out my legs at a hospital?
And I had my boots. Minx should invest in a pair.
Boots were far more attractive than a skinny little spiked heel.
What wasn’t sexy about heavy soles and thick tread?
Now I was thinking about tires. I needed to check out a new set I was emailing our supplier about.
They were ridiculously expensive, but would look so good on film, at least that’s how I’d spin it to Nix. A girl could always use bigger tires.