Rock Chick 05 Revenge (58 page)

When she stopped talking, she was shouting. One thing you could count on, that was Shirleen bringing the matter to hand.

“Luke,” Lee said and he and Vance moved toward us.

Thankfully, I figured this meant the latest drama was at an end.

“Right,” Luke muttered and tore his angry gaze away from Uncle Vito and looked at me. “I came by to tell you not to do anything stupid, because I know you’re gonna do somethin’ stupid.”

“I am
so
sure,” I snapped, unable to stop myself.

He curled me so I was facing his body. “Whatever the day brings, babe, at the end of it, we’re together. Got me?”

That took the wind out of my sails, mainly because I liked what he said. “Well then, okay,” I still sounded kinda bitchy but my heart wasn’t in it.

“I don’t like what you’re doin’ but enough time has been wasted so there isn’t any left to argue about it,” Luke told me.

I nodded.

“You wanna stay at the hotel again?” Luke asked.

I shook my head. “I think we should stay here. I don’t want to be scared of my own house.”

It was his turn to nod, his face started to get soft and his eyes warm and I was relieved he understood. Then he bent his head and touched his mouth to mine.

“Stay close to Tex, Duke or Jules,” he said, face still close.

“Jules isn’t um… working in the field during this operation,” I mentioned, my eyes slid to Vance, I bit the uninjured part of my lip and looked back at Luke. “You… erm… know why. Jules and I decided she’s in charge of Command Central.”

The angry went out of Luke’s face and body.

“Ava Babe,” was all he said, but he said it in The Voice and my knees wobbled.

“Luke,” Lee pressed, still standing close and breaking the moment.

Luke didn’t look at Lee as he said to me, “Gotta go.”

I nodded again.

“Stay safe,” he finished.

Then he touched his mouth to mine and was gone.

Vance stopped at me before he took off. I held my breath as, blank faced but eyes intense, he reached out, took a lock of my hair and tugged it.

Then he was gone too.

I let out my breath.

Dom led Sissy to my side, his eyes on my closed front door.

“You give Stark that hickey?” Dom asked me.

Oh shit, not the hickey again.

I turned to glare at him but he just grinned at me.

“Nice,” he said, nodding slowly.

That’s when Sissy pulled out from his arm and punched him in the stomach.

“Now that’s what
I
call nice,” Tex boomed.

I burst out laughing.

“The family meeting is gonna be interesting,” Duke noted, a huge smile on his face as he looked at a doubled over Dom, Sissy standing beside him hands on hips, wearing the Sissy Glare.

Ren ignored this, approached and pulled me into his arms and held on tight. “Been wanting to do this since you walked in,” he said quietly in my ear.

I sighed, deep and huge, mainly because I just realized that Ren gave good hugs.

After awhile, I told his neck in a soft voice. “You know, you shouldn’t be hugging me.”

“I know and I don’t give a fuck,” Ren replied.

Oh well, Luke was gone, just this once. My arms went around him and I squeezed.

“You’re a good guy,” I whispered.

“Yeah. Too good. I wanted to give you time after Dexter. You needed it. I shouldn’t have given it. I should have moved in.”

He was right. He should have moved in. However, if he had I wouldn’t have had my chance with Luke. There was no way to tell if Ren and I would have been better or worse so there was no reason to dwell.

“Could I talk you into handing Noah over to the police if you catch him?” I asked.

Ren’s head came up. He looked me in the eyes then he shook his head.

“You’re going to hand him over to Luke?”

Still silent, Ren nodded.

“Men,” I sighed.

Ren’s hand came up and he touched the cut on my lip. His eyes got scary angry for a brief flash before he hid it.

“Be safe, Ava,” he said softly and finished. “Be happy.” Then he pulled away and nodded to Dom. “Let’s go.”

“Sissy –” Dom started.

“Save it for the family meeting,” Sissy snapped.

“Sis, baby,” Dom tried again.

“Save it!” Sissy repeated, this time on a hiss.

“Save it, Dominic. Yeesh, you give me heartburn,” Uncle Vito broke in, patting his heart with his hand. “Been givin’ me heartburn for years. Lorenzo, when you’re head of this family beware, it comes with heartburn. Now, let’s go.”

Eek.

Ren’s future included Head of the Zano Family. Thoughts of me in pressed slacks and flouncy blouses doing lunch with the ladies in between Botox injections paraded through my head. I had to admit, I was pretty glad I had dodged
that
bullet.

“Don’t even think about it,” Ren muttered, close and bent low to my ear. “I become head of the family, first order of business is have Dom whacked so no heartburn. Second, buy a house on St. John where we would live for half the year, drinking rum for breakfast and fucking under the stars.”

His head came up. I blinked at him. He smiled at me and it was an ultra sexy smile.

My heart started racing.

Uncle Vito led the way and then
they
were gone.

“Now, can we get to the business of findin’ this jerk off?” Tex asked impatiently, looking like he was about ready to come out of his skin.

“You okay?” Sissy asked, voice filled with concern.

No, I wasn’t okay. All of a sudden, my mind was filled with having sex with Ren under a warm, balmy, tropical, starry night and they were happy thoughts.

If Luke knew, he’d have a shit fit.

“Yeah,” I lied, taking in her pale face. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she lied back.

We looked at each other a beat then, even though there was nothing funny and definitely nothing happy about our situation just because we’d survived yet again, we grinned.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Barlow Bitches from Hell

“Shee-it, Kumar, you had the left bower? Why didn’t you take the second trick with that motherfucker?” Tex boomed across my dining room table at poor Mr. Kumar who was
not
getting the hang of euchre.

Uncle Vito, who was sitting across from me, chuckled and winked. We had won five games in a row as partners.

“I don’t understand this bower business,” Mr. Kumar complained. “How can a jack be higher than an ace? How can only one card of a different suit be the same as another suit? Then jacks are just jacks when they are another color? Then it all changes on the next deal of the cards. This game is too confusing.”

Shirleen walked into the dining room from my kitchen carrying a fresh iced tea. “Of course it’s confusing. First off, you’re only playing with half a deck. Any card game that you play with half a deck has to be half-assed.”
 

Uncle Vito and Tex cut their eyes to Shirleen.

Uh-oh.

“Euchre is the
only
card game worth a shit. It ain’t half-assed,” Tex said.

“Give me poker any time,” Shirleen retorted.

“I know poker,” Mr. Kumar put in hopefully.

“Poker is a common game,” Uncle Vito threw down.

Shirleen’s eyes narrowed.

Hell and damnation.

“I’m going to bed,” I announced, getting up from the table.

“You can’t go to bed, it’s best out of eleven,” Tex protested.

I stared at Tex. “In the beginning, it was best out of three then it was five then it was seven then nine, now eleven?”

“We have to win
one
,” Tex told me.

I looked at the ceiling.

“Girl, get outta my way. I’m gonna kick the shit outta this euchre business. Kumar, you be Vito’s partner. Tex and I are gonna whup some euchre ass,” Shirleen shoved me out of the way and pulled Mr. Kumar out of his chair.

I took my opportunity and headed toward the stairs. “Don’t be too loud. I can’t sleep with noise,” I said over my shoulder.

“Only sound you’ll be hearin’ is Vito goin’
down
,” Shirleen informed my back.

I just stopped myself from laughing before I walked up the stairs.

No way Uncle Vito was going down in euchre. Tex might be from Indiana, in his words “the spiritual home of euchre”, but nobody beat Uncle Vito.

Nobody.

Even if he was saddled with Mr. Kumar as his partner.

I got ready for bed.

Well, today wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be,
Bad Ava groused.

Are we giving up?
Good Ava asked hopefully.

“No,” I told the mirror as I slathered on moisturizer.

Oh poo,
Good Ava snapped.

Yippee!
Bad Ava yelled.

Needless to say, the Rock Chicks operation was a bust.
 

Lee had gotten to Brody first, therefore when the Rock Chicks interrogated him, Brody hadn’t talked under threat of certain torture from Lee (read: losing his “bodacious” job).

So we started by going to Noah’s old apartment but he was long gone. We spread out, “canvassing the neighborhood” (as Indy called it), knocked on some doors but only one person was home and they didn’t know anything.

Jules at the Command Central made some calls and found out who the landlord of the property was. She called him and asked about Noah but there was no forwarding address.

We trekked back to my place, I dug out my address book and called all of Noah’s friends (there were two), but neither of them had the same phone numbers.

Then we swung by several of the places Noah used to hang out but no one had seen him in months and no one knew where he was now.

Out of options, Indy, Roxie, Jet and Jules promised to “pump” their men for information and I went home with Tex as bodyguard and Shirleen for company. Uncle Vito came over to see how I was doing and not long after he arrived Mr. Kumar showed up for the same reason.

Euchre ensued. The rest was history.

I put on a kelly green camisole and a pair of chocolate brown, drawstring pajama shorts with big green polka dots and got under my covers.

Then I picked up the phone and called Luke.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Hey,” I said.

“I hear the Rock Chicks called off the Bad Guy search for the night.”

“We’re not giving up,” I told him.

“Run out of leads?”

We had. Or, more to the point, we never had any leads and we just ran out of ideas.

Still, he didn’t have to sound so happy about it.

“We’ll get more leads tomorrow.”

I heard his soft laugh.

Jerk.

“Since you aren’t here, I’m taking it you haven’t found him yet either,” I said.

“I’ll get him.”

The way he said that gave me a shiver up my spine.

New subject.

“Are you hunting all night or are you coming to my place?”

“I’ll be there.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

“When’s soon?”

“Soon is soon.”

“Luke.”

“Babe.”

Silence.

Stalemate.

I broke the silence. “All righty then, just wake me up when you get home.”

“Why?”

“I want to know you’re safe.”

“You want me to fuck you.”

For goodness sake.

So he was right. He didn’t have to point it out.

“Who’s full of himself tonight?” I asked.

“Someone’s gonna be full of me tonight,” he used The Voice and its edge was smooth as velvet.

That
got a belly melt.

“I’m tired,” I told him, ignoring the belly melt and The Voice. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Sweet dreams.”

I could hear the smile in his voice before I heard the disconnect.

Then I heard Tex boom, “Shee-it, Shirleen.”

I turned off the light and settled under the covers with a smile on my face.

Funnily enough, I didn’t feel scared at all of my house.

* * * * *

I felt my body roll and it wasn’t me rolling it.

Then I felt hands roaming.

“Hey,” I said sleepily as Luke’s ‘tache hit my neck, his lips coming with it.