“Ava, shut up.”
“I will not shut up. You’re a jerk. You dry humped me. What was that all about?”
“You have a sweet ass,” he said, as if that explained it.
“So? It isn’t your sweet ass anymore, it’s Luke’s,” I snapped. “Did you tell your partner I tasted like cherry pie?”
“You do,” he replied on a reminiscent grin.
I growled then bit off, “Men!”
The phone at my ass started ringing, I leaned forward and pulled it out.
“Don’t answer that,” Noah ordered.
“Fuck you,” I shot back, saw the display said “Luke calling” and flipped it open. “Yo.”
“Babe,” Luke replied.
“I’ve been kidnapped again,” I informed him.
“I know. I’m following.”
I turned my head to look around my seat and saw Luke’s Porsche behind us. He was at the wheel talking to me on the phone. Next to him was Ren’s Jag; Ren driving, Dom sitting beside him. I kept looking and saw Ally’s Mustang behind Ren, Daisy sitting beside Ally, more people in the (I couldn’t really see but I suspected they were my sisters). Olivia’s Lexus was beside Ally, Shirleen sitting next to her what I reckoned was my Mom in the back. I couldn’t be certain but I thought I saw Riley’s Pathfinder trailing the pack. They were all speeding and weaving, following Noah and me down Speer Boulevard in a highish speed chase.
Fuck.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
“You got a convoy,” Luke told me.
I turned forward. “I can see that.”
“Get him to slow down,” Luke demanded.
“He isn’t exactly listening to me.”
“Ava, get off the phone,” Noah cut in.
I looked at Noah. “Be quiet, I’m talking to Luke.”
That’s when we heard sirens. Not far away sirens. These were close.
“Fuck!” Noah snapped. “Get off the fuckin’ phone.”
“Kiss my ass!” I yelled.
“Beautiful, not sure it’s a good idea to get him riled,” Luke said in my ear.
“I don’t care if he’s riled,” I told Luke.
“I care if it means he’s gonna put a bullet in you,” Luke returned.
He had a point.
“He’s concentrating on driving,” I assured Luke.
“Ava, I’m not gonna say it again, get off the fucking phone,” Noah shouted.
“Glad to see I’m not the only man in your life who has to repeat himself,” Luke remarked.
“I don’t think you’re funny,” I told Luke even though I kind of did.
I heard his chuckle in my ear as Noah snapped, “I wasn’t being funny.”
“I’m not talking to you,” I told Noah.
A black Explorer pulled out from a road to our right. We shot by him and I saw Lee driving, Matt in the passenger seat. I didn’t have a chance to wrap my head around where they had come from. Instead I looked behind us and saw that Luke and Ren also shot by Lee. The Explorer angled in to cut off Ally and Olivia, aided by a couple of squad cars.
“What’s happening?” I asked Luke, turning forward again.
“You buckled in?” Luke asked me.
“Yeah. What’s happening?”
“Get him to slow down. If he doesn’t slow down, get him to buckle up,” Luke replied.
“Luke, what’s happening?” I demanded.
“Brace, babe, this ends here.”
Disconnect.
Oh shit.
Shittity, shit, shit, shit!
I flipped the phone closed. “Noah, slow down.”
“You should have told him to back off,” Noah returned.
“Noah, seriously, they have something planned, slow down.”
He turned to me, lifted the gun to point at me and said, “Ava, for the past week, you’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass.”
I’d heard that before, kind of. “Well, good,” I flashed back. “You deserve it.”
He kept glancing back and forth to the road and me, gun raised and pointed at me. What with him driving like a freak, his inattention to the road did not make my situation any better.
“Noah, pay attention to the road.”
“Call him back and tell him to stand down,” Noah ordered.
“This is Lucas Stark we’re talking about, he doesn’t stand down,” I explained.
“This is great, just great,” Noah grouched like it was all my fault.
“You could have taken off, gone to Argentina or something. You didn’t have to beat me up and tape me to a post. That was like waving a red flag at a bull. Then you kidnap me? How stupid are you?” I snapped.
“Shut up.”
“I’m just saying.”
“Shut… up.”
“Noah, slow down or buckle up,” I told him, trying to be nice.
He was still driving like a maniac, swinging his eyes to the road and to me. “Buckling up means takin’ the gun off you and how am I gonna shoot you if I put the gun down?”
I had no answer to that and I was done. If he shot me then hopefully, I’d survive. Jules got shot in the belly and chest and now she was happy and preggers. However, if Noah shot me, Luke would rip his head off, no hope for future happiness and babies in his life because he’d be dead.
So I shrugged. “Suit yourself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“You weren’t this fuckin’ irritating when I was bangin’ you,” he informed me.
“I liked you then, I thought you were a good guy. Now I know you’re slime,” I retorted.
He didn’t reply. I crossed my arms on my chest and then up ahead, I saw another black Explorer pull out in front of us. It didn’t turn, it pulled into the intersection and stopped dead.
Ho-ly shit!
“Noah!” I screamed because he wasn’t watching, he had his eyes on me. Then I saw two squad cars pull out and angle in at the front and back of the Explorer. They stopped too, blocking the intersection entirely.
“Look!” I managed to get out. Noah looked, made a choking sound in his throat, took the gun off me and slammed on the brakes at the last minute.
But we were going way too fast.
We rammed into the back of the Explorer and the front of a squad car and the air was filled with the eerie, frightening sound of crunching steel and breaking glass.
We barreled right through.
I didn’t see much after that because I’d been thrown forward, the air bag popped out and I hit it or it hit me, whatever. We kept going, slower this time, and only stopped when we crashed into something else with a loud bang and more crunching steel.
I sat there dazed for a second then began fighting the air bag. I managed to lean away from it, I turned to look at Noah and immediately bile filled my throat.
He was out of his seat, head and shoulders through the shattered windshield, waist and hips resting on the steering wheel and air bag. He wasn’t moving but he was groaning, his eyes open and blood was everywhere.
My door was pulled open, the air bag went “poof”, it deflated and I turned to see Luke.
“I think he’s hurt,” I whispered.
Luke didn’t respond and he didn’t look at Noah. He unbuckled me then his hands started roaming, moving along my limbs, his indigo eyes scanning my body, his face hard.
“She’s good,” he clipped, to whom I didn’t know. He shoved his arms in, one under my knees, one at my back and lifted me clear of the car. That’s when I saw Matt.
I blinked as I looked around after Luke got me out of the car, not hesitating as he carried me away. I heard sirens, I saw Hector and Vance on Noah’s side of the car and heard Lee say from somewhere, “Do your best to stabilize him but get him loose.”
Daisy, Ally, Mom, Marilyn, Sofia, Olivia and Shirleen were all rushing forward. Riley was running up after them.
“Back to your cars. Get outta here. Go!” Luke roared and the women started walked slowly backwards then turned and hoofed it to t
heir cars. Riley stopped, eyes on me. He must have been assured at what he saw because he turned and hoofed it too.
Suddenly I was jostled. One second I was in Luke’s arms, the next I was in Ren’s.
“Take care of her,” Luke ordered.
Without hesitation, Ren moved, taking me to his Jag.
“I think I should –” I started but Ren interrupted me.
“Quiet, honey,” he said softly. “Can you stand?”
I nodded. He put me on my feet and opened the passenger side door. I got in and he shut the door. Dom slid in the back, Ren rounded the front and angled behind the wheel. He just started the car when it happened.
Boom!
I jumped and let out a little scream as the car Noah and I had been in exploded.
In a flash, Ren’s hand tagged the back of my neck and he pulled me down toward his lap, his torso landing on top of me. I heard rather than saw pieces of car landing everywhere with sickening thuds, some of it hitting Ren’s Jag, making it bounce.
“Oh my God,” I whispered to Ren’s hard thigh.
After the thuds stopped, Ren came up, I came up and my hand went directly to the door handle as my eyes scanned the landscape. I stopped my attempt to exit the car and find Luke when what I saw penetrated my stunned brain.
There were pieces of burning car everywhere. There were also members of the Hot Bunch and uniformed officers all recovering from whatever safety positions they’d assumed.
From what I could see, all were fine, no one injured. Hector and Vance had been shielded behind the wrecked Explorer, an unconscious Noah lying on the ground at their feet. Matt was coming out of a crouch behind a squad car. Lee, apparently protected by an invisible Badass Shield, was simply standing in the middle of the mayhem, staring at the burning remains of the car.
Luke, much like Lee, was standing smack in the chaos, pieces of car on fire all around him and his eyes were on me.
I gave him what I hoped was a jaunty wink and a stupid half-wave.
He shook his head and half-grinned.
I dropped my hand and turned to Ren.
Then I said, “I need cookies.”
* * * * *
“Miss Barlow, I’m gonna have to repeat, next time you get kidnapped or your house gets broken into or you get beaten up and violated, it’s a real good idea to call the police,” Detective Jimmy Marker told me, sounding slightly aggrieved.
I pulled the Oreo out I was dunking into milk Tex had given me, popped it’s soggy goodness into my mouth and munched.
“Okay,” I said, mouth full, hoping that I would not be experiencing any of those things anytime soon (read: ever again).
I was in Fortnum’s and so was most everyone else.
Duke, Tex and Indy were manning the espresso counter. Shirleen was standing guard beside the couch I was sitting on. Uncle Vito was sitting across from me. Sissy was on one side of me, Mom on the other (Sissy, by the way, had missed the car chase, staying behind with Uncle Vito at the hotel). Marilyn and Sofia were at a table across the room. Sofia had been crying like, a lot. Apparently her little sister having a near-death experience bounced the bitch right out of her (good to know, not that I’d ever do that again). Marilyn was having trouble taking her eyes off me as if, at any second, another bad guy was going to come in and spirit me away. Riley was sitting at the table with them, elbows on knees, jaw in his hands, eyes on me. Daisy was sitting on the arm of the couch, Ally sitting on the other one. Roxie and Jet were sitting on the book counter, Hank standing next to Roxie, Eddie standing next to Jet. Jules was sitting in the armchair next to Uncle Vito. Olivia was standing at the espresso counter, enjoying a cappuccino and an Archway peanut butter cookie. Ren and Dom were standing just inside the door, talking in low voices, Santo and Lucky a few feet away.
Ren had ordered Santo and Lucky to bring me cookies and they obviously obeyed orders well. There were Oreos, Chips Ahoy, four different types of Milanos and a plethora of other Pepperidge Farms choices, Nutter Butters, Pecan Sandies and a variety of Archway and Entenmanns on the coffee table in front of me.
Tod and Stevie would have been there but they were flight attendants and they were both flying. However, Indy was watching their chow dog, Chowleena, and Chowleena was sitting on the couch between me and Sissy, panting. So I figured Tod and Stevie were there in spirit.
Detective Marker rose from the armchair at the side of the couch. “I got what I need,” he announced.
I nodded as Indy came forward and handed me a fresh, skinny vanilla latte. I set down my milk and took the latte. Then I sipped.
Heaven.
“Who’s up next?” Detective Marker asked Indy, sounding resigned but apparently deciding it was best to prepare for the next disaster.
“I’m thinkin’ Mace,” Indy replied.
“I got my money on Ally,” Shirleen put in.
Ally twisted to Shirleen. “Me?” Then swiftly (and weirdly), her eyes sliced to Ren before they went back to Shirleen when she kept talking.
“That blond boy’s headed to DC. You think you’ll escape this shit? You’re a Nightingale,” Shirleen replied.
“Darius needs a woman,” Daisy threw in.
“Huh,” Shirleen grunted. “Darius would put up with this shit for about a second.”
The doors flew open, the bell over them clattered and Smithie came in. “What’d I miss?” he yelled to no one in particular.
“Ava, held at gunpoint. Kidnapping. Car chase. Car crash. Car explosion. It’s over,” Jet explained. “I missed it too, I was working,” she sounded disappointed.
“Thank Christ for that,” Eddie muttered.
“Amen,” Hank added under his breath.
“Shee-it,” Smithie said.
I reached for a cookie, found the variety too complex and bit my lip in indecision.
“Ava, give it up with the cookies,” Riley told me.
My eyes moved to him, “But –”
He shook his head. I glared but sat back.
“What’ll it be?” Tex boomed at Smithie.
“Latte with some of that butterscotch syrup,” Smithie replied, walking in.
Detective Marker moved to leave when the doors flew open again, the bell over them clattered and three big guys I’d never seen before rushed into the store, guns raised and pointed at Dom.
The room went still.
Ho-ly shit.
What now?
“Nobody move, Vincetti, you’re comin’ with us,” one of them ordered.
No. This was not going to happen. I could take no more. I was going to put an end to this, right… fucking… now.
I stood. “Not so fast,” I snapped.
“Ava –” Ren started, eyes on me.
I stomped up to the men with guns. They stared at me as I did so, obviously taken aback by my bold behavior. I didn’t care. I walked right up to one and yanked the gun out of his hand.
“What the fuck?” he clipped, staring at me with his gun.
I twisted, tossed the gun five feet to Eddie who, at the last minute, came out of his frozen stupor, a stupor caused undoubtedly by my crazy-as-shit actions, and caught it.
“Do you know there are three policemen in this room?” I asked.
The men looked around.
“No shit?” one mumbled.
“No shit,” I replied. “What’s your deal with Dom?” I demanded.
“He stole money from us,” one of the men said.
“So?” I asked.
“A lot of money,” another one said.
“So?” I repeated.
“We want it back,” the one I took the gun from said.
I turned to Uncle Vito. “Can you give them back their money?”
“I already told ‘em I’d pay ‘em,” Uncle Vito replied.
I turned back to the men. “Okay then, what’s the problem?”
“The man we work for don’t like it when people steal from him,” the first man said.
Rock Chick Revenge Page 56
