These Boots Were Made for Stomping (23 page)

He didn’t say too much when she’d finally told him: Congratulations, he was happy for her, etc. But the pain clouding his
eyes made it impossible for her to completely rejoice in her good fortune.

“It’s too bad,” she said, finding her courage now that she no longer had anything to lose. “You were a great artist.”

“Not according to the comic industry.”

“What do they know?” she scoffed. Then she shrugged. “I just hate to see people give up on their dreams.”

He swallowed hard. “I’ve got new dreams now. And they’re working out quite nicely.” He set down his chopsticks and reached
over to her knee again, this time caressing it, smoothing his hand over the nylon. “Dreams and fantasies,” he added, in a
husky voice.

She sucked in a breath, trying desperately to control her racing heart. He was right. What good did it do to dredge up the
past? He was happy as a movie executive, and he had his hand on her thigh. This was a time when art should step aside for
life.

“And what might those fantasies be?” she asked, closing her eyes and leaning forward to meet his lips with her own. She’d
forgotten how good he tasted, the tang of sweet-and-sour sauce just adding to the kiss. His tongue darted out, licking her
lips, coaxing her mouth open to him. She obliged and he delved in for deeper exploration, territories once charted but long
forgotten.

While his mouth went to work on hers, his hand restlessly explored her inner thigh, dragging along the bare skin, hitching
up her skirt. She gasped at the myriad sensations coursing through her body, her nipples hardening into small pebbles under
her bra, longing for his touch. He stroked farther and farther up, finding her pan ties and peeling them aside to reach her
soaking wet center, all the while covering her face and neck with kisses. He pressed two fingers inside of her and slid two
others inside her folds to caress her most sensitive nub. She gulped as he made contact, the tingling feeling spiraling into
madness as he relentlessly stroked her.

“Oh God, I’ve missed this,” she murmured, reaching over to touch him. She felt his erection through his jeans, straining for
her. It made her happy to realize how much he wanted her—as much, it seemed, as she wanted him. She straddled him, rubbing
herself against the bulge. He groaned, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

“You have no idea,” he said, his voice hoarse and his breathing heavy.

But while Hailey’s in-the-moment passionate part of her brain was ready and impatient to get the show on the road, a waving
hand from the sensible part—way in the back recesses—kept staunchly reminding her that inserting one’s diaphragm before engaging
in hot and heavy action with one’s ex-lover might be a decision she appreciated making sometime down the road.

So she kissed him once more on the mouth, then pressed a hand to his chest. His breaths came hot and heavy, his heart tripping
a staccato beat. Yup, it was time.

“I’ll be right back,” she said coyly, climbing off him.

He stared at her dully—obviously his more passionate brain had taken over as well—then nodded. “Please be quick,” he said,
reaching out to brush her backside as she turned.

She looked back at him with a grin. “Oh, don’t worry. I will be.” Prancing in the direction of the bathroom, she grabbed her
purse off the floor. Thank goodness she had a habit of leaving random things in her handbag—like the diaphragm, in this case.
It wasn’t exactly like she had planned on getting lucky during the trip.

The bathroom was immediately adjacent to the hotel-room door and, as she approached, she heard a weird noise outside. Curious,
she peeked through the peephole to see what it might be.

She jumped back immediately, horrified, at what she saw.

Oh God. It couldn’t be.

She peeked out again.

But it was.

There was a ninja lurking in the hallway of her ex-boyfriend’s hotel. A ninja that looked very much like the ones she had
battled earlier that day.

No, no, no! she cried silently. How had they found her? Did the dim-sum dude squeal? Or maybe he was one of their spies. Did
ninjas even have spies?

Great. Now what was she going to do? Sure, she could probably take the guy in a fight, but then she’d have some ’splaining
to do once again to Collin. About magic shoes and battling ninjas and—oh, he was going to be so pissed! And here she’d been
doing so good with her perfectly rational excuse for her earlier tardiness.

“Is something wrong, sweetie?” Collin inquired from the couch.

“Um, no. Nothing. I’ll be right there.” Squaring her shoulders, she determined to forget about the ninja and get back to the
hot sex-with-the-ex portion of her evening. After all, how many chances did she get to win back the love of her life? She
checked the door. Locked. There was no way the ninja was getting in anyway. He could hang out while she hooked up and she’d
deal with him when she was done.

After doing her thing in the bathroom, she headed back to the couch, sinking down on Collin’s lap, sliding her now panty-free
self against him. He groaned and grabbed her hair, pulling her head back so he could nibble at her neck—one of his favorite
games. She gasped in plea sure at the sensation of his teeth scraping against her sensitive skin. It felt so good. So, so
good . . .

She stole a glance at the front door. Was the lock really secure? Could a mere hotel-room door really stop a ninja? After
all, these guys were used to karate chopping big hunks of wood or stone. And if they did, she and Collin would be caught in
a compromising and very hard to fight position. Trapped and unable to get away.

Not to mention then she’d have to tell him the truth about why a ninja had karate chopped down his front door, which would
be even worse.

“Hey! Are you thirsty?” she asked, leaping off Collin’s lap and scrambling to her feet.

He stared at her as if she had two heads. “Am I . . . what?”

“Thirsty.”

He reached out for her hand. “Only for you, sweetness,” he purred.

Cute. But rather unhelpful, given the circumstances. “Well, I’m dying of thirst. Totally parched.” The excuse sounded so lame
coming from her lips. But what else was she going to say?
“Hon, I’ll be right back after I do battle with
a ninja out in the hall.”
It was excuses like that which made him break up with her in the first place.

“Um, you can check the minibar,” he said, looking lost. “I mean, if you’re thirsty.”

Argh. Stupid minibar. “Actually, I think I need ice. I’ll just run to the machine. Be right back. You, um, want some Peanut
M&Ms or something while I’m by the vending machine?”

He zipped up his pants and sighed. “I’m good,” he replied, looking more than a bit sour.

“Okay, cool.” She glanced over at the door nervously. Had anyone tried to break through yet? How many were on the other side?
“I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Sure. Whatever.”

He was pissed. Great. But there was no time to right things now. She’d have to do it after the ninja fight. Good thing she
hadn’t taken off her boots yet.

She pulled open the door and peered from left to right. Hm. No sign of the guy. She carefully crept into the hall, closing
the door behind her. The thing about ninjas, she knew, was they could be very hard to spot. She took a few steps and sniffed,
trying to locate them with her Super Smell. Suddenly, she got a distinctive whiff of an eel avocado roll, covered in soy sauce
and topped with ginger.

Bingo.

She leapt around the corner, launching into full fighting stance. Sure enough, the ninja stood there, outside room 1612. He
looked up, evidently surprised someone had been able to sneak up on him (thank you, Karma Kitty Super Stealth), and held his
hands up in a defensive pose, letting loose a string of words Hailey had no way to translate.

She charged toward him, swinging out a foot to connect with his stomach. He dodged easily and spun around, low, sweeping out
a leg to trip her. Pain slammed through her ankle as his calf connected and she went sprawling through the air.

But luckily, as a rule, Karma Kitty always landed on her feet.

Hailey recovered and flipped forward, catching the ninja off guard. She jammed a fist low, connecting with his groin. He bellowed
in pain, staggering backward, and she took her momentary advantage to grab a nearby vase off a hall table and whip it at his
head. Flowers flew and water splashed, followed by the distinctive crash of ceramic against skull. Followed still further
by the now unconscious ninja hitting the floor.

Panting for breath, Hailey poked him with her toe. Now that the rage of battle was fading she started to worry that maybe
she’d hurt him too badly. She had no desire to go down for murder one, even if she could prove it was self-defense. (Which
would be pretty hard to do, considering she’d landed the first blow.)

But luckily for her, the ninja groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked up at her. She gave him a little wave, a little
smile, then raised her not-so-little fists. The ninja scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as his pajama-ed legs could carry
him in the other direction.

Hailey let out a sigh of relief and lowered her hands. Mission accomplished, and no serious injury done to the evil party.
She now could go back to Collin’s hotel room and continue where they’d left off with no more distractions.

“Where’s your ice?” a fully dressed Collin asked as she entered the room. He was flipping through TV channels with a remote,
finally settling on some kind of soccer game. Hailey felt her face heat as she realized in the action of the fight, she’d
totally forgotten her original fake mission. Now she was returning, disheveled, iceless, and with no explanation that would
make any sense.

“Oh, well, I decided I wasn’t all that thirsty after all,” she replied, knowing full well how lame she sounded. Her realistic
excuses were getting worse than her weird ones. She decided to give it one more try. “Just thirsty for you, baby,” she added,
dropping her voice to a husky tone.

Collin flipped the channel again, settling on a TBS showing of
The Shining
. He set the remote down on his lap without looking at her. Not a good sign.

“Oh, I love this movie,” she tried, plopping down close to him on the couch. He shuffled to the left, putting distance between
them. Great. “Um, is something wrong?” As if she needed to ask.

Collin turned to look at her for the first time since she’d reentered the room. His face was stone cold, but his eyes revealed
his hurt. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to . . . well, what I mean to say is . . .” He raked a hand through his
hair, obviously frustrated. “You know,” he said, angrily, “if you didn’t want to have sex, you could have just spoken up.
You make it seem like I’m forcing you to do something you don’t want.”

Hailey stared at him, eyes wide, mirroring her disbelief. Was that what he thought? That she was trying to avoid sleeping
with him? God, there was nothing in the world she wanted to do more.

“Collin, no!” she cried. “It’s not that at all.”

“Then what is it, Hailey? I’d really like to know.”

And she’d really like to tell him. She slumped into the couch cushions. But admitting the whole Karma Kitty fighting ninjas
out in the hotel hallway thing just didn’t seem like it was going to exactly fly. He wouldn’t believe her. He’d think she
was lying and making excuses again. Just like before. Nothing had changed. Their relationship was still impossible.

She rose from the couch. “I’ve got to go,” she told him.

“Fine,” he replied, his voice devoid of emotion. He turned back to the TV.

Hailey took a step towards the door. “Okay, so, I’m leaving.”

“Later.” Obviously he wasn’t interested in convincing her to stay. What a bastard. Thank God she hadn’t slept with him. She
gave him one more longing glance as she pulled open the hotel room door. He was still engrossed in the TV. Bastard. She wanted
to slap him. But with her Karma Kitty powers, she’d probably leave too big a bruise.

You know, the kind she couldn’t explain.

CHAPTER FIVE

“And then what?”

“Then I left,” Hailey concluded with a shrug, sawing at her waffle with strawberries and extra whipped cream the next day
at breakfast. “Went back to my hotel room, raided the minibar and passed out, surrounded by little empty bottles of booze.”
She shoveled waffle into her mouth, a vain attempt to use fat and calories to soak up her inner pain.

“That’s a very anticlimactic story,” Thomas pouted. He took a sip of the Starbucks latte he’d insisted on smuggling into the
restaurant after one sip of the place’s home brew the morning before. “I was hoping for fireworks. At least multiple orgasms.”

“If only that stupid ninja didn’t show up,” she said, leaning back in her chair and letting out a sigh. “Why, oh why, do I
get myself into these messes? I should have let Hiro Kim face his enemies himself instead of getting involved. What possessed
me to take on a gaggle of ninjas in the first place?”

Thomas reached over to pat her hand. “Well, I thought what you did was very brave.”

“Whoopdie-do.” Hailey twirled her finger in the air. “Bravery, for the win and all that. Fat lot of good it’ll do me. Hiro
didn’t even bother to thank me for putting my ass on the line. And let’s face it; the guy could probably finance a small country.
Shouldn’t I, his kitty in shining pleather, now be entitled to a piece of that action?”

“Maybe he’ll name a pirate character after you,” Thomas comforted. “Besides, I’m sure he was appreciative. He just doesn’t
speak the language.”

“Maybe . . .”

“Anyway, if you’re done with your self-pity party, take a look at this.” Thomas pulled out a sheaf of paper from the middle
of his Comic Con program. “Someone handed it to me on the way in. According to this, Darken Pictures is scheduled to make
some major announcement at ten this morning. I’m betting it’s a new comic movie they’re working on. Aren’t you dying to know
what it is?”

“No.” Hailey sniffed. “Not in the least.”

“Oh liar, liar, pants on fire,” Thomas scolded. “You’re just bitter ’cause Collin works at Darken. But come on! Don’t you
want to see which sad-sack comic-book artist they suckered into selling his soul to Hollywood this time around?”

She considered it. “Maybe a little. But we’re standing way in the back. I so don’t want Collin to think I’m stalking him or
something.”

“Great.” Thomas glanced at his watch. “Nine thirty. We’d better head over to the convention hall if we don’t want to miss
it.”

They paid for their breakfast and headed to the Javits Center. Once inside, they had to push through the already gathering
crowd until they got to the outer limits of the large, flashy Darken Pictures booth. They needn’t have worried about being
spotted, Hailey realized, looking around. There were probably a thousand people milling about, waiting for the big announcement.

The folks at Darken had set up a makeshift stage at the top of the booth, and suddenly triumphant-sounding music erupted from
the gigantic speakers flanking each side. Hailey watched as none other than Collin himself stepped up to the podium. She noticed,
to some small satisfaction, that her ex looked exhausted and his clothes were wrinkled. Maybe he couldn’t sleep last night,
feeling guilty over the way he’d treated her.

Collin cleared his throat and leaned into the microphone. “Thank you all for coming,” he said, and Hailey’s extremely disloyal
heart panged at the sound of his voice. “We at Darken Pictures are really excited to bring you some very special news. A new
partnership between manga and motion picture.”

“See?” Thomas poked her in the side. “I told you.”

“Shhh.”

“As of this morning, we will be working with the one and only Hiro Kim to develop a big-bud get blockbuster film based on
his amazing pirate manga series,
Shadow Booty
Clan.
”

Hailey’s mouth dropped open. She glanced over to Thomas, realizing he was wearing a similar expression on his own face. Hiro
Kim? The same Hiro Kim who swore time and time again he’d never sell out to Hollywood in a million years? The same Hiro Kim
to whom Pixar once offered thirty million dollars for the rights to use his characters? He was selling out to Darken?

Something was rotten in Comic Con, that was for sure.

“What the hell?” Hailey hissed to Thomas as they watched the stage. A dazed-looking Hiro approached the podium, bowing to
Collin and then listlessly shaking his hand. “What’s going on here?”

Thomas shrugged, obviously as shocked as she. “I have no fucking idea,” he whispered back. “But I think Hiro’s going to speak.”

“I happy to work with Darken,” Hiro said in faltering English. “They very good company. My manga in good . . . arms? . . .
with them. Thank you.”

He bowed to the audience, who erupted in cheers. Many of them had been waiting for a Hiro Kim movie their entire lives. A
few diehards in the back booed and yelled “Sell-out!” but Hiro didn’t seem to hear them. He just stared out into the crowd
with dark, blank eyes. Finally, two security guards approached him and escorted him off the stage. Collin thanked everyone
for coming by, urged them to check out the booth, then left the stage. The crowd dispersed, all abuzz with the news, many
already updating their blogs with their PDAs.

“Unbelievable,” Thomas murmured, still staring up at the now-vacant stage. “Hiro Kim would never sell his manga to a Hollywood
studio. Never, ever, ever.”

“Uh, hate to break it to you, dude, but he just did.” Hailey reminded him. “Guess everyone has their price.”

“Yes, but . . .” Thomas scratched his head. “Don’t you think it’s more than a bit odd that last night he was being chased
by ninjas and now he’s doing something he never ever in a million years was going to do?”

Hailey stared at him. She’d been so wrapped up in her own problems with Collin the thought hadn’t occurred to her. “Oh my
God, you’re right!” she cried. “What if they found him again after? Maybe they work for Darken and threatened to kill him
if he didn’t sign away his movie rights.”

It sounded kind of crazy, but the way everything else was going, that was just par for the course.

“Well, I doubt Darken Pictures employs ninjas,” Thomas mused. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the shuriken from
the day before. He turned the plastic star in his hands. “But these guys do.” He looked up at Hailey. “The MeiyoSeraph Agency.
Booth 4294. Let’s go.”

They headed down the aisles, focused and on a mission, ignoring all the fun diversions they passed. There would be time for
browsing later; right now they had a mystery to solve: Why the world’s premier manga pirate artist would suddenly give away
his film rights, one night after being chased by a gang of ninjas. Seemed a bit too much to be a coincidence. Hailey felt
a bit like Nancy Drew as she fingered the clue in her hand. Of course, Nancy was more of a pacifist; never once, in her hundreds
of adventures, had the redheaded detective been forced to kick ninja ass.

“It should be right over here,” Thomas remarked as they turned the corner. “Booth 4294.”

Except there was no booth 4294. Only an empty square of carpet where a booth might have once been, sandwiched between a booth
selling Pooka the Goblin Cat stuffed animals and the Voodoo Babies stall.

“Who was here at this booth?” Hailey asked the girl manning the Pooka booth. She was dressed all in black and had multiple
piercings in her ears, nose, eyebrows and mouth (and who knows where else underneath her clothes!). Hailey’s publisher would
so not have approved,

“Um,” the girl pondered, tonguing her lip ring. “I think it was some agency.”

Hailey cocked her head. “Agency?”

“Yeah. You know, like, people who represent artists. They were here yesterday.” She looked over to the booth and shrugged.
“But when I got here this morning they were long gone.”

Thomas and Hailey exchanged glances. “Do you remember if they were called MeiyoSeraph Agency?” Hailey asked hopefully.

The pierced girl thought for a moment, then shook her braided head. “Sorry, I can’t remember. I was totally swamped yesterday
and didn’t get to chat with my neighbors much. The only reason I know they were agents was ’cause that movie producer Collin
Robinson came over a bunch of times yesterday to talk to them.” She fanned herself with her many-ringed hand. “God, that guy
is hot.”

“Oh yeah, he’s steaming,” Hailey muttered. Steaming mad at her, that was. Why, oh why, did everything in her life have to
circle back to Collin? And what the hell did he have to do with the ninja agents? “Thanks for your help.”

“Sure, no problem.” The girl smacked her gum. Hailey and Thomas turned to leave. “Oh, one other thing,” the girl said, calling
them back. They turned around, expectant. The Goth rummaged under her booth, then held out a shiny plastic object.

A shuriken.

“I found this in the empty booth this morning,” she said, pressing the plastic throwing star into Hailey’s hand. “Probably
from one of their ninjas.”

Hailey did a double take. “Ninjas?” Now they were getting somewhere. “Are you sure?”

The girl nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, didn’t I mention it?” she asked. “Some of the guys behind the booth were dressed as
ninjas. I figured they must be actors, hired for whatever promotion they were doing. They looked pretty cool, though. All
serious-like.”

“Ninjas? Are you sure they were ninjas?” Hailey’s pulse kicked up a few notches as she examined the throwing star. It was
identical to the one the ninja had aimed at her head the night before.

“There’s really no mistaking ninjas, is there?”

“Right. Well, thanks. You’ve been very helpful.” Hailey and Thomas said their good-byes and hurried off.

“This is getting weirder and weirder,” Hailey mused, tossing the throwing star in the air and catching it as they rushed back
to the Straylight booth. Their morning signing was in less than a half hour and they were going to have to cross almost the
entire floor. “Why the hell would talent agents have ninjas at their booths?”

“And why would those ninjas chase Hiro Kim after closing time?” Thomas added. “With plastic throwing stars nonetheless.”

“And what does any of this have to do with Collin?”

Thomas stopped in his tracks. “Don’t you see? It makes perfect sense. Yesterday, Hiro swears he hates everything Hollywood
and never in a million years or for millions of dollars will he sell the rights to his pirate manga. The next day, after being
chased by ninjas—belonging to a talent agent that a producer for Darken Pictures visited several times—he decides, out of
the blue, to partner with said movie company. Coincidence? I think not.”

“But I rescued him! The ninjas didn’t get him,” Hailey protested.

“Maybe they had a second round later. While you were busy attempting a
real
booty call, instead of the shadow type.”

Hailey nodded enthusiastically. “Maybe Hiro’s staying at the same hotel as Collin. Remember, I saw that ninja poking around
there. I’d assumed he was looking for me to get revenge, but maybe he was sent to find Hiro.”

“Or maybe he was looking for Collin,” Thomas finished. “To tell him they’d coerced Hiro into making a deal.”

Hailey shuddered. “What do you think they do to people to get them to sign? Torture? Blackmail?”

“Something bad, for sure,” Thomas said. “Because there’s no other way Hiro would have signed up with a production house like
Darken Pictures.”

Hailey’s stomach rolled with realization “That means Collin’s in on this somehow,” she said, a sinking disappointment settling
in her gut. And here she assumed he’d be one of the good guys.

Thomas put out a hand. “Hold on, don’t jump to conclusions. Maybe Collin doesn’t know the company’s tactics. After all, heartbreaker
though he may be, he doesn’t exactly strike me as the type to blackmail and malign people, just to get them to sign movie
deals.”

Hailey considered this. “No, I guess not. But we know he visited the ninja agents during the day. And then there was a ninja
outside his hotel room that night. Seems fishy to me.”

“Well, I’m not saying he doesn’t have dealings with them,” Thomas agreed. “He’s a producer; he probably deals with a ton of
agents every day. But maybe he doesn’t know this particular agency’s methods. Who knows—maybe they offered him Hiro’s movie
rights on a silver platter, without giving him any clue on how they planned to acquire those rights. Any Hollywood hottie
with half a brain would jump at that offer, right? It’s only the deal of the century, after all.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Hailey mused. “I mean, as much as any of this does.” She looked over at Thomas. “So, what do we
do now?”

“I guess we talk to Hiro. Though he doesn’t speak much English. We’ll need to find someone to interpret.”

“But Hiro’s hanging out with the Darken people.”

Thomas nodded. “Exactly.” He looked at Hailey pointedly.

She shook her head. “Oh no. No, no, no. I am so not going to kiss up to Collin just to gain access to Hiro.”

Thomas stopped walking and turned to her. “You’d rather let some guy lose all his life’s work than go ask a favor of your
ex-boyfriend? The one, may I remind you, that you were so hot and heavy on just yesterday?”

Hailey sighed. “Well, I . . .” There was no argument Thomas was going to be okay with; she might as well give in and go. And,
to be fair, a certain part of her did realize, deep inside, that it would be a good excuse to talk to Collin again. “Fine,”
she relented. “I’ll go. But first we need to motor if we’re going to have our signing on time.”

“Collin, my man, I don’t know how you did it, but you indeed did it, and for that I am utterly grateful.” Mr. Tubbs, Collin’s
boss and the vice president of the studio, slapped him on the back so hard Collin almost fell over.

“Well, I’m happy you’re happy,” he replied after regaining his balance. He threw his boss a big fake smile—the kind he’d become
famous for. “I agree that Hiro’s a great addition to next summer’s blockbuster lineup.”

“A great addition? He’s the fucking headliner!” Mr. Tubbs cried. “Every studio and their decrepit old grandmother have been
trying to get this guy to sell his soul to the devil for years now. But the
artiste
”—Mr. Tubbs sneered at the word—“well, he was just too high and mighty and artsy for the likes of us. Goddamn comic-book artists
thinking they’re freaking Michelangelo or some shit.”