Rock Chick Renegade

by Ashley, Kristen

  Luke’s phone rang again.

  Luke flipped it open and put it to his ear. “Yeah?”

  “Pick up the speed, Luke,” Lee said. “I cal ed the office.

  Hector got word about Roam, for some fuckin’ reason he went for Law to get him. She’s probably already there. Out.” Disconnect.

  “Fuck! ” Luke snarled, flipped the phone shut, threw it on the dash, put his foot down and the Porsche shot forward.

  * * * * *

  Jules Never, not in a mil ion years, would I have thought Sal Cordova would have hurt Roam.

  He wanted me then he was going to get me.

  But he wouldn’t hurt Roam.

  Maybe bore him to death with idiot stories about being a supposed ladies man but that wouldn’t be physical y painful, just mental y painful.

  That’s why, just like Luke, I went up to the front door, cocky as al hel , knocked three times and shouted, “It’s Jules!”

  Then without hesitation I pul ed out my gun, put my hand to the door handle, turned it and went in.

  I saw in a quick heart-stopping scan of the room that considering Sal was dead, not just dead, very dead, that I was right, he couldn’t hurt Roam.

  I also saw that somehow Roam was hurt, unconscious and bloody and lying on the floor.

  Without a thought (I real y should have thought), I ran into the room toward Roam but to my surprise he surged up shouting, “Law!” his eyes behind me.

  I whirled and saw Shard, gun up pointed at me, his bruised and swol en face grinning, eyes hard.

  “Fuckin’ bitch,” Shard said.

  Then he fired.

  Unfortunately Roam had enough chance to get himself in front of me. Roam’s body jerked when the bul et slammed into it and he went down at my feet.

  Rage shot through me, I screamed bloody murder, lifted my gun, pointed and fired.

  Shard fired too.

  My first bul et hit him in the shoulder. I didn’t aim to hurt him overly much.

  His first bul et hit me in the gut, he aimed to kil me.

  The burning sensation in my bel y was nearly overpowering.

  The wil to live thankful y put the “nearly” in my previous statement.

  With a gut wound, knowing his intention, Roam at my feet not moving and his gun stil aimed at me, I had no choice but to fire again, this time, with a different aim.

  His second shot hit me in the chest.

  My second shot went straight into his frontal lobe.

  * * * * *

  Luke Luke saw the Harley in front of him, Vance astride it.

  Luke flashed his lights, Vance lifted his hand. Luke parked the Porsche behind the Harley two doors down from Cordova’s house.

  “Stay here, kid,” Luke ordered Sniff.

  Sniff nodded but Luke didn’t see him, he was already out of the car.

  “I take front, you take back,” Vance said when Luke made it to him, already approaching the house at a jog.

  Luke nodded, jogging beside him then separating, beginning to move across the lawn of the house next to Cordova’s, heading toward the back.

  Then they heard the shot then the scream and the second they did, they both sprinted forward at a dead run to Cordova’s front door.

  By the time they made it and Vance kicked in the door, four more shots had been fired.

  * * * * *

  Jules I fel down on my ass, reached out toward a prone Roam, couldn’t find the strength or my breath, to make it to him so I fel to my back.

  I closed my eyes, fighting the pain and thinking about getting to a phone. When I opened my eyes again Vance’s face was the only thing I saw.

  “Hey,” I said because I figured I’d passed out (I didn’t think I died, the pain of multiple gunshot wounds hurt like a mother and I didn’t figure they had pain in heaven) and this was a dream so I smiled at him.

  “Hey, Princess,” he replied, eyes on me, hands working somewhere else then I felt my shirt ripped open from hem to col ar.

  “Get a goddamned medic here,” I heard Luke bark from somewhere in the room.

  I turned my head to see where Luke was but instead saw Hector kneeling over Roam.

  I looked back to Vance. “Is Roam okay?” I asked.

  “Let’s worry about you right now,” Vance said. He moved away from sight and I saw his hands catch something.

  When Vance wasn’t fil ing my vision I was pretty certain I was seeing things because I could swear I caught a glimpse of Darius and then Vance came back to me.

  I was losing it, fading, and I knew it. My body was going into shock. I could feel the warm blood sliding out of me even as Vance put pressure on the wounds to stop the bleeding. I didn’t know if I went unconscious if I’d wake up again.

  I blinked. “Crowe,” I cal ed.

  His eyes had moved from mine to my torso but they came back to me. “Yeah?”

  I had a lot of things to tel him, a lot of things I needed him to understand and I knew I didn’t have a lot of time.

  I lifted my hand but couldn’t keep it up. Before it fel Vance caught it.

  I looked into his eyes as his strong fingers closed around mine and I said the only thing I could think to communicate everything he needed to know.

  “Home.”

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Waiting

  Jet

  It was the middle of the night and Eddie’s phone was ringing.

  This happened a lot seeing as Eddie was a cop so we were kind of practiced at him answering it without disturbing me (too much).

  I was curled into his side. His arm went to the nightstand, he nabbed the phone, flipped it open one-handed and said quietly, “Yeah?”

  He listened for five seconds then I felt his body go completely solid.

  My head shot up.

  Eddie rol ed away and turned on the light. When he rol ed back, his black eyes were on me. I didn’t like what I saw and I pushed up, one hand at his abs, one hand in the bed.

  “Where’re they takin’ her?” Eddie asked.

  Oh no.

  No, no, no.

  My first thought was Mom. My Mom had a stroke nearly a year ago and it had been bad but she had made it. My greatest fear was that it would happen again and worse.

  Without asking, I whirled around, threw back the covers and jumped out of the bed.

  “Right. Later,” Eddie said, his voice urgent.

  I was hopping around, pul ing on my jeans when Eddie caught me by the waist. “Jet,” he said softly.

  I turned to him and pushed off, going back to pul ing on my jeans but looking up at him. “Is it Mom? Where is she?”

  “It isn’t your Mom,” I stopped and stared at him. He didn’t make me wait. “It’s Jules. She’s been shot.”

  “Oh my God,” I breathed.

  “It’s not good,” Eddie said.

  I stayed stil , I couldn’t move, I just stayed stil , a foot away from Eddie, staring at him.

  “How not good?” I final y asked.

  “Chest and gut.”

  I felt somehow as if an imaginary bul et tore through me in each place.

  “Twice? ” I cried, my voice shril .

  “Cariña, ” he came forward but I jumped away, pul ing up my jeans at the same time.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  “There’s nothin’ we can do.”

  I yanked off his t-shirt that I’d drunkenly pul ed on before I’d fal en into bed what seemed like only minutes ago and I turned to the chest of drawers, pul ed out a bra and put it on while I glared at him.

  “Let’s go.”

  He stared at me a beat then bent to grab his jeans from the floor.

  Within five minutes we were out the backdoor and in the garage. I was yanking open the passenger side door to Eddie’s red Dodge Ram when Eddie shoved it closed. I turned to him, mouth open to ask him what he was doing when he put a hand to my bel y and pushed me up against the truck, fol owing me there a
nd pinning me with his body.

  His forehead came to mine, his one hand between us at my bel y, his other hand came to my neck and we just stood there looking into each other’s eyes and breathing.

  “Fuck,” Eddie murmured.

  “I love you,” I told him.

  His mouth touched mine and with his lips stil there, he said, “Me too.”

  I nodded, my forehead rol ing against his. He took in a deep breath, moved away, we got in the truck and he drove us to Denver Health.

  * * * * *

  Indy “Hey, gorgeous,” Lee said in my ear.

  I opened my eyes and in the dark I could see his hips clad in jeans on the bed beside me.

  I was tangled up in the sheets. This meant I’d been sleeping alone for awhile. I was an active sleeper. If Lee was with me he control ed it by pinning me deliciously to the bed with his hard body. Sometime between me drunkenly fal ing into bed wearing nothing but my underwear and now, Lee had been somewhere.

  I came up on my elbow and Lee reached out and turned on the light.

  I stared as he did it.

  Lee’s work had no office hours but he went to pains to make certain this didn’t affect me. Never in five months of living together had he turned on the light when he got home in the dead of night which happened a lot. Every time he came home he woke me up, as he’d promised, to let me know he was okay but he’d never turned on the light.

  My eyes moved to him and my heart started beating hard in my chest.

  Lee was sitting there, for that I could be thankful. But a lot of people I loved had dangerous jobs, Hank for one, Eddie for another, my Dad, who was a cop, Lee’s Dad, who was a cop too, then there was Lee’s whole workforce.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Jules has been shot.”

  I sucked in breath, not expecting to hear that, and came up to a sitting position.

  Lee’s eyes moved with me, never leaving mine. “Chest and gut. It isn’t good. She’s at Denver Health. Vance wanted to go get her uncle but I told him we’d do it.”

  “Of course,” I mumbled, pul ing the sheets away from my body.

  Lee’s hands took mine and my eyes went back to his.

  “Vance didn’t agree. Said he needed to do it. I want you to be there for him and Nick. They’re gonna need you. Vance agreed to that.”

  “Okay,” I whispered.

  “Hurry, Vance is waiting downstairs.”

  I flew from the bed, got dressed faster than I ever had in my life and ran downstairs.

  Vance was standing, staring out the front window. I noticed he was wearing one of Lee’s sweaters and I didn’t want to know what that meant.

  Lee was on the phone.

  Lee said, “Gotta go,” into the phone when he saw me and flipped it shut.

  Vance’s eyes moved to mine and I felt my stomach pitch by what I saw in his.

  Or more to the point, what I didn’t.

  I bit my top lip and swal owed then released it.

  “Hey Vance,” I said.

  He lifted his chin.

  “Let’s go,” Lee was already moving to the backdoor.

  Lee had the Explorer blocking the back al ey. I wanted to sit in the back but Vance opened the front door for me and motioned me in.

  “You…” I started.

  He shook his head.

  I didn’t delay any further.

  Lee drove the two blocks to Jules’s house while I was turned in my seat to Vance. “What do you want me to do?” Vance was looking out the window but when I asked my question his eyes moved to mine again and he said, “Just be you.”

  I nodded, not real y knowing what that meant but thinking I could at least do that.

  Lee stopped and idled and Vance was out the door. I looked at Lee. He jerked his chin toward my door. I nodded again and trailed Vance to Nick’s door.

  Vance knocked and I stood next to him. I felt stupid just standing next to him so I reached out and touched his hand with my knuckles. Immediately his hand twisted and his fingers closed over mine hard. I bit my upper lip again as his hand crushed mine but I didn’t make a peep.

  The outside light came on, the door opened and Nick stood there. He looked through the screen at Vance then at me then back to Vance.

  Vance and I watched as he closed his eyes tight and before Vance or I could say a word he opened his eyes again and I had to suck in both of my lips at the pain written on his face.

  Then he pushed open the screen door and he said,

  “Come in and sit while I get dressed.”

  * * * * *

  Roxie Hank’s phone rang.

  I was warm and cozy, stuck between the heat of Hank and our chocolate lab, Shamus. I felt the cold air as Hank rol ed away.

  “Yeah?” I heard him say. I was already fal ing back to sleep, cuddling into Shamus’s warm, soft fur when I heard Hank say in a quiet, tortured voice I’d never heard him use before, “No.”

  I turned and looked at him in the dark and as I did that he sat up, twisted and switched on the light. Then his whisky-colored eyes moved to mine and what I saw there made me stare.

  “We’l be there. Yeah. Shit. Yeah.” He flipped his phone shut.

  “Whisky?” I cal ed.

  He put his hands under my armpits, pul ed me toward him, across his lap and buried his face in my neck as his arms went tight around me.

  “Whisky,” I whispered, beginning to tremble. Something was wrong, real y wrong.

  His head came up and his eyes found mine. “Sunshine, Jules has been shot. Twice. It’s bad. We gotta go.” My breath caught painful y at this news but Hank either didn’t notice or he wasn’t going to be delayed. He got up, arms around me taking me with him. When he was standing, he set me on my feet.

  We dressed silently. Hank finished first (as usual) and let Shamus out the back for a quick break before we left.

  We made it to the hospital and I saw Eddie and Jet first.

  They were already in the waiting room. Jet was sitting with Sniff, arm around him and he was staring at the floor. Eddie was pacing. My eyes scanned the room and I saw Indy with Jules’s Uncle Nick, both sitting, Indy holding his hand.

  I kept scanning and Vance was there too, standing and staring out a window. Lee was with him, not close, but also not far.

  Hank started to go to Lee but stopped when the door opened behind us and Bobby walked in. Lee’s eyes had come to us when we arrived but when he saw Bobby he came our way.

  “What?” Lee asked Bobby when he arrived at us.

  I peeked at Vance, his eyes hadn’t moved from the window.

  I found this alarming. Vance was a Nightingale Man, an action man, Mr. Alert and he hadn’t even moved, not a muscle, not when Hank and I arrived, not even when Bobby arrived.

  My gaze swung to Jet, who caught my look and shook her head then to Indy, who did the same. I felt suddenly cold and was about to move to Vance when Hank’s hand squeezed mine and Eddie hit our huddle.

  “We had to lock Luke down,” Bobby told Lee and I drew in my breath at this latest bit of shocking news. “Mace did it.

  Luke lost it. Total y pissed at Hector for taking Jules to Cordova. Doesn’t give a shit that Hector didn’t know about Shard,” Bobby’s eyes moved to Vance. “I thought you might need me… Vance.”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t good.

  “Vance is hangin’ in there,” Lee said.

  Bobby nodded and his eyes moved from Vance to Lee.

  Then Bobby drew in a deep breath. “I waited,” Bobby said on an exhale and he blinked slowly then kept talking,

  “until Vance got up to the offices. I saw him on the monitors parking the Explorer. I figured I could wait to tel him about Hector breaking into Law’s place until Vance got upstairs.

  Five minutes could have –”

  “Get it out of your head,” Lee ordered.

  “I shouldn’t have waited,” Bobby replied.

  Lee
leaned in, face tight and serious. “Bobby, right now, get it out of your fucking head.”

  Bobby nodded once then his gaze sliced to Vance. He shook his head sharply then he turned and was gone.

  We al watched the doors close behind Bobby and my heart went out to him because obviously he was blaming himself for something but I turned as Lee spoke.

  “Fuck,” Lee whispered, “he shouldn’t have fucking waited.”

  I leaned into Hank and Hank’s lips went to my ear.

  “Go to Vance now,” he told me.

  I nodded. Hank dropped my hand. I walked across the room and slid my arm around Vance’s waist.

  He turned to me and when his eyes hit mine, I blinked.

  His eyes were dead. They weren’t blank, they were dead.

  I felt my nostrils burning as I stared at him and I knew I was going to cry. I turned into him, pressed my forehead against his shoulder, breathing deep to control the tears and his arms went around me.

  We stayed that way for a long time and I managed to hold back the tears. He let me go and I took his hand.

  We stood together, Vance looking out the window, me standing beside him. Daisy arrived with Marcus; Shirleen arrived with Darius; Al y arrived with Carl; Tex arrived with Nancy; Duke arrived with Dolores; Heavy and Zip came separately. May charged in like a madwoman, tears streaming down her face. Final y Tod and Stevie walked in carrying enough donuts from some al night Winchel ’s to feed an army.

  Coffees were bought. Eddie or Hank, badges on display on their belts, walked to the nurse’s station and asked (okay, more like demanded) updates even though there were none to be had.

  Then the kids started coming. First Clarice, Daisy’s friend came in alone and sat down next to Daisy. Daisy put her head on Clarice’s shoulder and I didn’t know that it was a smal miracle that Clarice didn’t move away.

  Then another couple kids came in, two young boys who took a look around, their eyes hit Sniff then Vance then they walked to a wal , slouched against it and stayed silent.

  Then another kid came in then a couple more then a gaggle of girls, a posse of boys, after awhile the room was fil ed with the Rock Chick Tribe and Jules’s kids.