Rock Chick Renegade

by Ashley, Kristen

  Translation: If he’s your man, you better keep him happy, you don’t, I’l pounce.

  It was at that moment, I real y wished I had my gun.

  Then she went on, not, I noted, very good at reading body language as in my body language said I was about to kick her ass.

  “We’re just friends. Good friends. Hey, Vance?” I looked at Vance. He was stil sitting on his stool and it was evident that he had decided not to intervene. I also noted that his lips were twitching.

  “She must have been one of those easy things you were talking about,” I said to Vance.

  He pressed his lips together and shook his head slowly.

  This was not a negative headshake that said Jackie wasn’t one of his easy things. It was a negative headshake that said he thought I was the fucking craziest woman he’d ever met.

  “Excuse me?” Jackie asked again.

  Jackie now turned ful body to me and I stepped clear of the table preparing to throw down.

  “I said you must be one of the easy things Vance told me about. You know, easy pieces of ass. Before he met me,” I informed her, my voice dripping with acid sweetness.

  “You did not just say that,” she said to me.

  “I sure did,” I shot back.

  “Jackie, I wouldn’t rile Jules,” Vance decided to wade in.

  “You cal ing me easy?” Jackie decided to ignore Vance.

  “Have you slept with Vance?” I asked, even though I knew.

  She leaned forward with a catty smile. “It was the best night of my goddamned life.”

  “It’s good you’l have that memory,” I stated calmly as if I was truly happy for her.

  “You bitch!” she screamed. Then she came at me, hand out, probably to grab my hair.

  I was getting that opening a lot these days. I planted my feet, caught her wrist and flipped her on her back on the floor without barely moving.

  Vance did move. He had his wal et out and threw some money on the table. Everyone was staring now most of them had turned to us enjoying the show.

  I took a step toward her so I was looking down at her.

  “Stay away from Vance,” I warned.

  She was struggling to get up. “Fuck you!”

  “That’s Vance’s job,” I retorted.

  Vance had me around the waist and was pul ing me toward the door as Jackie made it to her feet.

  “I won’t forget this!” she yel ed after us.

  “I hope not!” I yel ed back at her, fighting against Vance’s arm. “That way, next time you’l keep your fucking mouth shut or you won’t find it so easy to get up!” Then Vance had me out the door. He let me go, grabbed my hand and dragged me to his Harley.

  “I cannot believe that just happened,” I ranted at his back.

  “What a bitch! I wish I had my stun gun. I wish I had my mace. What a bitch!” I repeated.

  He stopped at his bike, pul ed me so my back was to it, I was facing him and he settled his hands at my hips.

  I looked up at him. “You could have done something,” I snapped.

  “And missed the show?”

  I hadn’t noticed it but right then I did.

  He was grinning, huge.

  “You think that was amusing?”

  He stepped into me, arms going around me and he touched his lips to mine.

  I stood stiff as a board.

  “Princess?”

  “What?” I clipped.

  “Take your time learnin’ to share.”

  I blinked. It was my turn to feel thrown.

  “What?”

  One of his hands went to my jaw and his thumb came out to run along my lower lip. “Al the time you want,” he said softly, not answering my question.

  The velvet shroud came around us again and I leaned into him.

  “Am I going to be beating up al your ex-lovers?” I asked.

  “No. Just Jackie, she’s a bitch.”

  I didn’t want to ask. I knew I shouldn’t ask. But I asked.

  “What were you thinking, being with her?”

  “She’s not a bitch to me,” he replied.

  True enough. It was pretty clear she real y liked Vance.

  Then for some reason, do not ask me why, I threw myself in the deep end. “Was she good?”

  “No,” he replied immediately.

  This time I sagged into him, glad I hadn’t sunk to the bottom of the pool like a rock.

  “You’re not just saying that?” I asked.

  He shook his head.

  My hands came up and I started to play with the edges of his leather jacket. “When do you have to get to your job?”

  “Gonna see to my other job first,” he told me.

  “What other job?”

  His white teeth flashed. “The job of fuckin’ you.” He was teasing me.

  I stopped playing with his jacket. “This isn’t real y funny,” I snapped.

  “It’s hilarious. That, particularly, was my favorite part.”

  “I’m so glad you enjoyed it,” I said, sounding snotty.

  He touched his lips to mine. “Let’s get you home.” Whatever.

  He let me go and got on the bike. I got on behind him.

  He leaned back, grabbed my wrists and wrapped my arms tight around him.

  I put my chin to his shoulder and we took off.

  * * * * *

  Sometime in the dead of night, I didn’t feel the bed move when Vance got in it but I did wake when his warmth hit me from shoulders to heels. “Hey,” I mumbled.

  “Hey,” he replied softly, “go back to sleep.” I felt Boo walking up the bed and then heard him slip off the side to the platform with an I-meant-to-do-that meow.

  “It was Nick,” I told Vance, stil half-asleep.

  “Sorry?”

  “Nick made me cry. He approves of you, like, a lot.” Vance’s arm tightened around me and drew me deeper into his body.

  “Go back to sleep, Jules,” Vance whispered into my hair.

  “Okay.”

  I snuggled in and then fel asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Shrink-Wrapped

  The next morning I woke up before Vance and I tried my new skil of waking him with a kiss. This time I decided to put my lips on other parts of his anatomy.

  I was left in little doubt that he appreciated my creativity.

  We were showered, dressed and in the kitchen eating bowls of Cream of Wheat that I prepared because you could cook Cream of Wheat in the microwave. Vance was sitting on the kitchen counter. I was standing with a hip leaned partial y into the counter, partial y into Vance’s knee.

  Boo was sitting in front of us, tail sweeping the floor in a wide arc, staring at our bowls with greedy eyes.

  “What’s on for your day?” Vance asked.

  I looked up at him and gulped down a bite of Cream of Wheat. “Shelter. Then I should go talk to Heavy, Frank and Zip, tel them the party’s over.”

  “Good idea.”

  I had one more thing on my agenda that was waiting for my period to come. Vance and I were moving fast but not fast enough for me to share that.

  Instead I said, somewhat wistful y, “I’m gonna miss the street.”

  “You left it in good hands.” Vance’s lips weren’t smiling but his eyes were.

  “How’s that?” I asked.

  “Jack told me a dealer’s entire car was shrink-wrapped the other night.”

  I felt my eyes widen. “What?”

  “Tex shrink-wrapped a dealer’s BMW. Wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and then used a portable blow drier on it to tighten the plastic. Word has it, it was several layers deep.”

  I was thankful I didn’t have a mouthful of Cream of Wheat or it would have come out my nose, I laughed so hard.

  “Tex is a nut,” I said when I was done laughing.

  “Tex is a nut,” Vance agreed.

  “What’s on for your day?” I asked.

  “Never know where the day’l take me,” he re
plied.

  I sighed and leaned into his knee. “That’d be nice.” I took another bite of Cream of Wheat.

  “Jules?”

  “What?” I asked with my mouth ful (Auntie Reba would have had a conniption). Then I swal owed.

  “Wherever it takes me, good to know in the end, it’l lead back to you.”

  Luckily I had swal owed because my mouth dropped open.

  Vance watched me a beat and said, “If you fuckin’ freak out, I’m cuffin’ you to the bed.”

  My mouth snapped shut. “Indy says that doesn’t work,” I informed him snottily.

  He watched me another beat again openly surprised by what I shared. Then he laughed.

  “That’s more than I needed to know about Lee’s relationship with Indy,” Vance said through his laughter.

  Then a thought hit me. “Don’t tel anyone I told you that,” I demanded.

  He grinned at me. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s nobody’s business.”

  “Indy told you.”

  “Yes but she probably didn’t expect me to blab it to you.”

  “Women talk.”

  I turned away from him and put my bowl in the sink.

  “Women talk! Ha!” I said. “You boys are the biggest gossips I’ve ever met.”

  Vance jumped off the counter and leaned into me to put his bowl next to mine. “You ever do a shift in the surveil ance room, you’l understand. Gotta have something to break the monotony.”

  I turned to him. “Wel , break it with something else. I don’t want to make an enemy of Lee.”

  His arms slid around me. “That’s not gonna happen.” His face came close to mine. “The cherry poppin’ conversation in your living room was the topic of conversation for days.

  Mace taped it and played it for the whole team.” I was back to staring at him with my mouth open and I think my heart stopped beating. “Look at this as your way of getting even,” he finished.

  “That’s it!” I declared. “No cookies for Mace. I don’t care if he did beat someone up for me.”

  I felt Vance’s body move against mine with laughter. Stil laughing, he touched my lips with his own and said, “Gotta go.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled.

  He grinned, ignoring my grumble. “I get done in time, I’l make dinner.”

  “Fine,” I was stil not over the fact that the cherry popping conversation was taped and used for the Nightingale Investigation Team’s amusement. Then another thought struck me. “If Dawn ever sees that tape –” The laughter went out of his eyes. “Dawn is never gonna see that tape.”

  At that, I smiled.

  Vance smiled back, grabbed the cookies and then he was gone.

  Then I remembered something and, probably too late, I yel ed, “Don’t forget! No cookies for Mace!” I heard the backdoor slam.

  * * * * *

  That afternoon stil with no sign of my monthly visitor, who always came on time and was never late, I cal ed Vance (though, not to give him a progress report on my monthly visitor). “Yeah?” he answered.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “I was just gonna cal you,” he told me.

  “You making dinner?” I asked.

  “Don’t think so, I’m in New Mexico.” My body went stil and Vance kept talking. “I’m after a skip.” I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t often that you were standing in your kitchen in Denver with someone, calmly eating Cream of Wheat in the morning and in the afternoon, without warning, they were in New Mexico.

  “Jules?”

  “I… okay,” I said.

  “You al right with this?”

  “Um, sure,” I lied. I was freaking out; do not ask me why I just was.

  “Trail’s hot. It won’t take long.”

  I didn’t want to sound like a clingy, stalker, psycho bitch-from-hel but I didn’t know what to say at that moment that wouldn’t sound like a clingy, stalker, psycho bitch-from-hel .

  So I stayed silent.

  “I’m off tomorrow. Do you want to spend the night at the cabin? I’l meet you there.”

  I shook my head and said, “No, I think I’l cal the girls, see if they want to go out after I talk with Heavy, Zip and Frank.”

  “I’l come to your place when I’m done with this.” That at least made me feel better.

  “Okay.”

  It was Vance’s turn to be silent.

  “Vance?”

  “You’re not okay with this,” he said.

  “It’s what you do,” I told him as if he didn’t know.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’l get used to it.”

  Silence.

  “You just surprised me.”

  More silence.

  “New Mexico is only one state away. It isn’t like you’re al of a sudden in New Zealand.”

  More silence.

  “Though, I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand. I’ve heard it’s beautiful there and the people are nice.” More silence.

  “I should probably take Roam to a beach during my next vacation so he can learn how to surf.”

  “Jules?” Vance final y spoke.

  “Yeah?”

  “Shut up.”

  I smiled.

  * * * * *

  I’d spent some time in the rec room with the kids and was walking down the hal on my way back to the office when I turned my head and looked in the window to the blue room. With the tutor Stu, sat Roam, Sniff and Clarice. I kept walking a few paces and then stopped dead. Then I walked backwards and looked into the room.

  My eyes were not deceiving me, sitting in the room with Roam, Sniff and the tutor was Clarice.

  Before they could see me, I kept walking.

  Clarice had never gone to a tutoring session. Andy was working with her but she was a no-go. Tough-as-nails and out on the street nearly as long as Roam had been. I thought she only came to the Shelter to watch television, get a decent meal and brag about her shoplifting escapades.

  Now she was working with Stu.

  That was a mini-miracle. And the mini-miracle worker was Daisy.

  When I got to my desk, I flipped open my phone and cal ed Daisy.

  “Hey Sugar, what’s up?” Daisy answered.

  “Vance is after a skip,” I told her. “He’s in New Mexico.

  Thought maybe, if you’re not busy, you might want to go out and get some drinks, maybe dinner.”

  “I’l have to check with my husband.”

  “If you have to do something with Marcus, that’s cool, I’l cal –”

  “What did you say?” Daisy cut in but she did it on a whisper. It was weird hearing Daisy whisper. I’d never heard it before. She was not a whispering kind of person.

  “I said, if you have to do something with Marcus, that’s cool. I’l just cal –”

  “You know?” Daisy broke in again.

  “Know what?”

  “Know… do you know who Marcus is?”

  Final y I got it. “Yeah,” I said quietly.

  “I’ve been trying to find a way to tel you. How long have you known?”

  “Awhile,” I said, “Luke told me.”

  She was silent a few beats then she asked, “Do you really know who Marcus is?”

  “Yeah,” I repeated, again quietly.

  “You don’t mind?”

  Oh, I minded.

  One thing I’d learned in life was that women could bitch about their men until they were blue in the face and you could listen and nod and offer support. But you never as in never said something bad about a woman’s man no matter how much she bitched or how much he may deserve it. It always came back to haunt you.

  “Just cal me after you talk to Marcus,” I said instead of answering.

  “Al right, Sugar,” Daisy replied, now her tone was quiet, not a whisper but barely there.

  “Daisy?” I cal ed.

  “Yeah?”

  “Clarice is in with the tutors,” I told her.

  Daisy was silent.
/>   “Thanks,” I said.

  Then I flipped my phone shut.

  * * * * *

  “Oh shit, I know who this is,” Zip shouted across his Gun Emporium as Daisy and I sauntered in. “No, no, no. Should I say it again? I think I fuckin’ wil . Fuck… no! ”

  “Zip,” I said in a soothing voice as Daisy and I approached him. Heavy was standing in front of the counter opposite him. Both of them were scowling at me.

  “No. You aren’t gonna get Marcus Sloan’s wife fil ed ful of holes. That kind of shit hits the fan, everyone gets splattered. I do not want to be splattered with shit. Jesus, girl, you are loco.” He shook his head then narrowed his eyes and said, “I heard you were off the streets.”

  “I am,” I said, stopping in front of the counter.

  “What’re you doin’ here?” Heavy asked.

  “Thought I’d come by, tel you in person. Then I thought maybe you guys might want to meet us for drinks later.” They stared at me. Then they stared at each other.

  “Shee-it. Crowe’s dumped her again,” Zip muttered.

  Daisy giggled.

  “Crowe has not dumped me,” I snapped. “And he didn’t dump me the first time. It was a misunderstanding!”

  “Why aren’t you havin’ drinks with him?” Heavy asked.

  “He’s in New Mexico, after a skip.”

  The light dawned and both of them looked a lot less cantankerous.

  “Where you goin’ for the drink?” Zip asked.

  “Smithie’s,” Daisy replied.

  “I’m in,” Heavy answered immediately.

  “Me too,” Zip put in.

  Smithie’s was a strip club. Daisy used to work there (as a stripper, pre-Marcus). Jet did too (as a cocktail waitress, pre- and start-of-Eddie but most definitely not now as Eddie wasn’t fond of the outfit the waitresses had to wear or the clientele). Jet’s sister Lottie (better known as Lottie Mac, Queen of the Corvette calendar) now worked there as a stripper and apparently the best one this side of the Mississippi, and that included Vegas. She was such a good stripper, Lottie was a local celebrity, even I had heard of her.

  “We’re going to get something to eat, we’l see you at Smithie’s after you close down the shop,” I told them.

  “Later,” Heavy said.

  As we walked away, we overheard Zip saying, “Loco, fuckin’ loco, what kind of women go drinking at a strip club?”