Rock Chick Revenge

by Ashley, Kristen

  She wasn’t wrong. Hotel Monaco was super-fly.

  “Where are Marilyn and Sofia?” I asked.

  She turned and stared at me, ignoring my question due to the fact that something just dawned on her. “Why are you here? Doesn’t Luke have a house where you can stay?”

  “He’s having some work done on his loft,” I semi-fibbed. “He was staying with me until you guys came.”

  “Loft?”

  “Yeah, in LoDo.”

  “Luke has a LoDo loft?” she breathed, eyes faraway happy.

  Okay so yes, it was true, a LoDo loft was quite something but really, enough was enough.

  “Mother. Hello? Where are Marilyn and Sofia?”

  She blinked and came back into the room. “They’re downstairs having coffee,” she dumped a bag on the chair and continued. “There’s your clothes. Take your time, we’ll enjoy coffee and let you get ready. Just meet us downstairs when you’re done.”

  She came forward, kissed my cheek and left. The door hadn’t completely shut on Mom when my phone rang again.

  I flipped it open. “Yo.”

  “Hey chickie. I heard the revenge gig was a bust.”

  It was Ally.

  “Um –”

  “I know all about it. Brody fucked up. Lee came home last night not a happy camper. He’s not hip on looking like an asshole. Not to mention he trades a lot on his reputation as a badass motherfucker who’s got it goin’ on. Brody fucking up means all the boys took a direct hit to their reps and Lee is dis-fucking-pleased, let me tell you. He told Indy, she told me and we’re doin’ our best to keep it amongst the Rock Chicks.”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” I agreed.

  “How did Luke take it?” she asked.

  “He wasn’t happy but I was kind of more involved in the conversation with the guy they did get. He was the one who conned Winnie and, you would not believe, but he called her Aunt Jemima right when she was in the room.”

  Silence then, “Please tell me you’re lying.”

  “No. I wish I was.”

  “Holy crap! What a dick! What did Luke do when he said that?”

  “Nothing, he didn’t get a chance. I got there first and kneed him in the ‘nads.”

  I heard a hoot and then, “Righteous!”

  I smiled. “We’re going to breakfast, want to come?”

  “Who’s we?” she asked.

  “Me, my Mom, my sisters, Olivia, Riley and whoever Luke sends to be my bodyguard.”

  “Didn’t you say your sisters are bitches?” she asked.

  “Yes, please say you can come, I need Bitch Buffers.”

  “You got it. I’m at Fortnum’s, Duke, Jane, Tex and Jet are here so they can hold down the fort. Daisy’s here too. I’m sure she’ll come with.”

  “Thanks, we’re meeting in the lobby of Hotel Monaco whenever you can get here.”

  “Be there soon as we can.”

  We disconnected and I flipped my phone shut. I opened the zipper on my bag and saw that Mom didn’t do too badly though she didn’t exactly follow directions. There were jeans and a goodly amount of my silver to chose from but instead of any old tee, she picked an army green, boat-necked, long-sleeved tee with tiny orange and hot pink flowers flowing from the hem at one side to come up in a swirl on the midriff. She’d decided against flip-flops and added a pair of dark brown, suede shoes with a peek-a-boo notch in the toe, a high, thin, wedge heel and a thin strap around the ankle. As a finishing touch, Mom threw in a matching brown suede belt with a heavy, oval, silver buckle.

  Okay, so she wasn’t exactly an Entirely New Mom but she was a Somewhat New-ish Mom. She had put in the jeans. I wasn’t going to quibble.

  I got dressed, put on my silver, strapped on the shoes and went to the bathroom to do something with my hair. Mom had stocked me with comb, hair products, travel-sized face stuff, loose powder, mascara, blusher, deodorant and perfume, most of which was probably hers because mine was scattered to the four corners (read: at Luke’s and at Roxie’s).

  I did my best with what I had, considering the cut lip and black eye were still there (but finally fading) and was walking into the bedroom when my phone rang.

  I flipped it open. “Yo.”

  “What’s this about breakfast?”

  It was Shirleen.

  “Hey Shirleen. Did Ally call you?”

  “Fuck no. Luke told me before he took off. I’m in the lobby and I’m hungry. Matt’s comin’ up to your room. Get your ass in gear.”

  I couldn’t help it, I started smiling. “All right, keep your pants on. We’ll be down in a second.”

  “Be snappy.”

  Disconnect.

  There was a knock on the door before I completely flipped the phone shut. I shoved it in the back pocket of my jeans as I walked to the door. It started ringing again but I ignored it while I opened the door. I had a smile of greeting for Matt on my face.

  The problem was, it wasn’t Matt knocking on the door.

  It was Noah.

  Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck!

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Convoy, Chaos and Cookies

  “My life sucks,” I told Noah.

  He pulled a gun out of the pocket of his jacket and pointed it at me.

  I stared at it. “You have got to be kidding me,” I said.

  “Not even fuckin’ close,” Noah replied

  My cell in my back pocket quit ringing just as the phone in the room started ringing. I didn’t have a chance to do anything about it as Noah grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. The door closed behind me, shutting out the sound of the ringing phone.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Noah answered.

  He didn’t know?

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “I mean I don’t know, shut up. We’re takin’ a ride.”

  We were walking toward the elevators, Noah’s hand on my arm pushing me in front of him. One elevator dinged, it opened, Matt walked out and halted when he saw us. His body went tense and within a second Quick Draw Matt had a gun. I didn’t even see where he got it. He just had it trained on Noah.

  Eek!

  “Let her go,” Matt demanded and any normal person would obey him mainly because he sounded scary, not to mention he had a gun. This surprised me because I didn’t think he had it in him to sound that scary. Sure, he was a hottie with a great body but he didn’t seem as badass as the rest of the boys. At his tone I realized I was wrong about that. Way wrong.

  Noah had his gun pointed at my back. When he saw Matt’s gun, he moved it to my temple.

  Uh-oh.

  “Back off,” Noah said.

  Matt’s eyes were at my temple, his mouth went tight, he took two steps back and we took two steps forward.

  “Call the elevator,” Noah ordered and I suspected he was talking to me mainly because he still had my arm in his hand and he shook me. I tagged the elevator and it opened immediately.

  Matt didn’t take his eyes off us and I didn’t take my eyes off him as Noah backed us into the elevator all the while turned to face the doors.

  Matt stood outside the doors, eyes on me and they were active which I took as a good sign mainly because, at that point, I was holding on to anything I could get.

  The doors closed.

  Shit!

  Noah took the gun from my head and put it to my back again.

  “Noah, this is a bad idea.” I told him.

  “I think you know by now, Ava, that my name is Walt,” he replied.

  “Okay then, Walt, this is a bad idea,” I repeated.

  “Got no leverage. They messed up Kurt, they messed him up bad. Motherfuckers. They aren’t gonna mess me up. Fuck that. You’re the only leverage I got. They won’t come near me if I got you.”

  I wasn’t certain that was true. “Noah, I mean Walt, I’ll talk to Luke. Just let me –”

  “Time to talk to Stark was after I taped you to a pos
t.”

  “I tried, Luke didn’t feel like giving up. He’s not big on that kind of thing. Maybe I can be more convincing this time.”

  “You had your chance.”

  Shit a-fucking-gain.

  The doors opened, we stepped out, Noah stopped, jerking me to a halt and he went still.

  I was looking at the floor. My eyes came up and I saw Ren, Sissy, Dom and Uncle Vito standing there, looking like they were waiting for the elevator.

  What the fuck?

  “Hey guys,” I said, trying to sound casual.

  They all had their eyes on Noah.

  “Are we having the family meeting?” I asked, still trying to sound casual.

  “We were,” Dom replied, his eyes hadn’t left Noah.

  “I’m kind of busy right now,” I told Dom.

  At that, Ren’s body moved but he halted when Noah put the gun to my temple.

  “Move back,” Noah said.

  None of them moved. They changed but they didn’t move. Sissy’s face went pale, Ren, Dom and Uncle Vito went solid.

  “Move back!” Noah shouted, getting nervous and people turned to stare. I heard a few audible gasps and a small scream when eyes hit us.

  I didn’t think Noah getting nervous was a good sign so I said softly, “You guys, please move back.”

  “This ain’t a good idea, son,” Uncle Vito advised Noah.

  “Move back,” Noah repeated.

  “She’s a Zano,” Uncle Vito went on.

  “She’s not a Zano,” Noah flashed back.

  “She’s a Zano,” Ren said firmly.

  For goodness sake, were we going to go through this again? Now?

  “It’d really help me out, say, not to get my brains splattered across the Hotel Monaco lobby, if you guys would step back!” I shouted the last part.

  “What’s the breakfast hold up?” Shirleen was trundling up. She skidded to a halt, my eyes went to her and hers were wide. “Shit! Is that Noah?” she asked me.

  “My name is Walt,” Noah corrected.

  “Whatever. You crazy, boy?” Shirleen asked, her gaze moving to Noah.

  “Everyone, get out of our way!” Noah demanded, now not only nervous but losing patience and I guessed this was a very bad sign.

  “Yeah, you’re crazy. Do you know you got a gun to the head of Luke Stark’s woman?” Shirleen informed him and then continued to share. “He ain’t gonna like that much.”

  “Shirleen –” I started.

  “Ava…?”

  That was my Mom.

  Hell.

  And.

  Damnation!

  Mom peeked around Shirleen. “Ava!” she shrieked when she saw me.

  “Mom, calm down,” I said.

  “What’s happening…? Holy crap,” Marilyn had arrived, Sofia at her side.

  Did I already mention my… life… sucked?

  “Everyone, get fucking back!” Noah yelled.

  “That’s my sister,” Sofia told Noah.

  “I don’t care, get fucking back,” Noah clipped.

  “You have a gun pointed at my sister’s head!” Sofia screamed.

  “Take that gun away from her head, right now, you jerk!” Marilyn shouted.

  “Guys, you aren’t helping,” I told them.

  “This is outrageous. We’re in the lobby of a nice hotel. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in the lobby of a nice hotel,” my mother snapped. “Not to my daughter anyway. Put the gun down.”

  “Ava, get rid of these people,” Noah said in my ear.

  “Folks, can we all just –” I began.

  “Has anyone called Luke?” Mom asked, she was digging through her bag. “I’m calling Luke. Who has his number?”

  I’ll ask again. Why me? Why me? Why me?

  “Please, everyone can you just –” I began again.

  “Holy shit.” That was Riley, who had come around Sofia’s right side and jerked to a stop at the sight of Noah and me. “What the fuck are you doing?” Riley exploded, staring at Noah and looking not like a mild mannered personal trainer but just like a badass motherfucker.

  Even in my current circumstances, I was impressed.

  “Do I know you?” Noah asked.

  “Yeah, you know me. I’m Ava’s personal trainer. I was at her birthday party last year.”

  “Oh yeah. You ever finally get the nerve up to fuck her?” Noah asked, sounding nasty.

  There were gasps all around but I heard a couple of growls, one I suspected came from Ren, the other one I knew came from Riley.

  I was beginning to wish he’d just shoot me.

  Then we heard, “What the fuck!”

  It was Ally. She’d rounded the other side of Ren and Daisy rounded her side.

  Everyone stopped and stared at the new arrivals.

  Ally looked normal, jeans, kickass belt, cowboy boots and vintage AC/DC tee.

  She wasn’t the reason everyone stared. Everyone stared because Daisy did not look normal. Daisy had the bottom of her platinum blonde hair in pigtails, the top teased out to maximum volume and she was wearing a baby pink, velour, Juicy Couture tracksuit that was skintight. If that wasn’t reason enough to stare, she had the top zipped down to expose so much cleavage, the actual presence of the top was unnecessary except for the fact that it covered her nipples thus stopping her from being arrested for indecent exposure.

  “Well, I’ll be goddamned,” Daisy said, staring at Noah and me.

  “What’s the hold up?” We heard from the back. “The longer we take on breakfast, the longer it’ll take to get to the mall –”

  The person stopped speaking because she’d pushed her way to the front and we saw it was Olivia.

  “Muthafucka,” she breathed when her eyes hit me.

  “All right people!” I shouted. “Everyone move back. Back!” I screeched.

  Everyone moved back except Ren and Dom because somehow they disappeared, vanished, no longer in sight.

  Crap!

  Noah moved us forward, my posse stayed close but moved back. We did this all the way across the lobby, everyone else in the hotel watching our progression in stunned silence as I heard the noise of faraway sirens.

  When we hit the doors, Noah took the gun from my head, grabbed my hand and pulled us through. He ran down the sidewalk, taking me with him. I stumbled, nearly falling on my high-heeled wedges and I cursed my mother for her meddling into my wardrobe choices (though flip-flops wouldn’t likely have been any better, I had learned that lesson the hard way).

  He didn’t break stride and kept dragging me. I righted myself just as we ran into traffic, straight to a car that was stopped at a light.

  Noah pulled open the door, shoved the gun in the driver’s face and clipped, “Out.”

  “But… this is my car,” the driver said, eyes wide, obviously not thinking clearly because all of a sudden on a sunny Denver day he found himself staring at a gun.

  Noah moved the gun to the side, pulling the trigger and drilling a round into the pavement.

  I jumped, the driver jumped and then Noah pointed the gun at the driver again.

  “Out!” Noah shouted.

  The driver got out.

  Noah shoved me in first. I scrambled over to the passenger side and Noah got in behind me. Before I had myself settled, we took off on a squeal of tires, running the red light and making cars swerve and honk.

  “Noah!” I yelled. “I mean, Walt! You’re gonna kill us.”

  “Shut up!” Noah shouted.

  I put my seatbelt on which wasn’t easy. Noah was driving erratically, jerking the wheel back and forth, passing cars, speeding up then stopping fast and running red lights willy-nilly.

  Once I got my belt on, I turned to the front.

  You would think I’d be scared. I wasn’t scared. I was pissed way the hell off.

  I’d had enough.

  “This just cuts it,” I grumbled. “I cannot believe you just kidnapped me. First, you charm your way into my pants. Then you steal
my money and Aunt Ella’s jewelry, leave me high and dry and make me swear off men. Then!” My voice was beginning to rise. “I find myself a good guy, the best guy ever, and he wants to protect me and he goes after you. Instead of taking it like a man, you take it out on me.”