For some bizarre reason, maybe because he’d shared so I felt I should do the same, I told him. “I don’t have much family.”
“You do now,” he replied.
I had the strange but strong desire to hug him. I didn’t, instead I turned to the clerk and took my credit card back.
Duke fol owed me home and did a walkthrough of my house even though I told him there were cameras everywhere. He stayed for a beer and long enough for me to knit and pearl my way through a line of wool, al the while Duke reading the directions to me.
Final y he said, “Gotta go or Dolores’l be pissed I let the dinner go cold.”
I walked him to the door.
“You go anywhere you cal me or one of the boys. Hear me?” he ordered.
I wanted to be a head crackin’ mamma jamma but I couldn’t, not after what he said at the hobby shop and not after what happened at Fortnum’s that afternoon.
I just nodded.
He gave me a look as if to assess my honesty. I must have passed the honesty test because he nodded and left.
While I was eating a dinner of microwave popcorn (I might not be any good with an oven but I was hel -on-wheels with a microwave), Sniff had cal ed.
He was ful of stories. He told me of their official tour through the Nightingale Investigations offices, their “cool-as-shit” (Sniff’s words) hour-long shift in the surveil ance room and working with Brody, Lee’s hacker, on the computers.
He told me of dinner at Lincoln’s Road House and I made a mental note to have a word with Vance about taking my (underage) boys to a biker bar for dinner.
He also told me of their ride-along with Vance after they ate.
I was only slightly alarmed to learn that Vance had gone gung-ho. Not starting slowly, he had taken them along on a break-and-enter search that included disabling an alarm, picking a lock and rifling through the possessions and computer files of a possible corporate embezzler. Vance did this so wel , the “possible” became “definite” and the boys were high with excitement. They were also left understanding that you had to be more than just physical y fit to do the job. It wasn’t just about cracking heads, you had to know computers; you had to understand electronics; and you had to be smart, thinking three steps ahead so you didn’t get caught.
If Roam and Sniff thought Vance was the shit before, they were even more convinced of it now.
“He didn’t make, like, a sound. It was like he was a ghost. It was fuckin’ cool!” Sniff told me.
I smiled into the phone but said, “Sniff, for the last time, don’t say fuck.”
After my conversation with Sniff, I knitted and pearled a line about the length of my house and took a bubble bath. I was about to head to bed with a book when a knock went at my door.
I looked out the window and saw Tex standing outside.
I opened the door and looked up at him. “What’re you doing here?” I asked.
“You got any plastic wrap?” he asked in return.
I stared at him.
Then I smiled. “Yeah.”
He smiled back. His smile was kinda scary but it worked.
I loaded Tex up with my plastic wrap stash and waved him on his merry way.
My phone rang about ten minutes after Tex left. It was Zip.
“You stil breathin’?” he asked after I answered.
“Yes,” I replied unnecessarily.
“Good.”
Disconnect.
This was rude but it was also sweet and I felt the warm whoosh in my bel y again.
After Zip’s cal I went to bed.
I told Vance about my adventures in boring, everyone else having fun and me knitting the world’s longest micro-scarf and taking a bubble bath.
“How was your night?” I asked.
“I picked up Clarence and Jermaine.”
My body went stil .
Wow.
That didn’t take long.
God, he was good.
“And?”
“Mace is workin’ with them.”
Yikes.
I didn’t figure that was good for Clarence and Jermaine.
Mace had a reputation for fucking people up and good.
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“I’m thinkin’ you don’t want to know.”
“I’m thinking I do.”
Vance pul ed me deeper into his body and I felt his lips touch the nape of my neck.
Then he said, “Mace doesn’t have a lot of patience with men who fuck with women. He doesn’t give a shit if they do it or threaten it. Livin’ in fear of gettin’ hurt is almost as bad as gettin’ hurt. Mace’l do what he has to do to get them to back off.”
“What about their boss? Won’t he be pissed, you guys fucking with his boys?”
“You already know we’ve declared protection. Lee drew a line in the sand. Everyone on the street knows you’re marked which means they’ve stepped over that line. What that means is, if the bosses back their boys, we’re at war.
That kind of war has no rules.”
Oh my God.
I had no idea this was so huge.
I rol ed around so I was facing Vance and looked at him in the moonlight. “Does that mean you guys are up against the drug lords?”
He shook his head. “The bosses have cut their boys loose. Shard’s got no beef with you, I took him down. He’s just an ass. Clarence and Jermaine have gone against direct orders. You’re an annoyance, but you’re also a social worker. There are lots of ways to put you out of commission that don’t include what those boys had planned for you. I made a deal with their boss. They reneged on that deal.
Looks bad for the boss. This morning we spread word you’re off the street. They should have backed down. They didn’t. They’re on their own. Not a lot of people would invite war against Lee, at least not about this.”
“So now it’s just Shard.”
“It’s just Shard.”
“You going to find Shard?”
He shook his head again. “Luke and Ike are tracking Shard.”
I figured Shard would shortly be joining Mace’s party.
“What about Hector?” I asked. “Did you tel Lee I saw him?”
“Yeah. Lee told Eddie, they intensified Brody’s hack.
Hector’s DEA. Deep cover, been workin’ at gettin’ close to a local big man for over a year and has had success.
Anyone finds out he approached you, he’s dead.” Fuck!
I closed my eyes and pressed into him, nuzzling my face in his neck.
I was such an idiot.
What was I thinking, going out and annoying drug dealers? How lucky was I that, in the end, I found Vance?
If I hadn’t and I was alone facing this shit, I’d be fucked and not in a good way.
“I’m an idiot,” I whispered.
His arms got tight around me. “You’re not an idiot,” he whispered back.
“I just wanted to –”
He interrupted me. “You got passion, you got courage.
Nothing’s wrong with either of those. You just got to learn to point them in the right direction.”
He was right. I hated it when he was right.
“If anyone gets hurt because of me –”
“No one’s gonna get hurt.”
He said that with such certainty that I believed him.
I wil ed myself to relax, wil ed my mind and body to go stil .
It didn’t work.
“Vance?”
“Yeah, Princess?”
I looked up at his face in the moonlight.
It was time.
I took a deep breath then said, “Do you want me to tel you what I think it says about me that you share my bed?” He was looking down at me. “No,” he answered bluntly.
I blinked. “What?” I asked.
“I don’t want you to tel me.”
Wel , that took the wind right out of my sails and for some reason it hurt, just a little bit (okay, so it hurt a lot). I
thought he’d want to know. I wanted him to want to know and furthermore, I was ready to tel him.
Before I could hide my face and my disappointment his mouth came to mine.
“I want you to show me,” he said there.
I looked into his dark eyes, close up and even in the moonlight I knew they were burning into mine.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Then I did as he asked.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Quick Could Be Good
The phone was ringing and my eyes opened.
I knew it was the dead of night and in the nanosecond before he moved, I knew I had a big time contender for Number One Most Favorite Sleeping Position with Vance.
On my bel y, one leg crooked, Vance pressed into my back, leg bent into mine, arm around me.
Seriously nice
He disengaged gently and rol ed away to pick up the phone.
“Yeah?” I heard, pause, “right.”
When I heard the phone hit the cradle, I turned. “What was that?”
Vance’s arms came around me and he settled on his back, me in his side (just for your information, I liked this as a cuddle position but it was in the lower half of the top five as a sleeping position).
“They got Shard.”
Hallelujah, I thought.
“No more panic button?” I asked.
“You keep the panic button.”
My head came up. “Why?”
“Humor me.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve made enemies and captured attention.
Until we hear no talk on the street, I want to know you’re safe.”
I supposed I could do that.
I settled in, ready to go back to sleep, so ready in fact that I didn’t realize Vance’s body had gone tight.
“You gonna do this for me?” he asked.
“Sure,” I replied as if that was a given.
After a few minutes ticked by, his body relaxed and he said, “Jesus, you’re a pain in the ass.”
“Am not,” I mumbled sleepily into his shoulder.
His hand came up and started to play with my hair.
I fel asleep.
* * * * *
I woke up with the alarm and Vance wasn’t in bed but I heard the shower going. There was no Boo either.
I hit the off button on the alarm and searched for my nightgown and underwear that Vance had divested me of the night before. I struggled to put them on in a lying position which was not easy. After I succeeded I slid off the bed platform.
I walked to the kitchen.
Boo’s breakfast bowl was down and had already been licked clean.
I looked at the coffeemaker. There was a pot at the ready.
I walked into the living room. Boo was lying on my chaise lounge, cleaning his face. He didn’t even spare me a glance much less a good morning kitty meow. He was sated and preparing for his morning nap.
I walked back into the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee.
Then I stood with my hips against the counter, coffee cup aloft, staring into space, wondering how my world had turned on its head in a week and four days.
I had a boyfriend who fed my cat, made coffee, had a kickass job, took care of me, was great in bed and was hot. I had a family of friends looking out for me, cal ing me and wanting to spend time with me. They even got mad at me when I tried to go to the mal alone.
This freaked me out, in a good way.
My pug nestled up to me and decided he wanted to play just as Vance walked out of the bathroom, chest bare, black hair wet and slicked back and one of my mint-green, Egyptian cotton towels wrapped around his hips.
My mouth went dry.
He walked toward me, got in my space, dodging the coffee cup I didn’t move, put his hands on either side of my neck and touched his lips to mine.
“Mornin’ Princess,” he said, not moving out of my space.
“Thanks for feeding Boo.”
He grinned and dropped his hands to my waist.
“Thanks for making coffee,” I went on.
He kept grinning.
“You done in the bathroom?” I asked.
He nodded.
I put the unsipped coffee on the counter, skirted around him and went to bathroom. I brushed and flossed then washed my face.
I left the bathroom and went in search of Vance.
He wasn’t hard to find considering I only had three rooms in the house (three and a half, if you counted the bed platform). He was sitting on my couch, clothed in the outfit he had on yesterday, pul ing on his boots.
“What’re you doing?” I asked, staring at him.
“Puttin’ on my boots,” he replied, looking up at me.
I blinked. “You wore that yesterday,” I said.
“Yeah,” he pul ed on the second boot and stood.
“If you’re going to stay here you should keep some clothes here.”
Now, why did I just say that?
I was going to freak him out. He was going to think I loved him or something.
I, of course, did love him but he didn’t know that or at least I didn’t think he knew that. Now he’d think I was a clingy, stalker, psycho bitch-from-hel and moving too fast and I was going to scare him off.
Shit.
“Al right,” he said.
I blinked again. “Did you say ‘al right’?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he replied.
Guess I didn’t freak him out.
He came up to me, wrapped a hand around the back of my head and kissed my forehead. “Later Princess.” My body went stil .
“What?” I asked, looking up at him as he dropped his hand.
“Later, I gotta get to the office.”
I stared. “What?” I repeated.
He watched me a beat. “Are you okay?”
I thought about it.
Then I said, “No, I’m not okay.”
“What’s the matter?”
“You fed my cat,” I told him.
He watched me again, this time perhaps wondering if my body had been taken over by nonsense-speaking aliens.
“And?” he asked.
“And now you’re leaving.”
“I have to get to the office. They’re holding three assholes who wanted to hurt you. I wanna find out what’s happening.”
This sounded plausible. I stil didn’t like it.
“But we haven’t had sex yet,” I blurted.
For a second I realized I threw him and he looked surprised. He had absolutely no idea that was going to come out of my mouth. Then again, neither did I.
Stil , I’d said it so I was going to have to go with it.
“We always have morning sex. We always have night-time sex. We can’t not have morning sex. What does that mean? Next we’re not going to have night-time sex?” I asked.
His lips started twitching as I continued.
“You fed my cat. I always have to feed my cat. How am I going to get used to not being the one who has to feed my cat? It’s always been just me. And Nick, of course, but that’s not the same thing. He doesn’t break up Boo’s food like you and I do.”
I was babbling. I knew it and I didn’t care.
I wanted to have sex.
“Jules –”
“You can’t just get up, make me coffee, feed my cat and then leave. What’s up with that? ” I went on.
“Jules –”
“We have a ritual,” I interrupted him. “I like our ritual. I’m not good with change.”
Now I was lying. I had no problem with change.
Bottom line, I wanted sex.
His hands came to the sides of my face and he said again, “Jules.”
“What?” I snapped.
“Take off your underwear.”
My bel y did a rol er-coaster plummet and I blinked, again.
“What?”
“Do it,” he demanded.<
br />
Okay, now I was freaking out and deciding maybe I didn’t want to have sex even though I wanted sex now more than ever.
Al the while looking at him I pushed down my underwear and it fel to the floor. No sooner did it hit my feet then he lifted me up, hands at my ass and my arms and legs automatical y circled him.
He went down to the floor on his knee then he put me on my back and covered me with his body.
“What are we doing?” I asked, staring into his eyes.
I felt his hand between us, working at his belt.
“We’re gonna have to be quick.”
“How quick?”
“Real quick.”
“I’m not sure I want quick.”
His face went into my neck. “You don’t have much choice,” he said in my ear which made me shiver. Then I felt his tongue touch me and slide down my neck to my col arbone which made me shiver more.
“Is quick good?” I asked.
“It can be,” he said at the base of my throat then he touched me between my legs and I sucked in breath.
His mouth came to mine and I could feel he was smiling, pleased about something.
He looked in my eyes and said, “Christ, you’re always wet.”
“Is that good?”
“Fuck yeah.”
“I think it happened when you told me to take off my underwear,” I informed him helpful y.
His finger slid inside me. “I’l remember that.” My hands pushed into his jeans and I ran them over his ass. I was done talking and so was Vance.
And, for your information, quick could be good.
* * * * *
It was near to the end of the day when my cel rang. It was sitting on my desk and the display said “Crowe cal ing.”
Looking at it, I smiled.
* * * * *
Vance had cal ed me in the morning to give me the lowdown on Shard, Clarence and Jermaine Apparently Mace had done his job wel . This was because Luke and Ike felt like getting in on the act. So they’d al done their job wel . They’d done it job so wel , Shard, Clarence and Jermaine not only decided not to fuck with me, they also decided that maybe Denver wasn’t for them. Luke, Mace and Ike had convinced them to try their luck at ruining other people’s lives somewhere outside the Mile High City. They weren’t only leaving town, they already left. Vance knew this because Mace, Ike and Luke had escorted them to the city limits.
Rock Chick Renegade Page 38
