Rock Chick 06 Reckoning (41 page)

George looked around the room and his lip curled before he hissed, “You think you’re untouchable.” Luke’s body moved slightly right before he said, “Don’t play that game, George.”

“You’re messing with the wrong man,” George replied to Luke.

Lee’s eyebrows went up and he entered the exchange.

“You think?”

George, in my opinion, took his life in his hands and pointed at Lee. “The days where the Nightingale men have carte blanche to waltz through Denver are over.”

“You don’t back down, your dream of sittin’ behind the Governor’s desk is over,” Lee returned.

“Fuck you,” George spat at Lee.

Oh dear.

Lee leaned forward, maybe an inch but it was a scary inch. “Now it’s you who’s bein’ stupid.”

George glared at Lee.

Lee calmly returned his glare.

Then George made a weird, angry, scrunchy face. His glare travel ed the room, taking us al in. Then he stomped out.

Everyone stared at the door.

Beautiful.

I didn’t even know what was happening but it was pretty obvious we had a new problem.

My eyes went back to Mace and saw his were on me.

He moved his head in a short, nearly imperceptible jerk then he walked out too.

“You boys okay?” Jules quietly asked Roam and Sniff.

“Fuck yeah, it was great. Shirleen’s the shit,” Sniff replied, throwing himself in a chair. “It was like the movies.”

“Black bitch can move fast,” Roam muttered.

“Don’t cal Shirleen a ‘black bitch’,” Jules snapped, her voice no longer quiet.

“Be cool, Law. She don’t care,” Roam returned.

“I
do
care, boy, and you just lost this week’s al owance,” Shirleen broke in, hands on hips, narrowed eyes on Roam who kept bel igerent eyes on Shirleen. She, apparently, didn’t like his bel igerent eyes so she continued, “
And
you bought yourself bathroom duty.”

“Shee-it,” Roam mumbled, his gaze sweeping the room, his shoulders hunching as if he wanted to disappear.

“I got three and a half bathrooms,” Shirleen informed me.

“Boys take turns each week cleanin’ ‘em.” She turned to Sniff. “You got the week off.”

“Kil er,” Sniff’s goofy grin returned.

Roam was saved any further embarrassment when the door flew open and Smithie stormed in, a pretty black woman in tow.

His eyes moved through the room and he was mumbling under his breath.

“Hey, Smithie. Hey, LaTeesha,” Jet greeted but Smithie waved at her with impatience and his eyes went back through the room, his mouth stil moving silently.

Then he yel ed, “Where’s the fuckin’ Hawaiian?”

“Mace is fine,” Roxie told Smithie and I caught Indy rol ing her eyes at me.

Smithie’s gaze sliced back through the room and then stopped on Roxie. “Where’s your man?”

“Hank’s fine too,” Roxie smiled.

“
Oo, girl!
” LaTeesha suddenly screamed, making me jump before she surged toward Roxie. “When’d you get that ring?”

My body went stil as my eyes moved to Roxie’s hand which, I noticed, now sported a sparkling diamond engagement ring.

Then my stomach pitched in a happy way when Roxie’s gaze found mine and she smiled at me.

I smiled back.

“She and Hank got engaged last night,” Ava shared and I looked at Ava who was also smiling huge.

LaTeesha’s happy face turned back to Roxie who had her hand in LaTeesha’s, ring pointed skyward.

“Was he sweet?” LaTeesha asked.

“Was he sweet?” LaTeesha asked.

“Oh yes,” Roxie said softly.

“It wasn’t sweet. It was
hot,
” Daisy put in.

Al y placed her hands over her ears and chanted, “La-la-la, not-listening-to-the-story-of-my-brother-proposing-while-doing-the-nasty-one-more-time, la-la-la.” Wow.

That sounded like a hel uva proposal.

“Wicked,” Sniff breathed, his eyes on the blushing Roxie.

Indy bit her lip but her body was shaking with laughter.

Jet giggled.

My gaze moved over the Hot Bunch and they were al avoiding eyes, shifting on their feet and trying to control grins.

“Um, excuse me, but didn’t one of ya’l get shot at this morning?” Smithie barked at the Hot Bunch, jerking us out of our happy moment. “Now, I’m not one to tel anyone how to go about their business…” he went on and Jet made a noise that sounded like a snort and LaTeesha’s eyes got huge. “But it’s one thing to shoot at your girls while they got your badasses covering
their
tight asses and, I’l admit, that’s some crazy shit but it’s a whole other thing to break into a house and shoot at a woman with kids under her roof.

Now, I’m thinkin’ you boys have things to do.”

“Smithie, sweetie –” LaTeesha said softly.

“It’s covered, Smithie,” Shirleen put in.

“Yeah, it’l
be
covered,” Smithie snapped at Shirleen.

“You’re movin’ your black ass in with me tonight and you’re bringin’ the boys. LaTeesha, that okay with you?”

“Just fine. I’l make chicken and dumplin’s,” LaTeesha replied on a wide grin at Roam and Sniff.

“Can we have pizza?” Sniff asked.

Shirleen cuffed him gently up the side of his head.

“What’s the matter with you, boy? You heard the woman.

LaTeesha’s makin’ chicken and dumplin’s. You’re eatin’

chicken and dumplin’s.”

“I like chicken and dumplin’s,” Roam put in.

“See? We’l be fine,” LaTeesha finished.

“Yeah, we’l be fine ‘cause I got myself a shotgun and I bought you that .38 last year for Christmas,” Smithie told LaTeesha. “That’l make us
just
fine.”

“I’m not hearing this,” Eddie muttered and walked out the door.

“Smithie, I want your address. You just got put on the drive-by route,” Lee said to Smithie and he walked out, Smithie fol owing him muttering what I thought was, “Damn straight”.

After that, the Hot Bunch filed out. Luke and Vance after giving Ava and Jules some PDA. Hector after asking me if I knew about the meeting on Thursday with Dixon Jones.

LaTeesha fol owed Matt who was going to take her to Lee and Smithie. Roam and Sniff fol owed Bobby who was going to take them to the TV in the safe room.

This left the room fil ed with Rock Chicks, Tex and Duke.

And for some reason everyone had eyes on me.

I didn’t think this was a good thing.

Therefore, to deflect attention off me, I turned to Roxie and said, “Congratulations, Roxie. That’s cool.” She smiled and said, “Yeah.”

“Ava, sugar, go get Stel a a cup of coffee,” Daisy said softly and a chil ran up my spine as Ava nodded and took off on her errand.

“What’s up?” I asked as I realized I’d failed at deflecting attention off of me.

“You hear from Mace, darlin’?” Tex asked and I stared at him.

Shitsofuckit.

I had to lie.

“Erm…” I said instead of flat out lying.

“I’m not sure I agree with this,” Al y put in, her voice far softer than normal and that chil that went up my spine chased its way back down.

“I don’t wanna talk about Mace,” I tried to waylay whatever they had planned but Daisy got up, walked to my chair and pul ed me out of it.

“I think you need to be on the couch for this one,” she said to me as she walked me to the couch.

Not good.

“Listen, guys, seriously, Mace and I are over and –” I started again but Daisy ignored me and pushed me down onto the couch.

While Daisy was doing this, Jet pul ed Daisy’s chair close to me and sat on it. It wasn’t her actions that made me stop talking. It was the look on her face.

“Sometimes a Rock Chick needs a little help from her friends,” Jet said quietly.

“And sometimes her friends need to know when to back off,” I replied just as quietly.

Not being a bitch or anything but whatever this was, it was unnecessary.

Of course, they didn’t know that but stil .

“Yeah, and now isn’t one of those times,” Duke put in, sitting down beside me, his arm coming to rest on the back of the couch behind me, his big body turned to mine.

“Duke –” I started.

“Would’ve preferred Mace share this with you in his own time but that time’s a-wastin’ and bul ets are flyin’. It took the girls awhile to talk me into this shit last night but they did.”

“Real y, Duke –” I protested.

“Quiet, girl, and listen,” Duke halted my protest then he asked, “How much you know about Mace, his daddy and his sister?”

Oh.

That was it.

“Everything,” I semi-lied. I
would
know everything, eventual y.

Duke’s brows went up. “Everything?”

I nodded.

“You know Mace’s sister was kidnapped?” Jet asked softly.

I nodded, this time to Jet.

“You know her Dad hired some commandos to try to rescue her and it went bad?” Jet went on.

Uh-oh.

I didn’t know that.

That didn’t sound too good.

My heart started beating a mile a minute and I tried to cover.

Nodding again, I lied, “I know everything.” Then as proof I offered, “I know she was murdered and Mace holds himself responsible.”

“So why’re you and Mace estranged, sugar? I can’t believe you know what happened and you’d let that man go on alone,” Daisy asked.

Erm.

I didn’t have a response to that so I said, “It’s complicated.”

“Just knowing about her hand would make it so I never left his side,” Al y muttered, my mile-a-minute beating heart skipped to a halt and I stared at her.

She looked a little bit angry and that anger was directed at me.

I didn’t have time for Al y’s anger.

“Her hand?” I breathed, finding I was fighting for air.

They al looked at each other.

“You don’t know everything,” Tex’s boom was low and he was looking pale.

“What about Caitlin’s hand?” I went on.

“Stel a –” Duke started.

I twisted to Duke and grabbed his forearm, my voice sounding strained and desperate (exactly how I felt) when I said, “Tel me about her effing hand.”

Duke’s eyes lifted to Tex, my fingers squeezed his arm; he looked back to me and sighed.

Then he said quietly, “After the commandos botched the rescue job, in retaliation, her kidnappers cut off her hand and sent it to her father in a –”

He didn’t finish.

I jumped from the couch, eyes on Indy, and whispered,

“Bathroom.”

I didn’t wait for her to answer, I ran from the room. I got into the hal and Indy was there, hands on me, guiding me. I was making gagging noises, hand over my mouth, I barely made it into and through Lee’s office to his bathroom when I hit my knees, tagged the bowl with my arms and hurled eggs benedict into the toilet.

Indy held back my hair as my body lurched through vomiting and then the dry heaves.

When I’d finished, I sat on my ass, back to the wal . Indy gave me a wet washcloth to wipe my mouth as she flushed the toilet.

Then she sat down, close by my side.

I put my hands over my face, the washcloth clenched in one of them. My stomach hurt, I tasted the sour vomit in my mouth but al I could think about was how Mace was that morning.

“Honey,” Indy whispered.

“He loved her hands,” I whispered back. “He told me they were exquisite.”

Al of a sudden I was in Indy’s arms and her voice broke when she muttered, “Oh, honey.”

My chest was moving. I felt it, like it was working for air and not getting any. I was breathing through my nose, the breath coming hard. I could feel the exhalations against my lips but al that work and nothing was getting to my lungs.

My eyebal s felt like they’d grown ten times their normal size and wanted to force their way out of my head.

Mace’s words sounded in my brain.

Jesus, I’ll never forget the way she moved her hands.

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Sh, honey, quiet,” Indy mumbled.

I reared back, looked in her face which was blurry with my tears but I could see she was shedding her own. I’d never known Indy to cry, she wasn’t a crying type of girl.

Even if this surprised and touched me, I needed to move on, and fast.

“Get Duke,” I demanded.

“I’m here, darlin’.” Duke was standing in the door, al the Rock Chicks and Tex behind him, Ava was holding my cup of coffee.

“Let’s go, everyone out,” Tex herded the Rock Chicks away as Indy left me and Duke came in.

He sat down next to me, one leg bent, one straight out, his wrist resting on his bent knee.

Tex shut the door and we were alone.

I turned to Duke and since he wasn’t a Rock Chick, I figured Mace wouldn’t get mad at me when I blurted, “We’re back together. Mace and me. He came home to me last night and we worked it out.” I watched the blurry surprise hit Duke’s face and continued, “We have to pretend we’re not back together because his Dad is playing some kind of game. So we have to keep it a secret.”

“Al right, love,” he replied, his gravel y voice deeper and I knew it was with emotion which I had to ignore because I was holding on by a thread.

“He started to tel me about his sister but it’s hard on him. I have to let him tel me his own way,” I said.

Duke reached out and slid his fingers through my hair at my forehead, pul ing it back away from my face. “You’re bein’ smart.”

“The Rock Chicks can’t know about us being back together. And they can’t tel me anymore about what happened to Caitlin.”

“I’l talk to the girls.”

“But you have to tel me.”

Silence then a gentle, “Stel a, I’m not sure –” I leaned into him. “Duke, I just hurled because I couldn’t take it. If it gets worse, I can’t let him see that. I have to be strong for him. He’s being strong for me. You have to tel me. I have to be prepared.”