That cut through The Fog. “Luke.”
“I know you think you’re protectin’ me but I told you, this is somethin’ I gotta do.”
“Luke.”
He ignored me and carried on. “My woman is sittin’ in my lap with a torn lip and a black eye. This is not just about revenge. It’s about sendin’ a message.”
My body started getting tight. “Luke.”
His arms moved to wrap around me.
“Beautiful, I want everything you offered this morning but I can’t enjoy it until I know you’ll be safe. What I do puts you out there. Anyone who thinks to fuck with you has got to understand there’ll be consequences. What I’m doin’ will make you safe.”
“You can’t guarantee that.”
“I can sure as fuck try.”
My body finished getting tight and I glared at him.
“This is who I am,” he told me.
“I don’t like it,” I retorted.
He half-grinned again. “Yeah you do.”
How unbelievably arrogant.
“No I don’t,” I snapped.
The grin went full-fledged. “Babe.”
I tried to pull away. His arms went tight.
“Let me go,” I bit out.
“Not gonna happen.”
I went back to glaring and Luke burst out laughing. “One thing’s certain, life with you is never gonna be boring,” he informed me.
He said that like he wasn’t sure it was a good thing but he was looking forward to it anyway.
If I wasn’t naked, I would have put my hands on my hips. Instead, I tried to pull away again.
His hand went back into my hair, he tilted my head down and he kissed me. I fought it for a few beats, lost the fight and kissed him back.
When he stopped kissing me, he was back to grinning. “Try not to do anything today that’ll get you in trouble.”
“You try not to do anything that will get you incarcerated,” I shot back.
He laughed again (the nerve!) touched his lips to mine, shifted me aside then he was gone.
I know you don’t like it but I think he’s sweet for wanting to protect us, Good Ava shared.
It isn’t sweet, it’s HOT, Bad Ava chimed in.
Yeesh, Bad Ava thought everything was hot.
I crawled under the covers and fell back to sleep.
* * * * *
The phone ringing woke me up.
I rolled and nabbed it off the nightstand.
“Yo,” I muttered.
“Babe.”
Obviously, it was Luke.
I got up on an elbow. “Please tell me you aren’t calling from a police station.”
He laughed like what I said was extremely funny (which I thought it was not) then said again, “Babe.”
“What?”
“Ma called. She showed up at the loft again, wants to take us to breakfast. I told her I couldn’t go but she could take you. She’s heading to your place now.”
I shot into a sitting position. “Excuse me?” I asked.
“She’ll be there soon.”
“I can’t go to breakfast with Mrs. Stark. The girls and I have plans.”
“You gotta go. She’s lookin’ forward to it.”
Shit!
I knew what he was doing. He was stopping me from searching for Noah like I had tried to do with him earlier that morning.
And he was better at it.
“I cannot believe you,” I snapped.
“Ava Babe, you were sleeping. If you were all fired up to find Dexter you would be hunting. It’s just breakfast. You and the girls can go after Dexter when you’re done with Ma.”
“Call her back, tell her I have plans.”
“Can’t. She would be disappointed. I don’t like to disappoint her and I get the impression she wants time just with you.”
Mrs. Stark wanted time just with me? This was not good. In fact, this freaked me way the hell out.
“Call her back,” I repeated then I heard a knock on my door. “Shit!” I cried. “She’s already here.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” he told me as I jumped out of bed and started searching for my clothes.
“Impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible.”
“No, Luke, mark my words. This is impossible. I’m seriously pissed at you.”
“Ava.”
I pulled on my panties the phone in the crook of my neck. “You’re lucky I’m even speaking to you right now. Get ready. Once we’re off the phone this episode bought you at least forty-eight hours of the Ava Barlow Silent Treatment.”
“Jesus, you’re cute when you’re pissed,” he said and he sounded like he meant it.
Argh!
Without another word, I yanked the phone from my ear, pressed the off button and threw it on the bed. Then I pulled on my camisole and pajama shorts, rammed my glasses on my nose and ran downstairs.
I threw open the door and stared. Mom, Marilyn and Sofia were standing on my doorstep.
What… the… fuck?
“Oh my God!” Mom shrieked. “What happened to your face?”
Shit.
“Mom –” I started.
“Did Lucas Stark do that to you?” Marilyn asked, staring at me as she opened my screen door.
“Of course not,” I replied, pissed that she would think that and having a sinking feeling that she invoked Luke’s name. They knew.
“How did your face get like that?” Sofia asked, pushing in behind Marilyn, all of them shoving forward, all of them carrying suitcases.
Okay, it was so official, it could be written on a tablet of stone.
My life sucked.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, trailing them into the living room.
“Ava, don’t change the subject. How did your face get like that?” Mom snapped.
We were standing in my living room. They had dropped their bags and they were all staring at me. All of them looked glamorous, dressed to the nines with glossy, two hundred dollar hair styles, designer clothes, handbags that cost the moon and stars and faces made up as if they had just bought a session at the MAC counter.
Hell and damnation.
“I have a situation,” I said, sounding like it was nothing. “I’m sorting it out.”
Me, Luke and half of Denver.
“Now,” I continued, sticking to my earlier theme. “What are you doing here?”
“Josie Stark called, said she had breakfast with you and Luke and that you two were seeing each other,” Mom told me, sounding put out. “She said it looked serious.”
Ee-yikes.
Mrs. Stark thought it was serious. It was, of course, serious. However, a week ago, it wasn’t supposed to be.
“She was pleased as punch,” Mom went on, now sounding extremely put out, which, for my Mom, was a very bad thing. “What I want to know is, why am I hearing this from Josie Stark? Why didn’t my own daughter tell me this news?”
“Mom –”
“Are you dating Luke?” Marilyn asked before I could formulate an answer to Mom.
“Marilyn –” I started again.
“I cannot believe you’re dating Luke,” Sofia put in and she sounded incredulous.
Bitch.
I felt my temper rise at the same time I felt like a knife had been plunged into my gut. My eyes moved to Sofia and as usual I tried to hide the hurt. Though it wouldn’t matter if she saw the hurt, she didn’t care and never would.
“Ava. Answer me,” Mom demanded before I could say anything to Sofia.
My eyes moved back to Mom. “Why are you here? Why didn’t you just phone?”
“We had to see it with our own eyes,” Marilyn informed me, sounding like me being with Luke was akin to finding a vision of the Virgin Mary in your morning coffee.
I was saved from having to answer by the phone ringing at the same time we heard a “Yoo hoo,” called from the front door.
Luke’s Mom had arrived. Saved by Super
Mom Stark.
I fought the urge to grab Mrs. Stark and run screaming from the house. Instead, I walked to the phone and tagged it.
“Yo,” I said into the phone, turning and giving a lame wave to Mrs. Stark who was staring at my family in genteel shock. Then her eyes hit me, she saw my face, the genteel went out of the shock and she stared at me with unhidden concern.
“Yo, girl. We’re pickin’ you up in twenty minutes,” Shirleen said in my ear. “Ally got Brody shitfaced last night and got some info outta him. We got a battle plan.”
“Um, I have a situation here,” I mumbled, walking into the dining room with the phone as I watched Mrs. Stark greeting my Mom and sisters with warm Mrs. Stark hugs that, if you asked my opinion, they did not deserve. Unfortunately, Mrs. Stark didn’t discriminate, not even against Super Bitches.
Shirleen’s voice was sharp. “What kind of situation?”
“My Mom and sisters showed up unexpectedly and Luke arranged for me to go to breakfast with his Mom. They’re all here and I don’t think I can get away.”
Silence.
“Shirleen?”
“Shit, that boy is good,” she told me, sounding impressed.
He was and it pissed me off.
“Yeah, and it bought him forty-eight hours of Ava Barlow Silent Treatment,” I informed her.
“Not sure that’s good retaliation, Luke don’t talk much,” Shirleen noted.
He might not talk much to other people but the shit he said to me rocked my world.
“I have to go,” I said.
“No problem. We’ll move on the leads we got and we’ll keep in touch.”
“I’m missing all the fun,” I complained, sounding like Bad Ava.
“You find a way to ditch ‘em, let me know. I’ll come get you.”
“Thanks, Shirleen.”
“No reason to thank me, haven’t had this much fun in months. Later.”
Disconnect.
I turned toward the living room.
“We’re all going to breakfast,” Marilyn announced, a bitchy smile on her face (Marilyn had two smiles, fake-sugar-sweet and bitchy, she mostly used bitchy with me). It was clear she was looking forward to this and I didn’t take that as a good sign.
“Yeah, that way you can tell all of us what’s going on with you and Luke,” Sofia chimed in.
I looked for an excuse and my eyes caught their suitcases. “Why don’t you check into a hotel first? Then we’ll make it brunch,” I suggested, thinking that would buy me time to come up with an excuse to ditch them.
“We’re staying with you,” Mom said, foiling my plan.
I stared.
“Yeah, we have it all figured out,” Sofia told me. “Mom can sleep on your futon and Marilyn and I’ll sleep in your bed. You can sleep on the couch.”
Of course, I’d get the couch in my own damned house.
I didn’t have the time, or the energy, to fight the fight. I needed reinforcements. Macho man with a great mustache and a tight ass reinforcements.
“I need to take a shower,” I said.
“We’ll wait,” Mom replied.
I looked at Mrs. Stark. She was smiling at me and I could swear she was trying to communicate that it was all going to be okay.
She was so wrong.
I ran upstairs, straight to my bedroom, closed the door, nabbed the phone and called Luke.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Luke –” I began.
“I thought you weren’t speakin’ to me,” he sounded like he was smiling.
“My Mom and sisters are here.”
Silence for a beat then, smile gone from his voice, he asked, “Come again?”
“Your Mom told my Mom that we were together and it looked serious. My Mom gathered the Barlow Bitches from Hell and they all came, in their words, to ‘see for themselves’.”
“Why the fuck would they do that?”
“I don’t know,” I cried, but quietly so my family wouldn’t hear. “They’re the Barlow Bitches from Hell. Why do they do anything?”
“You sound agitated,” Luke pointed out the obvious.
“Did you hear me?” I squealed then sucked in a controlling breath before I went on more quietly. “My Mom and sisters are here to see for themselves that we’re serious.”
“Babe, calm down.”
“Calm is not an option. I need cookies. I need tequila. I need cookies drenched in tequila. I can barely cope with my family when my life isn’t complicated to the point of insanity. But, may I remind you, my life is complicated to the point of insanity!”
My voice was again rising.
He was quiet for a moment then he said using The Voice, “Ava, you can handle it.”
I took a deep breath and replied softly, hating that I had to admit it but, bottom line, I had to admit it, “I want to say I can, Luke, but I can’t. They’re going to chew me up and spit me out. They always do.”
“Is Ma there?”
“Yes.”
“She’ll look after you.”
“Luke, even Super Mom Stark is no match for the Barlow Super Bitches. You know that.”
Another moment of silence then, “I’ll be there in fifteen.”
I went still and stared at the wall. “What did you just say?”
“Hang on, I’ll be there in fifteen.”
I kept staring at the wall, completely unable to comprehend the fact that Luke was going to drop the hunt for Noah and come to my rescue.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“A coupla hours ago I told you no one fucks with you. I meant no one fucks with you.”
Oh… my… God.
“Luke –”
“See you in fifteen.”
Disconnect.
I love him, Good Ava told me.
We are SO going to touch ourselves tonight while he’s inside us, Bad Ava promised.
There was no time to contemplate payback for Luke’s latest demonstration of why he was The Best Guy Ever. I ran to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, put in my contacts, took a quick shower, pulled a comb through my wet hair and slathered peony-scented lotion on my body.
I was rushing back to my room when I heard the front door open and Sofia, Marilyn and Mom all cried at the same exact time with the same exact sickly, sweet girlie voices. “Luke!”
Yuck!
I yanked on jeans, a tight, black tee that said “Harley Davidson Motorcycles’ on the front in brown with a sage green horseshoe around the words and sparkly green sequins on the letters. I added a kickass black belt and black flip-flops. Because I was unable to do anything but, I added a massive dose of silver at ears, neck, throat and fingers.
Then I ran downstairs.
The women were sitting drinking coffee and gazing at a still-standing Luke (all but Mrs. Stark) like he was a god fallen to earth. Marilyn and Sofia’s looks had the added dimension of openly showing they wanted to rip his clothes off.
I will repeat, my life sucked!
I walked into the room and Luke’s eyes cut to me. “Hey,” I said.
His eyes dropped to my chest as I approached him. When I was within reaching distance, his arm slid around my waist and he curled me into his side.
“Harleys are sweet, babe, but we’re a Triumph family.”
Ho-ly crap.
Did he just say that?
I looked at him. His eyes were warm and affectionate.
Yep, he just said that.
He kissed my neck, lifted his head, stared in my eyes and murmured, “You smell like flowers.”
“Peonies,” I told him.
He gave me a half-grin. “Nice,” he murmured, using The Voice with the Velvet Edge.
My knees wobbled.
“Oh my God,” Marilyn breathed, which was quite a task considering her mouth was hanging open.
“This is lovely,” Mrs. Stark cut in, jumping from the couch, looking nearly giddy with happiness. “Now we can all go to breakfast.”
“
Why does Luke have a gash on his face?” Sofia asked. “Is it the same reason Ava has a black eye?”
“We’ll talk about it at breakfast,” Mrs. Stark said firmly, happy giddiness fading fast.
“Ma, I can’t go to breakfast,” Luke told her and my heart clenched.
Shit.
So much for Luke coming to my rescue.
“Oh no! Why not?” Mom asked.
“I thought, you coming by –” Sofia started but Luke interrupted her. He did this by pinning her with a look that would make Satan himself shiver in the fiery depths of hell.
“I came by for Ava because she’s too sweet to tell you what I’m gonna tell you.”
Uh-oh.
I had the feeling Luke was in the mood to be brutally honest.
“Luke –” I started but he kept talking.
“You’ll have breakfast and then Ava’s got some shit she’s gotta do. So I’ll answer your questions right now. Yeah, Ava and I are together, it’s serious, it’s headin’ somewhere important and anything else is none of your business. You don’t like that, too bad. You get breakfast with her then she’s gotta take off. During breakfast, you’ll be nice to her. I hear anything different, then you answer to me. Is that clear?”
Yep, Luke was in the mood to be brutally honest.
“How did this happen? When did it happen? How could it happen?” Marilyn asked. She was, in the face of the impossible fact of a Luke and Ava (and apparently Triumph motorcycles) Togetherness, incapable of being clear she understood Luke’s threat.
“It happened because she’s Ava,” Luke answered like that was all the reason needed and my knees wobbled again at the same time my throat got tight.
“That would be why I’d think it couldn’t happen,” Sofia said under her breath but loud enough for everyone to hear.
My body got stiff but Luke’s body got preparing-for-gonzo tense. It was then I realized my “fuckin’ sisters” weren’t just bitches, they weren’t very smart either.
“Sofia,” Mom muttered before Luke could retort.
“Sofia,” Mrs. Stark cut in at the same time as my Mom and she sounded pissy, something I’d never heard from her before. “What on earth is the matter with you?”
I looked at Mrs. Stark and blinked. She looked unhappy, not just unhappy but nearly Lucas Stark Gonzo Unhappy.
Wow, definitely pissy and then some.
“Goodness me, we all know they’ve had something special for years. You act like you didn’t grow up and see it like everyone on the block did. Mrs. Weinberg said years ago they would make a sweet couple and when I told Maggie Regan a few days ago she said she knew it would happen all along. It’s not just me who thinks this is hardly surprising. I just wish it hadn’t taken so long.” Mrs. Stark took a deep breath then went on and her eyes moved to her son. “As for you, we are not a Triumph or Harley Davidson family. I keep telling you, Lucas, motorcycles are dangerous. You’re going to give me a stroke, riding around on those things. Now that you’ve got Ava, you need to think before you race around in your Porsche and on those bikes.”
Rock Chick Revenge Page 42