“Oh yes,” Roxie said softly.
“It wasn’t sweet. It was hot, ” Daisy put in.
Al y placed her hands over her ears and chanted, “La-la-la, not-listening-to-the-story-of-my-brother-proposing-while-doing-the-nasty-one-more-time, la-la-la.” Wow.
That sounded like a hel uva proposal.
“Wicked,” Sniff breathed, his eyes on the blushing Roxie.
Indy bit her lip but her body was shaking with laughter.
Jet giggled.
My gaze moved over the Hot Bunch and they were al avoiding eyes, shifting on their feet and trying to control grins.
“Um, excuse me, but didn’t one of ya’l get shot at this morning?” Smithie barked at the Hot Bunch, jerking us out of our happy moment. “Now, I’m not one to tel anyone how to go about their business…” he went on and Jet made a noise that sounded like a snort and LaTeesha’s eyes got huge. “But it’s one thing to shoot at your girls while they got your badasses covering their tight asses and, I’l admit, that’s some crazy shit but it’s a whole other thing to break into a house and shoot at a woman with kids under her roof.
Now, I’m thinkin’ you boys have things to do.”
“Smithie, sweetie –” LaTeesha said softly.
“It’s covered, Smithie,” Shirleen put in.
“Yeah, it’l be covered,” Smithie snapped at Shirleen.
“You’re movin’ your black ass in with me tonight and you’re bringin’ the boys. LaTeesha, that okay with you?”
“Just fine. I’l make chicken and dumplin’s,” LaTeesha replied on a wide grin at Roam and Sniff.
“Can we have pizza?” Sniff asked.
Shirleen cuffed him gently up the side of his head.
“What’s the matter with you, boy? You heard the woman.
LaTeesha’s makin’ chicken and dumplin’s. You’re eatin’
chicken and dumplin’s.”
“I like chicken and dumplin’s,” Roam put in.
“See? We’l be fine,” LaTeesha finished.
“Yeah, we’l be fine ‘cause I got myself a shotgun and I bought you that .38 last year for Christmas,” Smithie told LaTeesha. “That’l make us just fine.”
“I’m not hearing this,” Eddie muttered and walked out the door.
“Smithie, I want your address. You just got put on the drive-by route,” Lee said to Smithie and he walked out, Smithie fol owing him muttering what I thought was, “Damn straight”.
After that, the Hot Bunch filed out. Luke and Vance after giving Ava and Jules some PDA. Hector after asking me if I knew about the meeting on Thursday with Dixon Jones.
LaTeesha fol owed Matt who was going to take her to Lee and Smithie. Roam and Sniff fol owed Bobby who was going to take them to the TV in the safe room.
This left the room fil ed with Rock Chicks, Tex and Duke.
And for some reason everyone had eyes on me.
I didn’t think this was a good thing.
Therefore, to deflect attention off me, I turned to Roxie and said, “Congratulations, Roxie. That’s cool.” She smiled and said, “Yeah.”
“Ava, sugar, go get Stel a a cup of coffee,” Daisy said softly and a chil ran up my spine as Ava nodded and took off on her errand.
“What’s up?” I asked as I realized I’d failed at deflecting attention off of me.
“You hear from Mace, darlin’?” Tex asked and I stared at him.
Shitsofuckit.
I had to lie.
“Erm…” I said instead of flat out lying.
“I’m not sure I agree with this,” Al y put in, her voice far softer than normal and that chil that went up my spine chased its way back down.
“I don’t wanna talk about Mace,” I tried to waylay whatever they had planned but Daisy got up, walked to my chair and pul ed me out of it.
“I think you need to be on the couch for this one,” she said to me as she walked me to the couch.
Not good.
“Listen, guys, seriously, Mace and I are over and –” I started again but Daisy ignored me and pushed me down onto the couch.
While Daisy was doing this, Jet pul ed Daisy’s chair close to me and sat on it. It wasn’t her actions that made me stop talking. It was the look on her face.
“Sometimes a Rock Chick needs a little help from her friends,” Jet said quietly.
“And sometimes her friends need to know when to back off,” I replied just as quietly.
Not being a bitch or anything but whatever this was, it was unnecessary.
Of course, they didn’t know that but stil .
“Yeah, and now isn’t one of those times,” Duke put in, sitting down beside me, his arm coming to rest on the back of the couch behind me, his big body turned to mine.
“Duke –” I started.
“Would’ve preferred Mace share this with you in his own time but that time’s a-wastin’ and bul ets are flyin’. It took the girls awhile to talk me into this shit last night but they did.”
“Real y, Duke –” I protested.
“Quiet, girl, and listen,” Duke halted my protest then he asked, “How much you know about Mace, his daddy and his sister?”
Oh.
That was it.
“Everything,” I semi-lied. I would know everything, eventual y.
Duke’s brows went up. “Everything?”