Rock Chick 08 Revolution (49 page)

Herb stormed off.

Trish turned to me. “Roxie told me you’ve found yourself a man.”

“I have, Mrs. Logan,” I confirmed.

“Run,” she stated then huffed away.

When she did, Jules moved in, noting, “The requisite Herb and Trish
scene.”

I grinned at her. “I’m kinda bummed it happened so soon and didn’t last
very long.”

She grinned back at me then reached for some cashews.

As she did, a thought occurred to me and I went with it.

“Hey, Jules, can I talk to you about something?”

She popped the cashews in her mouth, chewed, swallowed and answered,
“Sure.”

“I’m worried about Darius,” I told her.

When I said that, her eyes scanned the crowd and mine did, too. What I
took in was the fact that we were only an hour into the party portion of the
festivities, but both Darius and Jane, who attended the nuptials and showed at
Blanca’s, were gone.

I also saw Ren smiling down at a talking Roxie who was standing next to
an also-smiling-down-at Roxie Hank. My brother (as usual) had his wife tucked
close to his side.

Warmth (or more warmth; since I took my spot next to Duke to stand up
with Tex, I was pretty suffused with warmth) spread through me.

“He’s bailed,” Jules noted, and I tore my eyes off my man and looked at
her.

“Yeah. He always bails,” I said. “The question is,
why?
He’s safe here. The people here care about him. He cares about
the people here. So why does he accept our acceptance but stay on the fringe?”

Jules didn’t even consider this question before she spoke.

“Vance told me about him,” she said softly. “He said his father was
murdered because of something his brother-in-law was into. He had nothing to do
with it. It was a warning.”

“I know,” I told her, and I did. I knew all of Darius’s fucked up sad
story.

“Vance also said that this Leon guy, Shirleen’s dead husband, offered
Darius a chance at retribution, along with providing for his family, if he got
involved in Leon’s business,” Jules went on.

“I know that, too,” I replied. “And he was young and made a stupid
decision and got caught up in that. But now he’s not in that anymore, Jules,
and hasn’t been for a while. But he acts like…” I shook my head. “I don’t know.
Like he doesn’t belong when he does. He always has. When given the chance, and
I’ll admit, he didn’t give us many—but he stayed close to Lee and Eddie—but
when we had the chance, we always acted like he belonged. Shirleen slid right
in. I don’t know why Darius won’t let himself do that. And that’s just it. He
won’t
let himself.
”

A gravelly voice came from our sides, answering my question. “He hasn’t
atoned.”

Surprised, I looked up at Duke. And I was not only surprised at what he
said, but that he was anywhere near me.

“Can I steal Ally?” he asked Jules.

Oh shit.

“Sure,” Jules answered, eyeing us both.

Duke curved his fingers around my bicep.

I looked at Jules and asked, “Can you just keep a professional eye on
Darius? I’m trying to figure out a way to get in there and maybe you can help.”

“No problem,” she said on a smile. “Happy to.”

Duke let me get that in then led me away—
far
away from the happy, laughing, talking, boisterous crowd to its
very edge by the fence gate.

When he stopped us, he took his hand from my arm.

I took a deep breath and looked up at him.

“Duke—”

“Dolores and I had a son,” he announced, and I snapped my mouth shut.

I didn’t know that.

No clue.

Oh fuck.

I didn’t like how this was starting.

“He was on his bike, ridin’ around in the street in front of our house
one afternoon, and he was hit by drunk driver.”

Oh
fuck.

That I didn’t only not like, I fucking hated it.

“He was eight,” Duke went on.

Oh my God.

“Duke,” I whispered.

“Dolores, she had a time of it throughout the pregnancy, and she was in
labor for seventy-eight hours. Finally, both her and my boy in distress, they
took him. But I almost lost them both.”

Oh my God.

“So obviously,” he continued. “I wasn’t big on gettin’ her knocked up
again. Dolores wanted more. I wouldn’t hear of it.” He stared at me hard. “In
the end, he was all we had.”

“I didn’t know,” I said quietly.

“No one does. Except Ellen. That’s why we dropped out. Left Cali. Came
home. And probably Lee knows, since he checks out everything. But he also keeps
his mouth shut when he needs to.”

I nodded.

“It was afternoon, Ally,” he told me.

“What?” I asked.

“My Joshua got all his bones broke, his insides mashed, his head caved
in by some guy who spent his day gettin’ soused and got behind the wheel of a
car
in the afternoon.
What kid can’t
be safe ridin’ around on the streets in front of his house in the fuckin’
afternoon?”

I shook my head because I didn’t have the answer to that. “It doesn’t
make sense.”

He nodded. “It sure the fuck doesn’t.”

I said nothing.

Duke did. “It wasn’t too late. We could try again. But it broke us,
both of us. Nearly lost Dolores. She couldn’t bear any memory of him, even me.
But we got past it, left the life we shared with our boy, and decided not to
try again. But it left a hole, Ally. A hole that I didn’t think could be filled,
losin’ my kid, not havin’ another one. I bloody gaping hole.”

“I get that,” I whispered.

“And it was filled when you and Indy came into my life.”

My stomach shifted back like I’d been punched just as my heart
squeezed.

“You two, so fuckin’ nuts, hangin’ with Ellen at the store, always
gettin’ into trouble. Fell in love with you both the minute I laid eyes on
you.”

My eyes burning, my voice croaky, I said, “Duke.”

“So you, out there on your own, doin’ dangerous shit, not talkin’ to
your family about it, your friends,
me…
”
He shook his head. “Pissed me off.”

Now I understood. God, I understood.

“I’m so sorry,” I said gently.

“I was worried about you.”

Wanting to touch him, unsure if I should but regardless, paralyzed with
the pain of hearing everything he said, I just stood there and repeated, “I’m
so sorry.”

“But then word got out about what happened at Lincoln’s. Tex told me
everything. He wouldn’t have told you, but he was proud of you, girl. Nearly
crowin’ about it. Said you knew exactly what you were doin’. Said, top to toe,
through and through, you’re a Nightingale.”

My throat closed.

Freaking
loved
Tex.

“It was then,” he carried on, “I realized that there would come a time
in Joshua’s life, a time me and Dolores didn’t get to, when we’d have to let
go. We’d have to let him be his own man. Live his own life. And it was then I
realized I’d been an ass because I was pissed at you, but I had to let you do
the same thing.”

“Right,” I replied, my voice still husky.

“So I gotta do that and stand by you. Not be pissed. You left that
message, it took me a while and Dolores reamed my ass, but here I am, suckin’
it up to apologize for bein’ pissed-off instead of givin’ you the freedom to
fly.”

I said nothing again. Just swallowed (hard) and nodded.

“Now, sayin’ that, you be careful and you come to me whenever you need
me.”

“Okay, Duke,” I forced out through a tight throat.

“Whenever you need me, Ally.”

I nodded.

He stared at me.

I let him then whispered, “Love you, Duke.”

“Same,” he grunted.

That made me smile. It trembled but I did it.

“Now, Darius,” he stated then cleared his throat, and I knew we were
moving on and I was freaking grateful for it.

“Yeah?” I prompted.

“Scored dark marks in his own soul, darlin’.”

“I know, Duke, but—”

He shook his head and I shut up.

“I been watchin’. That boy isn’t on the path to redemption. What he’s
doin’ is bidin’ his time and givin’ himself that time to be with the people who
mean somethin’ to him. Doin’ it knowin’ that’s as good as he’s gonna get,
‘cause what he’s facin’ is damnation and he can’t do a thing about it.”

My back went straight. “That isn’t true.”

“You’re right. It isn’t. That doesn’t mean that man doesn’t believe it
down to his bones.”

Shit.

“Your challenge,” he got closer to me, “
our
challenge, is to convince him differently.”

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“Two choices. We do what we’re doin’ and hope he wakes up, looks around
and understands he’s not thinkin’ right. Or we snap him out of it.”

“I’m for the snapping him out of it option,” I mumbled.

“Me too,” Duke replied.

“Okay, how do we do that?” I asked.

“Hell if I know,” he answered.

Great.

“I just know in dealin’ with you women, there’s always the time, the
right time when you can do somethin’ that’ll get through the walls, seed, bud
and grow, and that’s when you plant the wisdom. So we just gotta wait for the
right time to plant that seed.”

I nodded because this was sage. He was right and I’d watched him do it
time and again with the Rock Chicks so I also knew it worked.

It sucked. I was losing patience with this and didn’t want to have to
exercise more.

But he was right.

“Thanks, Duke.”

 
He jerked up his chin before he
looked across the yard and muttered, “Best get back to Dolores.”

“Okay.”

He looked back at me. “You’re a good kid, Ally.”

I smiled at him but warned, “Thanks. But if you make me want to cry
again, I’m kicking you in the shin.”

He shook his head, mouth twitching, and sauntered away.

I was about to hightail my ass to the bar and order a tequila shooter
from Willie when I was suddenly set upon by Roam and Sniff.

I looked at the two teenagers.

Roam and Sniff had been runaways that Jules talked into her shelter.
She then grew close to them. So close, Roam took a bullet for her in an attempt
to save her life.

After that, Shirleen took them under her wing and they’d been living
with her since. And when I said “took them under her wing,” I meant she treated
them like they were her own. In other words, she mothered them as only Shirleen
would do. With sassy tough love.

But the operative word in that was
love.

Roam was a tall African American kid who’d always been good-looking. So
it wasn’t a surprise that as the months passed, he got a might taller, bulked
out, the boy started leaking out of his features and they were becoming all
man, and he was hitting downright handsome.

What was a surprise was that Sniff, always small, skinny with a face
riddled with acne, bloomed late. With Shirleen feeding him and getting him to a
dermatologist, he was no longer skinny and his face had cleared up. But he’d
hit a growth spurt and shot up five inches. Not only that, his features were
also maturing and doing it well.
Very
well.
So a kid that was always clever and funny now was giving his best bud a run for
his money in the looks department.

Seriously.

They still hung with Jules often, but they got their male influence by
hanging with Vance as well as the Hot Bunch. They spent a lot of time at
Nightingale Investigations, worked the surveillance room, did ride alongs and
worked out with the guys.

They loved it, totally got off on it in a way that it was not hard to
predict their future careers, and this would be proved irrevocably with what
would happen next.

“Got a minute, Ally?” Roam asked as both boy-men affected a huddle with
me.

“Yep,” I answered, examining them closely.

Total badasses-in-training. Their faces gave nothing away.

“We heard you’re workin’ the Smithie gig,” Sniff stated.

Oh man.

I tensed and repeated, “Yep.”

“The guys were talkin’ at the offices,” Sniff went on. “Overheard them
sayin’ you’re workin’ the bouncer angle.”

I wasn’t working anything just yet. But I didn’t tell them that. I just
nodded.

“So we’re lookin’ at the girls,” Roam declared.

I fought rolling my eyes. They were both seventeen, nearly eighteen. So
I was not shocked that they’d take this stripper job opportunity to “look at” a
bunch of strippers.