“Luke, I’m still sleepy,” I protested, not sleepy at all. I was spent, in a good way.
“I want a kiss before I go,” he demanded before he kissed me, not giving me a choice in the matter (not that I would have said no). It wasn’t hot, hard and deep. It was hot, soft and sweet.
When he was done I stared at him in a new kind of Luke Lip Fog.
“I always want a kiss before I go to work, Ava,” he told me quietly.
“Okay,” I agreed (I would have agreed to anything at that point), too much in a fog to let his words and their meaning penetrate.
So in a fog, still in my pretend happy place and having been given the business rather successfully (these were my excuses and I was going with them), I lifted my hand to his cheek. I let my thumb trail the sharp edge of his ‘tache that grew down the side of his mouth, my eyes so focused on watching my thumb’s progress (and studying his mustache and mouth) that I missed the look on his face when I did this.
It was really too bad I missed the look on face.
Before I could catch it, he kissed me again, this time it was hot, hard and deep. In a true blue Luke Lip Fog, he put me back in bed, covered me up and then he was gone.
Later, Sissy and Lucky came over and we headed to the gym, Santo joining our party at the entrance to Luke’s building.
I thought it prudent, so as not to earn another Luke Confrontation where I would be forced to bare part of my soul, to phone him the minute we settled in the car.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Going to the gym,” I told him.
“I’ll send a man over.”
“No, I mean I’m on my way with Sissy right now.”
Silence.
“Lucky and Santo are with us.”
“Babe,” was all he said before he disconnected (and, I will note, he hadn’t stopped calling me “babe”, argh!).
At the gym Riley was in a better mood, back to the old Riley (mostly, he looked askance at the two, beefy, suited Italian-Americans following Sissy and I around the weight machines). I was relieved until he caught up with me on my way to the locker room.
“You okay?” Riley asked. His eyes slid to Santo who was standing three feet away before coming back to me.
I nodded.
“That guy, Luke, he still in the picture?”
I nodded again.
Riley’s jaw clenched.
Then he said, “The minute he’s out of the picture, you’ll tell me?”
Oh jeez. Here we go again.
I decided just to nod.
Riley walked away and I thanked my lucky stars he was not a tough guy, macho man, brutally honest, straight-talker.
Santo got close. “You’re hot, but this is ridiculous,” he told me, his eyes on Riley’s departing back.
Santo was not wrong.
On the way back to Luke’s loft, I called him again.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“We’re gonna hit King Soopers and then back to your loft. Don’t worry, Santo and Lucky are still with us.”
Silence but no disconnect.
I forged ahead through the scary silence. “You need anything from the store?”
“No.”
“Any word about Bobby?”
“He’s out of the coma, talking but functions are slow, they’re worried about brain damage. Can’t know ‘til the brain swelling goes down.”
“Shit,” I whispered.
“He’ll be okay.”
“What if he’s not?”
“Then he’ll be okay. Me and Lee will take care of him.”
I felt a weird whoosh of warmth spread through me. This was said matter-of-fact but I knew he meant it and for some reason I had the urge to hug him and then kiss him all over.
Before I could share that thought (luckily), Luke said, “Vance says you and the Rock Chicks are goin’ to a gig tonight.”
“Stella and The Blue Moon Gypsies,” I confirmed.
“I want you protected, not Zano’s thug, one of Lee’s boys.”
“Luke,” I used his name as a protest.
“Shit happens too frequently when the Rock Chicks do the town. Indy got shot at while performing with a drag queen. Jet’s sister caused pandemonium on her opening night at a strip club. Roxie was held hostage at a society party. Jules took down three bitches when one of ‘em insulted Stevie. I want you covered.”
I sighed because he wasn’t wrong. I’d heard all these stories.
“All right.”
“You get separated from your man, you stick close to Jules. Not many people can mess with Jules.”
This time I felt a not so weird pain slice through my belly. There was no denying the respect in his voice.
“All right,” I said but my voice (damn it all to hell) betrayed me. It sounded small and hurt.
“Babe?” he heard and read my voice.
“Later,” I said.
“Babe,” his voice went low and I knew he wanted me to share.
“We’re at King Soopers, gotta go,” I shut it down, not about to share.
“Jesus, Ava,” he said, his voice strangely part curt, part amused like he found dealing with me frustrating but he found that frustration enjoyable. “It’s a good thing your sweet body and the fuckin’ things you don’t even know you’re doin’ give you away or you’d be a serious pain in the ass.”
I had no idea what he meant (okay, I knew what part of it meant) but I still said, “I’m so sure!”
“Later,” he said, now fully amused then he disconnected.
Santo was driving, Lucky in the passenger seat, Sissy and me in the back. I looked at Sissy when I flipped the phone closed and she was grinning at me, eyes shiny happy.
“You are so not fuck buddies,” she said.
Santo and Lucky glanced at each other.
Argh!
We’d trolled through King Soopers and I bought some food to supplement the anti-healthy living mojo provisions that I bought with Ren. Sandra’s supplies were running low.
Sissy and I carried them up to Luke’s loft (Santo and Lucky stayed downstairs) and put them away. We gabbed while I did laundry and changed the sheets on the bed and she swept the floors.
Then I went to work and Sissy went to the stereo.
I was finishing up a marketing leaflet for a client when we heard “Sissy!” shouted from outside.
My eyes swung to Sissy and found hers on me.
“Sisssss-eeeeeee!”
“Holy crap,” Sissy breathed and ran to the window.
I nabbed my phone and followed her.
“Sissy, I know you’re up there!”
I made it to Sissy at the window, flipped open my phone at the same time and hit the green button.
I looked down and saw Dom standing in the middle of the street, stopping traffic. Santo and Lucky were approaching him but he dodged them, running around in the street while he shouted. “Sisssss-eeeeeeee!”
“Holy shit, he’s like Stanley Kowalski without the rain and with two guys chasing him,” I breathed.
“Babe,” Luke said in my ear, making me jump.
“Dom’s here,” I told him.
“We’re on it. Stay in the loft.”
Disconnect.
I flipped the phone shut and watched as Dom kept yelling for Sissy and Santo and Lucky kept trying to catch him.
All of a sudden Sissy whispered, “I have to go to him,” and then she started to take off.
My stomach plummeted. “Sis, no!” I yelled and ran after her.
Catching up, I threw my arms around her waist trying to hold her back. We started stand-up wrestling then we fell to the floor with a (somewhat painful) thud. Sissy was so determined to get to Dom and I was so determined she would not, we immediately started lying down wrestling, rolling around on the floor, each of us trying to get the upper hand all the while cars honked and people were shouting outside, including Dom.
“Ava, he’s my husband!” she screamed, still struggling.
Then we both froze as we heard gunfire. Three shots; bang, bang, bang!
And let me tell you, it was a terrifying noise.
I rolled off her. She and I got up and ran back to the window. We made it there just in time to see the blue SUV peeling away, its front end damaged from rear-ending me. No sign of Dom, Santo was running to the Volvo, Lucky running into the building and a Black Explorer was in pursuit.
I ran to my cell which I’d dropped in the Sissy Wrestling Match and phoned Luke.
I heard the connect and before he could say a word I screeched, “Gunshots!”
“I know, babe. Stay in the loft. Buzz Lucky up now. I want him with you until I can get a man on you. Got me?”
“Yeah.”
“Stay calm. Darius and Hector are in pursuit. They’ve reported in. Tell Sissy Vincetti’s okay. They didn’t hit him.”
“Okay.”
“You good?”
“I’m good,” and I sounded good, calm and rational (after my initial “gunshots” squeal) which was way weird because I was not good. I hated Dom but I didn’t want people shooting at him, especially not with Sissy in hearing distance.
“Solid,” he said in a soft voice then he disconnected.
Shit!
I did it again, exposing my strong woman-in-a-crisis. When was I going to learn?
I told Sissy Dom was okay (for now, though I didn’t share that part), Luke was going to call when they knew something and I buzzed Lucky up.
While we waited, Lucky called Ren. Sissy paced. I went to Luke’s utility room to take the clothes out of the dryer, switch them with the clothes in the washer and throw some more clothes in to wash. While I was there I tidied up the utility room (seriously, how Luke could find anything was a mystery, there was stuff all over the place and it appeared he hadn’t done laundry since the beginning of time).
I was putting away the last newly cleaned pair of Luke’s socks when the elevator doors opened. I expected to see one of the Hot Bunch but instead Luke walked in with a guy who looked a lot like Eddie Chavez except rougher around the edges. He may have looked rough but you could tell it was because he liked it that way and, I had to admit looking at him, I liked it that way too. Yum.
“Dom,” Sissy breathed, pulling me out of my mini-perv for Rough Hot Guy and I shut Luke’s sock drawer. She was in a state and I found myself wishing that Dom was a better guy and deserved this kind of devotion.
Why Dom was out in the street screaming her name, who knew? It was clear he didn’t like the idea of someone hitting her but I wasn’t a big fan of better a husband loves and protects his wife especially when she’s my bestest best friend late than never. I felt more that a husband should love and protect his wife always not after she got punched in the face by a big, burly, bad guy while in the throes of a kidnap attempt.
Nevertheless seeing as this was Sissy, I walked over to her to provide moral support.
“They got him,” Luke said and Sissy pursed her lips together, taking a deep breath through her nose at the same time and nodded. Luke went on. “The police got the boys who grabbed him,” Luke’s gaze moved to Lucky. “Hector and Darius handed Vincetti over to Santo. Santo is taking him to Vito.”
It was Lucky’s turn to nod and he started to walk toward Sissy.
“No,” Luke stopped Lucky’s progress on that one word mainly because it was said in a tone where you could tell he really meant it and Luke wasn’t the kind of guy you ignored when he really meant something even if you were a beefy henchman. “Hector’s taking Sissy to the police station. She needs to ID the guy who punched her.”
“Vito wants her,” Lucky said and I looked at Lucky then at Luke in an effort to understand why Vito would want Sissy. Luke was blank-faced so I couldn’t read him. Lucky was always blank-faced.
“She needs to ID the guy,” Luke repeated still in his firm tone, his eyes moving to Sissy. “You’ll go with Hector.”
She nodded at Luke and I put my arm around her shoulders. “I’ll go with you,” I promised.
Luke’s gaze swung to me. “A minute,” he said to me (I will note, he did not ask). Then he walked to the utility room without waiting for me to respond. Since I wanted to know what was going on, I squeezed Sissy’s arm reassuringly then followed Luke.
When I got to the utility room Luke was looking around like he had stepped off our world onto another planet. His eyes came to me and even considering the borderline scary and definitely crazy situation we currently found ourselves in his eyes were amused.
“Babe,” he said as if that one word spoke volumes.
“What?” I asked because that one word didn’t speak volumes.
Like a flash, his hand came out and nabbed me behind my neck, giving me a jerk forward so I slammed into his body. He bent his head and kissed me; not a hot and hard, open-mouthed tongue fest but it was hard and it communicated something that I did not quite get. He let me go but kept his hand at my neck and his eyes on mine were ultra warm.
“What?” I asked again when he didn’t speak, this time I asked it softly.
“I’ll get into ‘what’ later, tonight, after the gig, when you’re home, drunk and naked.”
Ho-ly shit!
“Right now, we got a problem,” he went on.
His eyes became serious and he certainly sounded like we had a problem, so much so I let the “drunk and naked” comment go.
“What?” I said (again!).
“At the meet with Vito on Sunday, Vito, Lee and I agreed if we get Vincetti before the bad guys find him, we hand him over to Vito. We got him, we handed him over to Vito. Problem is these bad guys are bad guys. The two Darius and Hector just nailed are foot soldiers, two of dozens. This is a big problem for Vito, an ongoing problem because no matter what Vito offers, they don’t feel like negotiating and they got a lot of men to throw at it. Losing two is not going to deter them. What they want is simple, just Vincetti. To make this problem disappear, Vito needs to make Vincetti disappear and that’s what he’s gonna do.”
My mouth dropped open, my heart stuttered to a halt and I stared. Then I whispered, “Uncle Vito is going to make his own nephew swim with the fishes?”
Luke’s lips pressed together but, even so, they were still twitching like something was very, very funny and he didn’t want to laugh out loud.
When he got himself under control, he said, “I don’t think they say that anymore, Ava, if they ever did, outside the movies.”
Oh well. So I didn’t talk wise guy. Sue me.
I leaned in. “What you’re saying is, they’re going to whack him,” I was still whispering.
Luke shook his head, let my neck go but his hand slid to my jaw. “No, where Vincetti’s goin’, he’ll still be breathin’. Your problem is, Vito wants to send Sissy with him.”
All my body systems froze solid.
No!
No, no, no!
No!
“That can’t happen,” I said when my mouth was moving again.
“Vito’s determined, says marriage is life. Wants them back together.”
I’d heard that before.
“But, Dom’s a dickhead,” I said, sounding slightly desperate (which I was). “He’s mean to her. He doesn’t let her serve leftovers. He tells her what to wear. He doesn’t know what a woman should wear! One time he told her to put on these pink Capri pants with this purple gypsy shirt. Apart they were kickass items of clothing. Together she looked like a fool. I know it sounds stupid but it’s not. It’s bossy and not in the tough guy, kinda sexy, bossy way that you’re bossy, it’s just plain old mean bossy. He’s a jerk!”
Oops.
Did I just tell Luke his tough guy, bossy ways were “kinda sexy”?
His face was coming closer to mine, his hand had flexed on my jaw and he had a full on grin happening so I guessed I did.
“I take that back!” I said a bit loud and soundin
g like a third grader. His head stopped its descent but his grin didn’t go away. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m just freaked out. I don’t want Sissy to go back to Dom.”
Lucky for me, Luke decided to let it go. “I know that, babe, but Matt saw you two wrestling when Vincetti was out on the street. You were trying to stop her from getting to him. You have to talk to her, give her the option because Sissy might not agree.”
Rock Chick Revenge Page 31