“I tried, Luke didn’t feel like giving up. He’s not big on that kind of thing. Maybe I can be more convincing this time.”
“You had your chance.”
Shit afucking-gain.
The doors opened, we stepped out, Noah stopped, jerking me to a halt and he went still.
I was looking at the floor. My eyes came up and I saw Ren, Sissy, Dom and Uncle Vito standing there, looking like they were waiting for the elevator.
What the fuck?
“Hey guys,” I said, trying to sound casual.
They all had their eyes on Noah.
“Are we having the family meeting?” I asked, still trying to sound casual.
“We were,” Dom replied, his eyes hadn’t left Noah.
“I’m kind of busy right now,” I told Dom.
At that, Ren’s body moved but he halted when Noah put the gun to my temple.
“Move back,” Noah said.
None of them moved. They changed but they didn’t move. Sissy’s face went pale, Ren, Dom and Uncle Vito went solid.
“Move back!” Noah shouted, getting nervous and people turned to stare. I heard a few audible gasps and a small scream when eyes hit us.
I didn’t think Noah getting nervous was a good sign so I said softly, “You guys, please move back.”
“This ain’t a good idea, son,” Uncle Vito advised Noah.
“Move back,” Noah repeated.
“She’s a Zano,” Uncle Vito went on.
“She’s not a Zano,” Noah flashed back.
“She’s a Zano,” Ren said firmly.
For goodness sake, were we going to go through this again? Now?
“It’d really help me out, say, not to get my brains splattered across the Hotel Monaco lobby, if you guys would step back!” I shouted the last part.
“What’s the breakfast hold up?” Shirleen was trundling up. She skidded to a halt, my eyes went to her and hers were wide. “Shit! Is that Noah?” she asked me.
“My name is Walt,” Noah corrected.
“Whatever. You crazy, boy?” Shirleen asked, her gaze moving to Noah.
“Everyone, get out of our way!” Noah demanded, now not only nervous but losing patience and I guessed this was a very bad sign.
“Yeah, you’re crazy. Do you know you got a gun to the head of Luke Stark’s woman?” Shirleen informed him and then continued to share. “He ain’t gonna like that much.”
“Shirleen –” I started.
“Ava…?”
That was my Mom.
Hell.
And.
Damnation!
Mom peeked around Shirleen. “Ava!” she shrieked when she saw me.
“Mom, calm down,” I said.
“What’s happening…? Holy crap,” Marilyn had arrived, Sofia at her side.
Did I already mention my… life… sucked?
“Everyone, get fucking back!” Noah yelled.
“That’s my sister,” Sofia told Noah.
“I don’t care, get fucking back,” Noah clipped.
“You have a gun pointed at my sister’s head!” Sofia screamed.
“Take that gun away from her head, right now, you jerk!” Marilyn shouted.
“Guys, you aren’t helping,” I told them.
“This is outrageous. We’re in the lobby of a nice hotel. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in the lobby of a nice hotel,” my mother snapped. “Not to my daughter anyway. Put the gun down.”
“Ava, get rid of these people,” Noah said in my ear.
“Folks, can we all just –” I began.
“Has anyone called Luke?” Mom asked, she was digging through her bag. “I’m calling Luke. Who has his number?”
I’ll ask again. Why me? Why me? Why me?
“Please, everyone can you just –” I began again.
“Holy shit.” That was Riley, who had come around Sofia’s right side and jerked to a stop at the sight of Noah and me. “What the fuck are you doing?” Riley exploded, staring at Noah and looking not like a mild mannered personal trainer but just like a badass motherfucker.
Even in my current circumstances, I was impressed.
“Do I know you?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, you know me. I’m Ava’s personal trainer. I was at her birthday party last year.”
“Oh yeah. You ever finally get the nerve up to fuck her?” Noah asked, sounding nasty.
There were gasps all around but I heard a couple of growls, one I suspected came from Ren, the other one I knew came from Riley.
I was beginning to wish he’d just shoot me.
Then we heard, “What the fuck!”
It was Ally. She’d rounded the other side of Ren and Daisy rounded her side.
Everyone stopped and stared at the new arrivals.
Ally looked normal, jeans, kickass belt, cowboy boots and vintage AC/DC tee.
She wasn’t the reason everyone stared. Everyone stared because Daisy did not look normal. Daisy had the bottom of her platinum blonde hair in pigtails, the top teased out to maximum volume and she was wearing a baby pink, velour, Juicy Couture tracksuit that was skintight. If that wasn’t reason enough to stare, she had the top zipped down to expose so much cleavage, the actual presence of the top was unnecessary except for the fact that it covered her nipples thus stopping her from being arrested for indecent exposure.
“Well, I’ll be goddamned,” Daisy said, staring at Noah and me.