Rock Chick Reborn (Rock Chick #9)(47)
Another shiver.
“They got plans,” I promised.
“Good,” he said low.
And . . .
Another shiver.
It was time to change the subject.
“I will state, in my defense, as you read those books, that I told Ava it was a bad idea to go to Vito’s house prior to her nearly flipping her SUV over onto I-25 with me in it.”
“I’m sorry?” he asked quietly.
Perhaps I picked the wrong subject.
“Uh, spoiler alert,” I mumbled.
“You were in an SUV that nearly flipped onto I-25?”
“It didn’t.”
“You were in an SUV that nearly flipped onto I-25?”
“We were being chased. By an, um, mobster.”
Moses fell silent.
“You might want to get into the frame of mind of me and all my friends as fictional characters before you get any deeper in those books,” I advised.
“Lee told me his wife was kidnapped three times.”
“Um . . .”
“Were you ever kidnapped?”
“No,” I said swiftly.
“Did anything of yours explode?” he asked.
“Uh, no.”
“Why was there an ‘uh’ before that ‘no?’”
“Just that, you know, I don’t want you to get overly concerned when you read about the fact I shot someone in my living room when they broke into my house ’cause a bad guy didn’t want Mace, Lee, Eddie, Hank and the boys to keep doing what Mace, Lee, Eddie, Hank and the boys were doing. Primarily, trying to get him incarcerated.”
“Why didn’t you call nine one one?”
“There wasn’t time. Seein’ as I had my boys with me, I had to look out for them and he shot first.”
More silence.
Scary silence.
“It’s all good now,” I said quickly.
“Are there any more of them left?” he asked.
“More of what?”
“Rock Chicks.”
“Only me.”
“You’re not getting kidnapped and shot at on my watch.”
I grinned. “Good to know.”
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“Maybe you shouldn’t read those books,” I suggested.
“Are you in danger working for Lee Nightingale now?” he asked.
Hmm.
“Shirleen,” he growled when I didn’t respond immediately.
“Define your concept of danger.”
That got another growl, just one that didn’t come with words associated with it.
It was hot.
Before my legs got restless again, I told him, “Lee and the boys try to keep the action out of the office.”
“Try?”
“Sometimes they fail,” I admitted.
“Fucking hell,” he whispered.
“It isn’t their fault,” I defended. “Obviously they don’t want bad guys to storm through the front door and shoot up the joint.”
“Holy fuck,” he bit off.
“But that hasn’t happened for a while,” I shared.
“When this works, we might need to have a conversation about your employment.”
“Baby,” I said softly, “I love my job. I love those boys. We have protocols should anything like that happen, one such protocol being put in place when that Balducci brother invaded. I was under lock and key with the police en route, a skilled, armed man between the bad guys and me, and Lee and Luke sprinting up the steps. We have tight security. No one even gets in that building without us knowing, and if they were a threat, I’d be protected. Swear.”
He didn’t share he was appeased by this explanation.
“Each one of those men would take a bullet for me, make no mistake about that, Moses.”
“That, I know,” he replied.
I drew in breath and let it out, saying, “And I’m pretty good at taking care of myself.”
“Mm,” he murmured.
“But can I tell you how sweet it is you’re worried?” I asked.
“You can tell me that,” he said.
I grinned.
“I’m glad I didn’t have to live through all that shit with you,” he noted. “I foresee a kidnapping if I did, that being me kidnapping you.”
That got him another grin as I said, “Talk to any Hot Bunch member. They’ll share just how much unfun they were having when it was happening.”
“Hot Bunch?”
He hadn’t gotten to that part in the books yet, obviously.
“The men.”
“And the women are the Rock Chicks.”
“Yeah.”
“And the Rock Chicks?”
I didn’t know what he was asking.
“What about them?”
“Did they think it was unfun?”
Hmm again.
“They didn’t think all of it was fun,” I hedged.
“Say, the explosions,” he started to break it down.
“That there’s a good example, because we all thought it was pretty funny Tex exploded that warehouse where he’d been taken after he was kidnapped. But we didn’t think it was funny at all when Stella’s apartment got blown up.”