As Vigilante steered, he spoke. “You need to keep out of sight. Dementrix is dangerous. You can hide somewhere out of the way while I do the talking.”
I nodded, willing to take his advice for once. Maybe breaking myself into the sidekick thing would go better if we went slowly. “Have you heard anything yet about the guys trying to steal the crystal?” I stared at the beer cooler’s lid, suddenly remembering how it felt to be so close to the glowing stone, almost touching it.
A sudden surge filled me to see the stone again. Maybe I could peek the lid open and look. I was strong. I could resist the temptation to touch it.
“No, I haven’t heard anything new about the ambush at the dry cleaner,” Vigilante said, jerking me out of my thoughts.
I ripped my eyes from the lid. Best not to think about the crystal right now. As much as I wanted to see it again, it wasn’t the best idea.
Vigilante pulled the car in the sprawling parking garage right below the SummerTech building. I gave him his jacket back, leaving my ripped shirt in the back seat. I straightened the half-mask on my face and pulled my hair back into a tight braid.
Flipping the passenger-side visor down, I stole a quick glance at my face. The comfortable black mask was surprisingly flattering to my features, and I suddenly felt like a female Zorro—mysterious, alluring. A heroine of the night, someone who kicks ass and takes names.
Not even Amy would recognize me now.
“You look fine,” Vigilante said in a dry tone, a small smirk on his face.
I pushed the visor back up, sticking my tongue out at him. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”
Cooler in hand, I trailed Vigilante as we headed to the garage’s elevator. There were only a few cars parked in the spots, which seemed surprising on a weekday. Shouldn’t the building be busier right now? Maybe Dementrix let everyone go when he took over leadership of the company.
Or maybe we were walking right into our death, blindly strolling forward with no clue until WHAM! Someone sent a flying axe to chop my head off. Just like in the movies.
A weird thud hit my stomach, and I suddenly had the urge to ralph. Who was I kidding? I was no heroine. I was just a scaredy-cat in stretchy clothes.
I inched closer to Vigilante’s back, trying not to panic. We moved into the elevator. He pressed the button for the fortieth floor, and the carrier lifted us smoothly, quickly up to the top.
Ding. The double doors slid open. Vigilante stepped forward and darted a hand out to hold the right door in place. “Wait over here,” he said to me in a low whisper, pointing with his other hand to a couch in the lobby. “I’m going directly to the CEO’s office to talk to Dementrix. Just stay quiet.”
I nodded without speaking, fear clogging my throat and freezing my legs. I suddenly couldn’t move out of the elevator. My hands turned icy cold, and I clutched the cooler like it was a lifeline.
He squinted and studied me. “You okay?”
I nodded again, my lips starting to tingle. My entire spinal column had clenched into a hardened block, and my face felt frozen in fear. Oh, lord, I was going to pass out right here on the elevator, and I’d hit my head and get amnesia, and then I’d—
Before I realized what was happening, Vigilante was inside the elevator, his lips brushing mine softly. Oh God, he was kissing me! My body instantly melted like hot butter, and I leaned forward into his kiss.
I heard his sharp intake of breath as he released the elevator door, which closed right behind him. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me taut against his body. I felt his hard thighs against my legs, his chest pushed right against mine.
I slid my free hand along the base of his neck, stroking the strands of hair there, and opened my mouth, welcoming his kiss. His kiss deepened, his tongue licking the left curve of my mouth. Blood rushed through my ears, my pulse pounding hard in my veins.
He pulled back. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard. I sucked in a long, deep breath, willing myself to calm down and for the blood to stop pumping so hard in my body.
“You looked tense,” he whispered, his eyes smoky. “Thought that might help.”
“Um, yeah,” I said, striving to look casual and totally unaffected by what just happened. “I’m cool.”
Vigilante shot me a surprisingly big grin. “Sure you are.” He opened the door again, pointing wordlessly for me to sit on the couch.
With legs no longer frozen I made my way there, trying to look graceful as I perched on the edge of the slick, pale green couch. The whole office looked space-age modern from the metallic trim on the desk, the couch’s legs and the glass-and-metal coffee table.
Vigilante quickly made his way to the CEO’s door and headed right inside, without knocking. It clicked softly closed behind him.
Silence.
Trying not to think about that sizzling kiss on the elevator, I looked at the ceiling, counting tiles. Once that got boring, I counted floor tiles.
I glanced at my watch. Ten minutes had passed, with no sign of Vigilante. Maybe he was in trouble.
Inner Demon: I should go in to make sure he’s okay. Screw what he said—I’m a sidekick now.
Inner Angel: Having a mask doesn’t automatically mean I can really kick ass. Plus, he specifically said I should stay on the couch.
Inner Demon: Since when do I listen to orders? Am I a woman, or a child? Besides, regardless of how I feel about him, I don’t work for him. We work together, as a team.
Hey, that was true. Why should I sit out here and do nothing to help? What if Vigilante was bound and gagged in a chair, waiting for me to burst through and rescue him from Dementrix or one of his evil goons?
Before I could talk myself out of it I stood and went to the door, swinging it wide open.
And saw Vigilante standing in front of a huge glass and metal desk. But even more importantly, a tall, lithe red-headed woman clad in tight, bright-red pleather stood no more than a breath away from him, her finger stroking his ear.
Who was this broad, and why was she touching Vigilante in such an intimate manner? Vigilante, who just ten minutes ago was smooching me?
Wait. Was she Dementrix—not a man, but a dastardly evil woman? And a well-built one, to boot?
Damnit, it just figured.
“Ahem,” I said, raising an eyebrow at the scene. “What’s going on?”
Vigilante jerked his head away from her finger, stepping back. He shot me an angry glare, obviously pissed that I’d left the couch.
Well, too bad, buddy. I was pissed too. Now it was perfectly clear why he wanted me to wait in the lobby—he wanted to play sexy little superhero mind games with this absurdly hot woman.
I felt fat and frumpy in comparison. I instantly loathed her.
The Amazonian villain slowly turned her head to face me. Her eyes swept over me, and she offered me a small, dismissive sneer. “And who are you supposed to be?” she said in a thick Russian accent.
“I’m—” Oh, crap. I never thought of a superhero name.
“This is my sidekick, The Tangler,” Vigilante said, his voice hot with anger.
Great. Thanks a lot, bastard.
Dementrix’s face scrunched up as she considered me for a quiet moment. Then, she burst out laughing. “Your what?” She shook her head at Vigilante. “Oh, I had no idea things were that bad for you. I wondered why you were wearing maroon instead of standard black. Tell me, do you two have matching underpants, as well?”
“Now, now,” Vigilante said, rolling his eyes. “You know I don’t wear any. Drop the catty attitude, Dementrix.”
Whoa, what was this? Was he flirting with this chick? And he didn’t wear underwear? How did she know that, but I didn’t? I was sleeping in his bed, for God’s sake.
Well, technically he wasn’t in there with me, but she didn’t know that part.
I dashed over and punched his upper arm. He rubbed it and gave me a deep frown. I didn’t care.
“Hey, now,” I said to both of them. “We ha
ve business to discuss, not the nature of our underwear.” Or lack thereof, apparently.
Dementrix slitted her dark green eyes, staring hard at me. “I have nothing to discuss with you.” A small, cold smile curved the corners of her mouth, and she arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow.
You do not know who you are messing with. I suggest you leave now if you value your life. I was frozen in place, hypnotized by Dementrix’s deceptively soft, lilting voice in my head and her strangely magnetic eyes locked on mine.
I had a sudden, startling vision in my mind of Bradley Summers, his eyes wide and crazed, his business clothing disheveled. He’d looked around this office and flung his own body out the window, his cries of panic echoing off the city buildings as he plunged to his death. Then Summers hit the pavement, limbs broken at awkward, painful angles. Blood gushed from the gaping wounds on his head and fractured body. His last cry gurgled in his throat for a brief second, then stopped.
Vigilante shoved me out the door, breaking her hypnotic eye contact with me. I shook my head rapidly, trying to get the vision out of my head.
“We’re leaving,” he told her with a snarl. “I’ll deal with you later.”
He slammed the door behind us, grabbed my upper arm and dragged me into the elevator. “What the hell were you thinking?” he bit out. “That was stupid. You have no idea how these things are done, and you made things worse by butting in and showing yourself to be an amateur. Now she knows who you are.”
I gritted my teeth, my hand shaking with nervousness and anger. “Gee, I guess I don’t know anything at all. I didn’t realize the way you save lives is to flirt with the villains.” My stomach churned, both from the memory of their close proximity and my own shot nerves.
“I wasn’t flirting,” he shot back, punching the garage-level button with an angry jab. “It’s banter. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever. I don’t care anyway.”
Liar. I’m such a horrible, horrible liar. Because I did care. I didn’t want some stupid hot chick turning him on, especially after he’d kissed me.
Even more especially, someone as bat-shit crazy as Dementrix. I couldn’t believe she’d shown me Summers dying.
The reality of what I’d seen in my head slapped me in the face. A man died. A man so tortured, so without hope he took his own life in a horrifying manner, just to flee from his tormented reality.
A man Dementrix had driven insane through the superpowers of her mind.
I shuddered, and my stomach flipped over again. A nervous shake escaped from within me, and I suddenly felt woozy. My legs gave out, and I collapsed in a heap to the floor of the elevator, the cooler smacking the ground.
“Hey,” Vigilante said, squatting down in front of me. He touched my chin, forcing me to look at him. Concern poured from his eyes. “Are you okay?”
My lips tingled as I struggled to focus, to relax. “I saw how she did it. How she—” I stopped for a moment, trying to catch my breath. “How she made Summers die.”
He picked me up and hugged me tight against him. Ding. I heard the doors open, but he ignored it, letting them close. “Shh,” he said, “I know. I saw it too. She put the same image in my head.”
We sat in silence for a few moments while I tried desperately to calm myself down. This was not the time to lose it. I needed to be strong.
I finally pulled myself out of his embrace. “Let’s go home,” I said, belatedly realizing what I’d said. Oh, well. He knew what I meant. “I could use a drink.”
He gave a low chuckle. “Sure thing.”
* * *
“So Mason knew Britney was your cousin when he came on to her?” Vigilante asked me.
“Yup. Hence why I was dragged into it.” I crossed my legs and scooted further back on his couch, careful not to slosh my drink. He’d given me something-or-another on the rocks—at this point, I didn’t even care what—and ordered me to relax.
And relax, I did. A warm alcoholic glow spread through my torso to my limbs as I sipped on the drink, my third for the evening. Needless to say, as the world’s biggest lightweight drinker, I was feeling pretty damn good at the moment.
We were sitting in his living room, me on the tan leather couch and him on the matching loveseat. A small, dark-wood coffee table, perched on top of a plush white rug, separated us. There were a couple of vases on top of the brick fireplace mantle that contained sprigs of dried grasses.
Nice, neutral and utterly generic. No sign of real life at all. It looked like a model home.
“Hey, how come there aren’t any pictures anywhere?” I asked him. In fact, there wasn’t even a TV. I didn’t think a person could own a house without having at least one television somewhere. I leaned back into the couch, letting the alcohol seep through me. After the tension and strain of today, I desperately needed to chill.
He sighed, taking a swig of his scotch. “When my parents died, it was easier to wipe the place clean. I didn’t bother redecorating.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.” Nice going, Jenna the big-mouth.
He smiled, shrugging slightly. “It’s fine.”
I studied his face, cast in a soft glow by the table lamp beside me. The dimple on his cheek. The slightly shaggy hair that always had little spikes from where he’d run his hand through it. The sexy curve of his lower lip, made all the more prominent because of the half-mask on his face.
Maybe it was the alcohol, but I suddenly had a desire to see his face. I wanted to know what he looked like. “Do you ever take that mask off?”
He jerked slightly, thrown off guard by my question. “What?”
“Your mask. Do you ever take it off?” I tilted my head to look at him from a slightly different angle. “I just wondered if anyone ever sees you without it.”
He shrugged. “Not really. I used to go incognito, back when I worked at an office. But now that I work freelance, no one usually sees me without the mask. It’s become part of who I am.”
“Do you wear it when you’re alone?” I asked, surprised at how husky my voice sounded. But that’s because I had a sudden mental image of him lying in his bed completely nude except for the mask, the sheets halfway up his body, his hard torso exposed.
A small flutter of desire tickled up my skin.
Vigilante put his glass on the table then walked over to me and sat beside me, his thigh brushing mine. My heart slammed in my chest in anticipation, even as a small part of my brain whispered this probably wasn’t the best idea.
Maybe not, but I needed him right now. I couldn’t deny that, even if I was wary of getting involved with him.
I felt slightly off-balance and teetered a bit in my seat. He tilted my chin up and kissed me, hard. I opened my mouth beneath his, tasting the scotch on his lips, and the wariness within me fled completely.
My arms wove around his neck as I pushed forward, hungry to be close to him. We kissed for a long moment. Then Vigilante pulled away slightly to click the light off. It was complete darkness. I heard a small swish as he lifted his mask off and tossed it on the coffee table. Emboldened, I swept my fingers along his face, trying to feel what he looked like. He had high cheekbones and a proud brow. Just as I’d thought.
I followed my fingers with my lips, brushing his skin with feather-light kisses. He pulled me onto his lap, and I sank into his embrace, dizzy with desire.
Chapter 9
I woke up the next morning butt-naked and curled up on the couch, covered by a small throw blanket. Vigilante’s dog Corey lay wrapped around my feet. The dog was so quiet around the house I’d actually forgotten about him. When he saw me stirring awake, he grunted and hopped off the couch, padding his way into the kitchen.
A little headache lingered at the back of my skull, taunting me for drinking way more than usual yesterday. Yeah, not my smartest idea, but given the way Dementrix had messed with me mentally, I deserved a little unwinding.
Memories of last night whooshed into my head. The hot, hot
sex with Vigilante. Wow, could he get his groove on.
A flush quickly spread over my cheeks. I hadn’t realized how creatively a couch could be used. And I didn’t realize how badly I’d needed that, especially with him.
Suddenly, I sat straight up on the couch. Oh, God, what was the matter with me? I’d just slept with someone without knowing his real name.
And not only that, but Mr. Mystery had the oldest condoms in the world.
Crap. Crapcrapcrap. Okay, stay calm. Surely he hadn’t used the ancient rubbers while we had sex. He had more sense than that. I had to have faith.
Fear slightly assuaged, I glanced around and found my clothes strewn across the floor. I’d been in a hurry to get them off last night, not caring where I’d tossed them. Vigilante had thrown his clothes too, but I noticed they weren’t on the ground.
My pants had been kicked under the couch, one leg sticking out, taunting me. I dragged them on, sans panties, then found my shirt and wiggled into it.
After more digging around, I pulled my panties and bra out from behind the couch cushion. I tiptoed through the living room toward the stairs. Vigilante must be asleep somewhere. With any luck, I could hide out from him in my room…for the rest of my known days.
No, that wouldn’t work. Best to face it like a woman. I could be mature. People had casual affairs all the time, right? Who’s to say I couldn’t have one of my own? Just your everyday, average sex buddy.
Who just so happened to rock my world.
Who was I kidding? I was in over my head here.
“Got some coffee for you.” His low voice floated to me from the kitchen.
I paused then changed directions and headed into there, quickly stuffing my bra and panties into my pocket. Gaze averted, I grabbed a mug and poured myself a cup, sliding quietly into the chair across the table from him.
He looked at me, his eyes guarded. The mask was back in place, so I couldn’t read his face.
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