At this, it was Roxie’s turn to go tight.
“Everyone’s got a fuckin’ shot on this one,” Tex said, sounding pissed off.
“Shit,” Hank muttered under his breath.
“What are they talking about?” I whispered to Roxie as I set my ice bag aside.
“I’ll tell you later,” she answered softly. “Do you want me to get you a drink? Herbal tea or something?”
“I’d love a Fat Tire,” I told her. “I’ll get it,” I got up and asked loudly, “Anyone want a beer?”
Roxie, Tex and the Hot Bunch were all looking at each other but I ignored them and headed toward the kitchen. I could swear I saw Lee’s eyes crinkle in a sexy smile that didn’t quite involve his mouth when I passed him. I didn’t know what that was about but I wasn’t in the mood to ask.
“Just me then,” I said as I hit the kitchen.
When my head was in the fridge, I heard Roxie say, “Maybe she’s in denial.”
“I’m not in denial,” I called into the other room.
“Damn,” Roxie whispered loudly.
I got myself a beer and walked back into the living room taking a long pull. This somewhat hurt my lip (okay, so it hurt my lip a lot) but I powered through it.
When I hit the living room again, Lee came up to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders curling me into his body.
It was then I saw that I got blood on his shirt where I had wiped my face.
“I got blood on your shirt,” I told him.
“Forget it,” he returned. “Look at me, Ava.”
My gaze lifted from his shoulder to his eyes. Close up I could see he had nice eyes, warm, chocolate brown.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You should go upstairs, lie down, talk to Roxie,” he suggested.
“I’m fine.”
Lee looked at Hank. “Maybe we should call Victim’s Assistance.”
“I’m fine,” I repeated, a lot louder and a lot snottier this time.
Lee looked back at me. “Okay, honey. You’re fine,” he said this in the way all men speak when they’re dealing with a stubborn, unreasonable woman. I just stopped myself from rolling my eyes.
Instead I offered, “I’ll clean your shirt. I’m good with stains. I can Shout it out like a pro. If I didn’t go into graphic design, I was going to go into dry cleaning.”
The eye wrinkle came back, it was a lot better close up, in fact it was positively magnetic.
So that’s why I was standing wrapped in Lee’s arm and staring at him like a lovesick puppy when the door opened and Luke walked in.
Everyone, including me, looked at Luke.
Luke looked unhappy. Not, “oh, they are out of my favorite donuts at LaMar’s” unhappy but a lot worse.
“Hey,” I said.
Luke’s eyes never left me even when he walked forward and even when Lee’s arm dropped from around me. We lost eye contact only when Luke pulled me into his arms and I had nowhere to put my face but against his chest but I chose the side of my face that wasn’t bruised and battered. He held me close but he didn’t hold me tight. He held me like you hold a newborn baby, gentle and with care.
Wow.
I forgot I was mad at him and on my way to St. Croix and I melted into him.
“I’m fine,” I repeated softly.
“Babe,” was all he said.
“Let’s give them a minute,” I heard Hank tell the crowd.
Lee got close and I lifted my head up and looked at him. The eye crinkle was gone, his face was totally serious and I knew what he was communicating.
I shook my head but he nodded his. I knew this meant, if I didn’t tell Luke he would.
“I want it to come from me,” I told Lee.
That’s when Luke’s arms got tight. Lee just nodded again, looked at Luke then he was gone.
I tilted my head back to look at Luke. If it was possible he appeared even less happy. Then his hand came to cup the bruised side of my face.
“Jesus, Ava,” he muttered.
“Really, I’m fine. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
He bent his neck to rest his forehead against mine. “You wanna share what that was about with Lee?” he asked quietly.
“Not really,” I told him and his body went still. “But I’m going to anyway,” I whispered.
I watched, fascinated, as he slowly closed his eyes, took in breath through his nostrils and then opened his eyes on his exhale while his body relaxed again. This moved me at the same time it shook me. This small thing said a lot. It said a lot about Luke, a lot about how he felt about me and a lot about how much.
Even with all the drama I felt my stomach go melty and I really wanted to kiss him.
Instead I broke out of his arms, put down my beer and came back to him.
Then I put my hands on either side of his neck and looked in his eyes. “First, you have to promise me you won’t throw any lamps.”
“Ava.”
“Promise.”
His arms went around me. “Promise,” he said.
“And…um.” My eyes slid away and his arms got a little tighter so they slid back. “You have to promise you won’t hurt anyone, as in, maybe kill them or something.”
This time, his body went solid as a rock.
“Luke –”
“He touched you,” Luke interrupted me and his voice was flat, dead and the way he spoke freaked me out.
“Luke,” I repeated.
“That’s why everyone’s here before me. Why I saw Eddie’s truck pullin’ up when I was walkin’ up to the house. Lee was preparin’ because he knew –”
“Luke,” I said again.
“Fuck,” Luke hissed, the dead, flat voice long gone, anger taking its place. My hands went tight on his neck when I felt the air in the room go scary dangerous as I realized Luke was preparing to go gonzo.
Time to tame the wild beast.
“Look at me, Luke. Please look at me.”
He looked at me but only for a beat. Then he crushed me to him, his arms pressing the air out of my body as he buried his face in my neck.
“Fuck,” he repeated against the skin of my neck. “Did he…?”
“No,” I whispered. “It wasn’t as bad as that.”
I put my arms around him and held on tight.
Then I said, “I don’t want you to do anything stupid. I don’t want you to get into trouble for me. Just call Vance off Noah. My face will heal and we’ll go back to fighting all the time. It’ll be like it didn’t happen.”
His head came up, he pressed his temple against mine for a second then his mouth moved to mine and he kissed me softly on the lips. He lifted his head to look at me and I saw his eyes were not gonzo, they were gentle. One arm stayed around me while his other hand came up to my neck and his thumb stroked my jaw.
“Tell me what happened,” he said using The Voice. This time The Voice was tinged with a sweetness that, tied up with all the other emotions I was feeling, simply undid me.
Still I fought it. “We’ll talk about it later. Maybe tomorrow,” I stalled.
“I need you to tell me now.”
“It wasn’t as bad as you probably think.”
His face dipped closer to mine. “My beautiful Ava,” he whispered and my stomach got tight. “Please, tell me now.”
I couldn’t help it. He called me his beautiful Ava and he said “please”.
I told him.
Almost everything.
I left out the part about it happening while he was in the house. I figured that could wait for later (read: never).
As I told him, he showed no reaction. He kept me close, his thumb stroking my jaw, his eyes never leaving mine.
When I was done talking, he kept looking at me without saying a word.
“See,” I said. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” Luke responded in a matter-of-fact voice that said he was indeed, going to kill Noah.
It was my turn to go rock solid. “Luke!”
“He’s dead.”
I grabbed fistfuls of Luke’s tee at his sides. “Please don’t. Please, Luke. It happened to me, not you. I don’t want you to do anything gonzo.”
His thumb quit stroking and his fingers tightened at my neck. “Yeah, Ava. It happened to you and you’re handlin’ it great, babe. You’re doin’ great,” he said softly, bent down and brushed his mouth against mine. I closed my eyes and relaxed into him.
Then his head came up and I opened my eyes again. “But that’s right now, beautiful. Later tonight, tomorrow, a week from now, it’s gonna hit you, it’s gonna haunt you and I won’t be able to stop it. It’s done. And you’re mine. You’re mine to watch over, you’re mine to take care of, you’re mine to protect. I didn’t protect you. I gotta live with that and it’ll make it a whole fuckuva lot easier to live with knowin’ he paid a price. Someone hurt you, someone touched you,” he said this between his teeth, losing hold on his control for a moment then I watched him gain it back again before he went on. “And that someone is not gonna get the chance to hurt you, or any woman, again.”
“I’m asking you Luke, please leave it alone.”
“I’m telling you, beautiful, I can’t. It just isn’t in me.”
I burrowed deeper into him and shared what was really on my mind. “What if you get hurt? He said he had a gun.”
“Only one’s gonna hurt is Dexter,” I opened my mouth to interrupt but he kept talking. “Ava, beautiful, I won’t get hurt. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about.” His mouth came to mine. “Nothin’ to worry about,” he repeated.
My arms went around him and he kissed me. It was light, gentle and only hurt a little bit. When his mouth disengaged, his forehead came to rest on mine again, our noses side-by-side.
“You wanna sleep here tonight or at the loft?” he asked.
“The loft,” I answered.
“Then let’s get you home.”
He moved away from me but put his arm around my shoulders and started moving to the door. I halted and looked up at him.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” I asked.
“No police. This is gonna be off the radar.”
A chill went up my spine.
Then I remembered something. “But, Hank and Eddie are police.”
“And?”
“Aren’t they going to have an issue with this being ‘off the radar’?”
“Lotsa shit is off the radar that Hank and Eddie know about. They don’t like it but I suspect they don’t lose any sleep over it.”
All of a sudden I was tired and I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I wanted to sleep and yes, I was happy to admit, I wanted to sleep pressed up tight against Luke’s strong, warm, hard body and I would have put that in writing if he’d asked me (luckily he didn’t).
“Let me get my purse,” I said.
His arm dropped and I got my purse. When I was close enough again, his arm came back around my shoulders and we walked into the front yard where everyone was standing.
“We’re going to the loft,” Luke told Lee.
Lee nodded.
Luke looked at Tex. “You’ll lock down the house?”
Tex nodded.
Luke dug in his pocket and tossed Tex my keys. Then his eyes went back to Lee.
“Meeting first thing,” Luke said.
Lee nodded again.
I glanced at Eddie who was looking to the heavens.
Then I glanced at Hank who was looking at me. “Roxie will be over tomorrow,” Hank told me.
“Thank you,” I said and looked at Roxie. “Thank you,” I repeated.
She smiled at me, came up and kissed my cheek. “Sleep well, honey. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she whispered.
Then Luke pointed me to the Porsche but I pulled away and walked to Lee.
I didn’t say thank you to Lee. I just wrapped my arms around him, got up on my toes and kissed his cheek. I looked him in the eye a beat, hoping he understood without me having to say it (and I was pretty certain he did) then broke free and did the same to Tex. I didn’t break free from Tex as easily, mainly because he engulfed me in a bear hug before letting me go.
“Thanks everyone,” I said quietly to the crowd, feeling like a big dork but knowing at least a gesture should be made (I mean, it was late) before Luke’s arm came back around my shoulders. He took me to the Porsche and we were gone.
* * * * *
Luke was right, it hit me and it hit me a lot sooner than I would have expected.
It hit me the minute he flipped the light switch in his loft.
Light filled the space and I felt panic seize me. I ran to the switch and turned it off. Then I flattened myself against the wall, protecting the switch with my body.
“Babe,” Luke was close, his voice gentle.
“He’s watching,” I whispered, terrified.
I’d forgotten to tell Luke one little, but important, thing.
Shit.
Luke’s fingers slid under my hair to curl around the back of my neck. “Ava, come away from the wall. Let’s get you changed and in bed.”
“We have to go to a hotel.”
“Ava.”
“He’s watching.”
“He’s not watching,” Luke said softly, his hand dropped away from my neck and came around my waist and he gently tried to pull me away from the wall. I resisted, he felt it and instantly stopped trying.
“I forgot to tell you something,” I said.
I put my forehead against the wall and Luke’s body came close to my back, his arm went tight to hold me against him and his face came to the side of mine.
“Tell me,” he said softly.
“He followed us last night,” I whispered. “He broke in somewhere, across the street, next door, I don’t know. You don’t have any curtains, no blinds. We left the lights on when we did it. He watched us have sex, I know because he knew we did it against the wall. He –”
Luke interrupted me. “We’re going to a hotel.”
Thank you God.
* * * * *
Luke checked us into the kickass, cool-as-shit Hotel Monaco in Downtown Denver. I’d never stayed there but any hotel that had “The John Lennon Suite” and “The Grace Slick Suite” and “The Miles Davis Suite” had to be kickass, cool-as-shit, and it was.
Then we went to bed.
We were lying side by side in each other’s arms. Luke was quiet, likely deciding how to dispose of Noah’s body once he killed him.
“Luke?” I called.
One of his hands slid up my back under my tee. He’d located the newly-washed Triumph tee for me and I was wearing it. This I found incredibly sweet but I was trying not to dwell on it.
“Yeah, babe,” he answered.
I tilted my head back to look at his blurry, shadowy face. “Will you make love to me?” I asked in a small voice.
Don’t ask me why I asked this. I just knew, somewhere deep, I needed it.
“Ava, I’m thinkin’ that’s not a good thing,” he replied softly. “Right now, sleep is a good thing.”
I found his answer both disappointing and (probably hysterically) very alarming.
“Okay.” My voice was even smaller.
There was a beat of silence then Luke muttered, “Shit.” He rolled into me and his hand came up to the healthy side of my face. “This doesn’t bode well for my future,” he told me.
“What?”
“My inability to say no to you,” he said before touching his mouth to mine and his hand slid slowly down my neck, my side, my hip and then over my bottom.
“You say no to me all the time,” I told him, now feeling happy in that somewhere deep down inside. I was happy that he was touching me, holding me, kissing me, taking care of me and he didn’t find me dirty and repulsive.
“When have I said no to you?” Luke asked my neck where his lips had moved.
“You don’t say no, as such. You just
haul me around until I’m where you want, doing what you want.”
Rock Chick Revenge Page 41
