Chapter Nine
Sixteen to Me
I was pacing Lee’s office.
The Kevster, healthy and all in one piece (thank God), was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Lee’s desk.
For some reason, the police cruiser we were loaded into took us to Lee’s offices in lower downtown Denver (known as LoDo) instead of the station. We were escorted into Lee’s office and locked in.
Yes.
Locked in.
When we left my place, the entirety of the Hot Bunch were milling about with police and firefighters.
And when we left, looking out my window with a totally freaked out Kevster at my side, Ren and Lee were nose to nose, and neither of them looked happy.
I was not either, being carted off like a girl (or a pothead) who needed to be protected.
What was that all about it?
I also wanted to know why Lee and Ren were in each other’s faces, but neither of them were answering their phones. Sadly, before I could try to get to either by proxy, as in calling Indy to call Lee, my phone ran out of juice.
The Kevster didn’t have one.
And Mace had destroyed Lee’s office phone in a fit of (justifiable) rage during his and Stella’s drama and Lee elected not to replace it. This meant Shirleen couldn’t transfer annoying phone calls from clients that he didn’t want to handle and therefore he could spend more of his time “in the field.”
It also meant, since we were locked in (again, locked in), I was incommunicado.
And I was steaming.
My apartment had exploded!
What the f*ck was that?
And here I was, pacing in an office across town, not knowing anything, and worse, not able to do anything, all because the macho alphas in my life deemed it fit I should be carted away.
I had been, at the time, semi-flipped out, seeing as my apartment had exploded, so I didn’t argue.
I made a mental note to delay flip outs in future so I would not give the macho alphas in my life the opportunity to treat me like a girl.
After making this mental note, I eyed Kevin and decided I’d given him enough time to control his freak out, or get it together enough to converse with me (insofar as The Kevster could do either, even when things weren’t exploding) so I moved to Lee’s desk. I rested my hips against it and looked down at Kevin.
His wide eyes looked up at me.
Okay, maybe I hadn’t given it enough time.
Still, I had to do something.
“Kevin, do you feel like talking?” I asked carefully.
“I nearly exploded,” he told me instead of answering.
“I know. You may have saved Ren’s and my life, and dude, I don’t know how to thank you for that. That was way cool. I’ll try to figure out a way to express my gratitude, but now we need to talk. I gotta know how you knew—”
The door opened before I could finish and my eyes went there.
Lee was prowling in, but looking behind him, arm raised, finger pointing at something or someone.
I watched him order angrily, “Keep the Rock Chicks back and I don’t give a f*ck what it takes to do it.”
Then his eyes came to me and coming in behind him were first Ren then Hank, Eddie, Luke and Mace.
“What’s—?” I started but Lee jerked his finger toward my face and interrupted me.
“You. Shut it,” he growled then turned his attention to The Kevster and jerked his finger in Kevin’s face. “You, tell us how you knew there was a bomb.”
I clenched my teeth and my eyes flew to Ren.
He was looking at me and he looked even less happy than me. But he jerked his head in a negative shake once and looked to Kevin.
I did too and saw that The Kevster was fidgeting, his eyes darting from me to Lee to different men in the room then to Lee again and he said, “I, uh… dude, I—”
Lee leaned into him and roared, “Tell me how you knew there was a bomb planted in my sister’s apartment!”
I pushed away from the desk. “Lee,” I started cautiously. “He’s freaked. Give him a minute.”
Lee turned blazing brown eyes to me. “Your best bet right now, Ally, is to keep your mouth shut. I’ll get to you.”
He’d get to me?
I felt my eyes get big. “Excuse me?”
Lee turned fully to me and planted his hands on his hips. “One day, my sister gets up in the business of every dirty power broker in a hundred mile radius of Aspen. The next day her apartment explodes. You puttin’ these pieces together or do I gotta do it for you?”
Oh I did not think so!
I leaned into him and started to snap, “Don’t you—”
“It was Rosie.”
That was said by The Kevster, and both Lee and my eyes shot to him.
“Say again?” Lee demanded.
“Rosie’s back,” The Kevster told Lee, and then looked at me. “I mean, dudette, he didn’t plant the bomb. But he may have, um… dropped your name, to some, uh… people and, uh… well, that didn’t go too good.”
What the hell?
“Rosie’s back?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s back and he might have, uh… brought some trouble with him.”
Lee dropped his head and looked at his boots.
I stared at The Kevster.
I saw movement and turned to see it was Ren who was the one moving.
Taking one look at his face, belatedly I felt the weight of the air and I knew he was not just angrier than me. He was livid.
I moved quickly, got in front of him, put a hand on his chest and caught his eyes. “Let me, Ren. Please,” I asked quietly.
“You got two minutes, babe. Then it’s me,” he replied.
I stared into his eyes.
Yep. Livid.
Hmm. Better get a move on.
I nodded, turned my back to him and looked down at The Kevster.
Kevin was looking up at us, so he saw it when Ren’s arm curled around my upper chest.
Seeing that, his eyes lighted and he cried, “Dudette! You two finally comin’ out?”
Jeez. Even The Kevster knew about me and Ren.
“Maybe we can discuss my love life over Cheetos and beer later. Right now, and fast, Kevin, you need to tell us about Rosie, what he’s up to and how this concerns me.”
“And how you knew there was a bomb in Ally’s apartment,” Hank butted in.
Kevin looked to Hank when he spoke and got visibly more uncomfortable (then again, Hank had had him arrested during the Premier Rock Chick Drama, which would be Indy’s). When Hank was done speaking, Kevin’s eyes came to me.
“Right. Well. You know he grows. Yeah?” he asked.
I nodded. “I know he grows.”
“And you know things got hot here when he was growin’ in Denver,” The Kevster went on.
I nodded again, lifting a hand and rolling it because I knew that too. Intimately. I was the one who found his ass, and I’d also been there when Hank had The Kevster arrested for trying to save Rosie’s unattended pot farm—a pot farm unattended because Rosie was in hiding.
“And I think I told you he’s the maestro of pot,” Kevin continued.
“Skip to the parts we don’t know,” Luke ordered, and Kevin fidgeted again in his seat as he looked to Luke then back to me.
“He kind of recently moved to New Mexico,” The Kevster said.
Finally, something I didn’t know.
“And?” I prompted.
“Well, he started growing,” Kevin stated and I closed my eyes.
Rosie.
All that trouble he had the last time, and, I might add, brought down on Indy, and he was growing again?
What a f*cking idiot.
I opened my eyes again when The Kevster kept at it. “He established a fanbase, like, real quick. So some dudes wanted in on the action. As you know, that’s history repeating.”
Oh, I knew this, too.
“Rosie was having flashbacks, not the good kind, and he’d heard word you were establishing yourself as the Badass Queen of Denver,” Kevin stated.
At this, Ren’s arm got tight and I sighed.
The Kevster kept going. “And so, you know, for protection, he dropped your name.”
Ren made a noise that sounded like a growl and I was pretty certain I heard others, primarily from Lee and Hank. But fortunately The Kevster had finally found his mojo and was on a roll.
“The dudes down there tryin’ to horn in on his action don’t know you’re a badass with badass backup. They apparently were unimpressed.”
Great.
Kevin went on.
“So they stopped tryin’ to horn in and just did it. Rosie got pissed. Told them he was comin’ to get you to take care of business and he hightailed it up here. They followed him. He came to me because I knew where to find you. I didn’t get a good feeling about things, because, you know, he was totally tweaked. And Rosie’s usually mellow. When he’s tweaked, dudette, that means bad things.”
It so did.
Kevin carried on.
“I talked to him and got him to bare all. This included the fact that one of those New Mexican dudes blows stuff up in the New Mexico boonies all the time. So that Rosie didn’t, like, lead them to you, I came to tell you this was all going down, and saw some dude who I knew was not your style comin’ out of your apartment. I figured they found you without Rosie. He didn’t see me, so I followed him and he was just sittin’ in his car in your parking lot. But he had this little box in his hand.”
“F*ck me,” Ren murmured.
Kevin talked over Ren. “I figured he was waiting for you to get there so he could, you know…”
He trailed off. The room became stifling, so I urged him to go on, saying, “I know.”
Kevin nodded. “So he wouldn’t see me, I went in and kept an eye out. But you were takin’ a long time to come home, so I went to the stairwell I thought you’d use and had myself a doobie to smooth out the rough edges and pass the time.” His eyes went to Hank and he stated quickly, “It’s legal now, you know.”
“I know,” Hank growled, his thoughts on that matter not hidden even in those two words.
Again, I sighed.
“What I don’t know,” Hank stated. “Is why you saw a strange man walking out of my sister’s apartment and sitting in her parking lot, holding a box you knew was a detonator, and you didn’t phone the police.”
“The police?” Kevin asked, like the concept of law enforcement was foreign to him.
Hank said nothing, obviously realizing this conversation would lead to nothing good. But I saw his jaw clench.
The Kevster clearly also decided conversing longer with Hank would lead to nothing good, so he gave up, looked my way and kept going. “So, obviously, I missed you. Luckily I came up as you were comin’ up and,” he flicked out his hands, “we’re all breathing.”
“Where’s Rosie now?” Eddie asked, and Kevin looked at him.
“My place,” he answered.
“Mace, roll out,” Lee ordered, but Mace was already moving to the door.
I looked back at Kevin. “Why would Rosie think I’d help him?”
“’Cause you guys are buds,” The Kevster informed me.
“Since when?” I asked.
The Kevster looked confused. “You’re not buds?”
“He got my best friend in a situation where she nearly got kidnapped to Costa Rica,” I replied. “No, we’re not buds.”
“Dudette, that was like, years ago. Forgiveness is divine,” Kevin told me.
“Kicking ass feels better,” I replied.
At my words his eyes got big and he grinned a goofy grin. “You are so totally badass.” Then he threw his arms up in the air and cried, “Rock Chicks rule!”
This was true, all of it, but I didn’t get the chance to agree with him. Lee took over.
“There are uniforms in reception. You’re goin’ with Eddie now and making your statement. Then, until this shit blows over, you’re in my safe room.”
The Kevster’s eyes stayed big, but for a different reason this time.
He bounced in his seat and cried, “Dude! No! You have a no-smoking policy!”
“Man, you nearly got blown up today,” Lee reminded him. “You can stay here and stay off the weed or you can go out there and take your chances. Your choice. You got two seconds to make it.”
“Can I crack a window?” Kevin asked.
“No,” Lee answered.
Kevin slouched in his chair. “Bummed, dude.”
“Are you accepting my protection?” Lee pushed.
“Things get hairy when a Rock Chick is under fire so… I guess,” The Kevster accepted ungraciously.
But at his words, Ren’s arm got tight again.
Lee looked to Eddie, but Eddie was looking at Kevin. “Up. Now. Let’s go.”
The Kevster pushed up and his eyes came to me.
“Stay alive,” he advised as he walked by me.
That got another tightening of Ren’s arm and another sigh from me.
The door closed behind Eddie and Kevin and all attention focused on me.
Or I should say Ren and me.
“Where’s Darius?” Lee asked me.
“He and Brody started down the mountain before Ren and me so he should be in Denver,” I answered. “Listen, Lee—”
He lifted a hand close to my face and shifted his eyes to Ren.
My body strung tight.
“I take it you two are makin’ it official,” Lee noted.
“Get your hand out of my woman’s face,” Ren returned pretty unhappily.
Lee dropped his hand but his brows rose as he remarked, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“And I’ll say now, I know she’s your sister, but don’t do that shit again,” Ren replied.
Oh crap.
“Ren—” I started.
Hank moved closer to Lee and noted, “Not sure that’s the way to win your way into the family.”
“I pointed in Roxie’s face and told her to shut it, what would you do?” Ren asked what I thought was a valid question.
Hank held Ren’s eyes then he moved his to Lee.
Lee was looking at Hank and he shrugged.
Hank pressed his lips tight and looked at Ren.
Lee returned his attention to Ren.
No one said anything. This lasted a while. Long enough for me to lose patience.
“For God’s sake, yes!” I yelled. “We’re making it official!”
Hank looked to the ceiling.
Lee looked to his boots.
“Explains why apartments are exploding,” Luke commented. “A Rock Chick has set her sights on a hapless male.”
I felt pressure in my head. A lot of it. But I still managed to turn it Luke’s way and declare, “He set his sights on me.”
“Same thing,” Luke muttered, one side of his mustachioed lips tipped up.
“Were you hapless?” I asked.
“Totally,” he replied immediately.
“You do know what hapless means,” I snapped.
“I didn’t say I was hapless now,” he corrected. “I was hapless then, while she was running me through the ringer.”
“I’m thinking Ava saw it the other way around,” I informed him.
“She’d be wrong,” Luke informed me and his eyes went to Ren. “What’ve you had? A year? And the bombs are just starting?” He shook his head, stating eloquently that Ren was f*cked. However, he did this without the half-grin thing going.
He was outright smiling.
Ren said nothing.
I glared at Luke then gave up and looked to my brothers. “Are we done here? Because Ren and I have a date.”
“Ally, your apartment just exploded,” Hank reminded me.
This was true.
Therefore I revised, “Are we done here? Because I have to go shopping for a kickass dress and sexy heels, and then Ren and I have a date.”
I felt Ren’s body moving like he was laughing, but I ignored that and raised my brows at my brothers.
“You got a room full of Rock Chicks, plus Tex, Duke, Tod, Stevie, Ralphie, Buddy and Smithie out there waiting to see if you’re all right, and then to get your explanation,” Lee’s eyes slid to Ren then back to me, “about a lot of things.”
“I love them, but I’m not sure that takes precedence over my first official date with my hot Italian American boyfriend,” I replied, and Ren’s body now definitely felt like it was laughing. I ignored this and kept speaking. “However, before we go, I’d like to know why you two were in each other’s faces at my apartment, otherwise known as the crime scene.”
Ren’s body stopped shaking.
That didn’t bode well.
“Thinkin’ you two can talk about that on your date,” Lee returned.
That didn’t bode much better.
This brought me to the hard part, and I braced before asking, “Right, then now I’d like to know if anyone was injured in the blast.”
“Blast was contained to your apartment,” Hank answered. “One of your neighbors got knocked over and sprained a wrist. Shit fell off walls of other units. Yours was pretty much decimated. Other than that, nothing.”
This time when I heaved a sigh, it was of relief.
“So now,” Lee started. “We’re done here.” He looked at Ren. “Except to say, I think you get, we leave her in your care, you better take that seriously.”
“Are you kidding me?” I yelled before Ren could say a word, and Lee looked at me.
“Ally, I’m your brother. Do you think I wouldn’t say anything?”
“I’m thirty-two, not sixteen,” I retorted.
“You’ll always be sixteen to me,” he shot back, and my body jerked as I blinked.
Oh God.
Oh shit.
F*ck!
It was coming on. My nose was tingling. My eyes got hot and my throat had closed.
“F*ck, she’s gonna cry,” Hank muttered, staring at me, lips twitching.
“Am not,” I forced out.
Ren shifted me so I wasn’t pressed back to front to him but tucked into his side and he spoke. “We all know she’s not gonna get through the gamut out there unscathed, so we’re movin’ on to that scene in this ongoing drama so we can then move the f*ck out.”
He started us toward the door, but stopped and I looked up at him to see him looking between Hank and Lee.
“And to answer your question,” he stated. “Yes. I get you. And I take it seriously.”
Oh God.
Oh shit.
F*ck!
I’d managed to control it and it was coming on again!
I looked away quickly so none of the men in my life would send me over the edge, and luckily Ren started us again to the door.
He opened it and let me precede him. The instant I did, I got hit by a wave of Rock Chicks.
“Christ.” I heard Ren say.
But I was being pushed backwards down the hall and I saw him recede until he disappeared when Ava and Shirleen—who were the ones who had hands on me, the rest of them were just following—shoved me in the safe room.
Tex, the last one in, slammed the door and glowered at me.
He wasn’t the only one glowering at me.
Again.
Here we go.
Shit.