17. Champion #3
“Thanks, Dirk. I definitely wasn’t speaking rhetorically.”
I didn’t have time to do a stunt at a skate park, particularly when my boarding days were long past, but Kitten would be there, and I couldn’t function unless I talked to her face to face, to make sure she was okay and not avoiding me, and if she was, figure out how to fix it.
I was an excellent fixer if I knew what the problem was.
We took Dirk’s pink Tesla, a few generic boards in the trunk along with his drones and stuff. I carried equipment while he put on his glasses and got to work, setting up while I edged towards the ramps.
There was a big group of kids on the far side, yelling at someone who was apparently really big. Maybe they already had an event going.
Dirk got his drones up and then he whistled. “Nix, you’re going to want this kid on the team.”
I was looking at the crowd, trying to find Kitten. There was Tom, a head taller than anyone else, his bald head a beacon, but I didn’t see her next to him.
“Yeah? That’s good.”
“You should check it out.”
I walked over to look at the screen he had with four different cameras all circling the skateboarder who was wearing a smiley face t-shirt, and at that moment was upside down doing a spread back-flip free-fall before landing on the board as light as a feather, like the laws of gravity didn’t apply to her, my wife, my sweet kitten who was going to get herself killed.
“She’s not good,” Dirk said while I stood there, frozen. I couldn’t just bowl through the crowd, pick her up and carry her away. She was in the middle of very difficult stunts. I couldn’t distract her in any way, or she might come down on her head and die. These were death stunts. Every single one.
“She’s incredible,” he finished, getting a close-up of her mischievous smile as she lazily spun in the air at the top of her arc.
“Yeah. You got anything for heartburn?” I was going to drop dead of a heart attack right there.
“Not on me. Hm. Nix, you might want to go wait in the car,” he said, tilting the tablet away from me.
I grabbed it and frowned because yeah, Sunshine’s stunts were way too dangerous, but I didn’t see what was particularly bad until Jezebel’s sequin bra caught the sunshine, and then I noted the three women from my team in the audience, watching my Kitten with looks of various diabolical interest on each face.
I clutched my chest. My heart had literally skipped a beat and was racing too fast. “No. This isn’t happening.”
“It is,” he said, unhelpfully. “Like that time when Jezebel took my wife under her wing.” He shuddered. “But we all survived.”
“Pinkie is nothing like Kitten.”
Dirk frowned, but kept his attention on capturing the best shots of my wife. She just kept going and going and going, one death-defying stunt to the next while the crowd watched in awed wonder and I felt the need to sit down. Lay down. Six feet under. This is what death felt like.
Finally, Sunshine went up the ramp one last time and then just landed, but once she did, her skateboard slipped out of her hands and banged her shin. She stood on the landing, frowning down at her skateboard, when Jezebel scooped it up for her and brought it with a demure smile.
“You dropped this, sugar.” Jezebel had on her usual Texan accent along with cowgirl boots and Stetson.
“Oh, thank you,” Sunny said, sunnily.
“Looks like you scraped your shin. Do you need a band-aid? I have a first aid kit in the car.”
“No,” I muttered and started towards the bowl, but Dirk grabbed my arm, holding me back.
“Trixie’s there. She specifically said that she’d keep her safe. You need to let them have their little introduction without interfering.”
I stood for a moment without breathing then finally nodded and dropped to my heels, trying to center myself, to be calm, to let my wife into the dangerous claws of my team. “They got your wife shot,” I whispered. I’d tried not to notice that, but it was hard to miss.
“This month it’s Trixie’s girl’s night. Your wife will be fine.”
I looked up at him and straightened up. “I’m acting like an idiot, aren’t I?”
He smiled and slapped me on the shoulder. “Sure, but at least you didn’t fall for Jezebel.”
I choked at the thought then was still as his meaning hit me. “You think I fell for my wife?”
“Nix, you just said, ‘my wife’ without flinching. She walked right through all your barriers like they don’t exist. Because you took them down for her. She’s in your heart. You really didn’t notice?”
I rubbed my chest and started walking towards his car.
I couldn’t trust myself to not act like a grunting caveman, and carry my mate to my cave where I’d feed her and make love to her for the rest of my life.
She’d definitely tapped into some seriously primal instincts in me.
I was already primal enough, more than enough.
This was dangerous, unsettling in ways I wasn’t prepared for.
I swore and closed my eyes, leaning my head back on the head rest while I waited for Dirk to wrap up.
Daniela was onto something about how dangerous Kitten was, but the danger was for her, not me.
I could break her with my love, if that’s what this viciously intense need for my wife was. And hurting her would be the end of me.