Rock Chick Reckoning (Rock Chick #6)(34)

There’s video surveil ance here.”

He pointed to another box with a screen that was situated just above the alarm box.

Then he kept going. “You hit this button, you see them and can talk to them but they don’t see you. No plainclothes officers wil cal up, only uniform and they’l show you a badge. You only go down if you see the uniform and the badge. By whatever smal chance they got, anyone breaches the security and is in the house and on you, they tail you to the door but stay hidden, you got a code word.

When you get to him, you tel the officer you’re hunky dory.

He’l know you’re not but he’l proceed with caution. You got that?”

I was beyond trembling, I was beginning to shiver.

“Babe, you got that?” Mace asked softly.

I nodded.

“Blinds always pul ed. The bed was moved away from the windows so they have no shot when we’re asleep.

Avoid the couch, it’s exposed. The wal s are brick, you’re safe at a wal . Windows aren’t safe, don’t get near ‘em.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Mace fel silent.

“Is there more?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Effing hel .

He kept talking.

“You got safe zones. Fortnum’s is covered. The Castle.

The offices. Indy and Lee’s, Ava and Luke’s. And here.

That’s it. You don’t hang anywhere else unless me or one of the boys is covering you. To get to a safe zone, you go with an escort. No exceptions. You go nowhere unless you’re in a squad car or a company car. Okay?”

I nodded.

He fel silent again.

“Is that it?” I asked.

It was Mace’s turn to nod.

“Isn’t this al a bit much?”

He shook his head.

“It had to cost a fortune, who paid for it?” I went on.

“Most of the equipment is kept in stock. Any extras were purchased according to the Rock Chick they were meant to protect.”

Oh dear.

“What does that mean?” I was afraid I knew the answer before I asked the question.

“I paid for it.”

I closed my eyes. That was the answer I was afraid I knew.

Juno woofed in approval.

I opened my eyes.

Juno located the bed, trotted up and down stairs, made it to the bed, jumped up to it, settled on her bel y, put her head on her front paws and watched us.

“How did you get it done so quickly?” I asked, not knowing anything about alarm systems and surveil ance equipment but this seemed a pretty extensive set up to put in place in two days.

“Vance is good and he’s fast, lots of practice. Monty too.

They prioritized. Hank, Eddie, Nick and Vance al need windows instal ed, they’re staying at The Castle until the windows are replaced and the clean up done. That meant Vance and Monty could focus on Lee and Indy’s duplex and Lee put in a sophisticated alarm system a few months ago so they just had camera work. Same with Luke and Ava’s loft, it already has high security so they just needed the cameras re-instal ed. The bulk of the work was needed here.”

I wasn’t sure how much more guilty I could feel but I figured I was just about at my guilt limit before my body spontaneously combusted with it.

“How did you arrange so much cover with the cops?”

“Indy and Al y are cops’ daughters, Lee’s a cop’s son.

Hank and Eddie are cops. To them, this is a family affair.

You’ve been adopted. And Sid is responsible for a lot of shit in this town. Everyone wants to see him brought down but no one wants col ateral damage especial y if it’s in the family.”

Sheesh.

Wel , lucky I’d been “adopted”.

Okay, one last thing.

“I’ve got gigs this weekend, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon.”

“I know. We’ve talked to the club owners. We do a sweep before they open. We got men assigned on the inside and no one gets in without getting their bags checked and they’re wanded, including employees.” Wanded?

They were gonna wand people coming to my gigs?

Shit.

After he was done talking, he waited a beat then got closer.

“Any more questions?”

Yes, like, a million! My brain screamed.

I shook my head.

“Now I got one,” he told me.

“Okay,” I said softly.

“Why’re you shakin’?”

I blinked.

“I don’t know,” I lied. I knew. I total y knew. I was scared shitless.

He got even closer, his other hand came to rest at my waist and the fingers of his hand at my neck gave me a squeeze. For some reason, this made me quit shaking.

“I’m gonna take care of you,” he promised, his deep voice low.

“I don’t want that,” I lied again. I so wanted that. I just couldn’t al ow myself to have it.

Another neck squeeze.

“You should have thought about that before your ‘I want a vote’ speech this morning.”

He was not wrong about that. I should have thought about a lot of things before my speech that morning.

“No, what I mean is, I know I need protection, I just don’t want you to do it. Assign someone else to me.” I thought for a second about my choices and I picked the baddest-ass-looking one of the bunch. “I’l take Hector.” There was an eye flash but this was not unreadable like the other ones. This one screamed “Anger!” from start to finish.