Rock Chick 05 Revenge (31 page)

“Not yet, we’re still lookin’.”

Shit.

Luke went on. “You get her story?”
 

I was beginning to realize that I couldn’t live in a pretend world of happiness and ignore everything that was going on around me. It was one thing when it was happening to me, it was quite another when it was happening to Sissy. Luke had been right again, this shit was not going away.

I got up with my latte, walked to the book counter, leaned a hip against it and told him Sissy’s story. I finished on, “Do you know what’s going on?”

“I’m piecin’ it together but none of what I’ve got is leadin’ back to you.”

“What do you have?”

“I’ll tell you when I get home tonight.”

It was then I remembered I had a date with Ren that night.

Oh crap.

Why was my life so complicated?

“Erm, Luke?”

“Babe, I gotta go,” he sounded distracted.

“No, Luke, wait.”

“What?” Now he sounded impatient. Not a good way to start.

“Um, I have plans tonight. I’ll be… out.”

Silence.

I took this silence as Luke remembering my plans.

Then he said, his voice quiet and lethal, “You come to me when you’re done.”

Ee-yikes.

Luke kept talking, his voice quieter and more lethal. “He touches you Ava, there’ll be trouble.”

Yep, he remembered my plans.

“I’m sworn off men, remember?” I told him.

I heard muffled movement and I should have realized that he was somewhere he couldn’t talk and he was seeking privacy. I should have also realized that this was one of the many warning signs Luke gave me before rocking my world. Instead, like a dork, I just stood there waiting for him to talk.

Then still in the ultra quiet, lethal voice, he said, “I keep hearin’ that line coming from you and then the minute I get my mouth or hands on you, somethin’ different happens. Ava, you’re the hottest fuckin’ piece I’ve ever touched. I find out that heat isn’t just for me, I’m still takin’ my fill. Zano can have you when I’m done.”

I felt pressure crawling up my throat because what he said was just not nice.
 

I was, of course, forgetting that tough guy Luke Stark was simply giving what he considered were the ground rules for “his woman” going out to dinner alone with another man. The fact that he wasn’t throwing a he-man shit fit was practically a miracle.
 

Still.

“Lucas Stark, you better watch your mouth,” I hissed.

“You come to me when you’re done,” he repeated.

I did not
think
so. “I’m staying the night with Sissy and her Dad.”

“You do, it’ll be embarrassing for you when I drag your ass out of there.”

My heart stopped. “You wouldn’t dare,” I breathed.

“Try me.”

I wasn’t going to try him. No way. He’d do it and I knew it.

“You’re a jerk,” I snapped.

“Tonight, you’re mine.”

Disconnect.

Argh!

I turned back to the Rock Chicks and they were all looking at me.

Finally Roxie said to Sissy, “Doesn’t seem like Wednesday’s looking too good.”

“Lee’s got today, he’s going to be bummed,” Indy said.

“I got in on the pool late, my day’s Friday,” Jet put in. “The way this is going, I’m thinking of buying a KitchenAid mixer to match my blender.”

“Oh! I love those!” Daisy exclaimed, turning to Jet. “Which color you gonna get?”

I looked to the ceiling as the Rock Chicks discussed Jet’s forthcoming KitchenAid appliance purchase.

Then I thought,
my life sucks
.

Chapter Fourteen

You Missed It Again, Babe

After I got off the phone with Luke, I planned my day carefully.

I hung with the Rock Chicks, Tex and Matt at Fortnum’s all afternoon and I made a call to Shirleen. Duke, Indy’s second-in-command, came in and even though I hadn’t seen him in months, smiled at him and yelled, “Hey Duke!” he scowled at me and disappeared in the books.

“What’s that all about?” I asked Indy.

“He’s not a big fan of the ‘during’ part of a Badass Motherfucker Courtship. He prefers the ‘after’,” Indy explained.

I couldn’t say I blamed him.

Detective Jimmy Marker stopped by at Luke’s request. Sissy and I told him about the car chase and the recent kidnapping attempt and I took that opportunity to explain that my first kidnapping was a “misunderstanding” – news that made him stare at me hard.

He gave me a lecture about talking to the cops next time I nearly rolled my car over onto I-25 while being pursued by a bad guy. Then he and Duke carried on a loud conversation about “how these boys need to get their heads examined”. Then Detective Marker left.

Matt and I dropped Sissy at her Dad’s and we both stayed while Sissy told her Dad the latest story. Then we stayed while Sissy’s Dad hit the roof. We left after he calmed down.

Sissy walked us to the door and gave Matt a look. Matt correctly interpreted this look and stepped outside of hearing distance.

I turned to Sissy. “What?”
 

“Remember when you pretended not to care when you didn’t have a date to the senior prom?”

Oh no, where was she going with this?

“Yeah.”

“Well, tonight you’re going out with one of the hottest guys we know and then you’re going home to
the
hottest guy ever. How’s them apples?” She gave me a big smile, so pleased for me she didn’t seem to remember she got punched in the face that day for the first time in her life.

I shook my head. “You’re a dork.”

“And
you’re
a
knockout
.”

I shoved her shoulder. She shoved mine back.

After a few more shoves, Matt and I left.

Matt took me to Luke’s loft and I held my breath until the elevator doors slid open and we saw Luke wasn’t there. As the place was under surveillance, Matt didn’t stick around. He was itching to get into the search for Bobby. I spent a few moments sending good vibes to Bobby and encouraging vibes to the Nightingale Boys to find him, and fast. Then I called Shirleen as scheduled.

“Shee-it,” she answered instead of saying hello. “You still gonna do this?”

“Yes,” I told her.

She sighed. “I’ll be there in ten.”

I’d called her from Fortnum’s and as she was my Rock Chick and Badass Motherfucker Courtship Mentor, she was bound by Rock Chick Law to help me (yes, it was weird but at that point it worked for me).

She picked me up in her Lincoln Navigator (seriously, Lee had to pay his employees well if his receptionist had a Navigator) and took me to my place. She hung out watching TV while I got ready for my date with Ren.

Halfway dressed, my phone rang.

I looked at it scared to death it would be Luke. It said “Dom calling”.

What the hell?

“Yes?” I answered.

“Ava, don’t hang up,” Dom said quickly.

“You’re a dickhead,” I told him.

“Our last thing didn’t go too well…”

I wanted to shout “Ya think?” but he kept talking.

“I’m sorry about that but Ava, you gotta listen to me. There’s some serious shit goin’ down. You and me, we gotta get out of town, you gotta meet me at –”

“Fuck that, Dom. You’re nuts.”

“No, this is some serious shit.”

“Yes, it’s
your
serious shit. Keep me out of it,” I snapped.

“That’s what I’m tryin’ to do,” he snapped back.

“Can you please tell me why I’m
in
it?”
 

“They’re tryin’ to get to me.”

“No kidding, they’re trying so hard, they nearly kidnapped Sissy this morning. Punched her in the nose, blood everywhere. We thought it was broken. She was a mess.”

Silence.

“Dom?”

“What’d you just say?”

“Some big guy in a dark blue SUV
punched
your wife in the nose this morning while trying to kidnap her.”

Silence again.

I was losing patience, and time, quickly.

“Dom! I don’t have time for this.”

“He hit Sissy?” Dom asked quietly.

Something about the way he said it made my mind still. “Yeah,” I told him.

“He’s got at least a foot and probably a hundred pounds on her.”

“Do you know this guy?” I asked but he ignored my question.

“And he
hit
her?” Dom was sounding a bit scary.

“Dom, tell me, who is this guy?”
 

Dom still wasn’t listening. “You say her nose isn’t broken?”

“She’s fine. It’s swollen, her eyes are black but she’s okay.”

Was I reassuring Dominic Vincetti about his wife’s well-being? Was it me who’d stepped into an alternate universe?

“I’ll call her,” Dom told me.

Oh no.

“Dom, don’t,” I said.

“Later.”

Disconnect.

Fuckity, fuck, fuck,
fuck
.

I looked at my alarm clock on the nightstand and it was already seven o’clock. I wanted to call Sissy but I didn’t have time. As it was I rushed through my final preparations.

I had decided to go gung ho for the night. I was telling myself this wasn’t an in your face to Luke after his last tough guy speech. I was telling myself this was for me. That even though I had sworn off men, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t look cute.

I was wearing a black skirt, so tight it fit like a glove and cupped my ass. Its hem hit me at the top of the knees and had a front slit that went to mid-thigh. I topped it with a black, ultra-wide, low scoop-necked, long-sleeved, stretchy t-shirt that also fit like a glove and had a long hem so it came down well over the waistband of the skirt and gathered around my waist. I put on tons of silver bangles and charm bracelets on my right wrist and hoops at my ears but didn’t add rings and necklaces (in the latter area, I was going to let my cleavage do the work). I finished with pointy-toed, pencil-heeled, sling-backed, black pumps. I left my hair long and wild, had done my makeup in “Drama!” and spritzed with my expensive perfume.

I walked into my living room and Shirleen was lazing back on my couch, eating yogurt out of a container. Her eyes bugged out when she saw me.

“Girl,” she muttered low. “You are playin’ with fire.”

“I’m just going out to dinner.”

“And I’m just sayin’ you best pop by here before you go back to Luke, change your clothes, wash your face and hope he never finds out you went out with another man wearin’ that outfit.”

“It’ll all be fine,” I assured her.

“Yeah, that’s what you said about our visit to Uncle Vito. Now he’s plannin’ your weddin’ to his nephew.”

This, I had to admit, was true.

There came a knock at the door.

Shirleen looked to the heavens. “Here we go,” she said as if warning God to brace.

I went to the door and opened it. Ren stood there.

Ren was just like Dom in the tall, lean-hipped, broad-shouldered, thick, dark hair departments. Ren’s hair had no wave like Dom’s did, though. His eyes were a fantastic espresso color and, even though I pretty much knew that he knew he was hot, he didn’t strut like his cousin. He was just… cool. Way cool. Yumalicious cool.

He was wearing a well-cut, dark-brown suit, a light-brown shirt and his muscular throat on show. I’d always loved his throat, there was something about it that made you just want to
taste
it.

“Ava,” he said.

My eyes went from his throat to his face. “Hey Ren.”

He was looking in my eyes. Then he did a body sweep and his gaze came back to mine.
 

When it did and I caught the hungry look in his eye, I had to stop myself from putting my hand to the door to hold myself up.

Boy was I screwed.

* * * * *

Carmine’s on Penn had a cozy atmosphere, was always packed to the gills, had white paper over the tables so you could draw on it with crayons they provided and didn’t have menus. Their dishes were listed on blackboards on the wall but none of the items made any sense unless you had been there before. The waiters explained the dishes then wrote your order in crayon on the white paper on your table.
 

I didn’t need the waiters to explain the dishes. I knew exactly what I wanted. I just hoped it was what Ren wanted because the food was served family style.

Ren and I had chit chatted on the ride there in his black Jaguar (seriously sleek ride, totally super-fly). He valet parked and we were seated at a cozy table a deux. We chit chatted before ordering and chit chatted while eating the delicious garlicky rolls.