Rock Chick Revenge (Rock Chick #5)(44)

Dom shoved off Mr. Kumar, who went rolling, then tackled me. I was trying to get up and get some leverage on the situation when he did it. I felt my blouse tear at the neckline as I went down hard on my palms and Dom landed on top of me. I twisted underneath him and lifted my hands up and finally, after all these years, got the opportunity to scratch his face.

His head shot back as, with satisfaction (it might not be nice, but it was honest) I saw blood form on his cheek and he shouted, “Fuckin’ bitch!”

Mr. Kumar jumped on top of him. We wrestled more and I got out from under Dom. As he was trying to subdue Mr. Kumar, I gained my feet. I saw my opportunity, aimed a kick, missed where I was aiming and kicked him savagely in the gut.

Dom grunted and curled into himself.

I immediately grabbed Mr. Kumar’s hand and pulled him up. “Let’s go!”

We ran willy-nilly because I had no idea where I was going and Mr. Kumar was freaked way the hell out.

“My car’s over here,” Mr. Kumar finally said and we ran toward his old, faded-yellow Cadillac Seville.

We stopped at his car and Mr. Kumar fumbled for his keys. “You drive,” he said, his hands shaking, his hair and clothing looking exactly like he’d been wrestling with a strong Italian-American at least twenty years his junior. Mr. Kumar handed me the keys and automatically I took them.

“I can’t drive, I’ve been stun-gunned. You drive,” I handed him back the keys.

“I can’t drive, I’m shaky. We’ll get in an accident. You drive,” he handed me back the keys.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dom running toward us.

“Get in the car!” I shouted, going to the driver’s side.

We got in, locked our doors and belted up. Dom at my door trying to open it, I started the car (it took two goes but I did it) and we shot forward on a screech of tires.

We were in a parking garage, a weirdly vacant parking garage and I had no idea how to get out.

“Where’s the exit? I yelled, turning in a way that seemed to be taking us deeper into the garage.

“I don’t know. Let me think. I can’t think,” Mr. Kumar was still freaked out then he shouted, “There! It says exit! Go left.”

I went left.

“No, I mean right,” he said.

Shit!

I did a uey through some parking spots and went right. We went back up through the parking garage and passed Dom’s BMW that was going the other way. We went up two levels and I shot out into the street not even looking. A car swerved to avoid me, honking his horn and giving me the finger. I just put the pedal down and the big car roared.

“Where are we?” I asked, looking around, trying to get my bearings.

“I don’t know. I saw him carrying you to his car and I told Mrs. Kumar to call Tex and I followed. I didn’t pay attention to where we were going. I just paid attention to following you.”

“Tex?” I asked.

“Tex, he lives down the block opposite the store from you. He takes care of the neighbors.”

I found it bizarre that I would hear the name “Tex” twice in one day when I had never known a Tex in my whole life.

I finally figured out where we were and this made some of my panic and adrenalin subside. I did some deep breathing and pointed us home. I turned onto my block and my stomach clenched.

My street was filled with cars, big, shiny ones (except for Luke’s Porsche and a Crossfire, they weren’t big, just shiny). What looked like Eddie’s red Ram was there, a black GMC truck, several black Ford Explorers and a black Toyota 4Runner.

I double parked the Caddy (because there were no spaces on the street) right outside my front door and saw over the roof of Luke’s Porsche the Bad Boy Brigade standing in my front yard all wearing scary faces and all those faces turned to the Caddy as it stopped. Luke, Lee, Vance, Hank, Eddie, Matt, Mace and, what I realized was not coincidental, Tex, the wild-eyed coffee guy from Fortnum’s.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

Chapter Nine

Feeling Fine, Feeling Loose

Mr. Kumar and I got out of the car as Luke detached from the Bad Boy Bunch and I met him on the sidewalk.

I tilted my head back to look at him and said softly, “Seems I got kidnapped again.”

His mouth got tight and his eyes did a body scan. I looked down at myself.

Blouse torn, scrapes on my belatedly stinging palms and what appeared to be smears of blood on the skin of my chest (this, I hoped, was Dom’s).

“You all right?” Luke asked and my eyes moved back to his.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Please tell me that isn’t your blood.”

It was then I did something ultra stupid.

The something ultra stupid I did was say, “It’s Dom’s.”

It seemed Luke sucked in every molecule of oxygen in the Denver Metro area when he did a swift intake of breath. With one look at his face it would not have surprised me if he had walked to his Porsche in Incredible Hulk style, picked it up and hurled it down the street.

Mr. Kumar stood beside us. “I saw him carry her out of the house,” he said and Luke and my eyes turned to Mr. Kumar as the Bad Boys gathered around us. “She was unconscious and I knew something was wrong. I followed in my car and when they stopped I wanted to wait for Tex and was about to call on my cell, but I didn’t know where we were.” Everyone watched him talk and he looked around, nervous at being the center of attention. “I was going to call the police but then he started kissing her and Ava didn’t like it and I knew…”