Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(35)

“They’d listen to Park,” Sniff put in.

I turned to Sniff. “Now they’ll listen to you.”

Sniff looked like he didn’t believe me and he threw a glance at Roam.

“Like it or not,” I said, “Park left you something. You two have been around longer than most, been on the street longer than most and seen a lot more than most, including finding Park and knowing the Nightingale Boys. You can ignore that, use it the wrong way or use it the right way. I’m asking you to do the right thing. That’s it. Now it’s your choice.”

They both looked at me and didn’t give anything away. I waited for something, anything, but they gave me nothing so I gave up.

“All right, I said my piece.” I got up from the chair, preparing to go but Roam stopped me from leaving.

“Law,” he called.

I looked down at him. He and Sniff exchanged another glance and he hesitated like he didn’t know what to say or didn’t want to say what came next.

“Yeah?” I prompted.

Roam took a breath. “Careful of Crowe.”

Sniff looked at his feet.

“Sorry?”

Roam got up and looked down on me. Sniff got up too but he was inching away.

“He’s a player,” Roam told me. “Heard about you two. Everyone’s talking about it. He’s movin’ in fast.”

I could tell he was uncomfortable, so was I, so I cut in. “Roam, don’t worry about me. It’s not –”

“He’s a player,” Roam interrupted me.

“Roam –”

“He’s a player,” he repeated. “Everybody knows it. He wants a piece of your ass.”

“Roam!”

“That’s all he wants.”

“I think I know what I’m doing,” I said, even though I didn’t but I still could not believe I was getting a talking to from a fifteen year old boy. So he had more earth-shattering life experiences than your average adult.

Still.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Roam finished and before I could say anything he and Sniff moved away.

I watched them go and I was trying to get my mind around what just happened when I heard an exclamation from across the room.

“Sugar, I just love that sweater! Where’d you get it?”

I turned to look at the front door and Indy, Jet, Roxie, Daisy and a beautiful brunette who looked like a female version of Lee Nightingale were standing there. Daisy was addressing Clarice who was wearing a big, fluffy pink sweater.

“Stole it,” Clarice declared boldly to Daisy.

Daisy didn’t even blink. “Okay then, where did you steal it?” Then she turned to Indy. “Gotta get me one of those. It’d go perfect with my new pink cowboy boots.” She turned back to Clarice. “You steal another one, darlin’, my size is medium.”

“Daisy!” Jet exclaimed.

“What?” Daisy asked.

Clarice stared at her like she’d dropped to earth from another galaxy. I walked up to them.

“Hey Jules,” Indy said when I arrived.

“Hi. Um…” I didn’t know what to say.

Roxie smiled at me. “Thought we’d pop by, say hi.”

“I’m Ally Nightingale.” The brunette offered her hand and I shook it not surprised by her last name.

“Hey,” I said to her then turned to Daisy. “Sorry about this but you probably shouldn’t encourage the kids to steal. We try to talk them out of that kind of thing.”

Daisy looked at me for a beat then turned to Clarice. “What’s your name, Sugar?”

“Clarice,” Clarice told her.

“Well, I’m Daisy. You go back to that shop, you let me know and I’ll meet you there. You have a cell?”

Clarice nodded.

“Give it to me, I’ll program in my number,” Daisy told her.

I stared, so did Indy, Roxie, Jet and Ally.

Street tough Clarice, looking a little dazed, gave Daisy her cell and the whole time Daisy punched in numbers, she talked. “We won’t steal anything, we’ll just browse. Then maybe go get a coffee. You drink coffee, Sugar?”

“Um…” Clarice mumbled.

“I’ll get you a soda. That pink really suits your coloring. You got flair,” Daisy went on.

Clarice continued to stare and only blinked when Daisy handed her back her phone.

Then Daisy turned to me obviously ready to move on, she asked, “You got a place to talk?”

I nodded thinking maybe this was the weirdest day in my life. “Sure,” I said.

“What’s goin’ on?” May trundled up to us looking amongst the hot chicks and being clear she wanted in on the ground floor of any new event that rocked my life.

I introduced her. “May, this is Daisy, Ally, Roxie, Indy and Jet. Guys, this is May, she’s a volunteer here.”

They all did their greetings and Daisy repeated, “We gotta talk, girl. You got somewhere private?”

“Blue room’s still open,” May put in immediately and I added May to the top of my ever growing mental list of people I wanted to murder.

“Well, what are we waitin’ for?” Daisy asked and then shoved forward like she owned the place and knew exactly where she was going. May pushed up next to her and we all followed.