Rock Chick 06 Reckoning (56 page)

“What are the alternatives for that night?” he asked me and I blinked.

“What?”

“You’re a good shot. You could have kept him alive even though he was aimin’ to kil . You kept aimin’ to maim, what would have happened?”

“He probably would have shot me in the head,” I told him and this was true.

“Roam too,” Vance pushed and I shivered.

“Roam too,” I whispered.

“Which means Sniff would be alone. No you, no Roam.” That didn’t bear thinking about so I shoved it aside immediately.

Vance went on, “And I wouldn’t have you and you wouldn’t be pregnant with our son.”

“Daughter,” I corrected quietly.

“I don’t give a fuck what it is. It exists. It’s yours and mine and it’s gonna be here because of the split second decision you made to put a bul et in his brain.”

“Crowe –”

“Part of the reason I love you is because, despite the kind of person he was, you’re the kind of person who’d let this haunt you.” His mouth came to mine. “But, Jules, now you gotta let it go.”

He was right about that too.

I hated it when he was right.

But I loved it when he told me he loved me.

“I love you,” I said against his lips.

I felt his mouth grin. “That’s good, since you’re married to me and havin’ my baby.”

He gave me a swift kiss, pushed me back to my side and fitted himself against my body from shoulders to heels.

His hand came to my bel y.

I was almost asleep again when I heard him say softly,

“Anything happened to you, I’d be Nick.”

I knew what he meant. My Uncle Nick had never recovered from Auntie Reba’s death. He existed and, on some level, he enjoyed life. He loved me and he respected and cared for Vance. We had a nice little family. But the light had gone when Auntie Reba died and it was never coming back.

I knew this about Vance. I knew this was how much he loved me. I’d known it for ages.

“I know,” I said.

“I experienced that feeling for six hours while you were in surgery. I never want it back.”

“Vance –”

“I never want it back, Jules.”

“Okay.”

“You made the right decision when you aimed to kil .” I linked my fingers with his and held on tight. “Okay.”

“Go to sleep.”

I sighed then snapped (even though my heart wasn’t in it), “Stop tel ing me what to do.”

His fingers tightened on mine but he didn’t answer.

We fel asleep.

And, for some reason, I never had another nightmare about that night.

Never.

Chapter Twenty-Five
Gonna Pick a Fight with You Every Day

Stella

I was so deeply asleep, I woke when Mace and Juno’s weight hit the bed. I hadn’t even felt Juno leave the bed when Mace arrived at the door nor did I hear his key in the lock or him moving around the apartment.

I was dead asleep because, the night before, with Tex gone (and seeing as it was al my fault), I hadn’t had a wink of sleep. It didn’t help that I didn’t hear one word from Mace al night until he phoned mid-morning, said Tex was al right and that Bobby would be picking me up and taking me to Fortnum’s.

“Mace?” My voice was husky with sleep.

“Yeah, babe.” He was on his back and he rol ed me into his side.

His arm curled around my waist as I rested my head on his shoulder.

“What time is it?”

“Quarter after midnight.”

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“As far as I know,” he answered.

“You would know?”

His fingers gave my waist a squeeze as he said, “Yeah, I would know.”

I rested my arm on his abs and my body relaxed into his.

“Do you wanna talk?” I mumbled into his shoulder already halfway to dreamland.

“If I had any energy, Kitten, I’d use it to fuck, not talk.” Wel , one thing you could say for that, it proved Shirleen right.

I was almost in dreamland when I muttered (not even knowing myself what I was saying), “Love you, Kai.” And, being so close to dreamland, I didn’t feel his body get tight when I cal ed him for the first time by his given name.

* * * * *

“Kitten,” Mace said in my ear and I felt his arm tight around my waist, give me a gentle shake.

I opened my eyes. It was morning.

We’d shifted in the night. I was turned away from him, he was pressed to my back.

“Stel a,” Mace said, giving me a less gentle but stil gentle shake and I blinked.

“I’m awake,” I told him.

“It’s a big day, shit to do. But before we get to it, we gotta talk.”

It
was
a big day.

It was Lee and Indy’s wedding day.

Luckily, since I’d been invited to the wedding and the bachelorette party that was supposed to be last night, I hadn’t scheduled any gigs for the weekend.

Unfortunately, since we were al in danger of being kidnapped and/or murdered, Lee had cancel ed his bachelor party and, at the same time, cancel ed Indy’s bachelorette party.

Incidental y, just as an FYI, Lee’s party was meant to be at Lincoln’s Road House and, in a bizarre Rock Chick/Hot Bunch twist, Indy’s was scheduled to be at Smithie’s Strip Club.

This had not gone down wel . Al y went berserk when Lee had cancel ed the bachelorette party that she’d spent months planning. He’d made his announcement after everyone had checked in to see with their own eyes that Tex was stil breathing so everyone was around to get the news firsthand
and
witness the knockdown, drag out fight that ensued.

I didn’t have any siblings but always wanted one until seeing Lee and Al y fight.

After it went on awhile, Hank got involved, trying to be the diplomat (and failing) and then it escalated.

Then Eddie and Indy got involved and it exploded.

We al watched as the five of them shouted at each other about stuff that was so historical, no one knew what they were on about.

They were yel ing about some kegger Indy and Al y had masterminded in high school which, for some reason, ended with Hank, Lee, Darius and Eddie being picked up by the cops, when we learned that Hank, who had been at the University of Colorado, was nearly suspended (and he wasn’t happy about this, even years later).

“You haven’t changed one fuckin’ bit, either of you!” Eddie shouted, pointing at them both.

“Good!” Al y shouted back and planted her hands on her hips and I immediately saw where Mace was coming from with the hands-to-hips business.

“Gotta tel you, beautiful, never liked the idea of you havin’ a bachelorette party. You and Al y plus the Rock Chicks equals disaster at the best of times and these are far from the best of times. I’m fuckin’ thril ed I got a reason to cancel it,” Lee said to Indy.

Indy let out a gust of air between pursed lips and turned to me. “Tel me he did
not
just say that.” Instantly Mace was at my ear. “For fuck’s sake, don’t speak.”

Tex boomed, “Jesus Jones but I’m glad I wasn’t whacked last night. If I was dead, I’d’ve missed
this!
”

“We’l have a party after ya’l get back from your honeymoon,” Daisy tried to play peacemaker.

“If you do, Jet’s not goin’,” Eddie announced.

Uh-oh.

“What?” Jet, who had been keeping herself removed, asked.

“Roxie either,” Hank threw down.

Uh-oh again!

“Sorry?” Roxie’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh my,” Lana, standing beside me, breathed.

“You’re not goin’,” Eddie repeated to Jet.

“You heard me,” Hank said to Roxie.

“They scare me,” Chloe, who was on the other side of Lana, whispered. “But stil , I think those boys might want to quit while they’re ahead.”

They didn’t hear Chloe and were on such a tear, without remorse, Eddie and Hank dragged Jet and Roxie into the fight and it degenerated to the point where I feared the roof would blow off Fortnum’s.

“
Quiet!
” Darius al of a sudden shouted and everyone went quiet and looked at him. “Jesus, you never learn do you?” he asked the warriors.

Then he turned and pointed at Mace. “He knows.” He turned to Vance and pointed. “He knows.” Then he turned to Jules and said, “She knows too. And you al know
I
fuckin’

know. You gotta learn, life’s too damn short for this shit.” He got up close to Indy and Lee and snapped, “You two’ve been in love since you were kids, tomorrow, you’re gettin’ married and today you’re fightin’ about what?

What’re you fightin’ about?” Lee’s face got tight and Indy looked at her feet while Darius went on, “Eddie’s right and he’s wrong, it ain’t just Indy and Al y who’ve never changed.

It’s al you al .” His finger circled the lot of them as he continued, “How fuckin’ lucky are you, even with al the shit that’s gone down, that you haven’t learned what we’ve learned?” he asked, throwing his arm around the room and ending with his fist thumping his chest. “Rejoice, for fuck’s sake,” After that, Darius turned to Tex and said, “Good to see you’re alive, big man.” Then he turned on his boot and he was gone.

“He scares me too,” Chloe mumbled.

I stifled a giggle.

Indy bit her lip and turned to Lee. “Can we chat, um…

privately?”

Lee’s face went soft, his arm went around her shoulders and they disappeared into the books.

So did Hank and Roxie, Eddie and Jet.

Al y looked at everyone else. “So, I’m an idiot. This isn’t news,” she announced.

“Wel ! Thus ends another white people fight,” Shirleen declared.

“You!” Tex boomed and he was pointing at Lana. “And you!” His finger moved to Chloe. “Learn quick, it ain’t ever borin’ around here.”

“I’m getting that,” Lana replied and, luckily, her mouth was twitching.

Things calmed down after that. The men went off to do whatever it was they did and the women, Tod and Stevie, Duke and Tex hung around Fortnum’s chatting, gossiping and doing the minor changes they had to do so that Lana and Chloe could come to the wedding.

“Oh we couldn’t,” Chloe protested. “We barely know you.”

To which Indy replied with a smile, “Family’s family and, like it or not, the minute you got on that plane, you became family.”

This was sweet as al get out and Lana and Chloe thought so too.

Instead of a bachelorette party, we had pizza delivered and Tod and Stevie ran out and got beer. We ate pizza and drank beer at Fortnum’s, the chatting and gossip degenerated to sex talk but since Mace’s Moms were there, I kept silent on that particular subject. They were not used to drinking beer at altitude and did not. Chloe, I learned, had been married to a guy named Ben for five years. It was clear he was a good guy (in
a lot
of different ways). Lana was single and, apparently, enjoyed her status.

ways). Lana was single and, apparently, enjoyed her status.

After awhile, the sex talk downshifted to game after game of Yahtzee.

We sipped beer, shared and played Yahtzee until, at around ten, our escorts arrived to take us home.

I snuggled back into Mace’s body and mumbled, “I have to get to The Castle. I’m not a bridesmaid but I’m invited to the pre-wedding festivities.”

“You’l get there after we talk and after we fuck. First, the talk,” Mace replied and I noticed two things right off the bat.

One was that he was being bossy.

The other was that he sounded serious.

Very serious.

This made me get tense (instead of angry at him for being bossy) and I turned to face at him.

I tilted my head back to look at him and I saw he was definitely serious.

My breath, feeling adventurous, headed up the Inca Trail.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“You said you’d seen the papers.”

“What?”

“You said, the other night, backstage, that you’d seen the papers.”

I blinked. “Yeah? And?”

“If you saw the papers, when I told you about Tiny, you already knew everything.”

I was confused. “Are you angry about that?”

“Yes and no.”

“What’s the ‘yes’ part?” I asked hesitantly.

“You stood there as I told the story, actin’ like you didn’t

“You stood there as I told the story, actin’ like you didn’t know.”

“Wel , I didn’t know al of it.”

“I know the part you didn’t know, no one knows but the men. But you acted like you didn’t know any of it.”

“There were other parts I didn’t know,” I tried.

“You acted like you didn’t know any of it,” he repeated.

“Mace –”

His arm went around me, he pul ed me close and tipped his chin down further so his face was in mine. “Kitten, this is gonna work, you don’t lie to me. Ever. Got me?” I blinked again.

Now hang on a second.

“These are pretty extreme circumstances,” I defended myself.

“Yeah, that’s the ‘no’ part and why I’m lettin’ you get away with bringin’ Mom and Chloe here without talkin’ to me about it.”

I blinked.

Yes, again!

Letting me get away with
…

“Mace –”

He interrupted me. “We’re done talkin’ about this. I said what I had to say. I think you get me.”

Oh, I got him al right.

He made to move into me but I scooted away and got out of bed. I stood at the side in my panties and tank, put my hands to my hips and glared at him.

I was pissed way the hel off.

I’d gone through emotional hel to do what I did.

And he…

He…

“I never thought I’d say this in my whole effing life but
how
dare you!
” I screeched.

Juno got to her bel y and woofed.

Mace got up on an elbow and his eyes narrowed.

“Get back in bed,” Mace growled.