“What are you doing?” I asked as he rol ed over me.
“I’m gonna fuck you in the moonlight.”
“It’s cold,” I told him.
“You’l get warm.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Chapter Seventeen
Give It a Week, With Me
Luke and I walked up to my house after a night of patrol.
Patrol, I decided, was boring as hel .
I’d much rather be pouring canola oil on a Mercedes Benz or throwing smoke bombs than driving around town looking for trouble when there was none to be found.
It had been one of the worst days of my life (and I’d had a few) and truly the most boring night.
* * * * *
Vance had woken me up by making love to me, slow, sweet, taking his time. It was a new experience and one that I liked (a lot). We’d taken a shower, got dressed and he drove me to my house.
Without a word he walked me to the back stoop, kissed me (also slow, sweet and taking his time) then he walked back to his bike and roared off.
Gone. Just like that. It was done.
I stared at the spot where I last saw him as my stomach twisted tight and my heart squeezed.
Then I went inside and listened to Boo tel ing me that Nick hadn’t broken up his wet food with a fork like I normal y do.
I picked him up and gave him a cuddle. “Be quiet, Boo,” I whispered with my cheek pressed to his fur.
Boo was quiet.
* * * * *
I’d spent the day waiting for Vance to cal , walk into King’s, do something Vance-like to invade my space and my life. Nothing.
May was openly worried about me and talking constantly in her Mama’s-gonna-make-it-better voice. May was a love, a good friend and a kind heart but no Mama in the world would make me feel better.
Al the gang phoned me. Roxie phoned twice. They were checking in and checking up and offering me everything to keep my mind off Vance: Yahtzee and sparkling wine (Tod and Stevie); a movie (Indy and Jet); a drunken night of debauchery (Al y); a day at the spa (Daisy); and a shopping spree (Roxie).
I’d turned them al down and mental y licked my wounds while my emotional Rottweiler sat next to me, tongue lol ing, tail wagging, happy.
I was thinking I needed a new emotional guard dog.
Something cute and cuddly with a smushy face that I could carry around in a purse and dress in ridiculous doggie clothes. Something like a pug.
The only bright spot had been when I’d cal ed Nightingale Investigations and asked to speak to Luke.
Without hesitation the guy named Monty who answered gave me Luke’s cel number.
When I cal ed Luke answered by saying, “You’re not gettin’ out of trainin’. I don’t care if he dumped you.”
“He didn’t dump me!” I (kind of) shouted. Then I realized he knew it was me who was cal ing. “How do you know my number?” I asked.
“Everybody’s got your number. You’re an unofficial member of the team.”
Oh. I didn’t know that. An unofficial member of the Nightingale Investigation Team. That was way cool.
I shrugged off the way coolness of being a member of the team even if it was unofficial. “I want to bring Roam and Sniff –” I started.
“Not gonna happen,” Luke interrupted me.
“Luke! I don’t want you to train them. I just want them to come and watch. Maybe they’l learn something. And they’l be impressed by the offices. And I want them to hang around good male role models.”
Silence.
“Luke?” I cal ed when the silence stretched.
“Good male role models?” Luke asked. I could tel by his tone he thought that was funny.
“Can I bring them or what?” I snapped, losing patience.
“Don’t be late.”
I guessed that was a yes.
Roam and Sniff walked into the offices trying to be cool but I was right, they couldn’t hide it, I knew they were impressed.
I walked into the office scared to death I’d run into Vance.
Dawn smiled at me sweet-as-pie and informed me Vance was not in the building.
Bitch.
Then Roam and Sniff watched me get my ass kicked by Luke and they’d laughed themselves stupid. I told myself when their eyes weren’t closed with laughter they probably learned something so it was worth it.
After training, I took Roam and Sniff out for burgers then back to the Shelter then I went home to Boo and listened to him complain about my constant absence. Mostly I ignored him.
I took a shower, dressed in my take-on-the night uniform (my new burgundy cords; black belt; black cowboy boots; black, stretchy, tight, long-sleeved tee; and black leather blazer). I waited for Vance to break in, say he wasn’t going to let me go (like Eddie had done to Jet and apparently Hank had done to Roxie and also Lee had done to Indy).
No Vance.
I told myself this was good. I didn’t believe myself and was beginning to think myself was a big, fat moron.
Luke picked me up. We drove around for two hours, doing mostly nothing and saying absolutely nothing (Luke, I found, wasn’t a big conversationalist). We stopped a couple of times so I could talk to some kids and that was it.
* * * * *
At my door I pul ed my keys out of my pocket. Luke pul ed my keys out of my hand.
“What the…?” I started but with a Super Dude super-door-unlocking-power he was already pushing open my door. When he was inside, he turned to my alarm and punched in a code.
“How do you know my code?” I asked, coming in behind him.
He threw my keys on my chaise and walked into the house. “Everyone knows your code,” he told me, stil walking across the living room.
I stared at his back.
So much for my life going back to normal.
I closed the door, turned on a lamp and fol owed him. I saw the light go on in the kitchen and heard Boo talking to Luke.
Luke was making himself at home and opening a bottle of Fat Tire beer when I arrived. Boo was asking him who the hel he thought he was and also could he spare a few kitty treats for a poor, abused house cat?
“What are you doing?” I asked as he leaned his hips against the counter and took a pul off the beer.
“Havin’ a beer,” he answered when he was done swal owing.
“I can see you’re having a beer. Why are you having a beer?”
“I’m thirsty.”
Oh for goodness sakes.
“Luke. It’s late. I’m tired. I’ve just been bored out of my mind. I don’t even know what patrol is, al I know is, so far, field work sucks.”
“Field work is the business.”
“My business is plastic wrap and canola oil,” I told him.
After I was done with my statement he gave me one of his half-grins and I realized what I said sounded like.
“Go home,” I ordered, deciding to get snippy instead of blush.
“If you’re worried Vance can see us on the cameras, don’t. He’s after a skip.”
With everything that happened, I’d forgotten about the cameras.
I did a mental review of my time in the house without Vance and realized with relief I’d been clothed through al of it and hadn’t done anything embarrassing like dance around singing “Sir Duke” with Stevie Wonder (which I was prone to do).
I decided to ignore the cameras, for now. “A skip?”
“Someone who skipped bond. Vance is in Wyoming.” For some strange reason knowing that and finding out from Luke slid in deep like a knife to the chest and it hurt like hel .
He pushed away from the counter, index and middle fingers around the neck of the bottle, and walked up to me, like Vance did, overpowering and right in my space.
Then he put the hand not holding the beer to my neck, thumb at my jaw. I had no idea what he was up to but I stood my ground, head-crackin’ mamma jamma that I was, no retreat.
I rethought my decision when I looked in his face.
<
br /> This was not badass, Super Dude Luke. His look was gentle and if he was kickass hot normal y, gentle would have taken me to a serious Grade Three bel y flutter if I wasn’t hung up on Vance.
“He shouldn’t have fucked a virgin,” Luke said to me.
Oh my God.
Any hint of a bel y flutter disappeared. Mace had heard the cherry popping discussion and talked.
I tried to jerk my head away but his fingers tightened around the back of my neck and I felt the warmth of his body as he got closer, way closer but stil not quite touching me with his body.
“Nothin’ to be embarrassed about, Jules.” His voice was soft.
“Maybe you should go home now,” I suggested, deciding he was wrong. There was indeed something to be embarrassed about but I didn’t want to have this discussion with him (or anyone for that matter).
“It’s sweet as hel and every fuckin’ guy at the office wished they’d gone after you and trapped you in that al ey after you shot out Cordova’s tires. Including me.” Oh… my… God.
These guys gossiped like a bunch of women.
“I wouldn’t have fucked you and left you though. No fuckin’ way,” he went on, stil talking softly but sounding like he meant it.
Um.
Wow.
I swal owed and straightened my shoulders. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know Vance.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated and he didn’t and I wasn’t going to tel him.
He stared at me a beat.
Then he said (luckily deciding to switch topics),
“Tomorrow, training early. I’m takin’ you out to dinner then we’re going on patrol.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday. No training and I’m going to annoy some dealers tomorrow night. I haven’t done it in days. I don’t want them –”
“Training at four. Dinner. Patrol. You need to take a break from the dealers,” he interrupted me.
“Luke, I’m not going to stop.”
“I’m not tel in’ you to stop. I’m tel in’ you to take a break, make them think Darius negotiated you off the streets. Get some action where you can try what you’ve learned. Then you can go back after them.”
“Luke –”
“Give it a week, with me.”
I didn’t know what he was asking and I didn’t want to know mainly because I was afraid of what he might be asking.
He knew what I was thinking. “Just training, just patrol, just ride-along when I’m workin’. Anything else you can think of that doesn’t have to do with that, I’m open to it.” I couldn’t help myself; a ride-along while he was working was too good to miss.
Anything that didn’t have to do with that I wasn’t going to think about.
“Okay, training and patrol tomorrow… no dinner,” I gave in partial y.
“Dinner.”
“No dinner.”
He got closer and my breasts brushed his chest.
Um.
Yikes.
“Dinner,” he said softly.
Time to retreat.
I pul ed back. “Training and patrol, if I’m hungry, dinner.”
“You’l be hungry.”
Whatever.
Time to stop talking.
I frowned at him. He gave me a half-smile.
Then he touched my nose with his finger and was gone.
I stood in the kitchen and wondered what in the hel just happened.
Then I decided not to wonder. Best to leave it alone and book my flight to Nicaragua first thing in the morning.
I got ready for bed making certain I did it in the bathroom where Vance told me there were no cameras (and I hoped he wasn’t lying).
Then I climbed in bed and waited for Vance to break in.
Wyoming wasn’t that far away, just a few hours. He could make it back in time, from what I heard he was a good tracker.
I tried to stay awake so I could hear him when he came in and be ready to give him a piece of my mind before I jumped his bones.
Then when I dozed, I tried to do it lightly.
Then I fel dead asleep.
* * * * *
I woke to the phone ringing. I didn’t open my eyes and did a body scan, feeling for extra heat, the weight of an arm on me.
Nothing.
I opened my eyes and saw Boo staring at me. “Meow,” Boo said.
I slept on my side in the middle of the bed. Even though it was a big bed it wouldn’t give Vance much room to sleep and not touch me if I was in the middle.
Stil , I turned to my back and twisted my head to look.
No one there.
Boo walked on my chest, sat down and stared at me.
“Me… ow, ” he repeated.
My answering machine clicked on.
“In a second, Boo,” I whispered, waiting for a voice to give a message and hating myself because I was holding my breath.
The voice came.
It wasn’t Vance. It was Al y.
“Girl, wake up. We’re al doing mimosas and eggs benedict. Dozens. Meeting in an hour. Be prepared, Tod’s bringing the Wedding Planner Book. It might get hairy.” She paused. “By the way, ‘in an hour’ means nine thirty.” I listened to her disconnect.
I laid there, stared at the ceiling and stroked Boo. Boo I laid there, stared at the ceiling and stroked Boo. Boo liked breakfast but he liked stroking better so he settled in and waited.
I wondered if I could do mimosas and eggs benedict with a gaggle of Vance’s friends. I wondered how, if I did do mimosas and eggs benedict, I would go back to a normal life. I wondered what the Wedding Planner Book was.
I curled my arm around Boo, threw back the covers and Boo and I slid off the bed.
I got Boo breakfast.
Then I got ready for Dozens.
* * * * *
After another boring, useless, action-free night of patrol, Luke and I walked up to my house. I told him he could just take off but he insisted on walking me up to the door.
I’d had another shit day, no cal s, no space invasions, no nothing from Vance.
I shouldn’t be surprised. I did break up with him and I wasn’t playing games.
Stil , I didn’t expect him to give up so easily.
* * * * *
I found out at breakfast that Tod had declared himself Indy and Lee’s official wedding planner and thus had created The Wedding Planner Book. Indy hadn’t actual y made this official y official but was letting Tod live the dream. For some reason though, throughout breakfast, Tod argued with Roxie (not Indy) about al things wedding. This argument took the form of Tod saying what was going to happen and Roxie saying whatever Tod said was going to happen wasn’t going to happen with a lot of, “We’ve been here before, Tod.”
Indy ignored them and gabbed with the rest of us about her and Lee’s plans to go to Lee’s cabin in Grand Lake for Thanksgiving; whether something big was going to happen between Tex and Jet’s mom (apparently, Tex was Roxie’s uncle and that would make Jet and Roxie related by marriage, I was learning this was an incestuous group); and a lengthy discussion about Luke and my conversation last night.
Indy confirmed that al the guys on the team knew about my cherry popping.
At this news I ordered another mimosa.
“Men think virginity is hot,” Al y assured me after I’d given the waitress my order.
“Maybe for eighteen year olds, not for twenty-six, nearly twenty-seven year olds,” I told her.
“No… um, they just think it’s hot,” Indy put in, “even Lee thought it was hot.”
I stared at her.
“Yeah, Eddie thought it was hot too,” Jet shared.
I turned my head and my eyes bugged out at Jet. “How does Eddie know? He’s not even a member of the team.” She just looked at Indy and kept her mouth shut. Lee had told Eddie.
These guys.
“Hank knows too,” Roxie decided to stop arguing with Tod and enter our co
nversation. I actual y felt the blood drain from my face when I looked at her. “For the record, he also thinks it’s hot.”
That was it. “I’m moving to Nicaragua,” I announced.
“Oh Sugar, it ain’t that bad,” Daisy threw in. “Vance thought it was hot.”
That was true, Vance thought it was hot – for about a day (okay, maybe two).
I caught the waitress and doubled my mimosa order.
“You should know pretty much everyone is pissed at Vance for leaving you,” Indy said after I finished my bid for a drunken stupor.
“He didn’t leave me. I broke up with him,” I reminded her.
“They don’t look at it that way. They figure if he wanted you, he could have, you know, talked you out of it,” Indy went on.
I was thinking, deep down inside where I didn’t want to go, they were right. Any thinking about Vance made my heart hurt so I pushed it aside.
“It’s better this way,” I told them al .
They just stared at me and I knew they didn’t believe me.
Whatever.
Time to talk about something else.
I turned to Tod. “I like tangerine and chocolate for wedding colors,” I lied.
Tod’s eyes got wide and happy.
“Oh shit,” Al y muttered.
“Do not even go there,” Roxie warned, eyes narrowing on Tod.
The discussion soon got heated.
I was off the hook.
* * * * *
I went to training with Luke and nearly at the end of our hour’s session I dropped him to his back with me on top. “Yee ha!” I shouted in his face, sitting astride him, chest pressed to his.
“What do you do now?” Luke asked, hands at my hips, mini-half-grin on his lips.
“I don’t know,” I sat up, “maybe this?” Then I swung my arms out in front of me in a continuous loop and chanted,
“Go Jules, go Jules, go Jules.”
The door opened, my head swung to it in an oh-my-God-not-Vance panic and I saw Mace walking in wearing a white tee with some surfer design on the front and black track pants with white stripes up the side. He looked at us on the floor, face blank like every day he walked into the down room and saw a woman astride Luke.
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