Rock Chick Reckoning (Rock Chick #6)(8)

“What? ” I screamed, back to struggling in earnest.

There was a clink and my hands were cuffed behind my back. Then Luke gripped my waist holding me stil and Mace worked on my jeans.

Please tell me this is not happening, my brain begged.

Mace unbuttoned the button and I heard and felt the zip going down.

This was happening.

“I’m not wearing any underwear,” I lied.

“I’l close my eyes,” Mace lied back.

“I won’t,” Luke put in.

Shitsof*ckit!

I decided to stop talking and stop struggling. I also decided this was good, no this was great. No. This was absolutely fantastic. The longer this went on, the more I hated Mace and since I’d spent a year loving him and not having him, hating was a much, much better emotion to hold onto.

Mace went into a crouch and, careful y and slowly, he peeled down my jeans. Down, down, just over the wound at the very bottom of the hip, right before my leg started. I sucked in breath between my teeth when he exposed it, he stopped and his hands closed around it, one on my hip, one on my thigh.

I could swear I was blushing. Since his hands and his mouth had been there and everywhere and he’d seen me in much less than just my pants rol ed down, exposing a pair of plain, white, shorts-style panties with a little pink bow, wel , I shouldn’t be blushing.

But I was.

“Flesh wound,” he muttered.

“Told you,” I hissed, powering through the blush.

Mace came up from the crouch but stil close, right in my space.

“We’l clean it and Daisy’s doctor can stitch it,” he told me.

“Then can I cal Floyd?” I asked.

“I told you, not until we debrief.”

“I didn’t agree to that.”

“I wasn’t giving you an option.”

My eyes bugged out, beyond pissed off, rocketing straight to angry as hel .

Before I could blow, Luke asked from behind me, “Do you want me to uncuff her?”

“No,” Mace said.

“Yes,” I said at the same time.

Not surprisingly, Luke didn’t uncuff me.

“Sit down. I’l take off your boots so we can get the jeans off,” Mace demanded.

“Stop bossing me around and I’l take off my own boots, thank you very much,” I shot back.

“That’l be hard to do with your hands cuffed behind you,” Mace returned.

“Uncuff me then,” I retorted.

“Stel a,” Mace said warningly.

“Mace,” I returned the gesture.

Mace sighed and looked over my head and I knew he was looking at Luke. I also knew from the expression on his face that he was also looking for patience.

I heard Luke chuckle.

It hit me then that I was standing in a strange house; I had a gunshot wound, my hands cuffed behind my back and my jeans pul ed down around my thighs.

Worse than that, Linnie’d had the back of her head blown off and Buzz was out there somewhere without my hand to hold onto.

I looked down at my boots then I felt the tears come to my eyes.

“This is humiliating,” I whispered, blinking back the tears.

Immediately after I uttered the words, I felt Luke’s presence retreat just as Mace got deeper in my space. His hands came to either side of my neck and I sucked in breath at the feel of their warm strength.

God, I missed it when he touched me.

“Kitten,” he murmured and my eyes flew to his.

His eyes had grown soft. I hadn’t seen that look in a long time.

I missed that too.

“Don’t cal me that,” I whispered.

His eyes flashed yet again with something I couldn’t decipher and, stil in a voice that was deep, low and sweet, he said, “Stel a.”

“Take your hands off me.” I kept at it, ignoring the flash, ignoring the soft look, at a place in my life where I could deal knowing there was no Mace in it and not about to slide back. “Uncuff me and go away. Send in the girls, they’l help me get my jeans and boots off and clean me up.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Mace told me.

“Go,” I replied.

“No.”

I closed my eyes tight and sucked in a breath. Then straightened my back and opened them again.

In a strong, steady, no-nonsense voice, I stated, “Please.

Go.”

Mace stared at me a beat. It became two. Then it slid to three. Then his eyes flicked over my head.

“Uncuff her.”

Luke uncuffed me, the door opened and Daisy shot in.

“I cal ed the doctor. He lives around the corner and he’s on his way. I got the first aid kit and some cotton bal s and some alcohol and some hydrogen peroxide and some clean towels and a whole load of other stuff. I didn’t know what you’d need,” she announced, bustling into the room, her arms loaded so high you could barely see her head.

She peeked around the pile and smiled at me. “And I got you some of my track bottoms so you’l have something to wear.” She tossed the whole lot on the couch.

Mace and Luke went to the door.

“She wants you,” Luke told the congregation outside and they surged in, al the Rock Chicks with new arrivals Jules, Jet and Roxie, g*y guys and my dog, forcing Mace and Luke to push through the crowd.