18. Dragon
Chapter Eighteen
DRAGON
Ihad the weirdest dream. I was making out with Horse somewhere, but he kept pulling away and talking about buying maternity clothes. And then I was trying to kill fire ants. And then my Uncle Ni?o was teaching me how to hold a knife properly for stabbing spleens.
“Are you with me?” Horse murmured into my hair.
Was this real? I felt like crap, like I’d gone on the worst bender in the history of Las Vegas. And I was in bed with Horse? And I’d gone on a bender pregnant?
I jerked away from Horse’s strong arms, but he only pulled me closer, tucking my head under his chin.
“It’s okay,” he rumbled in his late-night radio voice, hand running down my back, locked in his arms.
He had me pinned. What was he doing? “Horse? Let me go before I stab you in the spleen.” My voice was as stern as I could be, the voice I used with Theresa’s child after she put gum in my hair.
Horse let me go and rolled off the bed and onto the floor.
I tried to follow him, but my body was sluggish, everything aching like I’d been in a serious wreck. I looked up at Horse from my half recline while panic grew. “What happened? Did I go on a bender? Did you try to stop me? Is the baby…”
He crouched, so we were at eye level, his own eye recently bruised.
I’d punched him. A lot. His throat looked a bit strangled, with marks in the shape of my fingers.
“As far as we can tell, the baby’s fine.
Are you nauseous? The guy who knocked you out used something potent.
It made you call me a carp. How am I supposed to live with that kind of insult?
” He raised a dark brow while I stared at him, mind spinning.
“I didn’t go on a bender?”
He shook his head. “No, you were drugged by someone possibly hired by your… Let’s not identify him in relation to you. That miscreant whose arm you should have shattered.”
I swallowed hard. Richard, the kid who got me pregnant, hired someone to drug me? “Why would he do that?”
Horse shrugged his big shoulders. “Why do rich people do anything? Because they can. Because they lack purpose in their lives.”
I grabbed his arm, squeezing it too tight. “He doesn’t want my baby. He doesn’t want me. So he wants to hurt my baby?” Sudden rage had me trembling. Or was that fear? I wasn’t used to this much emotion. Emotions weren’t great for me.
He squeezed my hand and smiled a soft smile. “But you didn’t go on a bender. Let’s focus on that good news!”
I stared at him while his ridiculous statement paused my emotions. Yes, it was good that I hadn’t done to my child something that would hurt him as much as whatever these people had done. And he’d said it was likely Richard, not certainly.
I took a deep breath and pulled up my knees, leaning on them while I studied the handsome face that was trying to keep me calm in his bed.
After I’d clearly done a lot of damage to him.
I’d been out of it. Seriously out of it.
Still was. I’d clearly already freaked out, and he’d had to deal with it. He didn’t need any more of my abuse.
I took a deep breath. “Horse, tell me what happened from the beginning.”
He licked his soft, bruised, split lips.
“Right. Well, I saw you in the lobby, and a guy bumped into you. I thought I saw a flash of a needle or something, so I followed you to the floor you got off on, and then a nice couple in the hall told me they’d seen a guy carrying you into that room, so I crashed through the door and heroically rescued you. ”
“What floor?”
He blinked his dark lashes at me. “Twenty-six.”
“And the hotel guards?”
“They didn’t come in time because the elevators weren’t working. That’s why I carried you to my apartment.”
I grabbed his forearm. “You carried me how many floors? That’s not possible.”
He shrugged. “It’s because all pregnant women are weightless.” His wink was flirty and ridiculous.
I’d ignore that because otherwise, I was in his bed, and that reality had my skin getting all tight and weird. He’d had who knows how many women in this bed. And the velvet Elvis posters. So perfect for the man whore of Las Vegas. Who I was pretending was my baby’s daddy.
“Great. I’ll go to my room now.” I rolled off the bed and straightened up, then swayed until Horse wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him, like he’d had a lot of practice doing that.
I stared up into his eyes, my heart beating too fast in my chest, up in my throat, until the feeling that I was going to puke was matched by the lightheadedness.
“Hey, sit down, Dragon.” He guided me back to the bed and helped me down while I gripped his wrist, struggling with the vomit or faint urges. I really didn’t want to throw up in front of him again.
“This happened? Why?” I gritted out.
He shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed so I could still hold on to his wrist. I should let go. But I didn’t. “Why is hard to answer. All I know is that he jabbed you with something in the lobby. You must have passed out in the elevator.”
I frowned and nodded. “And those hallucinations…” I shuddered and turned my head against his strong shoulder.
Breathe. I needed to breathe. I’d fought him while under the influence that had knocked me out from the lobby and then twenty floors up the elevator.
“Ketamine probably,” I muttered. Yeah, that made sense.
Jezebel had used that on one of her targets one Girl’s Night.
He’d been abusing his wife. Also, something about bombs.
I didn’t ever get the details, but I remembered the screaming and hallucinations.
Not pretty. And I’d been that. Jezebel had tied him up.
Horse had held me. Stupid Horse. I pressed my face against his shoulder until my nose smooshed and then pulled away, trying to look like I wasn’t this close to losing it.
“I’m going to kill him,” I said, offering Horse a smile. “He’s still in town?”
He frowned back at me. “You can’t kill him.
First of all, I don’t think he’s really the one behind it.
He’s a kid. It’s probably his handler. You know millionaires always have babysitters.
Secondly, you’re an incubators. Incubators make terrible assassins.
You’re a glowing ball of mama bird. Stay in your nest until the baby bird hatches. ”
I stared at him. This was the weird part of himself he didn’t show the public.
The same part that threw star showers and neatly cut his food.
He also made a very good point. My whole life I’d been tougher than the boys, until I’d topped out and my fat turned to curves.
But I was still taller and stronger than most men.
But now I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t faint or vomit at any given moment.
I’d been better, but I’d still almost fainted in the hall and let Horse carry me.
He knew I wouldn’t do that if I wasn’t seriously needing someone to be strong. One thing Horse was, was strong.
“You kicked down the door?”
He grinned broadly. “It was awesome. I wish I could have captured it on film. It only took one try, and I only bruised my entire left side. And then I threw the vase at the guy’s head and knocked him out. The needle guy ran away, and then I carried my mama bird to the highest nest in the tree.”
I squinted at him. “You’re getting weird with the bird analogy.”
He shrugged and spread his large hands. “I like birds.”
I looked around his room, at his love nest where he kept women.
No birds in sight. This wasn’t nearly large enough to be a suite for him.
There wasn’t even a full kitchen, just this one studio.
And I’d been in his sex bed. There was another door on the opposite side of the room.
That was probably his actual apartment. Where he didn’t keep his one-night stands. Where he kept his sugar collection.
I swallowed hard and looked at him. “Thank you for your help. If there’s anything I can do to return the favor, let me know.”
His smile magnified in brilliance. All those perfect veneers.
“Yes. You can help me by not making my bruises a waste. Jezebel isn’t in town, or maybe I’d relinquish your health and safety to her.
Maybe not. She’s insane, and she tends to put the people around her in danger.
In your position, mama bird, you need a safe nest with zero liabilities. ”
“At the top of the tree,” I said drily.
His smile faded, and he looked at me intently, dark brows uniting in one firm line above those dark blue beacons.
“Seriously, Trixie, that freaked me out. You almost lost your baby, and maybe he would have killed you too. I don’t know who these people really are, and it pisses me off because this hotel is supposed to be the most secure and safe hotel in Las Vegas.
They have, like, face scanners in the lobby that target terrorists or something, but they missed these guys.
So they’re under the radar, or there’s someone working in the hotel who gave them access…
” He sighed heavily. “So tell me more about this kid you took on Pansy. Has he tried to call you since the time you didn’t break his arm? ”
I rubbed my forehead. He’d called. I’d blocked his number. That’s what you did with jerks you didn’t want to waste any further time thinking about. “He called, left messages, but I didn’t listen to them. I blocked his number after the first few.”
“Right, but he did leave messages? Do you still have them? Let’s play them.”
Probably the last thing I wanted to do was hear some kid calling me a cheap stripper while Horse listened raptly, but he was involved in this mess.
I’m the one who couldn’t tell Nix that Horse wasn’t my baby’s daddy.
He’d kicked down the door and saved me like a real hero. Because I’d needed saving.
Shudder.