Rock Chick Redemption (Rock Chick #3)(135)

Jet simply said quietly, “Okay.”

“What?” Mom asked, missing the byplay.

I leaned over a bit and rested the side of my head against my Mom.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Where on earth is Hank?” Kitty Sue asked and she no sooner uttered the words then the air in the room charged and the Hot Boy Brigade (plus Dad) entered the room, led by Hank.

“Uh-oh,” Al y muttered.

Annette’s arm fel away and I straightened. I would have smiled at Hank but one look at his face told me that was not the way to go.

“What’s happening now?” I asked when he was a few feet from me. I was thinking Bil y had gotten away again, visions of him bursting out of the back of the ambulance, stil on the run and after me, fil ing my head.

Hank stopped right in front of me and I tilted my head back to look at him. His face was hard and angry.

“What in the f**k did you think you were doin’ out there?” he roared.

Yes, Hank Nightingale, master of control, roared.

Hmm, seemed he was mad at me, not mad about the fact that Bil y had escaped.

Wel , at least that was good.

“Whisky –” I tried.

“Oh no,” his voice instantly dipped low, dangerously low.

“Don’t f**king ‘Whisky’ me. You walked right up to him!” My relief that Bil y was stil under armed guard was short-lived and melted instantly into anger at Hank.

Excuse me but I did not think so.

I jumped off my barstool and got in Hank’s face.

“He shot Luke!” I shouted.

“We had it covered,” Hank shouted back.

“He tried to shoot you! ” I yel ed.

“We had it covered,” Hank repeated.

“He pointed his gun at Lee!”

“We had it f**kin’ covered! ”

I put my hands to my hips. “I warned you, I wasn’t going to let anything happen to any of you and I wasn’t!” I was back to shouting.

“There were three of us and we knew Vance was closin’

in and there was one of him. You made it impossible for us to take him down. What was in your head?” Hank was also back to shouting.

“He had a gun pointed at you. That’s what was in my head.”

“So, the f**k, what? It’s happened before, it’l happen again. I can handle it. We had it under control.” Holy cow.

I shirked off thoughts of Hank having guns pointed at him and scowled.

“Hank Nightingale, don’t you yel at me,” I snapped.

“It wasn’t smart, Roxie,” Dad decided to throw down.

“Dad!” I turned to him.

“It wasn’t,” Lee added, his voice sober and sharp.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at Lee.

“It sure the f**k wasn’t,” Eddie agreed and he wasn’t even there.

I opened and closed my mouth, words escaped me.

They were ganging up on me.

“Um… hate to butt in here, but, back, the hel , off,” Al y put in, standing at the bar fil ed with food. She had a half-eaten apple slice held aloft and she looked cool as a cucumber.

“Al y, stay out of it,” Carl ordered.

“Don’t tel me to stay out of it,” Al y flashed, dropping the apple slice and no longer looking cool as a cucumber.

“Everyone’s fine, everyone’s safe, it al worked out. Let’s calm down,” Annette offered, trying to play peacemaker.

“You don’t know what happened in there. She f**king walked right up to him. There were nine guns in there, eight of them pointed at Roxie. She could have been caught in the crossfire,” Jason threw in his lot.

Annette decided peacemaker wasn’t a good fit for her and her eyes narrowed on Jason, “Wel , what would you do? Hunh?”

“I wouldn’t f**king walk up to him. Christ!” Jason shouted.

“Oowee, you white people know how to fight,” Shirleen declared.

“Leave Roxie alone,” Daisy barreled in, hands on hips.

“She’s had enough to deal with tonight.”

“We’re not done talkin’ about this,” Hank warned me, ignoring Daisy.

We were stil toe-to-toe.

“We are so done talking about this,” I announced, not backing off one bit.

“Hank, honey, maybe I should get you a beer,” Kitty Sue tried to calm her son.

“He doesn’t need a beer. He needs to talk some sense into Roxie,” Malcolm stated.

Kitty Sue, who I didn’t know too wel , and always seemed quite even-tempered, went red in the face and turned to Malcolm.

“And exactly what sense is he gonna talk into her, Mal?” she demanded.

Malcolm turned to his wife. “The boys were handlin’ it.”

“Right. You know that and I know that but in the heat of the moment, she did what she had to do,” Kitty Sue said.

“She nearly got herself kil ed,” Malcolm shot back.

“Hardly. They wouldn’t have let that happen. And, I don’t care if you don’t like it, Malcolm Nightingale, but I rather like the idea of Roxie caring about my son so much, not to mention having the gumption to put herself in harm’s way for him. Just as long as harm didn’t find its way.”