Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(57)

He moved quick and got in my space.

I was really going to have to learn to be prepared for how quickly he moved.

He stared down at me, eyes still angry. “The point is, you stood me up and you hung up on me. That’s what we’re talkin’ about.”

“No, now we’re talking about you and your boys keeping tabs on me.”

“We’re protecting you.”

“I want them taken out, the cameras, the bugs, the tracking devices, all of it,” I demanded.

“That isn’t gonna happen.”

“I’ll take them out myself,” I told him.

“You wouldn’t find them.”

He was probably right.

“I’ll ask Frank to take them out,” I said.

Frank would find them, I was certain.

“Muñoz pulls them, I’ll put more in,” he shot back.

“God dammit Crowe.”

“Jules. The shit stays at your house so I can protect you. No discussion.”

That’s when I saw red and I snapped, “I hate it when you do that.”

“What?”

“Make these macho man declarations. It pisses me off.”

“If you weren’t so f**kin’ antagonistic, you’d realize it’s for your own damned good.”

Again, he was probably right.

Still.

My anger ebbed a bit, I frowned at him but this had no effect.

“We’ll take Indy home. Then we’re goin’ to dinner and we’re talkin’,” Vance said.

“No, I can’t. The Rock Chicks have decided to throw me a birthday party and we’re going to Brother’s to plan it.”

His eyes narrowed. “You wanna explain to me how you’re all of a sudden close with Indy and her gang?”

I shook my head, not because I didn’t want to explain it but because I couldn’t.

“I have no idea.” When he looked dubious I continued. “Honestly. I swear. I actually tried to get them to leave me alone but I thought Daisy was going to take me down in a bitch-slapping fight when I told her my life was none of her business. Have you seen that woman’s nails? I’m not gonna go there.”

He shook his head a few times. His hand came to the wall at my waist and he leaned into it and, therefore, leaned into me, getting way close.

“We got shit to discuss,” he said, his face an inch from mine.

“Yes. We do. Unfortunately I’m moving to Nicaragua after our meet with Darius so we won’t be able to do that,” I declared.

He stared at me a beat then slowly his anger disappeared and he grinned, just like he did last night as if I was downright adorable.

“What’ll Roam and Sniff do if you move to Nicaragua?” he asked.

With him no longer being angry, the smooth was still in his voice but it was an altogether different kind of smooth. This had an effect on me, an effect I ignored.

“I’ll take them with me,” I decided on the fly.

He moved in closer, his free hand coming to my hip, his eyes getting soft and sexy and I felt my belly flutter in a way I couldn’t ignore. “What’ll I do if you move to Nicaragua?”

Immediately I mouthed off. Do not ask me why but I was going with the Belly Flutter Defense.

“Find yourself a woman who can cook and doesn’t mind you ordering her around all the time, being bossy and dictatorial and macho and hyper-intense and actually likes it when you get all… whatever… and make her belly flutter.”

After I said that, my mouth snapped shut.

Damn.

I’d gotten carried away and went too far.

He finished moving in, pressing me back into the wall with his body. “I do that to you?” he asked, his voice silk.

Like he didn’t know.

“Back off, Crowe.”

His eyes dropped to my mouth and my heart started hammering in my chest.

“I do it to you,” he muttered.

See? I knew he knew.

“Back off,” I repeated.

His hand went from the wall to curl around the side of my neck, his other arm went around my waist and he pulled me to him. “Get Indy to show you where the offices are. Meet us there after Brother’s.”

I nodded, deciding tardily to keep silent.

“We sleepin’ at your place or mine?”

I changed my mind about keeping silent. “I’m sleeping at my place,” I informed him.

“That works for me. I like your bed.”

I rolled my eyes. When they came back to him, he was grinning again.

What… ever.

The door opened and Indy came through, closed the door and took off her ear protectors.

“Sorry guys, I tried to give you time,” she said.

I slid away from Crowe. “That’s all right,” I told her. “We’re done.”

Indy turned to take off her goggles and put them and the ear protectors away. When she did with an arm around my waist Vance pulled my back to his front. He slid my gun in the back waistband of my cords and his mouth came to my ear.

“We’re far from done,” he said there.

Over my shoulder, I threw him a look.

He threw me a grin.

Again.

Whatever.

Chapter Twelve