“Who’s up next?” Detective Marker asked Indy, sounding resigned but apparently deciding it was best to prepare for the next disaster.
“I’m thinkin’ Mace,” Indy replied.
“I got my money on Ally,” Shirleen put in.
Ally twisted to Shirleen. “Me?” Then swiftly (and weirdly), her eyes sliced to Ren before they went back to Shirleen when she kept talking.
“That blond boy’s headed to DC. You think you’ll escape this shit? You’re a Nightingale,” Shirleen replied.
“Darius needs a woman,” Daisy threw in.
“Huh,” Shirleen grunted. “Darius would put up with this shit for about a second.”
The doors flew open, the bell over them clattered and Smithie came in. “What’d I miss?” he yelled to no one in particular.
“Ava, held at gunpoint. Kidnapping. Car chase. Car crash. Car explosion. It’s over,” Jet explained. “I missed it too, I was working,” she sounded disappointed.
“Thank Christ for that,” Eddie muttered.
“Amen,” Hank added under his breath.
“Shee-it,” Smithie said.
I reached for a cookie, found the variety too complex and bit my lip in indecision.
“Ava, give it up with the cookies,” Riley told me.
My eyes moved to him, “But –”
He shook his head. I glared but sat back.
“What’ll it be?” Tex boomed at Smithie.
“Latte with some of that butterscotch syrup,” Smithie replied, walking in.
Detective Marker moved to leave when the doors flew open again, the bell over them clattered and three big guys I’d never seen before rushed into the store, guns raised and pointed at Dom.
The room went still.
Ho-ly shit.
What now?
“Nobody move, Vincetti, you’re comin’ with us,” one of them ordered.
No. This was not going to happen. I could take no more. I was going to put an end to this, right… fucking… now.
I stood. “Not so fast,” I snapped.
“Ava –” Ren started, eyes on me.
I stomped up to the men with guns. They stared at me as I did so, obviously taken aback by my bold behavior. I didn’t care. I walked right up to one and yanked the gun out of his hand.
“What the fuck?” he clipped, staring at me with his gun.
I twisted, tossed the gun five feet to Eddie who, at the last minute, came out of his frozen stupor, a stupor caused undoubtedly by my crazy-as-shit actions, and caught it.
“Do you know there are three policemen in this room?” I asked.
The men looked around.
“No shit?” one mumbled.
“No shit,” I replied. “What’s your deal with Dom?” I demanded.
“He stole money from us,” one of the men said.
“So?” I asked.
“A lot of money,” another one said.
“So?” I repeated.
“We want it back,” the one I took the gun from said.
I turned to Uncle Vito. “Can you give them back their money?”
“I already told ‘em I’d pay ‘em,” Uncle Vito replied.
I turned back to the men. “Okay then, what’s the problem?”
“The man we work for don’t like it when people steal from him,” the first man said.
“Charge interest. Make it worth his while. This isn’t rocket science boys. Yeesh,” I returned.
“That sounds like kind of a good idea,” the second man said.
“Twenty-five percent,” the first man told Uncle Vito.
“Ten percent,” Ren returned.
“Twenty,” the first man haggled.
“Ten,” Ren repeated.
“Fifteen,” the first man tried again.
“Ten. You take it or you got war with the Zanos,” Ren told him.
The three men shifted, not liking this idea but still not wanting to give up. I sighed, heavy and huge. Men!
“For goodness sake!” I snapped.
“We just want Vincetti,” the third man said.
“Dom’s a Zano,” Ren replied.
“We don’t want family trouble, just cut him loose,” the second man threw in.
Ren shook his head. They all looked at each other.
“All right, ten. Fuck,” the first man relented.
“Tell The Man he’ll have it in the hour,” Uncle Vito cut in.
Finally!
“While we’re here, we should get a coffee. I hear it’s good here,” the second man told the first man.
The third man’s eyes were on Eddie. “You think I could have my gun back?”
Eddie’s answer was to shove it in the back of his jeans then he pulled his badge out of his back pocket and clipped it on his belt.
“Shit,” the third man mumbled.
“What’ll it be?” Tex boomed.
The newest bad guys moved toward the espresso counter and some of the tension went out of the room. Not all of it, seeing as Detective Marker sat back down obviously deciding not to leave and Hank, Eddie and Duke took different, slightly more aggressive/defensive positions within the coffee area.
The door opened, the bell rang again and I turned around to see Luke, Vance, Matt, Lee and Hector striding in.
Luke’s eyes scanned me then they scanned the room then they stopped on the cookies. After he got a good look at the cookies, his eyes cut back to me.
“Babe,” he said on a half-grin.
“If there’s any time that’s Cookie Time, this is Cookie Time,” I stated the obvious.