Rock Chick Reckoning

  We hit the stairs as Mace made it to the bottom; he bent and put Stella on her feet.

  Stella looked pale and shocked (but luckily alive and not covered in blood). Her wild eyes took a sweep of Mace as if searching for bullet holes. She looked up at him, opened her mouth to speak but Mace got there before her.

  “Rendez-vous,” he barked at Hector and then without hesitation he turned in the direction of Tex, Luke and Willie.

  “Mace!” Vance clipped, his tone urgent but Mace didn’t stop.

  “Fuck,” Hector snarled then his head turned and he shouted, “Lee!”

  I looked to where Hector’s eyes were aimed and saw Lee jump off the stage and push through the crowd on a trajectory that would take him to Mace.

  “Let’s go,” Duke said, shoving us toward the back.

  “What’s he gonna do?” Ally asked her eyes on Mace.

  “Move! Now!” Duke shouted and started shoving harder.

  We moved. We didn’t want to, but we moved.

  We knew the drill and we’d wasted enough time.

  They herded us into Explorers and we went to The Castle.

  * * * * *

  “Chiquita, get away from the window,” Eddie ordered.

  I turned away from watching Stella and Mace drive away in an Explorer and looked at Eddie.

  His feet were bare, his chest was bare, his belt was undone and so were two buttons of his faded jeans.

  As usual, Eddie looked fucking hot (definitely worth the f-word).

  And, also, Eddie was obviously ready to go to bed.

  Even after our adventurous night including rock ‘n’ roll in the face of certain danger, that danger coming at one of us in the form of gunfire and the Rock Chicks’ fast getaway in bulletproof SUVs, Eddie was already wound down.

  This was because Eddie was a cop. Eddie’s job was dangerous, not to mention he’d survived five Rock Chick/Hot Bunch Courtships, including our own. This was just another night for Eddie.

  “Is Mace okay?” I asked, dropping the curtain I had pulled back from the window.

  I asked because Mace could be a little intense and we hadn’t had time to debrief downstairs. Eddie came in before Mace and took me directly upstairs. He looked exhausted so I didn’t argue even though I wanted to know what happened, as in, really wanted to know.

  If Mace made it to the man who shot at Stella before someone talked him down from going berserk, Stella and the rest of us would be visiting Mace at the local penitentiary for as long as they put people away for manslaughter.

  I was taking it as a good sign that he was driving off with Stella in an Explorer.

  Though, they could be driving to Mexico as fugitives from the law for all I knew.

  “Yeah. Lee controlled it before we had to lock him down,” Eddie replied, finishing with the buttons on his jeans.

  Well, that was a relief.

  I walked toward him, picked up the t-shirt he’d discarded, tossed it on the bed and started to undress.

  “I can’t believe they opened fire in a crowded club,” I said, pulling off my tee.

  “Sid’s crazy,” Eddie replied, his voice like a verbal shrug but there was an edge to it.

  No doubt about that, Sidney Carter was definitely crazy.

  And maybe Eddie wasn’t wound down. Maybe Eddie just wanted to think about this later, as in, while telling crazy stories to our grandchildren when we were retired and living in Arizona.

  I sat on the bed and yanked off my boots.

  “You okay?” Eddie asked and I looked up at him.

  Then I quit breathing.

  He was standing there totally naked, arms crossed on his chest, eyes on me.

  Eddie had no problem with nudity.

  Also, it should be said, I had no problem with Eddie’s nudity.

  I shrugged off thoughts of how little problem I had with Eddie’s nudity and nodded.

  I was okay.

  I’d learned a long time ago that if you were still walking and breathing, it was best just to get on with it.

  I got up, pulling off my jeans then taking off my bra as Eddie got into bed. I grabbed his t-shirt and was about to tug it on when Eddie stopped me by saying, “Don’t think so.”

  My arms through the sleeves of his tee but not yet having pulled it over my head, my eyes moved to him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Drop the shirt, mi amor,” Eddie demanded in a soft voice, his eyes, I could see from the length of the bed, were liquid.

  My belly melted.

  I dropped the shirt.

  Then I put hands and knees to the bed and crawled toward him, his body between my limbs. I watched his face as he watched my progress, a smile playing about his mouth as I made my way up his length. When we were face-to-face, I stopped and lowered myself full on him.

  His arms wrapped around me, one hand going into my panties at my behind.

  “You okay with staying here?” I asked and watched Eddie’s liquid black eyes start glittering.

  Eddie hated Marcus. Marcus hated Eddie. Our current arrangement was not an optimal situation. Both men put up with each other for the sake of Daisy and my friendship. This was a tentative truce, very tentative.

  Before he met me and before I met Daisy, Eddie had spent some time trying to bring Marcus down. Marcus was not clean, not by a long shot. Somewhere along the line, Eddie had pulled back from his pursuit of Marcus and Marcus, Eddie told me, had pulled out of some of his more villainous ventures. Marcus wasn’t ready to go clean and Eddie wasn’t ready to give up.

  If Marcus slipped up, Eddie would nail him.

  Eddie and I being houseguests of the Sloans went against Eddie’s grain.

  In a big way.

  Not to mention, Eddie told me last night that the Denver Police Department told him they also frowned on our current arrangement. This meant Eddie wasn’t going to win Detective of the Year. Since Eddie frequently went his own way, he’d likely never even be nominated (not that they actually had a Detective of the Year award). I knew Eddie was okay with that, he wasn’t big on politics and working the system, he preferred to focus on the job or, at least, his way of doing it.

  Eyes still glittering, Eddie answered, “Willin’ to do just about anything to see you safe.”

  I knew what he said was true. He’d proved it more than once.

  This earned him a smile and when he saw my smile, as always, his eyes went soft. This was because Eddie liked my smile, like, a lot.

  I felt warmth spread in my belly, this time it was a different kind and I dropped my head and nuzzled my face into his throat.

  Eddie did an ab crunch, lifting us both, he yanked the covers from between our bodies and I swung my legs around to help him. Then he laid back, me still full on top of him, and he flicked the covers over us.

  His hand went back into my panties, this time with intent and his other arm wrapped tight around me.

  My face still in his throat, I whispered, “Tell me about Mace.”

  His hand stopped.

  “Not a good idea, cariña.”

  He sounded serious so I snuggled in closer and kissed his neck to soften him up (and because I liked to kiss his neck, he smelled good everywhere but especially his neck).

  I had to soften him up because, for whatever reason, all the Rock Chicks had an alternate Hot Bunch guy. Indy’s was Eddie. Roxie’s was Vance. Jules’s was Luke. Ava’s was Lee.

  Mine was Mace.

  Mace and I had a connection. A connection Eddie didn’t like but he no longer tried to stand in the way. I knew that Mace had witnessed his sister’s murder. Our connection started when Mace saved me from getting murdered in the same way.

  At first, Eddie thought Mace wanted to move in on his action but this proved not to be the case. After my trauma was over, Mace and I stayed connected. This meant, every once in awhile, Mace came over to Eddie and my place for dinner, sometimes when Eddie was there, other times when he wasn’t.

  Mace didn’t talk m
uch and he never shared but I knew he liked listening to me and he definitely liked my chilli and my meatloaf but his favorite was my roasted chicken and cheesy-garlic mashed potatoes.

  Mace and I were a weird kind of friends. Because of what we shared (him saving my life, me being alive), he obviously meant a lot to me and, for some reason, I knew I meant a lot to him.

  When you knew those kinds of things, you didn’t have to talk about it.

  Eddie had told me about Mace’s sister but he didn’t go into detail.

  Now, seeing as Mace was my alternate Hot Bunch Guy and next in the Rock Chick Firing Line, I needed to know and I knew I could never ask Mace.

  So I asked Eddie.

  “I’d like to know,” I pushed.

  “No, you wouldn’t.”

  I lifted up on a forearm and looked down at him.

  “Yeah, I would.”

  “Jet –”

  “His sister got murdered, Eddie. I know the story doesn’t have a happy ending.”

  He watched me a beat then two then he sighed and I knew he was giving in.

  I didn’t smile. Since my drama was over, living with Eddie, my sister back in Denver after spending years in LA, my mother happy, healthy again after her stroke and dating Tex, I had lots of smiling moments not counting, of course, being the target of a killer.

  But this wasn’t one of them.

  He rolled, forcing my arm out from under me until we were on our sides, face-to-face.

  His hand came out of my panties but his arm stayed tight around my waist.

  Then he started talking.

  “Mace comes from money. Lots of it. His Mom and Dad divorced when he was young, his Dad had the money, kept it, didn’t share and went on to acquire a string of trophy wives. Mace stayed with his Mom, they moved from LA to her native Hawaii and their standard of living changed in a serious way. His Dad had another child, Mace’s half-sister, with wife number three of five. He moved on to wife after wife, leavin’ the women and kids behind with less than they were used to havin’. Mace was close to his Mom and established a long distance bond with his sister but he didn’t have much to do with his father.”

  I wasn’t surprised. By the sounds of Mace’s Dad, I wouldn’t have much to do with him either.

  Eddie had stopped and I watched his face, knowing from his look that what he had to share was unpleasant. My hand moved up his belly to lie flat on his chest. When I did this, he started talking again.

  “The Dad was loaded. We’re talkin’ loaded. Not millions, billions. Even so, when he moved on to a different woman, he left the life he had behind which meant he didn’t have much to do with his kids. This meant that even though it wasn’t a significant threat, with that kind of money, there would always be a threat and he left his kids unprotected. Because of that, the sister got kidnapped, held for ransom.”

  “Oh my God,” I breathed, stunned by this even though I, too, had been kidnapped. So had Indy. And Roxie. And Ava. None of our kidnappings had been enjoyable but most of them didn’t last very long, we’d all gotten away (or been rescued), and none of us had been held for ransom.

  “Mace’s Dad’s a jackass. Strong man. Wouldn’t pay the ransom, wouldn’t get the police involved. He hired his own team of commandos. They had no clue who they were dealin’ with. They fucked it up, botched the mission and, after, Mace’s Dad got his sister’s hand delivered to him in a box.”

  I felt bile rise up my throat but I swallowed it down and closed my eyes tight.

  Okay, so, maybe Eddie was right. Maybe I didn’t want to know.

  It was too late, Eddie kept talking.

  “At that point, Mace was done. He went against his father, got the police involved. They cornered the kidnappers and started negotiating. For some fuckin’ reason, the kidnappers asked for Mace to be the go-between, demanded he make the approach. The police refused until they heard her screamin’. Mace lost it, demanded to be sent in. Without much choice, her still screamin’, they suited him up with vest and helmet and sent him in but the SWAT team was ready to go in right after him and put an end to it. The kidnappers knew they were fucked; they had no intention of negotiating. The minute Mace hit the room, before SWAT could make their move, they blew her head off and pumped eleven rounds into Mace’s vest, one through his shoulder, one through his thigh, two into his helmet before they turned their guns on themselves. It was a bloodbath. Mace was the only one to come out alive.”

  This knowledge settled in my brain then entered my bloodstream and it burned like acid.

  I opened my eyes and felt the wetness leaking out the sides.

  “Mace was twenty-five when it happened,” Eddie continued. “His sister was sixteen.”

  I tilted my chin down and pressed my forehead against Eddie’s collarbone, unable to process the idea of a sixteen year old girl enduring that before her life was cut short. Further unable to process the idea of her brother living with that knowledge for the rest of his life.

  Mainly because it was utterly un-processable.

  “I got this from Lee. Mace doesn’t talk about it. And this is where the story gets fuzzy,” Eddie went on, my head tilted back, the tears still in my eyes, and I looked at him.

  “It isn’t done?” I whispered.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “There’s more?” I asked.

  Eddie nodded his head.

  “What?” I prompted, not wanting to know but needing to know all the same.

  “Don’t know who they worked for, the kidnappers, but it was a big operation. The Dad was involved. Could be guns. Could be drugs. Could be deeper, uglier. It may be just because he’s an asshole that the Dad didn’t call in the police or the FBI. It could be he was hidin’ somethin’. The kidnappers could have been after the ransom but them callin’ Mace in with the intent to kill him smacks of retribution. Odds are, the Dad did something that required payback. That’s my guess, but I don’t have a clue and Lee won’t give me one.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Lee doesn’t want me lookin’ into it, not that I would.”

  “Looking into what?”

  “How Mace learned his skills.”

  “What skills?”

  “The skills he uses for Lee.”

  I blinked at him in confusion and my silent tears cleared. “What?”

  Eddie sighed then he stated, “He was a snowboarder, Jet. A good one, one of the best. If you go back seven years, look at boarder magazines, you’ll see his photos in ads. He had endorsement contracts. He was in commercials aired on ESPN. Go back before that, same thing with his surfing. He was famous. He still is in that crowd.”

  “I knew he –” I started but Eddie interrupted me.

  “Now he’s a PI.”

  “Yes, I know but –”

  “A good one.”

  “I know, but –”

  Eddie interrupted me again, “One of the best. Lee was trained by the Army. Monty was trained by the Navy. Luke, I don’t know but it was an official operation and he’s definitely had training, specialized training. Vance is an ex-con. He’d lived a life of crime since he was thirteen years old, would likely still be in that life, he was so good at it. He only got caught because his buddy was shot while they were stealin’ a car and Vance didn’t leave him behind. Lee channeled his natural abilities, trainin’ him in other shit and he took to it. Mace is self-taught. Lee didn’t have to do any training with Mace.”

  “Self-taught?”

  “Self-taught.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “That means, between his sister gettin’ murdered and Lee recruitin’ him, he’d gone from a surfer and snowboarder to acquirin’ skills that had nothin’ to do with sex wax.”

  I blinked again. “Sex wax?”

  “Yeah, you use it on your surfboard for foot traction, on the bottom of a snowboard to reduce friction.”

  My brows drew together. “How do you know that?”

  He grinned. “Been board
in’ with Mace.”

  I blinked (yes, again), mainly because this was insane. Eddie and I had been together for over nine months, we were getting married in a little over five and this was news to me.

  “You board?”

  His grin deepened to a smile. “I live in Colorado, chiquita.”

  So did I but I didn’t snowboard or ski, for that matter, that took money, something I’d never had.

  “You didn’t board last winter,” I commented.

  “I had somethin’ to keep me at home last winter.”

  This time I didn’t blink but my stomach did a happy curl.

  I ignored it and got back to the subject.

  “So, these skills –”

  He rolled into me so he was mostly on me. “What I’m sayin’ is, somethin’ went down after the bloodbath. Mace disappeared off radar. No more competitive boardin’, reneged on his endorsements. The kidnapping and murder made the news, big story. It happened in LA. Mace was famous, his Dad well-known. But, after it was over, there was nothin’ from Mace. He vanished. He didn’t resurface until Lee recruited him and he recruited him for a reason. All Lee’s boys have a specialty. Mace’s is one you don’t need to know.”

  “But –”

  His hand came to the side of my face and his eyes got serious.

  “You don’t need to know,” he repeated in a way I knew he wasn’t going to tell me and I knew, no matter what I tried, he wouldn’t tell me.

  Then his hands started roaming and his head moved so his mouth was at my neck. I knew he was looking for a way to turn my mind to different, far more pleasant things but I pulled my neck away and wrapped my fingers around one of his wrists to stop his hands from roaming.

  “Eddie.”

  “Shit, I know that ‘Eddie’,” he muttered into my neck with more than a little frustration. Eddie, by the way, had quickly become an expert in all the ways I could communicate by just saying his name, therefore, this time, he knew it was my turn to be serious. His head came up and he looked into my eyes.

  “Is he okay?” I asked.

  “No,” Eddie answered bluntly. “But he will be, soon as this shit’s over and Stella gives in.”

  “Pardon?”

  Eddie sighed then touched my mouth with his and dropped his forehead to mine, his thumb stroking my jaw.