Chapter Fifteen
I’m Good at What I Do
Ren moved to the sink, dropped his plate in it and moved to me sitting on the counter.
He pulled my coffee mug out of my hand and set it on the counter. Then he pulled my legs apart and moved between them. With a hand at my ass, he yanked me close.
His face dipped to mine and his voice was sweet when he noted, “You got lots of bags upstairs, baby.”
“Yep,” I agreed.
“You got a dress for me?” he asked.
“Yep,” I repeated, and this was true. Roxie, Tod and Stevie bought me four of them and they were all smokin’ hot.
“Good. Date night tonight.”
I grinned.
Ren kissed me.
Then he kissed my neck.
After that, he let me go and on a, “Later, honey,” and walked to and through the front door.
I watched.
Smiling.
* * * * *
It was mid-morning when the bell over the door rang.
I was in Fortnum’s with Indy, Jet, Tex and Jane. Stella and Mace were also there, both of them at the counter. Stella was shooting the shit and sipping a latte. Mace was being silent and badass as he held his woman in a casual-but-affectionate embrace at his side.
Duke had not showed. I told myself this wasn’t because he was avoiding me, but because he’d hopped on his Harley with his wife Dolores for an impromptu ride of the Rockies.
However, even as I told myself this, I wasn’t very convincing.
Everyone looked to the door to see Tod walking in carrying two big thick scrapbooks.
One was stuffed full with copious pieces of paper and fabric swatches protruding from the sides. The other one looked new.
The first was Ava’s wedding planner.
The second, seeing as she’d only been engaged for a little over three weeks, was Sadie’s.
Tod was a drag queen and a flight attendant. He was also the unofficially-official wedding planner to all the Rock Chicks. This meant a lot of headache, arguments, browbeating and unnecessary powwows sprinkled with a few hissy fits.
It also meant every single Rock Chick had the wedding of her dreams that went off without a hitch.
Nevertheless, Tod, with the planners in tow, did not bode good things.
The door closed behind him and his eyes came to me.
“Good to see you alive, girlie,” he called.
“Good to be alive, Tod,” I called back.
“Do me a favor,” he kept talking loudly, “stay alive until Saturday. And a call to the bomb squad to do a sweep of the church and function room would come in handy.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” I heard Mace mutter, and I looked to him to see his expression was serious.
Then again, the way things were, he and Tod were right.
“I thought we had the final read through of Ava’s shindig last weekend, Tod,” Indy noted, moving his way.
Tod dumped the books on a table and looked at her. “That was the final read through. Now we’re having the final final read through. And tomorrow, before the rehearsal, we’re finalizing the final final read through. But also now, we’re deciding Sadie’s wedding colors.”
Indy looked around the store and then back at Tod in order to point out the obvious. “Sadie isn’t here.”
“I know, she’s busy at the gallery,” Tod replied, slapping open the smaller album and I saw a plethora of colors on the page. But he said no more.
With experience of the planning stages of Tod organizing a wedding, it was understandable that Indy’s tone was cautious when she stated, “Honey, we can’t pick Sadie’s wedding colors without Sadie here.”
Tod looked up at Indy and I felt everyone brace (except Mace, he sighed).
But I grinned.
“Not another word,” Tod warned.
Indy opened her mouth to give him another word.
He gave her The Hand. “No. Sadie’s a millionaire. I have no budget. None at all. I’m pulling out all the stops. She told me I could. And anyway, Stella and Mace are going to be married on a beach in Hawaii.”
“We are?” Mace muttered to Stella, and I heard Stella’s throaty laugh.
Tod must not have heard any of that because he kept going.
“And everyone knows Ally’s going to do something like elope to Vegas. So this is my last shot at greatness. Not that I didn’t kick butt with your wedding,” he said to Indy, then turned his attention to Jet. “And yours too, girlie.”
He had, indeed, kicked butt with both of their weddings. It seemed practice made perfect because Indy’s was awesome, Jet’s was fantastic, and Roxie and Hank’s was the bomb. Not to mention, plans for Ava’s were far from shabby. So without a budget, Sadie’s was undoubtedly going to rock.
It also should be noted that going to Vegas was what I had always wanted to do.
However, I wasn’t certain how Catholics felt about Vegas.
I added this on my mental list to discuss with the nun or priest who Ren set me up with for my literal come to Jesus (and Mary, God and the Holy Spirit) meeting and shared, “I’m thinking it might be a full mass.”
Tod’s head snapped to me, his eyes alight.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Jet, the voice of experience, said under her breath to me.
“Seriously?” Tod cried.
“Unless there’s a Catholic priest who dresses like Elvis and has a wedding chapel in Sin City, yeah,” I answered.
“Oh girlie,” Tod’s eyes were getting bright, “you’ve made me so happy.”
Don’t think I was crazy. I was a Rock Chick. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Tod lifted his hands to the sides of his head and wriggled his fingers, announcing, “I feel it! It’s coming over me! You!” He suddenly pointed at me. “Buttery yellow, the creamiest of creams and a bright grass green. You,” he pointed at Stella, “a white bikini, I’m thinking crochet, a lei, maybe a band of flowers around your forehead, and a fabulous sarong.”
Again with Mace muttering, this time through a smile, “That works for me.”
“Tropical island paradise will be your theme,” Tod kept at it and looked at Indy. “And Sadie, ice blue and shimmery glittering winter white.”
That wasn’t bad for Sadie. In fact, perfect.
But no way I was doing yellow and green.
Red and maybe black.
If the Pope approved.
I didn’t share this with Tod. Mostly because the door opened, Ava blasted through it and sauntering in on her heels was Luke with a half-grin going.
Ava did not have a half-grin. She was fuming.
“Tod,” she snapped. “I’m here, but not for the final-final-read-through-preliminary-to-the-finalized-final-final-read-through.”
Clearly she’d got the memo.
“I’m here because the wedding is off!” she finished.
“No!” Tod exclaimed, then proceeded not to react to the dire news that it appeared Ava and Luke were at odds (then again, that happened occasionally; she busted his chops often and Luke, having chops of steel, got off on it) but to something else. “It’s too late to get any of the deposits back!”
“Calm down, man, the wedding isn’t off,” Luke announced.
“It is,” Ava retorted angrily, whirling on her man.
“It isn’t,” Luke replied calmly, staring down his nose at his woman.
“Are you going to dance with me?” she asked.
“Vertically?” he asked back, and I pressed my lips together in order not to laugh.
“Yes!” she snapped.
“Yeah, baby,” he said. “I’ll dance with you vertically, in the bathroom on the plane on the way to Bermuda.”
This was not the answer she was looking for, therefore she whirled back to Tod and ordered, “Start making calls. It’s over.”
“I’m not… I can’t… it’s…” Tod stammered, hand to his throat, eyes wide and filled with panic. Then he shrieked, “The custom order baby blue, aqua and teal M&M’s have already arrived! There’s nine pounds of them already parceled out and ribboned up for wedding gifts! What am I going to do with nine pounds of baby blue, aqua and teal M&M’s?”
“Give them to me,” Ava retorted. “I intend to eat them all in one sitting.”
“Don’t make any calls, Tod,” Luke contradicted Ava’s order as he also ignored her response to Tod.
Ava again whirled on Luke. “I’m not marrying a man who can’t set aside the badass for three minutes in order to dance at our wedding.”
“Yes you are,” Luke replied.
It was at that, Ava had had enough.
I knew this when she shouted, “I’ve been in love with you since I was eight! And I’ve been dreaming of dancing with you at our wedding,” she leaned toward him, “since I was eight! And if you can’t give me three minutes of that drea—”
She didn’t finish.
This was because Luke’s hand flashed out, caught her behind the neck and pulled her to him so she landed face first in his chest. He then bent his neck and his face disappeared from my view as he spoke in Ava’s ear.
But I saw Ava’s face get soft. Then softer. Then the hands she had curled in his tee at his sides uncurled so she could wrap her arms around him.
Luke’s head lifted.
Ava’s neck twisted so she could look at Tod. “Don’t make any calls, babe.”
Tod heaved an audible sigh of relief prior to collapsing into a chair by his albums.
I did not know if this meant Luke was dancing with Ava at their wedding or not.
I just knew that whatever he said made Ava happy.
And seeing that, thinking on how Eddie was with his pregnant wife, and knowing Mace was standing with Stella only a few feet away and she’d barely been out of the curve of his arm in the fifteen minutes they were, what Ren said in that motel room two days before hit me.
And it hitting me made me reach to my back pocket and pull out my phone. I started it up, touched the button to send a text and typed in, Tonight. Post date. Cowgirl, lotus, doggie. Then I hit send.
With the most recent crisis in Fortnum’s diverted, I shoved my phone back in my pocket and moved out from behind the counter to do a sweep of the tables to gather empties when I heard the store phone ring just as my phone at my ass binged.
I yanked it out and saw I had two texts from Ren.
The first, Not positions. Locations. Stairs. Wall. Bed.
His plan was way better than mine.
The second, Love you, baby.
I smiled and sent back, Back at ‘cha just as Jane called, “Phone for you, Ally.”
My brows drew together as I looked at her.
No one called me there. Not friends, definitely. And my informants and “clients” all knew my cell was the only acceptable form of communication.
I walked to the book counter, took the phone and put it to my ear. “Yo.”
“You want Rosie to stay alive, you deal,” a man’s kinda whiny, definitely weasely voice said to me, and my back went straight. “We want Rosie alive ‘cause we want him growin’ for us. We wanna talk about what it’ll take to buy him outta your protection. You don’t deal, face to face, you comin’ alone, we find a farmer who can take over the crops and his pain in our ass gets dead. You hear me?”
My heart pumping, blood singing, I made a split second decision. I lifted my head and hand and snapped my fingers, my eyes moving from Luke to Mace.
They were both already studying me and they immediately moved my way, their hands going to the back pockets of their jeans.
“You’ll understand I’m not big on a meet seeing as your last approach was detonating a bomb in my apartment,” I replied, eyes to Luke.
“That was before we knew your connections,” the voice returned. “We want no beef with you. We just want Rosie.”
My eyes moving to Mace, I said into the phone, “I may have misunderstood. Do you currently have Rosie?”
“Not yet. But you askin’ that means you don’t either. Which, gotta say, has us confused as to why your crew is searchin’ for him when he has your protection.”
I decided not to share with Lee that these idiots thought his crew was my crew and stated (mostly lying), “Rosie knows I’m not a big fan of explosions. Firefights, okay. Car chases, I dig. Rescues, a specialty. Shattered kneecaps, not my gig, but I got a guy who does that. Everything me or those under my protection owns burning to a cinder, not so much. He brought that down on me, he knows to avoid me for a few days.”
“We apologize for that error, and you can tack reimbursement onto us buyin’ out your protection on Rosie,” he offered.
Thinking on the check I wrote to Roxie the day before to reimburse her for the bags of clothes currently sitting on the floor in Ren’s bedroom, I thought this actually wasn’t a bad deal.
I heard a snap. I focused on Luke, saw he had his phone to his ear and he jerked his head to Mace.
Mace was bent over the counter, phone to his ear, other hand scribbling. He straightened and turned a pad of paper around to me.
On it, it said, Take the meet. Tell them you’re sending an intermediary.
I shook my head.
Mace jerked a finger at me then down to tap the pad.
I slid my eyes away and said into the phone, “Lincoln’s Roadhouse. Today. Three o’clock.”
“F*ck.” I heard Luke bite out quietly.
“Nowhere public,” the voice said in my ear.
“It’s public or it doesn’t happen. If it doesn’t happen, I have more time to focus on getting Rosie under my wing, unleashing the dogs to deal with you, and moving his operation back to Denver where I can keep an eye on him.”
This was obviously a partial lie. The first two were already happening. The last one, never.
I kept going. “You’re on my turf and you don’t sound entirely stupid, so you gotta know you’ve got no hope of locating Rosie before me. But given time, Rosie knows I’ll calm my shit and he’ll come to me. Then I can focus all my energies on you. And I had a lot of really sexy underwear in that apartment, all of it with fond memories. I’m feeling a little grumpy I’ve got to start from scratch.”
“F*ck,” I heard Luke bite out again, this time less quietly, and I looked at him to see him scowling at me.
I held his eyes as I said into the phone, “Lincoln’s. Bring your checkbook. Rosie’s a pain in my ass, but he’s mine. You make an offer that’s motivating and reimburse me for your error, he belongs to you.”
Then I hung up.
The minute I did so did Luke. Mace walked away, phone still to his ear.
Luke instantly launched in, leaning toward me growling, “Jesus, Ally. What the f*ck’s the matter with you? Talkin’ about your underwear? Christ. You never sexualize yourself to guys like these.”
“You do when they think you’re a badass who isn’t scared of them, which I’m not because you nor Lee nor anybody would let anything happen to me,” I shot back. “You lose the upper hand if you act like anything they can do puts the fear of God in you. And newsflash, Luke. They knew where I lived, they know where I work. It’s a possibility they’ve had eyes on me. Therefore, unless they’re blind, they know I’m a girl. They don’t need me to sexualize me. They’re guys. They’ve already done it.”
Luke’s mouth got tight, which was silent macho badass for point taken.
“You need to set up for a takedown at Lincoln’s,” I ordered.
“Lee’s already on that,” Mace stated, walking back to us. “And you better prepare, woman, ‘cause he’s also on his way here and he’s not real happy.”
Whatever.
Lee wasn’t real happy when Indy and I bottle rocketed Nina Evans’s front yard when she spread that rumor I had herpes, her brother went ballistic and he had to step in.
And he wasn’t real happy the sundry times I’d gotten a bit past tipsy and interrupted his evening for a ride.
I could go on.
He always got over it.
He’d get over this too.
“I’m gonna go see if my stun gun is charged,” I told Mace and Luke.
Luke frowned at me.
Mace frowned at his boots.
I barely got three steps before Tex was there.
“I’m in,” he declared.
“This is team play,” Luke declined.
“I’m in,” Tex repeated.
“This’ll take three seconds, we don’t have to deal with a wildcard,” Luke returned.
“I’m,’ Tex leaned in and finished on a boom, “in!”
Luke stared him in the eyes.
Then he muttered, “F*ck.”
By the way, that was verbal macho badass that meant Luke was giving in.
A second after that, the bell over the door went and I looked that way to see Lee stalking in, eyes on me.
Yep.
Unhappy.
Whatever.
* * * * *
“Tex and Brian are already in place,” Lee said to me.
We were in the biography section of the bookshelves.
It was near go time for Operation Takedown New Mexican Baddies.
Tex, you know. Brian was Brian Bond. He was a uniformed cop who had been a rookie when Indy had her Rock Chick Drama, but now he had some experience under his belt. He was also partner with Willie Moses who, aside from being a seriously fine black man, was a friend of the family and a very good cop.
“I know,” I answered Lee.
“You go in, you keep an eye out. You do not look at Tex or Brian, even a glance. They do not exist for you,” Lee ordered.
I fought rolling my eyes and saying, Duh.
“You gotta keep this guy, or guys, occupied for five minutes, ten tops. Mug shots we got on them are years old so don’t rely on those pictures I showed you, and even the police in New Mexico don’t know the extent of their crew so keep alert. Brian and Tex will be casing inside, seein’ if they’re alone or if they come with sentries. My crew will be workin’ outside. You will get no go sign. If inside and outside are clear, Willie will come in and he and Brian will do the takedown. They’re not, we’ll neutralize the threat outside. You’ll see Ike, Bobby and Matt inside workin’ with Willie. You sit at a booth opposite the bar. Brody’s in the van and he’ll have eyes on that row. You have two jobs. Keep them occupied while we clock who’s in play and then gettin’ the f*ck outta the way when the takedown begins. You got that?” he asked.
“Yes, kemosabe,” I answered and his eyes narrowed.
“This isn’t a joke, Ally,” he gritted out.
“No shit, Lee.”
His face got dark and after hours of planning this crap, he got down to what was really bugging him.
“You should not have taken the meet.”
“And wait for however long it is for this situation to be dealt with?” I asked. “Luke and Ava are getting married in two days. I don’t want to have to take the time to call the bomb squad to ask them to do a sweep. I take the meet, this is done and all I have to do is wonder with everyone else if Luke’s gonna dance with Ava at the reception.”
His lips got tight.
Although I knew that meant he was going to give me no further shit, which was usually an opening for me to give him some (or some more), I passed on that opportunity in order to get this done.
“Is there anything else before we move out?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he answered. “They give you any indication they got a weapon trained on you in a way we can’t see, like under the table, you run your hand through your hair startin’ at the top and going back. Yeah?”
I nodded, not liking that part, but knowing, seeing as they blew up my apartment, they could come in carrying and have no problem switching from negotiation to threats—and other much less fun possibilities—to get what they wanted.
Lee got a lot less intense and moved a few inches away from me.
But he did this saying, “Dad wants a family meeting tonight.”
At that, I shook my head. “Ren and I have a date.”
His chin jerked back. “You had a date two days ago.”
“That didn’t happen seeing as we got sidetracked,” I shared and this time, Lee shook his head.
“Go no further,” he ordered.
I wasn’t going to so I complied.
“We get this done, Willie and Brian get whoever we take down to the station, they’re interrogated, processed, Hank gets briefed, he’s free, the family sits down,” Lee decreed.
“I just said I couldn’t do it tonight because Ren and I have a date,” I reminded him of something he couldn’t have forgotten in the three seconds since I said it.
He got close again. “Ally, it’s not gonna surprise you that Dad—and Mom, I’ll add—are upset and worried. They need a sit down with you and you need to show them the respect of givin’ them that time and listening.”
He was right about that so I had no choice but to nod again but queried, “Can I ask why this meeting is being called through you and Hank?”
“Because by upset and worried I meant hurt and pissed.”
Oh man.
That was not good.
I loved my mom and dad. They were the shit.
Malcolm and Kitty Sue Nightingale weren’t perfect human beings or parents.
But they came really, really close.
Part of me was being nonchalant about all that was happening with me and how it would affect my parents because, as crazy as I was, they not only always loved me but expected, when it got down to the important shit, I’d do the right thing. And save for some lying and underage drinking and a few other things (okay, maybe not a few but nothing that was important), I did.
So I knew two things. The first was that whatever decision I made, if it wasn’t stupid, they’d back it (eventually). The second was that they knew they raised a woman who would not be stupid.
But hearing what Lee said sucked. And it pained me. Because I didn’t want to hurt or piss off my parents. And I’d done both.
So I needed to attend this meeting and see to sorting that out.
I drew in breath.
Then I let it out and nodded once again, mentally planning to send a text to Ren that was a lot less fun than the earlier ones to explain the change in plans for our evening.
Now, however, I had a job to do.
Therefore I asked Lee, “We ready?”
He stepped to the side for me to precede him, answering, “Let’s roll.”
I followed Lee out of the books and to the front.
Lee went to Indy.
I went to the door.
But as I did, I had eyes on my BFF.
She also had eyes on me and she mouthed, Be safe.
I mouthed back, Always.
Then I walked out the door.
* * * * *
I’d chosen locations wrongly.
This was because Lincoln’s had two rows of stationary tables down its front room, at the end there was a bar, an entrance at the front, a door to the smoking area at the back. That meant that there was no way to sit without your back to a door.
I picked facing to the front but turning my back to the wall so I had eyes either way.
I’d also clocked Tex sitting at the bar with a bottle of Bud in front of him. I didn’t look at him, but I clocked him. Then again, with his mass, that would be hard not to do.
Brian, I didn’t see and I didn’t look. I knew Brian enough, if he told Lee he was in place, he was.
I ordered a bottle of Fat Tire and waited, phone on the table by my beer, pepper spray in my back pocket.
At three seventeen, I was getting antsy.
It was then the front door opened and they came in.
I knew it was them right away. I knew this not because they looked like their mug shots (they didn’t), but because there were two of them and one was slight, wiry and looked as whiney and weasely as he sounded on the phone.
But the other one was big, brawny and I knew instantly he was not only the muscle, he was the brains.
And he was not to be messed with.
I also felt it. The prickle at the back of my neck and the charge of my adrenaline flowing.
They were not here to negotiate. I had no idea what they had planned but they offered deference in an attempt to outfox me and get my ass right where it was. This meant, regardless of any connections I had that they’d put together, they did not take me seriously.
It also meant they had something up their sleeve.
And last, it meant it was highly unlikely I had five to ten minutes to give to Lee.
I turned to face their way on my stool at the same time I casually ran my hand through my hair from top to back then let my hand fall to the table. I wrapped the fingers of my other hand around the beer bottle which, if broken against the side of the table, could be used as a weapon.
And I didn’t take my eyes off them.
They no sooner got their asses on their stools than I felt a presence at my back, close, and something that couldn’t be mistaken pressed hard to my ribs.
They had a soldier inside, and he wasted no time moving on me and jamming the barrel of a gun into my flesh.
Not.
Good.
I gave no headspace to what this might mean—this soldier free to make his move—if Brian or Tex didn’t clock him or if they did and they had some plan.
I needed to remain clearheaded and calm.
I also needed to remain alive so I could have my red and black Pope-approved nuptials then give Ren babies.
In my head I whittled the length of Ren and my f*ck-a-thon down to two years prior to making babies and whispered to the men at my table, “You don’t waste any time.”
“No woman f*cks with me,” the big-guy-brains-of-the-crew growled at me.
“Uh, just saying, I didn’t f*ck with you. You f*cked with me,” I pointed out.
“Okay then, I don’t waste time f*ckin’ around with women unless I’m actually f*ckin’ them,” he amended.
Well, he’d proved that.
“Now, you’re gonna come easy. Leave your phone,” Whiney Guy ordered.
“And if you’re thinkin’ your backup is gonna see to things,” Brawny Guy added. “The black dude with the tattoo outside is outta commission.”
F*ck.
F*ck!
That was Ike, one of Lee’s men. And I did not like to think with the cold dead I saw in Brawny Guys’ eyes what his definition of “outta commission” could be.
F*ck.
I let go of my beer and slid off my stool.
The presence behind me moved with me.
Calmly, I cleared the table and headed to the door as Whiney Guy and Brawny Guy flanked me.
Suddenly the presence behind me disappeared. I took this as what I hoped it would be, Tex or Brian instigating their plan, and I flew into action.
As Tex pounded a fist in the face of the guy who had been behind me and he went flying into a table, losing purchase on his gun, I turned to the primary threat, Brawny Guy. I got my hand around his package. Once there, I twisted and squeezed and I did this with no mercy.
He made a high-pitched noise that made the backs of my teeth ache before his knees buckled and he went down hard. I bent with him, let him go then came up, at the same time jerking up my knee and catching him hard under his jaw.
He flew back and I roundhouse kicked him in the cheekbone with my boot. It was then he flew to the side, and I knew by the way his face hit floor without him trying to break his fall he was out.
Before I could turn my attention to him, Whiney Guy caught me by my hair. It hurt like a mother but I yanked it loose, turned on him, and aimed a hard punch at his throat.
He also went down on his knees, hands to his throat, wheezing.
By the time I took three steps back, I saw Tex with a knee in the chest of a big guy on his back on the floor. Brian was there, gun out aiming between the three as he pulled his badge out of his back pocket and shoved it into his belt.
“Police. You’re under arrest,” he announced.
We had onlookers and we also had company as Lee, Hank, Eddie, Mace, Luke, Willie, Matt, Bobby and Jimmy Marker joined us.
My eyes went to Lee. “Ike?” I asked.
“Vest,” he answered. “He gets his breath back, he’ll be fine.”
The grip on my insides released.
“Are there more?” Tex asked.
“Only these three,” Lee answered.
“So this is it?” Tex asked, sounding peeved.
Lee just stared at him.
Tex looked at me.
“Told you, woman. Boring.”
Whatever.
I felt fingers wrap around my arm and saw Lee had hold of me. He propelled me to the front door and out of it, Hank following.
We stopped on the sidewalk. He let me go and I looked up at him.
“I’m missing the fun part of cuffing and hearing them get their Mirandas,” I complained.
“How’d you know?” Lee asked bizarrely.
“What?” I asked back confusedly.
Hank got close and reiterated Lee’s question. “How’d you know?”
I looked at Hank. “Know what?”
“You ran your hand through your hair before they sat down. Brody sent word the situation had deteriorated about two seconds after they walked in. Last report, which was five seconds before that, their man inside was nowhere near you,” Lee explained, and I looked back at him. “How’d you know?”
Oh. I got it.
How did I know they were a danger.
I shrugged. “Felt it.”
“You felt it,” Hank said.
I nodded to Hank, but Lee was again talking.
“They had no witnesses outside, so I reckon they intended to do you here or get you to a car and do you somewhere else. As long as you were inside you were safe, and Tex had the element of surprise. You gave him the heads up. He moved, got the drop on them. They had five seconds more, they could have got you to a place where Tex couldn’t get to you fast enough, including outside where they had the upper hand,” Lee said.
I knew what this meant.
I knew exactly what this meant.
So I held his gaze and said quietly, “I’m good at what I do.”
Lee looked at Hank.
Hank started, “Ally—”
My eyes went to him.
“I knew they were who they were the minute I saw them, and I knew they were not there to negotiate. I didn’t waste time. I also,” my eyes went to Lee, “took two down. I know I had surprise on my side, but I still kept my shit together and I didn’t f*ck around and do it like a girl. I did it like I meant it and incapacitated them both without hesitation.” My eyes moved back to Hank and I repeated, “I’m good at what I do. And what happened in there is only part of it.” Again I looked to Lee. “And if you’d listen to Darius and Brody—not like a brother, but like a colleague—you’d know exactly how good I can be.”
I left it at that. They were macho alphas. Drama only worked on them if it ended in them giving and receiving an orgasm.
This was going to be my livelihood, and these two men who happened to be my brothers were integral in me making a go of it.
So, like an alpha badass, I let my actions speak for me, moved around Hank and walked back into Lincoln’s to give my statement to Jimmy.