Rock Chick Reckoning

by Kristen Ashley

  “No, you’re gonna walk out, like, right now.” Lee answered.

  The customer’s mouth dropped open at Lee’s deep voice and threatening tone then he whispered, “Have you ever killed anyone?”

  Lee leaned in threateningly. “Do you mean today?”

  At that, the customer took the hint, did another store swipe with his eyes then he took off.

  Lee locked the door behind him.

  “It’s like that all the fuckin’ time,” Tex boomed. “I’m gonna kill whoever’s talkin’ to the papers. Either they act star struck, like I’m Paul Fuckin’ Newman, or they expect me to be nice to them, like I fuckin’ care they’re breathin’. Only good thing about it is the tip jar needs to be emptied three times a day. I’m thinkin’ about getting one of those kitty water bowls that refill with fresh water all the time, like a kitty fountain.”

  Stella was still staring at Tex who had, not five minutes ago, talked about blowing up a building and now he was talking about kitty water fountains.

  Nobody else thought this was unusual.

  Mainly because it wasn’t.

  There came knocking at the door and Daisy, Lana and Chloe were there with Mace. Lee opened the door and they rushed in.

  “Any of you hug me, I’m gonna snap your neck,” Tex boomed.

  Lana skidded to a halt. Chloe went pale. Daisy ignored Tex totally, powered through the store, shouldered through the people behind the counter and threw her short arms as far as she could get them around his wide bulk.

  “Woman!” Tex shouted, aggrieved.

  “Shut up,” Daisy whispered but her voice broke in the middle and we heard a muted sob.

  The room went still. Everyone looked at everyone else and I saw Roxie’s eyes fill with tears.

  Tex relaxed and his arms moved around Daisy.

  “I’m okay, darlin’,” he muttered.

  That’s when Daisy reared back and started hitting him with her little fists.

  “Don’t you scare me like that again, Tex MacMillan, or I’ll kick your ass!” she yelled.

  For a second, Tex looked surprised.

  Then he let out a bark of laughter.

  “Shit woman, like you could kick my ass,” Tex hooted.

  Roxie pulled Daisy away and suggested, “Why don’t you let Uncle Tex make you a latte?”

  “Damn straight,” Daisy snapped. “Mocha, double chocolate,” and then she swiped at her running mascara.

  “Maybe you should go to the bathroom and do that,” Jet suggested.

  Daisy whirled on Tex and pointed in his face. “Now you’ve ruined my mascara!”

  On that, she stomped off to the back of the store where there was a staff, Rock Chicks and Hot Bunch Only bathroom.

  “It’s okay. We’re not normally this crazy,” Jet told Lana and Chloe.

  “Yes we are,” Ally muttered.

  “What am I standin’ here for, my health?” Tex boomed, already banging out Daisy’s mocha. “Anyone need a fuckin’ coffee?”

  Duke moved forward to take Lana and Chloe to the counter.

  I turned and saw Mace had claimed Stella. She was tucked to his front, her head under his chin, her arms around his waist, his arms around hers. Then one of his hands lifted and his fingers curled around her neck. Her head tilted back and he smiled down at her. I’d only seen Mace smile a few times in our acquaintance but I’d never seen him smile like that. You could actually see her body melt into his as she returned his smile.

  I turned my eyes away because I found something about this too intimate to watch.

  I’d known Mace for months but he was the only Nightingale Man I didn’t know well. Now, knowing his story, I knew why.

  Everyone thought Vance and my story was heartbreaking but Mace’s made ours look like we’d grown up with Ozzie and Harriet.

  Stella was a flat out miracle worker.

  “Never thought I’d see that,” Ava whispered to me, a jerk of her head indicating Mace and Stella but her eyes weren’t on them either.

  “Nope,” I agreed.

  “It’s good to see,” she went on and I grinned at her.

  “Yep,” I agreed.

  * * * * *

  Vance came home late that night, climbing up to the platform where our bed was and waking me. I usually slept hard and deep but I always woke when Vance got home, even if it was for a few moments.

  “Hey,” I whispered.

  “Go back to sleep,” he muttered, fitting himself to my back from shoulders to heels and putting his hand to my belly.

  I rolled and Boo, who was tucked into the crook of my lap, got up on a disgruntled, “Meow!” and stalked off the end of the bed.

  Vance shifted so I could press us together front-to-front.

  I put my hands on his chest and asked softly, “You angry at Roam?”

  “I was workin’ my way to that. But seein’ as it worked out in the end, I didn’t see any reason to get in his face about it. We had a talk though. If there’s a next time, he knows to call me,” Vance answered. “Anyway, he told me what he did. They’d checked out the building. No cars, no noises, no people they could see. Tex was in a windowless room and, for obvious reasons, not makin’ a lot of noise. They thought the place was empty. Sniff’s orders were to phone if anyone approached the building. Roam was gonna call if they had company. There were some errors in judgment but it was good work. He’s learnin’.”

  I relaxed into him.

  Vance was a patient teacher.

  He was going to make an excellent father.

  “You get anything you could use out of Tex?” I asked.

  “A little, he was unconscious most of the time. The rest of the time he was alone and makin’ a homemade bomb,” Vance answered.

  “I thought you said Carter didn’t mess around.”

  “Usually, he doesn’t. It’s likely they wanted to play with him and wanted him conscious when they did it. They left Tex tied to a chair. He scooted to some metal shelves, used the sharp edge of the shelves to cut through the plastic. They probably didn’t expect him to get loose. They definitely weren’t expecting him to know how to build a bomb. We’re guessin’ they were goin’ back but they got lots of other shit keepin’ them occupied these days.”

  That was a lucky break. A scary one (in many ways) but lucky all the same.

  “Do you think he’ll give up?” I asked.

  “Carter?” he asked back.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “First Shirleen guns down one of his assassins in her living room then Tex blows up one of his buildings,” I explained. “Any sane person would give up.”

  “Sidney Carter is a lot of things. I’m not sure sane is one of them.”

  This was not good news.

  “Eddie and Hank getting anywhere?” I continued my mini-interrogation.

  “Yeah, Carter’s operation is in disarray. Some of his men are talkin’, makin’ deals. More warrants are goin’ out. It’s takin’ time but it’s lookin’ good.”

  “So, it’ll be over soon?”

  “Maybe. They don’t find him, Carter’s gonna start gettin’ desperate. That’s what I’m worried about.”

  I snuggled closer. “It’ll all be okay.”

  Vance sighed then shared, “I don’t know if you noticed this, Princess, but we started with Indy getting kidnapped repeatedly. Jet nearly got raped. Roxie got the shit beat out of her. You were shot, twice. Ava was violated and nearly exploded in car. Now everyone’s a target and there’s a man out there who’s desperate. I don’t like it. It does not give me a good feeling.”

  “We’ll survive,” I whispered.

  “Yeah, let’s just hope Hector and Ally get somethin’ on. That way, we can kill two birds with one fuckin’ stone and be done with this shit.”

  At his words, I burst out laughing.

  “I wasn’t bein’ funny,” he told me.

  I wrapped my arms tight around him. “I hate to disappoint you, honey, but Jet told me that Ally told her that Hector’s li
ke a cousin or something.”

  “Fuckin’ great,” he muttered and I let out a small giggle.

  It was his turn for his arms to grow tight.

  “Love to hear you laugh,” he muttered and my belly did a swoop.

  We fell into a comfortable silence for several long minutes.

  Then I told him, “They accepted the offer on the house.”

  His arms went even tighter. So did mine.

  It was a great house, just a few blocks away, only a couple doors down from where Lee and Indy lived. It had a nice, tidy yard with excellent landscaping, beautiful plants and mature trees. It had character, warmth and even a white picket fence.

  It made me want to laugh.

  I used to be a vigilante, head crackin’ mamma jamma who carried a gun, patrolled the streets and, at one time, took down a bail-jumping pimp and two of his working girls one after the other.

  Vance still was a badass mother.

  And we were moving into a house with a white picket fence.

  I couldn’t wait.

  “I’ll call the agent tomorrow, get him to fast-track it,” he told me.

  “What are we gonna do with three bedrooms and two and a half baths?” I asked.

  “Fill them with babies,” he answered and the belly swoop dipped deeper.

  Still, just to be annoying, I said, “This is the only child I’m having. Morning sickness sucks.”

  I heard him give a low, soft laugh before he informed me, “We’re havin’ four kids.”

  “Four!” I cried, my head tilting back to look at him in the moonlight.

  I loved looking at Vance any time but the best time was in the moonlight, when the planes and angles of his face were shadowed, both hard and soft but all beautiful, like he was to me.

  His chin tipped down and he looked at me. “Yeah, four.”

  “No way am I gonna have four kids.”

  “Four’s a good number.”

  “You carry four children in your body, puking every five minutes from morning until noon.”

  He grinned then his mouth touched mine. “Okay, then three.”

  I thought about it, pressing my lips together then I said, “All right. Three.”

  I saw, even in the moonlight, the looks of satisfaction and amusement that passed on his face and I realized he’d only ever wanted three kids.

  He’d just played me.

  “You’re annoying,” I told him.

  “You’ve mentioned that before,” he said back.

  His hand went up my back and into my hair, tipping my head down and then pressing my face into his throat. It moved away from my head but stayed tangled in my hair and I felt his fingers start to play with a tendril.

  We kept our silence and lay still and comfortable in each other’s arms.

  Finally, I asked, “You tired?”

  “Wiped,” he answered.

  I pressed deeper and kissed his throat.

  “Any chance of nighttime sex?” I asked there.

  He waited a beat then dropped to his back, taking me with him. In a flash, his hands were on my nightie, going up and then the nightie was gone.

  “You want it, you gotta do all the work,” he answered.

  I smiled.

  I wanted it so I was willing to do all the work.

  In fact, I didn’t often get a chance to do all the work, so I was looking forward to it.

  * * * * *

  It was some time later, I was on top, Vance inside me. I was moving at my pace and enjoying every stroke. One of his hands was at my hip, the other one between my legs, creating magic.

  “Closer, Princess,” he muttered and I leaned toward him. The fingers on his Magic Hand moved and I had to stop my descent to throw back my head and moan.

  “Closer,” he repeated when I’d stopped moaning (but I had started panting) and I got closer.

  My face was in his face, his hand not between my legs went from my hip into my hair.

  It fisted right before he said, his voice husky, his breath short, “I love to watch you ride me. Do you know how fuckin’ beautiful you are?”

  “Do you know how beautiful you are?” I returned on a pant because he was seriously causing some sensations between my legs and I was about ready to explode.

  He didn’t answer my question, instead, against my mouth, he noted, “You’re close.”

  I nodded.

  “I wanna hear it,” he told me, his voice had moved from husky to hoarse and I knew what he meant.

  “Vance,” I whispered, like I always whispered, always, right before he made me come.

  * * * * *

  “Jules,” Vance said sharply in my ear, his arm, tight around my midriff, was shaking me.

  I jolted awake, sweating and breathing heavily. When I opened my eyes, the shocking, bloody images from my subconscious were still vivid.

  “I’m awake,” I whispered but I was trembling and I felt Vance’s lips against my neck and his arm stayed tight. “I’m okay,” I told him.

  “I want you to see someone about these fuckin’ nightmares,” he growled against my skin.

  I had nightmares about what happened, mainly, that I shot someone in the head and killed them. Sometimes, I’d dream about me getting shot but mostly it was about me taking another person’s life.

  “After this current drama is over,” I told him.

  “Promise me, Jules,” he demanded.

  I scooted backwards and nestled my bottom into his groin. “I promise.”

  We fell silent and I waited for him to fall asleep like he normally did after he woke me from a nightmare.

  He didn’t fall asleep.

  Instead, he said, “You did what you did because you are who you are. I wouldn’t change one piece of you. You did it for Roam. You did it for survival.”

  “I know,” I said softly.

  Vance pressed closer. If you’d asked me if he could get closer, I would have said no but he did.

  “He was scum, Princess,” he murmured to the back of my head. “If we’d had two minutes to get to him, if Luke and I made it to him before shots were fired, either one of us would have taken him down. And doin’ it wouldn’t give either of us nightmares.”

  “I know,” I repeated.

  “He’d already killed Cordova. He’d beat the shit out of Roam and would have killed him too. You did what you had to do.”

  I closed my eyes tight and said, “I was the reason he was on a rampage.”

  “You blow his sister’s head off while he watched?” Vance asked.

  My body went still as his point penetrated deep.

  “Of course not,” I whispered.

  He put a hand to my midriff and pushed me to my back then he went up on an elbow and looked down at me.

  “You poured vegetable oil on dealers’ cars. You threw smoke bombs. Retaliation for that isn’t murder.”

  He was right.

  “You’re right,” I told him. “Except it was canola oil,” I corrected to lighten the mood.

  Vance didn’t feel like lightening the mood.

  “What are the alternatives for that night?” he asked me and I blinked.

  “What?”

  “You’re a good shot. You could have kept him alive even though he was aimin’ to kill. You kept aimin’ to maim, what would have happened?”

  “He probably would have shot me in the head,” I told him and this was true.

  “Roam too,” Vance pushed and I shivered.

  “Roam too,” I whispered.

  “Which means Sniff would be alone. No you, no Roam.”

  That didn’t bear thinking about so I shoved it aside immediately.

  Vance went on, “And I wouldn’t have you and you wouldn’t be pregnant with our son.”

  “Daughter,” I corrected quietly.

  “I don’t give a fuck what it is. It exists. It’s yours and mine and it’s gonna be here because of the split second decision you made to put a bullet in his brain.”

  “Cr
owe –”

  “Part of the reason I love you is because, despite the kind of person he was, you’re the kind of person who’d let this haunt you.” His mouth came to mine. “But, Jules, now you gotta let it go.”

  He was right about that too.

  I hated it when he was right.

  But I loved it when he told me he loved me.

  “I love you,” I said against his lips.

  I felt his mouth grin. “That’s good, since you’re married to me and havin’ my baby.”

  He gave me a swift kiss, pushed me back to my side and fitted himself against my body from shoulders to heels.

  His hand came to my belly.

  I was almost asleep again when I heard him say softly, “Anything happened to you, I’d be Nick.”

  I knew what he meant. My Uncle Nick had never recovered from Auntie Reba’s death. He existed and, on some level, he enjoyed life. He loved me and he respected and cared for Vance. We had a nice little family. But the light had gone when Auntie Reba died and it was never coming back.

  I knew this about Vance. I knew this was how much he loved me. I’d known it for ages.

  “I know,” I said.

  “I experienced that feeling for six hours while you were in surgery. I never want it back.”

  “Vance –”

  “I never want it back, Jules.”

  “Okay.”

  “You made the right decision when you aimed to kill.”

  I linked my fingers with his and held on tight. “Okay.”

  “Go to sleep.”

  I sighed then snapped (even though my heart wasn’t in it), “Stop telling me what to do.”

  His fingers tightened on mine but he didn’t answer.

  We fell asleep.

  And, for some reason, I never had another nightmare about that night.

  Never.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Gonna Pick a Fight with You Every Day

  Stella

  I was so deeply asleep, I woke when Mace and Juno’s weight hit the bed. I hadn’t even felt Juno leave the bed when Mace arrived at the door nor did I hear his key in the lock or him moving around the apartment.