Rock Chick Reckoning

by Ashley, Kristen

  “Maybe we can talk about Dixon Jones when people aren’t breaking into houses and bleeding on couches,” I said to Daisy.

  “Life goes on, sugar,” Daisy returned on a shrug. “I called him last night. He had to leave town after your last gig. He’s comin’ back to Denver, gonna be at your gig on Thursday. He wants a meet then. I suggested we do it beforehand, seein’ as most of the times you get kidnapped or shot at or jump audience members is after the gig. When I explained this to him, he agreed.”

  I decided to ignore Daisy reminding Dixon Jones about the mayhem in my life considering he’d witnessed most of it and even if it wasn’t hard to forget, it’d been in the papers.

  I was saved from having to retort when the door opened and Shirleen stormed in.

  The girls weren’t wrong, she was fine but she was pissed.

  “Who’s gonna pay for my couch, hunh?” She was yelling at a man who was walking behind her. He had light brown hair, the cut expensive, and he was wearing a suit which also looked expensive. He was tall-ish and slight but still fit maybe late thirties, early forties. His face was tight and, if anything, he looked even angrier than Shirleen. “Who’s gonna pay for therapy for Roam and Sniff?” she demanded.

  Roam and Sniff, her teenaged foster kids, followed her in. Roam was a handsome, tall, gangly black kid, the gangly part beginning to fill out well. Sniff was a small, skinny white kid whose acne was healing and who was hilarious. Something I’d learned during their first guitar lesson yesterday evening.

  Neither of them looked like they were in need of therapy.

  “Hey, Stella,” Sniff called, his face forming a goofy grin as he waved at me.

  Roam gave me a chin lift, his eyes shifted to Jules and he muttered, “Hey, Law.”

  Jules got up to greet the boys as the room filled with the Hot Bunch (all of them, every last one), Tex and Duke.

  Body language, incidentally, screamed unhappy.

  I looked at Mace but he didn’t look at me. I knew this was an act for the benefit of the Rock Chicks but it still sucked.

  The brown-headed man stopped and his eyes pinned Shirleen. “I’m glad you reminded me. Why don’t we talk about those boys, Miz Jackson? Tell me again how you, of all people, became a foster parent?”

  I didn’t even know the guy and I knew that not only was he angry, what he’d just asked was not so vaguely threatening. I knew this because the air in the room went heavy.

  “The boys were in my caseload at the Shelter,” Jules said to the man. “I did the background checks on Shirleen.”

  The man turned to Jules. “Your dedication is impressive, Mrs. Crowe, considering you were in Intensive Care when these two were placed with Miz Jackson.”

  Uh-oh.

  My eyes moved back to Mace. He had his arms crossed on his chest and his feet planted wide. He also had a look on his face that said, if this guy didn’t stop being such a jerk, Mace was going to rip his head off.

  “That’s enough, George,” Hank said quietly.

  “Yeah, Nightingale, it’s enough,” George replied, voice still angry. “I’ve had nothing but shit from you and your men all fuckin’ morning.”

  Hank’s eyes narrowed and I took back my earlier thought that he was less intense and more laidback then the rest of the men. At that moment, he was even scarier than his brother.

  “We went through three boxes yesterday morning, George,” Hank clipped. “Not to mention, six days ago, there were four drive-bys and Stella fuckin’ got shot.”

  “That wasn’t reported,” George shot back.

  When Hank spoke again, his voice was vibrating, he was so angry. “It sure as fuck was. Mace and Luke made statements and we had three squads on the scene while the incident took place. Furthermore, we got five hundred witnesses to rifle fire at a fuckin’ club on Friday night.”

  “None of that was linked to Carter,” George returned.

  “For fuck’s sake, George,” Eddie exploded. “Lee got the call before the drive-bys!”

  “Hearsay,” George replied.

  “You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Vance snapped.

  George’s gaze swung to Lee. “You get the call on tape?”

  Lee’s eyes were on George and I changed my mind again. Perhaps he did scare me more than Hank.

  Not taking his eyes off George, Lee said low, “Hank…” and I got it immediately that if Hank did not handle this George guy, Lee would and it might get messy.

  But Hank was already talking and he wasn’t paying attention to Lee, his eyes were also on George.

  “We’re done,” he said.

  George turned back to Hank. “I’m tellin’ you Nightingale –”

  Hank interrupted him.

  “A week ago, the windows of my house were blown out by an AK-47, my fiancée in the house at the time,” Hank snapped. “And I’ve known Shirleen since I was ten fuckin’ years old. She’s family. And someone broke into her house this morning and drilled three rounds into the wall of her livin’ room but they were aimin’ at her.”

  George had the grace to look a might uncomfortable but still hanging onto stubborn and angry as he glared at Hank.

  Thus began a tense staring contest that went on until Hank broke it.

  “Done,” he repeated then without another word he walked out of the room.

  All the men (and women) stared at George.

  George stared at the door.

  Then he looked at Eddie. “He wouldn’t be that stupid.”

  It was Eddie’s turn to cross his arms on his chest and with one look at him, he went to the top of the list of Hot Bunch Boys Who Scared Me Most. “We played your game, you fucked us and this mornin’ Shirleen nearly got her head blown off,” Eddie said, his voice tight. “Now, hombre, we’re gonna fuck you.”

  George looked around the room and his lip curled before he hissed, “You think you’re untouchable.”

  Luke’s body moved slightly right before he said, “Don’t play that game, George.”

  “You’re messing with the wrong man,” George replied to Luke.

  Lee’s eyebrows went up and he entered the exchange. “You think?”

  George, in my opinion, took his life in his hands and pointed at Lee. “The days where the Nightingale men have carte blanche to waltz through Denver are over.”

  “You don’t back down, your dream of sittin’ behind the Governor’s desk is over,” Lee returned.

  “Fuck you,” George spat at Lee.

  Oh dear.

  Lee leaned forward, maybe an inch but it was a scary inch. “Now it’s you who’s bein’ stupid.”

  George glared at Lee.

  Lee calmly returned his glare.

  Then George made a weird, angry, scrunchy face. His glare travelled the room, taking us all in. Then he stomped out.

  Everyone stared at the door.

  Beautiful.

  I didn’t even know what was happening but it was pretty obvious we had a new problem.

  My eyes went back to Mace and saw his were on me. He moved his head in a short, nearly imperceptible jerk then he walked out too.

  “You boys okay?” Jules quietly asked Roam and Sniff.

  “Fuck yeah, it was great. Shirleen’s the shit,” Sniff replied, throwing himself in a chair. “It was like the movies.”

  “Black bitch can move fast,” Roam muttered.

  “Don’t call Shirleen a ‘black bitch’,” Jules snapped, her voice no longer quiet.

  “Be cool, Law. She don’t care,” Roam returned.

  “I do care, boy, and you just lost this week’s allowance,” Shirleen broke in, hands on hips, narrowed eyes on Roam who kept belligerent eyes on Shirleen. She, apparently, didn’t like his belligerent eyes so she continued, “And you bought yourself bathroom duty.”

  “Shee-it,” Roam mumbled, his gaze sweeping the room, his shoulders hunching as if he wanted to disappear.

  “I got three and a half bathrooms,” Shirleen informed me. “Boys take turns each wee
k cleanin’ ‘em.” She turned to Sniff. “You got the week off.”

  “Killer,” Sniff’s goofy grin returned.

  Roam was saved any further embarrassment when the door flew open and Smithie stormed in, a pretty black woman in tow.

  His eyes moved through the room and he was mumbling under his breath.

  “Hey, Smithie. Hey, LaTeesha,” Jet greeted but Smithie waved at her with impatience and his eyes went back through the room, his mouth still moving silently.

  Then he yelled, “Where’s the fuckin’ Hawaiian?”

  “Mace is fine,” Roxie told Smithie and I caught Indy rolling her eyes at me.

  Smithie’s gaze sliced back through the room and then stopped on Roxie. “Where’s your man?”

  “Hank’s fine too,” Roxie smiled.

  “Oo, girl!” LaTeesha suddenly screamed, making me jump before she surged toward Roxie. “When’d you get that ring?”

  My body went still as my eyes moved to Roxie’s hand which, I noticed, now sported a sparkling diamond engagement ring.

  Then my stomach pitched in a happy way when Roxie’s gaze found mine and she smiled at me.

  I smiled back.

  “She and Hank got engaged last night,” Ava shared and I looked at Ava who was also smiling huge.

  LaTeesha’s happy face turned back to Roxie who had her hand in LaTeesha’s, ring pointed skyward.

  “Was he sweet?” LaTeesha asked.

  “Oh yes,” Roxie said softly.

  “It wasn’t sweet. It was hot,” Daisy put in.

  Ally placed her hands over her ears and chanted, “La-la-la, not-listening-to-the-story-of-my-brother-proposing-while-doing-the-nasty-one-more-time, la-la-la.”

  Wow.

  That sounded like a helluva proposal.

  “Wicked,” Sniff breathed, his eyes on the blushing Roxie.

  Indy bit her lip but her body was shaking with laughter.

  Jet giggled.

  My gaze moved over the Hot Bunch and they were all avoiding eyes, shifting on their feet and trying to control grins.

  “Um, excuse me, but didn’t one of ya’ll get shot at this morning?” Smithie barked at the Hot Bunch, jerking us out of our happy moment. “Now, I’m not one to tell anyone how to go about their business…” he went on and Jet made a noise that sounded like a snort and LaTeesha’s eyes got huge. “But it’s one thing to shoot at your girls while they got your badasses covering their tight asses and, I’ll admit, that’s some crazy shit but it’s a whole other thing to break into a house and shoot at a woman with kids under her roof. Now, I’m thinkin’ you boys have things to do.”

  “Smithie, sweetie –” LaTeesha said softly.

  “It’s covered, Smithie,” Shirleen put in.

  “Yeah, it’ll be covered,” Smithie snapped at Shirleen. “You’re movin’ your black ass in with me tonight and you’re bringin’ the boys. LaTeesha, that okay with you?”

  “Just fine. I’ll make chicken and dumplin’s,” LaTeesha replied on a wide grin at Roam and Sniff.

  “Can we have pizza?” Sniff asked.

  Shirleen cuffed him gently up the side of his head. “What’s the matter with you, boy? You heard the woman. LaTeesha’s makin’ chicken and dumplin’s. You’re eatin’ chicken and dumplin’s.”

  “I like chicken and dumplin’s,” Roam put in.

  “See? We’ll be fine,” LaTeesha finished.

  “Yeah, we’ll be fine ‘cause I got myself a shotgun and I bought you that .38 last year for Christmas,” Smithie told LaTeesha. “That’ll make us just fine.”

  “I’m not hearing this,” Eddie muttered and walked out the door.

  “Smithie, I want your address. You just got put on the drive-by route,” Lee said to Smithie and he walked out, Smithie following him muttering what I thought was, “Damn straight”.

  After that, the Hot Bunch filed out. Luke and Vance after giving Ava and Jules some PDA. Hector after asking me if I knew about the meeting on Thursday with Dixon Jones. LaTeesha followed Matt who was going to take her to Lee and Smithie. Roam and Sniff followed Bobby who was going to take them to the TV in the safe room.

  This left the room filled with Rock Chicks, Tex and Duke.

  And for some reason everyone had eyes on me.

  I didn’t think this was a good thing.

  Therefore, to deflect attention off me, I turned to Roxie and said, “Congratulations, Roxie. That’s cool.”

  She smiled and said, “Yeah.”

  “Ava, sugar, go get Stella a cup of coffee,” Daisy said softly and a chill ran up my spine as Ava nodded and took off on her errand.

  “What’s up?” I asked as I realized I’d failed at deflecting attention off of me.

  “You hear from Mace, darlin’?” Tex asked and I stared at him.

  Shitsofuckit.

  I had to lie.

  “Erm…” I said instead of flat out lying.

  “I’m not sure I agree with this,” Ally put in, her voice far softer than normal and that chill that went up my spine chased its way back down.

  “I don’t wanna talk about Mace,” I tried to waylay whatever they had planned but Daisy got up, walked to my chair and pulled me out of it.

  “I think you need to be on the couch for this one,” she said to me as she walked me to the couch.

  Not good.

  “Listen, guys, seriously, Mace and I are over and –” I started again but Daisy ignored me and pushed me down onto the couch.

  While Daisy was doing this, Jet pulled Daisy’s chair close to me and sat on it. It wasn’t her actions that made me stop talking. It was the look on her face.

  “Sometimes a Rock Chick needs a little help from her friends,” Jet said quietly.

  “And sometimes her friends need to know when to back off,” I replied just as quietly.

  Not being a bitch or anything but whatever this was, it was unnecessary.

  Of course, they didn’t know that but still.

  “Yeah, and now isn’t one of those times,” Duke put in, sitting down beside me, his arm coming to rest on the back of the couch behind me, his big body turned to mine.

  “Duke –” I started.

  “Would’ve preferred Mace share this with you in his own time but that time’s a-wastin’ and bullets are flyin’. It took the girls awhile to talk me into this shit last night but they did.”

  “Really, Duke –” I protested.

  “Quiet, girl, and listen,” Duke halted my protest then he asked, “How much you know about Mace, his daddy and his sister?”

  Oh.

  That was it.

  “Everything,” I semi-lied. I would know everything, eventually.

  Duke’s brows went up. “Everything?”

  I nodded.

  “You know Mace’s sister was kidnapped?” Jet asked softly.

  I nodded, this time to Jet.

  “You know her Dad hired some commandos to try to rescue her and it went bad?” Jet went on.

  Uh-oh.

  I didn’t know that.

  That didn’t sound too good.

  My heart started beating a mile a minute and I tried to cover.

  Nodding again, I lied, “I know everything.” Then as proof I offered, “I know she was murdered and Mace holds himself responsible.”

  “So why’re you and Mace estranged, sugar? I can’t believe you know what happened and you’d let that man go on alone,” Daisy asked.

  Erm.

  I didn’t have a response to that so I said, “It’s complicated.”

  “Just knowing about her hand would make it so I never left his side,” Ally muttered, my mile-a-minute beating heart skipped to a halt and I stared at her.

  She looked a little bit angry and that anger was directed at me.

  I didn’t have time for Ally’s anger.

  “Her hand?” I breathed, finding I was fighting for air.

  They all looked at each other.

  “You don’t know everything,” Tex’s boom was
low and he was looking pale.

  “What about Caitlin’s hand?” I went on.

  “Stella –” Duke started.

  I twisted to Duke and grabbed his forearm, my voice sounding strained and desperate (exactly how I felt) when I said, “Tell me about her effing hand.”

  Duke’s eyes lifted to Tex, my fingers squeezed his arm; he looked back to me and sighed.

  Then he said quietly, “After the commandos botched the rescue job, in retaliation, her kidnappers cut off her hand and sent it to her father in a –”

  He didn’t finish.

  I jumped from the couch, eyes on Indy, and whispered, “Bathroom.”

  I didn’t wait for her to answer, I ran from the room. I got into the hall and Indy was there, hands on me, guiding me. I was making gagging noises, hand over my mouth, I barely made it into and through Lee’s office to his bathroom when I hit my knees, tagged the bowl with my arms and hurled eggs benedict into the toilet.

  Indy held back my hair as my body lurched through vomiting and then the dry heaves.

  When I’d finished, I sat on my ass, back to the wall. Indy gave me a wet washcloth to wipe my mouth as she flushed the toilet.

  Then she sat down, close by my side.

  I put my hands over my face, the washcloth clenched in one of them. My stomach hurt, I tasted the sour vomit in my mouth but all I could think about was how Mace was that morning.

  “Honey,” Indy whispered.

  “He loved her hands,” I whispered back. “He told me they were exquisite.”

  All of a sudden I was in Indy’s arms and her voice broke when she muttered, “Oh, honey.”

  My chest was moving. I felt it, like it was working for air and not getting any. I was breathing through my nose, the breath coming hard. I could feel the exhalations against my lips but all that work and nothing was getting to my lungs. My eyeballs felt like they’d grown ten times their normal size and wanted to force their way out of my head.

  Mace’s words sounded in my brain.

  Jesus, I’ll never forget the way she moved her hands.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  “Sh, honey, quiet,” Indy mumbled.

  I reared back, looked in her face which was blurry with my tears but I could see she was shedding her own. I’d never known Indy to cry, she wasn’t a crying type of girl. Even if this surprised and touched me, I needed to move on, and fast.