Rock Chick 05 Revenge (68 page)

My stomach got melty. “Really?” I whispered.

He rested his forehead against mine. “There are two kinds of women. The ones you go to bed with and the ones you wanna wake up with. Lots of the first, not many of the last. If a man’s lucky, he’ll find the last.”

He touched his mouth to mine again and I took that as a definite sign I was the last.

Oh… my…
God
.

My whole body went melty.

“You got somethin’ you wanna say?” he asked softly.

He knew. He knew I loved him. And he wanted me to tell him.

Eek!

I shook my head.

“I’ll wait,” he said then he kissed my nose and rolled off the bed. He dressed while I watched, came back to me, sat on the bed, pulled me into his arms and kissed me long and deep.

Then he was gone.

I cuddled into the pillows, smiled to myself and went back to sleep.

* * * * *

Wake up call number two:

My phone in my purse all the way across the room started ringing.

I pulled myself out of bed, ran across the room, nabbed my purse and yanked the phone out, flipping it open and putting it to my ear.

“Yo,” I said.

“Hi there, sweetie. Your sisters and I are going to breakfast. Do you want us to come get you?”

It was Mom.

I was definitely digging the New Mom. However, I’d rather have a tooth extracted without Novocain than go to breakfast with my sisters.

Still, they were family.

“Okay,” I said. “But I need a change of clothes, can you bring some?”

“Sure thing. I’ll have Sofia go up and –”

“No!” I interrupted sharply. God only knew what horrors Sofia would drag out of my closet as payback for yesterday. “You pick,” I told her. “Jeans, t-shirt, belt, flip-flops and bring some of my silver jewelry.”

“Which pieces of jewelry?”

“Any of them.”

“Can do. We’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

I told her my room number and we disconnected. Then I scrolled down to Luke and pressed the green button.

“Yeah?”

“It’s me,” I said.

“Babe, your name comes up on the display,” he informed me, a smile in his voice.

“Then why do you answer ‘yeah’ if you know it’s me?”

“That’s how I answer the phone.”

“Well, you could say something else like ‘hello’ or ‘Ava’ or even ‘babe’.”

“You want me callin’ you ‘babe’ now?”

“It’s better than ‘yeah’.”

“Let’s see if I got this right, now we’re arguing about how I answer the phone?”

Okay, he had a point.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Dexter was wrong, you don’t taste like cherry pie, you taste a fuckuva lot sweeter. If you didn’t, babe, you’d be a pain in the ass.”

“Did you just call me a pain in the ass?” I asked.

He sighed.

Time to move on.

“Where are we staying tonight?” I changed the subject.

“Your family gonna be in town?”

“I don’t know.”

“The hotel if they are, your place if they’re not.”

I looked at the bed. It had a padded headboard, no slats for cuffs.

“If we stay here or at my place, we can’t play our, um… game.”

“We’ll play another night.”

He didn’t sound too broken up about it.

“Lotsa games to play, babe,” he went on softly. “I’ll get creative.”

I felt my knees wobble. If he hadn’t already
been
creative, I was looking forward to creative.

“Okay. Did Vance and Hector get Noah?”

“No.”

My stomach clenched. What did he mean “no”?

“No?” I asked.

“They didn’t go to Durango. Got a tip. He’s in town, they’re trackin’ him and they’re close. I’m just about to go out to assist. I want you to stay at the hotel. This shouldn’t take long.”

“But I’m going to breakfast with my family.”

Silence for a beat then he told me, “I’ll get a man on you. Don’t leave the room until he knocks on the door. You’ve met everyone now, it’ll be one of ours.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Luke!” I snapped.

“Promise me.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Last time you called me, beautiful, Smithie was up a tree.”

Shit!

I hated it when he was right. And he was right all the fucking time (except for with Kurt Reid, but that wasn’t his fault).

I gave in. “All right, I won’t do anything stupid.”

“Christ, you’re cute.” The smile was back in his voice.

“Am I cute or a pain in the ass?” I asked, the bitch in my voice.

“Both and you can be a bitch too and for some fuckin’ insane reason, I like it all.”

What did you say to that?

I didn’t have a chance to say anything, he disconnected.

I took a shower and when I got out, my phone was ringing again. I padded to it, wrapped in one of the hotel’s robes. It said “unknown number’ but I flipped it open anyway.

“Yo.”

“We goin’ to the mall or what?”

It was Olivia. How she got my number I didn’t know but it was a moot point now.

“We’re going to the mall. I have to have breakfast with my Mom and sisters first.”

“I could do breakfast,” she invited herself which I was realizing was kind of her way.

Olivia would definitely make breakfast with my sisters a better experience. Hell, Genghis Khan would make breakfast with my sisters a better experience.

“Meet us at Hotel Monaco as soon as you can get here,” I told her.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she replied.

“Gotcha.”

She disconnected but I had another call coming in before I got the phone flipped shut so I took it.

“Yo.”

“Where are you?”

It was Riley and I remembered I was supposed to meet him at the gym that morning. “Shit, Riley. I’m sorry. I forgot. My life’s a total –”

He cut me off. “That guy still in the picture?”

I sighed.

Then I said quietly, “That guy’s name is Luke and yeah, he’s still in the picture. He’s probably gonna be in the picture for a while.”

Silence then, “Ava, I’m guessing that you guessed where I’m at with this. Can’t say I’m thrilled that this Luke character shows up and your life becomes a disaster.”

“Luke didn’t do it, he’s fixing it.”

“Fixing, not fixed, means he’s taking his fucking time.”

“Riley, that isn’t fair. You don’t know what’s going on. It’s not good and he’s barely getting any sleep, he’s working so hard to fix it.”

More silence then, “You sure about this guy, Ava?”

I went back to speaking quietly. “Yeah, Riley. I’m sure.” Then for some bizarre reason I shared, “I’m in love with him.”

It was his turn to sigh. “You comin’ into the gym today?”

I closed my eyes because what he said meant we were going to be okay and that was a relief.

I opened my eyes again “I have to go to breakfast with my family. Do you want to come?”

Now why did I ask that? He was hot. He wasn’t just the personal trainer at the gym, he part owned it. Marilyn and Sofia would be all over him

Luke told me not to do anything stupid, and there I was, doing stupid shit. I couldn’t even control it.

“Since you’re not here, got nothin’ on. I’ll be there,” Riley responded.

Crap.

Crapity, crap, crap,
crap
.

“Um… I should warn you my sisters are kind of, how do I put it?” I used Luke’s words. “Man eaters.”

“You’ll protect me,” he teased and I drew in breath. The old Riley was back.

I told him where to meet us and flipped the phone shut just as a knock came at the door.

I looked out the peephole and saw my mother standing there so I opened the door and she shoved in. She was alone. I glanced out in the hall but no Marilyn and Sofia so I shut the door behind her.

“This hotel is something else!” she cried, looking around. “Luke must be doing well. Really,
really
well. A Porsche and putting you up here?”

She wasn’t wrong. Hotel Monaco was super-fly.

“Where are Marilyn and Sofia?” I asked.

She turned and stared at me, ignoring my question due to the fact that something just dawned on her. “Why
are
you here? Doesn’t Luke have a house where you can stay?”

“He’s having some work done on his loft,” I semi-fibbed. “He was staying with me until you guys came.”

“Loft?”

“Yeah, in LoDo.”

“Luke has a LoDo loft?” she breathed, eyes faraway happy.

Okay so yes, it was true, a LoDo loft was quite something but really, enough was enough.

“Mother. Hello? Where are Marilyn and Sofia?”

She blinked and came back into the room. “They’re downstairs having coffee,” she dumped a bag on the chair and continued. “There’s your clothes. Take your time, we’ll enjoy coffee and let you get ready. Just meet us downstairs when you’re done.”

She came forward, kissed my cheek and left. The door hadn’t completely shut on Mom when my phone rang again.

I flipped it open. “Yo.”
 

“Hey chickie. I heard the revenge gig was a bust.”

It was Ally.

“Um –”

“I know all about it. Brody fucked up. Lee came home last night not a happy camper. He’s not hip on looking like an asshole. Not to mention he trades a lot on his reputation as a badass motherfucker who’s got it goin’ on. Brody fucking up means all the boys took a direct hit to their reps and Lee is dis-fucking-pleased, let me tell you. He told Indy, she told me and we’re doin’ our best to keep it amongst the Rock Chicks.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I agreed.

“How did Luke take it?” she asked.

“He wasn’t happy but I was kind of more involved in the conversation with the guy they did get. He was the one who conned Winnie and, you would
not
believe, but he called her Aunt Jemima right when she was in the room.”

Silence then, “Please tell me you’re lying.”

“No. I wish I was.”

“Holy crap! What a dick! What did Luke do when he said that?”

“Nothing, he didn’t get a chance. I got there first and kneed him in the ‘nads.”

I heard a hoot and then, “Righteous!”

I smiled. “We’re going to breakfast, want to come?”

“Who’s we?” she asked.

“Me, my Mom, my sisters, Olivia, Riley and whoever Luke sends to be my bodyguard.”

“Didn’t you say your sisters are bitches?” she asked.

“Yes, please say you can come, I need Bitch Buffers.”

“You got it. I’m at Fortnum’s, Duke, Jane, Tex and Jet are here so they can hold down the fort. Daisy’s here too. I’m sure she’ll come with.”

“Thanks, we’re meeting in the lobby of Hotel Monaco whenever you can get here.”

“Be there soon as we can.”

We disconnected and I flipped my phone shut. I opened the zipper on my bag and saw that Mom didn’t do too badly though she didn’t exactly follow directions. There were jeans and a goodly amount of my silver to chose from but instead of any old tee, she picked an army green, boat-necked, long-sleeved tee with tiny orange and hot pink flowers flowing from the hem at one side to come up in a swirl on the midriff. She’d decided against flip-flops and added a pair of dark brown, suede shoes with a peek-a-boo notch in the toe, a high, thin, wedge heel and a thin strap around the ankle. As a finishing touch, Mom threw in a matching brown suede belt with a heavy, oval, silver buckle.

Okay, so she wasn’t exactly an Entirely New Mom but she was a Somewhat New-ish Mom. She
had
put in the jeans. I wasn’t going to quibble.

I got dressed, put on my silver, strapped on the shoes and went to the bathroom to do something with my hair. Mom had stocked me with comb, hair products, travel-sized face stuff, loose powder, mascara, blusher, deodorant and perfume, most of which was probably hers because mine was scattered to the four corners (read: at Luke’s and at Roxie’s).

I did my best with what I had, considering the cut lip and black eye were still there (but finally fading) and was walking into the bedroom when my phone rang.

I flipped it open. “Yo.”

“What’s this about breakfast?”

It was Shirleen.

“Hey Shirleen. Did Ally call you?”

“Fuck no. Luke told me before he took off. I’m in the lobby and I’m hungry. Matt’s comin’ up to your room. Get your ass in gear.”

I couldn’t help it, I started smiling. “All right, keep your pants on. We’ll be down in a second.”