Rock Chick Reckoning

  “How did you get it done so quickly?” I asked, not knowing anything about alarm systems and surveillance equipment but this seemed a pretty extensive set up to put in place in two days.

  “Vance is good and he’s fast, lots of practice. Monty too. They prioritized. Hank, Eddie, Nick and Vance all need windows installed, they’re staying at The Castle until the windows are replaced and the clean up done. That meant Vance and Monty could focus on Lee and Indy’s duplex and Lee put in a sophisticated alarm system a few months ago so they just had camera work. Same with Luke and Ava’s loft, it already has high security so they just needed the cameras re-installed. The bulk of the work was needed here.”

  I wasn’t sure how much more guilty I could feel but I figured I was just about at my guilt limit before my body spontaneously combusted with it.

  “How did you arrange so much cover with the cops?”

  “Indy and Ally are cops’ daughters, Lee’s a cop’s son. Hank and Eddie are cops. To them, this is a family affair. You’ve been adopted. And Sid is responsible for a lot of shit in this town. Everyone wants to see him brought down but no one wants collateral damage especially if it’s in the family.”

  Sheesh.

  Well, lucky I’d been “adopted”.

  Okay, one last thing.

  “I’ve got gigs this weekend, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon.”

  “I know. We’ve talked to the club owners. We do a sweep before they open. We got men assigned on the inside and no one gets in without getting their bags checked and they’re wanded, including employees.”

  Wanded?

  They were gonna wand people coming to my gigs?

  Shit.

  After he was done talking, he waited a beat then got closer.

  “Any more questions?”

  Yes, like, a million! My brain screamed.

  I shook my head.

  “Now I got one,” he told me.

  “Okay,” I said softly.

  “Why’re you shakin’?”

  I blinked.

  “I don’t know,” I lied. I knew. I totally knew. I was scared shitless.

  He got even closer, his other hand came to rest at my waist and the fingers of his hand at my neck gave me a squeeze. For some reason, this made me quit shaking.

  “I’m gonna take care of you,” he promised, his deep voice low.

  “I don’t want that,” I lied again. I so wanted that. I just couldn’t allow myself to have it.

  Another neck squeeze.

  “You should have thought about that before your ‘I want a vote’ speech this morning.”

  He was not wrong about that. I should have thought about a lot of things before my speech that morning.

  “No, what I mean is, I know I need protection, I just don’t want you to do it. Assign someone else to me.” I thought for a second about my choices and I picked the baddest-ass-looking one of the bunch. “I’ll take Hector.”

  There was an eye flash but this was not unreadable like the other ones. This one screamed “Anger!” from start to finish.

  “Two reasons you aren’t gonna get Hector.” Mace’s voice had an edge.

  I ignored Mace’s edge and put a hand to one of my hips.

  “They are?”

  “One, because in about twenty-four hours, he’d have you flat on your back, him on top and both of you would be naked.”

  At his words, my body froze, my eyes bugged out, my hands clenched into fists but, either oblivious or uncaring about the shocking insult he just dealt me, Mace kept right on talking.

  “He’s itching for it. I can see it in him the way he looks at you. He and I are gonna have words but bottom line, when it comes to you, that’s not gonna happen.”

  “You’ve lost your mind,” I breathed.

  Mace ignored me. “Reason two is because you’re mine. End of discussion.”

  Not end of discussion.

  I decided to start my battle on the first annoying thing he said and advance right on through the rest of it until he got it into his macho, stubborn, effing head!

  “I would not sleep with Hector in twenty-four hours!” I snapped.

  “Yeah, you would. He’s good. He’s better than Eddie was. Better even than Vance and Vance was a Denver legend.”

  I’d lived in Denver a long time. I knew a lot of people, half of them women.

  Had to admit, I’d heard of Vance, hell, I’d heard of Eddie (and Lee).

  Pre-Rock Chicks, they were all legends.

  Focus! My brain shouted at me.

  I focused.

  “I’m not that type of girl!”

  “Kitten, I fucked you on our first date.”

  He had me there.

  “That never happened before, it only happened because it was you,” I retorted, too swiftly, thus not thinking my words through, as in, not thinking that maybe I shouldn’t say them at all.

  He got closer, his hand at my waist slid around my back, his hand at my neck went up and around so his fingers went into my hair and his palm was warm against the base of my neck. The front of his body was touching mine.

  All of that felt really, really good.

  Oh lordy be.

  “Yeah?” he asked, eyes warm and smiling.

  My heart began to beat a bit faster.

  Shitsofuckit!

  I really had to start thinking before I spoke. Or just thinking at all.

  “Whatever.” I blew it off as if it was nothing and the smile in his eyes reached his mouth.

  Bastard!

  “I’m not yours!” I shouted, advancing on to battle number two.

  “You are.”

  “Am not.”

  “Kitten, you are.”

  “Nope. Nunh-unh. No way. Never again!” I ended on another shout.

  His head dipped, his smile deepened and his eyes got that I’m-gonna-kiss-you look I liked so fucking much.

  “God, I missed you,” he muttered and he said it in a way that, again, I didn’t think he meant to say it out loud.

  My breath ran away, I didn’t know where, maybe to a different state. All I knew was, it was gone.

  Then there was a pounding on the door.

  We both froze.

  So much for the fabulous security system. There was someone right at my freaking door!

  “Stella!”

  Shit! Eric!

  The door handle rattled.

  “Open the door! Are you okay?”

  Oh, this couldn’t be happening.

  Of all the super shitty luck!

  Mace’s eyes narrowed on the door and stayed narrowed when they came back to me.

  “Who the fuck is that?” he asked.

  “Eric,” I answered.

  Another angry flash then he swore, “Fuck.”

  He let me go and moved to the door.

  There was more pounding as Mace looked out the peephole. I saw his body register something, his jaw got tight and he looked at me.

  “You have got to be shitting me,” he said.

  Okay, now I was confused.

  “What?” I asked.

  Mace shook his head and opened the door.

  Eric stood outside and I noted somewhat dazedly that he looked good.

  He was tall, about three inches shorter than Mace but still tall. He had black hair with a fantastic wave to it that, if he let it grow long, it would be curly. Not girlie-curly but man-curly and hot. Instead, he wore it long-ish and it always looked just out of bed messy and, well, hot. He had intense, black eyes and a lean, muscled body. As I mentioned, he was hot, definitely, but in my eyes, no one was hotter than Mace, even hotter than hot Eric.

  Eric saw me first, his concerned face registered relief that I was standing and breathing. He started to take a step toward me but stopped and froze when his eyes hit Mace.

  Juno lifted her head and woofed her greeting to Eric from the bed but clearly was too tuckered out from hanging out with the Rock Chicks at The Castle to give it in doggie pers
on. She put her head back down on her paws but her body shook with her tail just to let Eric know she was totally welcome to him coming to her and saying hello.

  Eric didn’t have time for Juno just now. His gaze swung back to me then to Mace. Then he walked in, Mace threw the door to and when it caught the frame, Eric exploded, “What the fuck is going on?”

  Juno woofed again, not entirely sure what to think about this unusual greeting.

  “Eric,” I said quietly.

  “Who’s this fuckin’ guy?” Eric asked, jerking his head to Mace.

  “You know who I am.” Mace confused me further by saying.

  “I do?” Eric’s tone was belligerent.

  “He does?” My tone was bewildered.

  “You do,” Mace answered, his eyes never leaving Eric.

  Eric turned to him and something changed in the room. Something lead singers in rock bands wouldn’t get. Only hot guys who deal in the world of crime and punishment would get it. So I didn’t get it.

  “Yeah, I do,” Eric replied, his tone now dangerous and I felt something not happy crawling along my skin at this admission. “What I wanna know is, what the fuck are you doin’ here?”

  “I could ask you the same fuckin’ thing,” Mace returned.

  This did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Most especially because they both looked like they were about to rip each other’s head’s off and, outside the obvious, there was more to it, I just didn’t know what it was.

  “Erm… boys?” I called.

  Eric tore his gaze from Mace and did a head-to-toe of me, his eyes snapping back to the bandage peeking from under my shorts.

  Then his gaze cut back to Mace.

  “So she did get hit,” Eric said to Mace.

  What?

  He knew I was shot?

  What was going on?

  “She got hit,” Mace replied.

  “And you were there,” Eric went on.

  Mace’s jaw got tight. “Yeah”

  “Fuck!” Eric exploded again. “Back off, Mason. I’ve got this covered.”

  I watched, still totally confused as Mace zoomed straight from barely controlling his anger to holding onto his anger by a thread and I knew this was not a good thing.

  “You got what covered, exactly?” Mace asked.

  “Stella,” Eric responded.

  “Why don’t you explain that to me?” Mace’s thread was unraveling.

  “How ‘bout you explain to me why you think you deserve an explanation?” Eric shot back.

  This could go on all night.

  “Excuse me!” I yelled. “I am in the room.”

  “Quiet, Stella,” Mace said to me without looking away from Eric.

  Oh no.

  He was not getting bossy on me again.

  “Don’t tell me to be quiet. What’s going on?” I shouted.

  “He’s a Fed,” Mace answered.

  My breath, which had come back, decided to go on vacation again. My guess, Las Vegas.

  My eyes slid to Eric.

  “A Fed?” I breathed with the last remnants of breath I had.

  I knew something was not right about him, he told me he worked construction.

  Eric’s teeth were in a clench.

  “That’s right,” he said between them, his eyes reluctantly leaving Mace and coming to me.

  “You work for –” I started.

  “Yeah,” Eric cut me off.

  “He’s on assignment,” Mace shared.

  A muscle in Eric’s jaw leaped.

  “Assignment?” Now I was sounding stupid but there was no other way to be.

  “Sidney Carter,” Eric bit off.

  Oh my God. Eric was after Bad Guy Sid too.

  Then it hit me, if Eric was after Sid, then he was with me because…

  Effing hell.

  I started to back up.

  “Stella.” Eric turned away from Mace and started toward me.

  “Don’t fuckin’ get near her,” Mace warned.

  Eric stopped and turned back to Mace. “Do we gotta take this outside?”

  “Works for me,” Mace replied immediately.

  “No!” I shouted and Juno woofed, sensing the degradation of the atmosphere and not pleased that Eric had decided against a more thorough welcome. Juno wasn’t used to being ignored. “You two aren’t taking anything outside. You’re going to tell me what’s going on. Starting with you.” I nodded at Eric.

  Eric turned back to me, took a step, caught my look, clenched his teeth again and stopped.

  “I can’t say much,” he started then I reckon he got a load of my new look and went on, “Stella, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I can’t say much.”

  “Okay, just tell me what it has to do with me.”

  Eric glanced back at Mace then to me. “I’m guessin’ you know.”

  “Lindsey,” I said.

  “And Mason,” Eric went on.

  What?

  “Mace?” I asked.

  Eric continued, “We got a guy on the inside. They knew Sid was feeling the heat and was gonna retaliate. We knew who the targets were. We knew you were one of them. We knew why and we knew about the operation the other night.”

  I went back a few more steps, too stunned by this news to let the heat of anger sweltering off Mace to register on my brain. The backs of my legs hit the edge of one of the platforms and I sat down with no grace whatsoever.

  Eric started toward me again but, quick as lightning, Mace moved and got in his way.

  Eric stopped and glared at him.

  I looked around Mace to Eric. “You knew?”

  “Fuck,” Eric muttered.

  Then, not thinking (yes, again), I jumped up, stormed forward and rounded Mace, shouting, “I got shot!”

  Mace’s arm tagged me around the middle and pulled me, hard, into his body.

  “I know!” Eric shouted back, deciding to ignore Mace’s arm which, I thought, my mind crazily veering in wild directions, was wise.

  “You didn’t do anything about it!” I kept shouting.

  “You were supposed to be with me,” Eric reminded me.

  He was kind of right, I was. He’d put the pressure on, big time, for me to spend the night with him that night but I told him no.

  Mace’s hard body felt somehow harder after Eric spoke.

  “This is what I wanna talk about,” Mace said.

  “It’s none of your fuckin’ business,” Eric bit out.

  “I’m of a different opinion,” Mace bit back.

  “And why’s that?” Eric returned.

  “Stella and I are back together,” Mace informed him.

  Again, not thinking, I twisted my head to look at Mace and cried, “We are not!”

  “Stella –” Mace started.

  My eyes moved back to Eric. “I want to know why you let me get shot.”

  “I didn’t let you get shot. I sat outside, I saw you leave. I followed you to Lindsey’s. I saw that Stark and Mason were there, not to mention the cops, and I expected Sid wouldn’t be crazy enough to make a move with that kind of coverage. That’s when I got a call. Jet McAlister was supposed to be with India Savage and her gang. She wasn’t and Chavez had been called out. I was sent to her house. The drive-by happened before I got there and you were shot while I was in transit.”

  Well, that made me feel a little bit better.

  “Now,” Eric’s eyes narrowed on Mace, “you wanna take your hands off her?”

  “No,” Mace answered instantly.

  “I’m thinkin’ that’s not the right answer. She was yelling at you earlier, I heard her through the door and she says you aren’t back together,” Eric returned.

  “Yeah, she says that. Then again, I’m pretty sure it was Stella I was fuckin’ this morning, it was me she asked to fuck her harder and it was me she was holdin’ onto while she purred into my throat after I made her come. That’s contradictory information from her and me but considerin’ I intend to be in her bed for the foreseeable fut
ure, I figure you understand where the fuck I’m comin’ from just about now,” Mace shared, his voice utterly lethal.

  I stilled and Eric’s eyes hit me.

  Oh my God, did Mace really just say that? My brain asked me.

  “You fucked him?” Eric asked me.

  Yep, Mace really just said that.

  Oh man, I was gonna kill Mace.

  “Eric,” I whispered. I didn’t know why I found this upsetting outside of what Mace just shared and how he shared it. First, I’d been holding back from Eric. And, second, I wasn’t his girlfriend, I was his assignment (I didn’t know the Feds went that far but there you go).

  But I did find this upsetting mainly because he looked like I slapped him across the face.

  Eric closed his eyes and looked to the side; the teeth clench was evident again.

  “You need to find another assignment.” Mace wasn’t in the mood to go with the vibe which would warn just about anyone (except Mace) to back right the fuck off.

  Eric opened his eyes and they were scorching hot with anger, not just at Mace, but at me.

  “Eric, this is complicated,” I told him quietly.

  “I know it is. I know a lot about you, Stella. I know you fell for him and he fell for you. I also know he walked out on you. I also know that there’s been no one since him. No one, but me. Lastly, I know you were holding back from me but I didn’t think it was because you’d fuck him the minute you got your chance. I thought it was because you figured you’d get fucked over again if you opened up to anyone,” Eric explained, not nicely but it was an explanation.

  “Careful with your words.” Mace decided to focus on the “not nice” part.

  “You didn’t open up to me!” I defended myself, ignoring Mace and focusing on the “explanation” part.

  “I got a job to do. Opening up to you wasn’t part of my directive,” he lashed out.

  A different kind of imaginary gut kick, this delivered by Eric.

  “Thanks a lot,” I snapped.

  “Falling for you wasn’t either,” Eric returned.

  There it went again, my breath taking off, this time, to Wyoming.

  Mace’s body tensed.

  Shitsofuckit!

  I opened my mouth to speak but it was too late, Eric turned, opened the door and started to walk out.

  He stopped and looked back at Mace. “Take better fuckin’ care of her this time.”

  Then he slammed the door and was gone.