21. Dragon
Chapter Twenty-One
DRAGON
After Horse left, Minx and Felicia immediately climbed on the bed while Daniela glared after Horse like she wanted to skin him with one of the knives in her hands.
“Are you okay? Dani said that you were kidnapped,” Minx said with big green eyes and a trembling bottom lip as bright red as her hair. “Also, you’re pregnant with Horse’s baby? Why didn’t you tell us?”
Felicia started working on my hair, detangling it with her dexterous fingers. “Aiee, your hair is like a nest of tumbleweeds, blowing all over. So, what’s he like in bed?”
I grimaced while Minx pushed Felicia’s shoulder. She said, “You don’t just ask someone a question like that. You have to work up to it.”
“No,” Daniela said coldly. “We don’t care how Horse is at anything other than making sure you aren’t kidnapped again. Tell us what happened.” She knelt on the end of the bed, icy blue eyes intent.
I shrugged. There was no sense in not telling them what happened.
“I was unconscious for most of it. I remember bumping someone in the lobby, worrying about them pressing charges, then getting tired and dizzy on the elevator. The next thing I remember was waking up with Horse. So I thought it would be a good idea to stay with him until we can figure out who wants to take their lives in their hands by coming after me.”
“That’s a terrible idea,” Daniela said, shaking her head. “Stay with me in the villainous lair. It’s sufficiently ugly enough to traumatize anyone. You don’t need Horse’s place for that.” She glared at the Elvis poster and then at the lava lamp.
“Or stay with me,” Felicia said with a bright smile before she glanced in the direction Horse had exited. “But my location isn’t the most secure. And Horse wouldn’t be able to catch you every time you got dizzy. And if he’s the father of your child, maybe you should marry him.”
Minx gasped and then clapped her hands. “That would be so romantic! Forced proximity, and then inevitable chemistry. Of course he’ll ask you to marry him.”
I stared at Minx then at Felicia. I should tell them that Horse wasn’t the father. Or I could eat crackers. Ooh, the almond ones I liked so much. I grabbed the bowl and started munching.
“It won’t take that long to track down the kidnapper,” I said. “Felicia, did you hack into the hotel?”
She shrugged. “Yes, but it doesn’t show the attack, or you at all. As far as the footage is concerned, you haven’t been in the hotel for days.”
Someone really had hacked into the hotel and erased all the feed. Felicia was the best hacker I’d ever met, and if she couldn’t find anything, it was gone for good. “There was a guy a few months ago. I almost broke his arm.”
“The one you rode off on Horse’s bike with?” Minx said, batting her lashes at me.
I shrugged. “Turns out he’s rich. Richard Carmichael. If you could look into him, that would be great. Look into, as in research, not attack. I’m not Jezebel. I want answers, not revenge.”
Daniela finally put away her knives and gave me an innocent smile. “Leave it to us. We’ll take care of it.”
I pointed at her. “No. Research. I’ll take care of it. If I need backup, then I ask for it. And then you give it to me. This is my problem. No one else takes care of my problems for me.”
Felicia snickered. “Except you let the Horse carry you. Only research. Promise. And then for Girl’s Night, we can kidnap this rich Richard and terrify him, and convince him of the error of his ways.
It’ll be like justice, only with tacos. Can you eat tacos or is it just crackers?
” She looked truly concerned for the first time.
Horse knocked on the inner door and then came in without waiting for an answer.
“Dinner’s almost here. Your friends are welcome to stay.
We can set up in the dining room.” The one with that larger-than-life poster of Horse not getting his mitts up in time to block Nix’s right.
I’m not sure I wanted any of them to see that poster.
It was personal to him, and it was bad enough for me to invade his privacy.
“We have a project we have to get started on,” Minx said, smiling at Horse like he was the handsomest man in the world.
It was possible he was, but she always looked at people like that.
She shouldn’t look at him like that. She was so adorable, and he didn’t let people get too close to him.
She’d be hurt. Unless this was jealousy, but I couldn’t be jealous of Minx.
If Horse would be good for her, she should have him.
Except that his kitchen belonged to me. It really was jealousy and possessiveness.
I was starting to really like Horse. And his house. Weird. Disturbing.
“Right,” Felicia said, winking at me. “We have a project, very exciting, maybe involving infants falling from the sky.”
“Like cherubs?” Daniela said, heading for the door.
“No baby showers,” I said, almost sure that’s what they were talking about. “I have nightmares about baby showers.” Now I’d be having nightmares of screaming babies coming down with the rain.
“What? You don’t want a baby shower?” Horse asked, shocked, like I’d admitted to murder. No, he’d probably be less shocked at that.
“Not a baby shower,” Daniela said, ushering Felicia and Minx out, leaving me alone with Horse.
I was in bed with crackers while he stood frowning over me, hands in his pockets. “Baby showers are cool,” he finally said in a low rumble.
“Baby showers are nightmares. They play games about diapers and make diaper cakes and other creepy diaper stuff. No baby showers.”
He dropped onto the edge of the bed, making it quake. “Fine. But you are going maternity shopping with me. Do you want to eat in bed or in the dining room?”
His joke about maternity shopping was getting old, but it was kind of funny the way he clung to it. “I’m going to use the bathroom and then come right back to bed. I need to rest from the drugs.” That must be why I’d almost fainted, residual chemicals, not because I was afraid.
He nodded. “And the baby. Good plan. Excellent plan. And while you eat, we can talk about the décor for this room. I can have housekeeping get stuff from your place, or just new stuff so you don’t have to drag it back with you when you’re back on your feet. Also, this room is hideous.”
I grinned at him as I slid out of bed, heading for the bathroom. “It’s perfectly Las Vegas.”
“That explains it.” He smiled back at me, and for a second I felt like we were sharing an inside joke, but then someone knocked on the door. My reaction was an immediate cold sweat, then I grabbed Horse and put his body between me and the door.
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Room service. I ordered dinner. I’ll have them set it out while you take care of things. You’re safe with me.”
I glared at him as I forced my fingers to unclench from his t-shirt. “I’m safe with myself. I’m not going to get side-lined a second time.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Trixie, it’s okay to be freaked out.
Being a mama bird is fraught with perils.
I know that you’re tough. You don’t have to pretend to be stronger than I know you are.
You’re the baddest female in town. But you’ve got a baby growing in your adorable belly, so you’re even badder.
But delicate. That’s okay.” He winked at me and went to the door.
I ducked into the very large bathroom and stayed out of sight while he wheeled in copious amounts of food. So much food and a bedside table with a tray.
I didn’t need to lie in bed like a real patient, but at the same time, I curled up under the blankets, hesitating when I saw the way Horse was looking at me.
“What?”
He blinked and then shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t expect you to leave your clothes in the bathroom. Do you walk around mostly naked often? I need to know so I can mentally prepare myself for regular heart attacks.”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “I’m wearing a tank top and boy shorts. That’s more coverage than when I’m working out. I don’t sleep in my coveralls, however comfortable they are. They chafe, and the buttons…”
He raised his large hands. “Okay. You don’t need to tell me details. Unless you want me to make a list of what you’ll need when we go maternity shopping.”
I squinted at him. “Your joke is getting tired. Like me. Sit down and eat. You ordered too much. I guess your fridge is big enough to hold leftovers.” I frowned because I didn’t notice the fridge, not when I was drooling over the tools.
Horse started serving us, including tea, all of his movements graceful, studied, like he’d been a waiter in another life. It went with his tidy eating habits.
I ate until I was tired, but I wasn’t quite done yet.
I pushed the tray to the side and leaned on my knees, studying the man who was eating steamed broccoli like it were perfectly normal to eat vegetables. “Horse, what’s your angle?”
He smiled brightly. “You don’t believe that I need a roommate?
You’ve caught me! I’m actually secretly looking to hire you.
Everyone knows that real drivers tune their own engines.
Otherwise, how can you really understand your instrument?
Pixel is an okay driver, but he doesn’t have a relationship with his vehicles.
You tune your lovers to respond to your every whim and pleasure.
In other words, I want you to do an overhaul on two new vehicles, adapted to suit Pixel’s tendencies. ”
I hesitated. I didn’t buy it. He had great mechanics and even better equipment. Maybe he really was lonely. Maybe he couldn’t admit that even to himself. Maybe his old wounds wouldn’t let him. “Pulling too hard left?”
He hesitated, then nodded. “And the way he takes his turns gives me heartburn.”
“He rails his turns. There’s nothing wrong with that. I can do something with the axle arms. What kind of vehicles are we talking about? You have to agree to turn them over to me when you’re finished with them instead of callously throwing them away.”
He grinned at me. “Done.”