Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(87)

Oh… my… God.

These guys gossiped like a bunch of women.

“I wouldn’t have f**ked you and left you though. No f**kin’ way,” he went on, still talking softly but sounding like he meant it.

Um.

Wow.

I swallowed and straightened my shoulders. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know Vance.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated and he didn’t and I wasn’t going to tell him.

He stared at me a beat.

Then he said (luckily deciding to switch topics), “Tomorrow, training early. I’m takin’ you out to dinner then we’re going on patrol.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday. No training and I’m going to annoy some dealers tomorrow night. I haven’t done it in days. I don’t want them –”

“Training at four. Dinner. Patrol. You need to take a break from the dealers,” he interrupted me.

“Luke, I’m not going to stop.”

“I’m not tellin’ you to stop. I’m tellin’ you to take a break, make them think Darius negotiated you off the streets. Get some action where you can try what you’ve learned. Then you can go back after them.”

“Luke –”

“Give it a week, with me.”

I didn’t know what he was asking and I didn’t want to know mainly because I was afraid of what he might be asking.

He knew what I was thinking. “Just training, just patrol, just ride-along when I’m workin’. Anything else you can think of that doesn’t have to do with that, I’m open to it.”

I couldn’t help myself; a ride-along while he was working was too good to miss.

Anything that didn’t have to do with that I wasn’t going to think about.

“Okay, training and patrol tomorrow… no dinner,” I gave in partially.

“Dinner.”

“No dinner.”

He got closer and my br**sts brushed his chest.

Um.

Yikes.

“Dinner,” he said softly.

Time to retreat.

I pulled back. “Training and patrol, if I’m hungry, dinner.”

“You’ll be hungry.”

Whatever.

Time to stop talking.

I frowned at him. He gave me a half-smile.

Then he touched my nose with his finger and was gone.

I stood in the kitchen and wondered what in the hell just happened.

Then I decided not to wonder. Best to leave it alone and book my flight to Nicaragua first thing in the morning.

I got ready for bed making certain I did it in the bathroom where Vance told me there were no cameras (and I hoped he wasn’t lying).

Then I climbed in bed and waited for Vance to break in. Wyoming wasn’t that far away, just a few hours. He could make it back in time, from what I heard he was a good tracker.

I tried to stay awake so I could hear him when he came in and be ready to give him a piece of my mind before I jumped his bones.

Then when I dozed, I tried to do it lightly.

Then I fell dead asleep.

* * * * *

I woke to the phone ringing.

I didn’t open my eyes and did a body scan, feeling for extra heat, the weight of an arm on me.

Nothing.

I opened my eyes and saw Boo staring at me. “Meow,” Boo said.

I slept on my side in the middle of the bed. Even though it was a big bed it wouldn’t give Vance much room to sleep and not touch me if I was in the middle.

Still, I turned to my back and twisted my head to look.

No one there.

Boo walked on my chest, sat down and stared at me. “Me… ow,” he repeated.

My answering machine clicked on.

“In a second, Boo,” I whispered, waiting for a voice to give a message and hating myself because I was holding my breath.

The voice came.

It wasn’t Vance. It was Ally.

“Girl, wake up. We’re all doing mimosas and eggs benedict. Dozens. Meeting in an hour. Be prepared, Tod’s bringing the Wedding Planner Book. It might get hairy.” She paused. “By the way, ‘in an hour’ means nine thirty.”

I listened to her disconnect.

I laid there, stared at the ceiling and stroked Boo. Boo liked breakfast but he liked stroking better so he settled in and waited.

I wondered if I could do mimosas and eggs benedict with a gaggle of Vance’s friends. I wondered how, if I did do mimosas and eggs benedict, I would go back to a normal life. I wondered what the Wedding Planner Book was.

I curled my arm around Boo, threw back the covers and Boo and I slid off the bed.

I got Boo breakfast.

Then I got ready for Dozens.

* * * * *

After another boring, useless, action-free night of patrol, Luke and I walked up to my house.

I told him he could just take off but he insisted on walking me up to the door.

I’d had another shit day, no calls, no space invasions, no nothing from Vance.

I shouldn’t be surprised. I did break up with him and I wasn’t playing games.

Still, I didn’t expect him to give up so easily.

* * * * *

I found out at breakfast that Tod had declared himself Indy and Lee’s official wedding planner and thus had created The Wedding Planner Book. Indy hadn’t actually made this officially official but was letting Tod live the dream.