Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(52)

Her eyes narrowed.

“Excuse me but we held the goddamned Sacred Girlfriend Ritual last night in your very own livin’ room,” Daisy declared, “complete with margaritas and makeup.”

“Sorry, Jules, but you aren’t getting rid of us,” Indy said.

“If he hurt her, I’m gonna kick his f**kin’ ass,” Ally said to no one.

“Vance wouldn’t hurt her, no way,” Roxie said quietly, watching me.

May pushed through everyone and grabbed onto my upper arms. “Talk, girl,” she said quietly in her Mama’s-gonna-make-it-better voice and even I, head-crackin’ mamma jamma (whatever that meant) was no match for May’s Mama voice.

I took a deep breath and let it go. “The date was terrible,” I told them and May’s hands dropped and she stepped back, her face falling with disappointment.

“Oh no,” Jet said.

“We fought,” I explained.

“About what?” Roxie asked.

“He tried to tell me what to do,” I answered.

“Well, that wasn’t the way to go,” Indy muttered.

“When we got back to my house, we made up,” I went on.

“That’s good,” Jet put in, her expression brightening.

“Then we started to… um, you know…” I faltered.

“Go on,” Ally encouraged.

“Then, at a good part, Vance had to stop and go outside to shoot Sal Cordova who was stalking me.”

Daisy started to giggle.

“He shot him in the ass,” I told Daisy and I had to grin because I still thought it was funny.

“What kind of good part?” Ally asked, bringing me back to the matter at hand.

I looked at her, grin still on my face now for a different reason. “A really good part,” I told her.

“What we talkin’ about here? Hands and fingers or mouth and tongue?” Daisy demanded to know.

“Or fingers and tongue?” Ally threw in an alternate combo.

“Hands and fingers, mainly fingers,” I answered.

“Oh my,” Roxie breathed.

“Vance got shot too,” I said.

“No!” Indy exclaimed. “Lee didn’t tell me!”

“He’s okay, just a graze, some stitches in his thigh,” I assured Indy.

“So, you didn’t do it,” May said.

I looked to May. “Yes. We did. This morning. Twice.”

Their eyes grew round and they leaned in.

“How was it?” Indy asked.

“What’s his body like?” Ally asked.

“Did it hurt? Are you okay?” Roxie asked.

I closed my eyes, bit my lip and then opened my eyes again and told them the rest. All the rest, everything. When I was done talking, they were staring at me, mouths open.

“Holy crap,” Indy breathed.

“I knew that horse ridin’ thing was no urban myth,” Daisy said to Indy.

I looked at Roxie and she had tears in her eyes. I watched her a second and, forgetting about my travails, I walked to her.

“I’m okay,” I assured her and she nodded, tears still threatening. Then I asked, “Are you okay?”

“Vance. We…” she stopped. “Jules, remember I told you yesterday he was the one who rescued me when my ex kidnapped me?”

I nodded.

“Well after he brought me back, he went after my ex, Billy, when Billy got away. Tracked him for days. In the end, during the big face down when Billy caught up with us at Daisy’s party, Vance shot him in the hand.”

I stared. I’d heard the story but I didn’t know it was Roxie’s boyfriend or Daisy’s party.

Wow.

I shook off my wonder at this news and focused on Roxie. “You said ‘us’,” I told her, getting closer but not touching her, “did you see that happen? The shooting?”

She nodded.

“Roxie, that must have been tough,” I said softly.

She blinked at me. “I’m not crying because of that.”

This surprised me. “Why are you crying?” I asked.

“I’m crying because of something Hank told me, the reason why Vance went after Billy. See, when Billy kidnapped me, he beat me up pretty badly, broke some ribs. When Vance found me, I was a mess. He didn’t take to that very well, said any man who raised his hand to a woman had to pay. Hank told me he went after Billy because Vance came from a violent home. His Dad put him out of the house when he was ten because Vance tried to get in between his Dad and his Mom when his Dad was beating her. This all fits together and it makes me happy he found you but it also makes me sad that he had to live through that before he did.”

“My God, I didn’t know that,” Ally said from behind me.

“I did,” Indy replied quietly.

“You went through a lot with this Billy,” I said to Roxie, ignoring her words about Vance.

That was another thing I didn’t need. Knowing why Vance was turned out. Knowing he’d witnessed his mother’s abuse. Knowing he’d had enough strength of will, sense of self and capacity for love at age ten to go against his father in an effort to protect his mother.

I didn’t need that at all.

So I rolled it up in a big old ball and threw it in the high, chain link fenced compound that stood behind my emotional Rottweiler.