Rock Chick Revenge (Rock Chick #5)(157)

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“Who’s that?” I asked, staring at a guy I’d never seen in my life. He was sitting on the side of the bed in the small, sparsely furnished (read: bed only), secure room at the back of the offices, a room they called the Holding Room.

Hector and Vance were in with him. He had a fat lip, a swollen nose and was holding his torso straight like bending would cause pain but otherwise he looked healthy as an ox.

And he was not Noah.

Luke had walked in the room in front of me. Tex wheeled Winnie in the room behind me. Monty was standing outside.

I stopped at Luke’s side, Tex and Winnie stopped at mine.

“Fuck,” the man said, his eyes on Winnie.

“What do you mean, who’s that?” Hector asked me.

“I mean, who’s this guy?” I turned to Luke. “I’ve never seen this guy in my life.”

“But, that’s Jeremiah,” Winnie told me.

I turned to stare at her, thinking she might be confused but you could tell by the blistering look she was aiming at the guy she was far from confused.

Wow.

“Okay,” I said to Winnie. “But it isn’t Noah.”

“You’re shittin’ me,” Luke said from beside me and I turned back to him.

“No,” I replied and I watched his mouth get tight. I looked back at the guy.

He had Noah’s loose description. He was stocky, his hair color was not quite brown, not quite blond and he had blue eyes. But Noah was slightly slimmer and definitely cuter.

“I can’t believe this, I got all psyched up to confront Noah and I get this guy?” I cried in exasperation.

I mean, really, what the hell?

Luke turned to Tex. “Get me Brody.”

“I don’t know where he –” Tex started.

Luke moved, it was a barely there movement but it made a chilly statement.

“Calm down, badass. I’ll find Brody,” Tex muttered and took off.

“Been waitin’ all day for this to come out,” Jeremiah said, grinning through his fat lip. “The Nightingale Boys f**k up. It’s beautiful. Walt’s gonna piss his pants laughing.”

Uh-oh.

All of a sudden I realized the seriousness of the matter. I felt the danger in the air and I felt a freak out start to happen.

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk,” I advised him and I thought I was being nice. A lot nicer than he deserved considering he was Jeremiah.

Jeremiah’s eyes slid to me and they were so cold, my freak out magnified to creepy proportions.

“Walt and I drew straws for you,” he told me, voice and smile oily slick. “Once we got a look at you, we both wanted a shot. I got the short straw which meant I got Aunt Jemima here and Walt got a good taste of you. He said you tasted sweet as cherry pie.”

Mrs. Conrad had gasped at the Aunt Jemima comment. I felt, rather than saw, Luke go still. I was frozen to the spot from the minute he began talking.

“Ava, get Mrs. Conrad out of here,” Luke ordered, voice controlled but it held an angry edge.

I still couldn’t move but I could talk and I was pissed way the hell off. Pissed enough to disregard Luke’s order.

“You aren’t very smart, are you?” I asked Jeremiah.

“Smart enough to get her money, her car, not that she could use it, and a whole shitload of gold from you.”

“But not smart enough not to get caught and not smart enough to know you just f**ked yourself by not keeping your mouth shut,” I returned.

“Cherry Pie, been dyin’ for a good eye full of you and you gotta know, it was worth it,” Jeremiah said, his eyes sliding the length of me and I added a long hot shower to my evening schedule.

“Ava, get out of here,” Luke’s voice had turned deadly.

“You keep digging deeper,” I ignored Luke and said to Jeremiah.

“They can’t do dick,” Jeremiah taunted.

It was my turn to smile. He was so wrong.

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with, do you?” I asked him.

“Ava –” Luke said.

“Yeah,” Jeremiah broke in, standing and everyone in the room tensed. “Supposedly shit hot PIs but not shit hot enough to know they got the wrong guy.”

“Yes, I will give you that,” I allowed. “They should’ve known no way I’d give a piece of my ‘cherry pie’ to a guy like you. It was lucky when you two were deciding who would screw me over that Noah got the long straw at least he was cute. You wouldn’t have got a first date.”

The smile fled from his face.

I went on. “Anyway, fortune favors the bold and if these boys are nothing else, they’re bold. They may have been looking for Noah but they found you which works just as well because Mrs. Conrad might have a few words to say to you.”

“I don’t give a shit what Aunt Jemima has to say,” Jeremiah snarled.

You would think I couldn’t move faster than three shit hot PIs, especially wearing four and a half inch spiked heels, but I could.

I was on Jeremiah in a flash, hands on his shoulders and, lucky for me, a slit in my skirt deep enough for my knee to connect pretty f**king hard with his gonads.

He dropped to his knees, hands to his crotch, a long groan escaping his mouth.