Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(99)

“Don’t f**k with this guy, Jules. This is not the type of guy you f**k with. I figure he’s got a lot of patience and to be honest, no offense sweetheart, he’s gonna need it with you. But don’t use up his patience. Does that make sense?”

I was still caught at Nick dropping the f-bomb. Nick didn’t tend to use the f-word very often.

Nick took my silence as confusion, came closer to me and explained, “What I’m sayin’ is, don’t jack him around.”

“Nick!”

“I’m just sayin’.”

“I’m not jacking Vance around!” Okay, maybe I was, but I didn’t realize it at the time. “I’m just…” I went on, “working through some issues.”

“Well, don’t tease him while you’re doin’ it, that’s all I’m sayin’.”

“Tease him?” I whispered.

Oh my God.

Was I teasing Vance? Was I teasing Luke? Was I teasing both Vance and Luke?

Oh… my… God.

How did I go from virgin to slut to tease in a week?

“Do you think I’m teasing him?” I breathed, beginning to freak out.

“Uh…” Nick mumbled, watching me freak out and then lifted a hand to scratch the back of his head, “maybe you should talk to one of the girls at the bookstore about it.”

“I think I’ll do that,” I agreed quietly and I was damned certain I would. If there was ever a time for a girlfriend, this was the time.

Nick came forward and kissed my cheek then he was gone.

I got into Hazel and freaked out.

Then I thought of Vance sleeping in my bed and I freaked out more (but in a good way).

Then I felt something funny, sweet and wet, nudging around in my memory filing cabinets. I looked through my chain link fence and saw a cute, fawn-colored pug puppy with a black face pushing his nose through the fence and giving me sloppy, puppy kisses.

I looked through the fence.

My Rottie was nowhere to be seen.

I wondered if I’d miss him.

Chapter Twenty

Yoko Ono

I sat in the parking lot at King’s and pulled out my cell phone, scrolled down to Luke’s number, took a deep breath and hit the green button.

“Yeah?” he answered after the first ring.

“Hey, it’s Jules.”

“I know who it is and I know why you’re callin’. I’m lookin’ at the monitors and I see Vance’s Harley sittin’ outside your house.”

Whoops.

“Um, seems there was a misunderstanding,” I told him.

“Bet there was, especially with him doin’ surveillance room last night.”

“He kinda saw us,” I explained unnecessarily.

“I know where the cameras are positioned, babe. He more than kinda saw us.”

He’d said “cameras”, plural. It was a big room but still.

I decided it was best not to think about it. “He wasn’t happy,” I went on.

Silence but I heard a door close.

“Seems that we weren’t broken up after all,” I went on, “he was just giving me space.”

More silence for a beat then quietly, “I hope that’s it. I find out he threw away his nice shiny toy then got pissed when he saw someone else playin’ with it, I’m the one who’s not gonna be happy.”

Um.

Yikes.

“I’m not sure I like being described as a toy,” I said, feeling the head crackin’ vibe coming over me.

“I’m not the one treatin’ you like a toy,” Luke shot back.

I decided this wasn’t going very well. “There are things you don’t understand.”

“Right.”

Time to play peacemaker. “Luke, seriously, I don’t want to be Yoko Ono.”

“Come again?”

“I don’t want to be the one who breaks up the band.”

More silence then, “Babe.”

I felt relief sweep through me. His “babe” was amused. He understood.

Then he continued talking. “Mace heard how you took down Warren and his girls and saw you floor Jermaine. He and I agree you’re ready to be full-time in the field. No more training. It’s showtime. You’re ride-along with me tonight.”

He wasn’t asking. I didn’t know how Vance would feel about this but I hoped I could talk him into it because I really, really wanted to do ride-along.

“What time?” I asked.

“Pick you up at nine.”

“Gotcha.”

“Out.”

He disconnected.

* * * * *

I had a morning from hell, phone ringing off the hook, kids all over me wanting dirt on my now famous takedown of the furry pimp and his whores, word as usual travelling fast, the two skanks obviously had been talking; appointments stacked up, I didn’t have a chance to breathe.

May had been busy in the kitchen and I didn’t have the opportunity to corner her to ask her opinion about Nick’s “teasing and jacking Vance around” concerns.

I escaped at lunch, doing a run at Chipotle for Andy and me. I stormed through the doors at King’s carrying a bag full of two fat, foil-wrapped burritos.

“Hey Sugar!” Daisy called.