Rock Chick 08 Revolution (38 page)

Good question.

Ren kept going.

“And I didn’t grow up in the life. Until we got back to Denver, I had
no fuckin’ clue. Then when I had a clue, I didn’t want it and that shit was forced
on me. I didn’t like that. They pulled me in and I worked my ass off to keep my
shit as separate as I could,” his eyes locked on mine, “but I’m not clean,
Ally. Far from it. I know what they do. I’m in on meetings where decisions are
made. And I’ve made decisions. I’ve also carried them out. I’m removed and I’m
not.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“Yeah, you know,” he said, eyes still holding mine. “Before you knew
any of this, you accepted me. And that was not a test, baby. Just circumstances
that prevented you from knowin’ where I was at. But gotta say, I’m glad to know
it.”

I leaned in and touched my mouth to his.

He put a hand to my neck and slid it up into my hair to hold me there
so my mouth touch lasted longer and included some tongue.

Only then did he let me go, but when I resumed my position, I did it
closer.

“So how’s that all gonna go for you? Disconnecting from the business?”
I asked.

Again his eyes caught mine in an intent way that made me brace.

“Your brothers know. Lee’s men know. Marcus knows. Now I’m gonna tell
you,” he said softly, but his soft voice was not his sweet voice.

It was a voice that was telling me to brace.

Luckily, I already was. I just did it more.

“What are you gonna tell me?” I asked.

He leaned into me and his hand went back to the side of my neck and
stayed there when he declared, “You do not fuck with me, Ally. This disconnect
with Vito is gonna go fine, because the people who I deal with in my business
understand that.” He paused. “And why.”

“You’re a made man,” I whispered my guess.

His head moved back an inch and his eyes narrowed. “What?”

Why was he asking “what?”

“You’re, uh,
not
a
made man?”

Ren said nothing and stared at me.

“Ren?” I prompted when this went on
a while.

“We’re Sicilian, babe, but we’re
not
Cosa Nostra.
”

My head jerked. “You aren’t?”

“Fuck no. If we were, I’d never get
out.”

Wow.

I did not know this.

How did I not know this?

I mean, I didn’t know everything
that went down in Denver and I’d purposefully never gotten into Zano business,
but I knew a lot.

Just not this.

“I just assumed—” I started.

“We aren’t clean,” Ren interrupted
me. “Vito’s into a variety of shit that his father was into and his father’s
father started. But they left New York to come to Denver to leave that shit
behind and do their own thing.”

“Oh,” I mumbled.

“Fuck, you thought my family was
mafia?” he asked, his voice getting louder. Which, by the way, was not a good
sign.

What it was was a sign that we were
moving out of easy.

“Actually, I—”

“Jesus,” he clipped. “I was gonna say
this is gonna go fine, not because if it doesn’t, I’ll whack anybody who fucks
with me. Just that they all know I know how to take care of myself and my
family. I’ve proved that in a variety of ways. I’ve also not hesitated proving
it
or
getting creative. So they’ve
learned not to fuck with me.” He scowled at me and repeated, “Jesus.”

I didn’t know what to say. I
personally didn’t think that it was a huge leap to make, him being Sicilian and
the nephew of a third generation crime boss, but it was also an assumption that
didn’t shine a great light on me.

“Ren, your family does certain…
things.
And they’re Italian.
Sicilian
Italian. Your dad was whacked.
And Vito can be scary. I put two and two together—”

“And made twelve.”

Oh man.

I put a hand on his chest and
leaned in. “You’re right. I’m sorry. That was totally uncool.
Totally.
Really, I’m sorry.” I tipped my
head to the side and pressed my hand into his chest “Forgive me?”

“For thinkin’ I’m an underboss?”

Hmm.

Time to shut my mouth.

See, I’d been stupid and I’d
apologized.

And he hadn’t accepted.

I offended him and maybe his
acceptance was going to take a few minutes.

So I was going to give them to him
before I lost my patience and pointed out (in a perhaps snotty or sarcastic
way) that he should accept my apology.

“I’ll just take the dishes down to
the sink,” I muttered, moving to exit the bed.

Instead of getting out of the bed,
my coffee mug was pulled from my hand, put on the nightstand
, and I was shoved back into position facing
Ren.

“All this time, you thought you were fuckin’ a wiseguy?” he asked.

“Um…” I mumbled, because I did. It was just that he was angry and I
didn’t want to say it out loud.

“You did. You thought you were fuckin’ a wiseguy,” he pressed.

I pushed my lips to the side.

“And you let me in there,” he went on.

“Yes,” I whispered.

He stared at me.

I fought squirming.

Then he burst out laughing.

I stopped fighting squirming and
glared.

“What’s funny?” I snapped.

His hand shot out and hooked me behind
the neck, pulling me into him even as he leaned close.

“Christ, you love me so much, I was
so damned
in there,
you accepted me
as a wiseguy.”

I had a feeling I was never going
to hear the end of that.

“Just saying, Zano, if you’re
looking for new career paths, I’d prefer you veer from that one,” I returned.

“Babe, you thought I was already on
it.”

This sucked, but it was true.

“Whatever,” I muttered, yanking at
his hand at my neck and looking anywhere but at him.

“Ally,” he called.

“What?” I asked the bedpost.

“Baby, give me your eyes.”

He was talking sweet.

I heaved a sigh and gave him my
eyes.

“So, I want a stay-at-home mom and
you give me a badass PI. You accepted a wiseguy and got whatever I am. We’re a
fuckin’ pair.”

We were.

I looked into his eyes and wondered
how on earth we were working.

Then it hit me I shouldn’t think on
that too much. We were. That was all that mattered.

“I suppose I should thank you for
giving up your six figure part of a criminal empire for me,” I said somewhat
ungraciously.

This made him smile and pull me
closer as his eyes dropped to my mouth and his lips murmured, “You’re welcome,
honey.”

“Now, I need to go out and run off
my French toast,” I informed him.

His eyes came back to mine just as
his lips hit mine and he replied, “Oh, we’ll work it off.”

A shiver slid over my skin and my
happy place got happy.

His head slanted, his lips pressed
to mine and his tongue slid inside.

We then proceeded to work off the
French toast
and
the sausages.

I wasn’t sure what we did would help
me stay in shape should I have to outrun bad guys.

But it was
a whole lot
better than running.

Chapter Twenty

Welcome to the Family

“You good?” Ren asked, and I looked from my place in the passenger seat
to him behind the wheel of his Jag.

“I’m good,” I answered. “You good?”

He grabbed my hand, gave it a squeeze and rested it on his thigh. “I’m
good.”

I looked out the windshield.

Even though we were heading to have dinner with Mom and Dad, I
was
good.

This mostly had to do with the fact that Ren instigated Operation Two
Year Fuck-a-Thon today. Ren got out of bed to make us these awesome toasted
roast beef sandwiches with peppers, mushrooms and melted cheese for lunch, and
we both got out of bed about an hour and a half ago to take a shower. The rest
of the time was in bed making love or holding close, touching and whispering,
or snoozing to prepare for more making love.

It was righteous.

So since we had no fights or breakups and nothing exploded, but I’d had
seven orgasms, I was all set for dinner with my man and my parents.

“Date night tomorrow night, baby,” Ren said on another hand squeeze,
and I looked at him.

“Okay, but I have a meeting at Lee’s office to discuss my future career
plans tomorrow evening, so we’ll have to go after that.”

“What the fuck?” he asked, eyes narrowing on the road.

“It’ll be cool,” I assured him. “I’ll talk them around but if I—”

“No, babe,” he bit out. “What the
fuck?
”

I looked forward.

My parents lived in Bonnie Brae, which was just off the very popular
‘hood where I lived, Washington Park. Wash Park
surrounded a massive park-slash-hotspot that even in the winter was teeming
with activity. It was practically impossible to find a parking spot in Wash Park.
Bonnie Brae, unless you were close to Bonnie Brae Tavern, didn’t have the same
problem.

But lining the curbs outside Mom and Dad’s house were not only Lee’s
Crossfire and Hank’s 4Runner but also a shiny black Caddy, a semi-sporty
Hyundai coupe, a Chevy SUV, a Honda Accord and a GMC Acadia.

“There’s a space in front of the Acadia, Zano,” I pointed out, and it
was only two car lengths down from Mom and Dad’s, so I wasn’t certain what the
big deal was. Still, maybe Ren was feeling nervous so I said, “Sorry that Lee
and Hank are here, even though we didn’t know they were coming. But they’ll be
cool. And all these cars mean one of the neighbors is having a little
get-together.”

“One of your neighbors isn’t having a get-together, babe. The Acadia’s Dom’s. The Honda is Connie’s. The Chevy,
Jeannie’s. Hyundai, Ma. And the Caddy belongs to Vito and Angela.”

I stared at the lineup of cars.

Holy shit!

Ambush!

“Are you serious?” I asked, sounding like I hoped to God he wasn’t,
mostly because
I hoped to God he wasn’t!

“Yes, unfortunately,” he answered, putting on the brakes to swing in in
front of the Acadia, which would mean he intended to park.

“What are you doing?” I yelled.

He stopped the car and looked at me. “Parking.”

“Don’t park. Do
not
park.
Drive on. I just got a really bad headache, period cramps and I think that
French toast gave me food poisoning. I’ll text Mom. She’ll understand.”

Ren didn’t listen to me. He swung into the spot, and while looking over
his shoulder to reverse closer to the bumper of the Acadia, he spoke to me. “Of
all that, I really hope you’re kidding about the period cramps.”

Like I’d have sex during a bout of food poisoning.

“Zano!” I snapped.

He put the car in park and turned his attention to me.

“Is this my Ally, scared of nothing?” he asked, sounding slightly
pissed, but also slightly teasing, and I knew the former was for his family,
the latter for me.

Still, I gritted my teeth.

He reached out a hand and curled it around the side of my neck, and
when he spoke again there was no more teasing. “Do you think your mom planned
this?”

“Absolutely not,” I answered.

“So I mentioned to Dom at the wedding yesterday I was havin’ dinner
with your folks tonight. Dom opened his mouth and Vito did what Vito does. He
horned in,” he deduced.

“Probably.”

His voice was just pissed when he said, “Don’t worry. I’ll get rid of
them.”

“Do that fast,” I ordered, then explained my eagerness for him to be
rude, “See, Mom and Dad will be cool with you because I love you. I don’t love
Vito and Angela, and Dad
really
doesn’t love at least Vito. So he’s probably in there, about to have an
aneurysm because Mom won’t let him be mean to guests. Even surprise ones. Even
ones who engage in criminal activities. And anyway, knowing what you mean to
me, he definitely won’t want to be mean in front of your mom and sisters. The
problem is, Mom likely instigated the Lee and Hank being here thing without
telling us, which means Dad also doesn’t have the upper hand. So he’s screwed,
and he won’t like that.”

To all that, Ren’s answer was simply, “Like I said, Ally. Don’t worry,
I’ll get rid of them.”

He let me go and turned to his door, but a thought occurred to me, I
grabbed his wrist and yanked.

He turned back to me.

“You can’t get rid of your mom and sisters, so you just have to get rid
of Vito, Angela, Dom and Sissy.”

Something else occurred to me and I yanked again at his wrist.

“No. Not Sissy, because she’s a sister, so you can’t get rid of her,
which means we’re stuck with Dom, too. Which also probably means were stuck
with Vito. Shit!”

Ren twisted his wrist to grab my hand and hold it tight as he leaned
into me, and I noticed his eyes studying me.

Intently.

“You’re freaked,” he whispered, and his voice sent a chill over my
skin.