Rock Chick 06 Reckoning (14 page)

Oh my God. This was too much. Simply too much. It was insane.

I didn’t share these thoughts, my only ability, it seemed, was to keep nodding.

Mace went on, “The room is ful of cameras. You won’t see ‘em, no one’l see ‘em. The bathroom has a smal window, two stories up. Unlikely to be breached but it has an alarm sensor. Therefore no camera in the bathroom.

The cameras are gonna be on, and monitored at the office, twenty-four-seven. You need to change, you do it in the bathroom. You stil with me?”

I kept nodding.

“There are exterior cameras, the front, back and side doors and the parking area. They’re monitored twenty-four-seven too. I talked with Swen, he knows what’s goin’ on and he’s happy with the work we’ve done. He and Ulrika are set to go on vacation on Saturday, good timing.” I started to tremble, it was beginning to hit me just how serious this was. Losing Linnie, being shot, knowing the threat, none of that did it.

This
was freaking me out.

“Mace –” I started again.

His hand came to my neck, he got in my space and his head bent to mine.

“I’l answer al your questions in a minute, Kitten,” he said quietly. “Let me finish explaining the set up and then you can ask me anything you want.”

He wasn’t finished explaining the set up?

This wasn’t already the entirety of the set up?

He kept talking.

“You know Indy’s Dad, Tom? He’s a detective for the police department?” Mace asked.

I nodded.

So did Mace, once.

“Tom’s arranging regular but random drive-bys by squad cars. Anyone watching the house waiting for a chance might either be seen by a car or they’l notice the frequency of squads in the area and they’l be a fuckuva lot more careful or bag the chance to get at you here at al . Every once in awhile a uniform is gonna buzz your door. They’re gonna wanna see your face, in person, so you’re gonna have to show it to them. This could happen day or night.

There’s video surveil ance here.”

He pointed to another box with a screen that was situated just above the alarm box.

Then he kept going. “You hit this button, you see them and can talk to them but they don’t see you. No plainclothes officers wil cal up, only uniform and they’l show you a badge. You only go down if you see the uniform and the badge. By whatever smal chance they got, anyone breaches the security and is in the house and on you, they tail you to the door but stay hidden, you got a code word.

When you get to him, you tel the officer you’re hunky dory.

He’l know you’re not but he’l proceed with caution. You got that?”

I was beyond trembling, I was beginning to shiver.

“Babe, you got that?” Mace asked softly.

I nodded.

“Blinds always pul ed. The bed was moved away from the windows so they have no shot when we’re asleep.

Avoid the couch, it’s exposed. The wal s are brick, you’re safe at a wal . Windows aren’t safe, don’t get near ‘em.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Mace fel silent.

“Is there more?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Effing hel .

He kept talking.

“You got safe zones. Fortnum’s is covered. The Castle.

The offices. Indy and Lee’s, Ava and Luke’s. And here.

That’s it. You don’t hang anywhere else unless me or one of the boys is covering you. To get to a safe zone, you go with an escort. No exceptions. You go nowhere unless you’re in a squad car or a company car. Okay?”

I nodded.

He fel silent again.

“Is that it?” I asked.

It was Mace’s turn to nod.

“Isn’t this al a bit much?”

He shook his head.

“It had to cost a fortune, who paid for it?” I went on.

“Most of the equipment is kept in stock. Any extras were purchased according to the Rock Chick they were meant to protect.”

Oh dear.

“What does that mean?” I was afraid I knew the answer before I asked the question.

“I paid for it.”

I closed my eyes. That was the answer I was afraid I knew.

Juno woofed in approval.

I opened my eyes.

Juno located the bed, trotted up and down stairs, made it to the bed, jumped up to it, settled on her bel y, put her head on her front paws and watched us.

“How did you get it done so quickly?” I asked, not knowing anything about alarm systems and surveil ance equipment but this seemed a pretty extensive set up to put in place in two days.

“Vance is good and he’s fast, lots of practice. Monty too.

They prioritized. Hank, Eddie, Nick and Vance al need windows instal ed, they’re staying at The Castle until the windows are replaced and the clean up done. That meant Vance and Monty could focus on Lee and Indy’s duplex and Lee put in a sophisticated alarm system a few months ago so they just had camera work. Same with Luke and Ava’s loft, it already has high security so they just needed the cameras re-instal ed. The bulk of the work was needed here.”

I wasn’t sure how much more guilty I could feel but I figured I was just about at my guilt limit before my body spontaneously combusted with it.

“How did you arrange so much cover with the cops?”

“Indy and Al y are cops’ daughters, Lee’s a cop’s son.

Hank and Eddie
are
cops. To them, this is a family affair.

You’ve been adopted. And Sid is responsible for a lot of shit in this town. Everyone wants to see him brought down but no one wants col ateral damage especial y if it’s in the family.”

Sheesh.

Wel , lucky I’d been “adopted”.

Okay, one last thing.

“I’ve got gigs this weekend, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon.”

“I know. We’ve talked to the club owners. We do a sweep before they open. We got men assigned on the inside and no one gets in without getting their bags checked and they’re wanded, including employees.” Wanded?

They were gonna wand people coming to my gigs?

Shit.

After he was done talking, he waited a beat then got closer.

“Any more questions?”

Yes, like, a million!
My brain screamed.

I shook my head.

“Now I got one,” he told me.

“Okay,” I said softly.

“Why’re you shakin’?”

I blinked.

“I don’t know,” I lied. I knew. I total y knew. I was scared shitless.

He got even closer, his other hand came to rest at my waist and the fingers of his hand at my neck gave me a squeeze. For some reason, this made me quit shaking.

“I’m gonna take care of you,” he promised, his deep voice low.

“I don’t want that,” I lied again. I
so
wanted that. I just couldn’t al ow myself to have it.

Another neck squeeze.

“You should have thought about that before your ‘I want a vote’ speech this morning.”

He was not wrong about that. I should have thought about a lot of things before my speech that morning.

“No, what I mean is, I know I need protection, I just don’t want
you
to do it. Assign someone else to me.” I thought for a second about my choices and I picked the baddest-ass-looking one of the bunch. “I’l take Hector.” There was an eye flash but this was not unreadable like the other ones. This one screamed “Anger!” from start to finish.

“Two reasons you aren’t gonna get Hector.” Mace’s voice had an edge.

I ignored Mace’s edge and put a hand to one of my hips.

“They are?”

“One, because in about twenty-four hours, he’d have you flat on your back, him on top and both of you would be naked.”

At his words, my body froze, my eyes bugged out, my hands clenched into fists but, either oblivious or uncaring about the shocking insult he just dealt me, Mace kept right on talking.

“He’s itching for it. I can see it in him the way he looks at you. He and I are gonna have words but bottom line, when it comes to you, that’s not gonna happen.”

“You’ve lost your mind,” I breathed.

Mace ignored me. “Reason two is because you’re
mine
.

End of discussion.”

Not
end of discussion.

I decided to start my battle on the first annoying thing he said and advance right on through the rest of it until he got it into his macho, stubborn, effing head!

“I would not sleep with Hector in twenty-four hours!” I snapped.

“Yeah, you would. He’s good. He’s better than Eddie was. Better even than Vance and Vance was a Denver legend.”

I’d lived in Denver a long time. I knew a lot of people, half of them women.

Had to admit, I’d heard of Vance, hel , I’d heard of Eddie (and Lee).

Pre-Rock Chicks, they were al legends.

Focus!
My brain shouted at me.

I focused.

“I’m not that type of girl!”

“Kitten, I fucked you on our first date.” He had me there.

“That never happened before, it only happened because it was you,” I retorted, too swiftly, thus not thinking my words through, as in, not thinking that maybe I shouldn’t say them at al .

He got closer, his hand at my waist slid around my back, his hand at my neck went up and around so his fingers went into my hair and his palm was warm against the base of my neck. The front of his body was touching mine.

Al of that felt real y,
really
good.

Oh lordy be.

“Yeah?” he asked, eyes warm and smiling.

My heart began to beat a bit faster.

Shitsofuckit!

I real y had to start thinking before I spoke. Or just thinking
at all
.

“Whatever.” I blew it off as if it was nothing and the smile in his eyes reached his mouth.

Bastard!

“I’m not yours!” I shouted, advancing on to battle number two.

“You are.”

“Am not.”

“Kitten, you are.”

“Nope. Nunh-unh. No way. Never again!” I ended on another shout.

His head dipped, his smile deepened and his eyes got that I’m-gonna-kiss-you look I liked so fucking much.

“God, I missed you,” he muttered and he said it in a way that, again, I didn’t think he meant to say it out loud.

My breath ran away, I didn’t know where, maybe to a different state. Al I knew was, it was gone.

Then there was a pounding on the door.

We both froze.

So much for the fabulous security system. There was someone right at my freaking door!

“Stel a!”

Shit! Eric!

The door handle rattled.

“Open the door! Are you okay?”

Oh, this couldn’t be happening.

Of al the super shitty luck!

Mace’s eyes narrowed on the door and stayed narrowed when they came back to me.

“Who the fuck is that?” he asked.

“Eric,” I answered.

Another angry flash then he swore, “Fuck.” He let me go and moved to the door.

There was more pounding as Mace looked out the peephole. I saw his body register something, his jaw got tight and he looked at me.

“You have got to be shitting me,” he said.

Okay, now I was confused.

“What?” I asked.

Mace shook his head and opened the door.

Eric stood outside and I noted somewhat dazedly that he looked good.

He was tal , about three inches shorter than Mace but stil tal . He had black hair with a fantastic wave to it that, if he let it grow long, it would be curly. Not girlie-curly but man-curly and hot. Instead, he wore it long-ish and it always looked just out of bed messy and, wel , hot. He had intense, black eyes and a lean, muscled body. As I mentioned, he was hot, definitely, but in my eyes, no one was hotter than Mace, even hotter than hot Eric.

Eric saw me first, his concerned face registered relief that I was standing and breathing. He started to take a step toward me but stopped and froze when his eyes hit Mace.

Juno lifted her head and woofed her greeting to Eric from the bed but clearly was too tuckered out from hanging out with the Rock Chicks at The Castle to give it in doggie person. She put her head back down on her paws but her body shook with her tail just to let Eric know she was total y welcome to him coming to her and saying hel o.

Eric didn’t have time for Juno just now. His gaze swung back to me then to Mace. Then he walked in, Mace threw the door to and when it caught the frame, Eric exploded,

“
What the fuck is going on?
”

Juno woofed again, not entirely sure what to think about this unusual greeting.

“Eric,” I said quietly.

“Who’s this fuckin’ guy?” Eric asked, jerking his head to Mace.

“You know who I am.” Mace confused me further by saying.

saying.

“I do?” Eric’s tone was bel igerent.

“He does?” My tone was bewildered.

“You do,” Mace answered, his eyes never leaving Eric.

Eric turned to him and something changed in the room.

Something lead singers in rock bands wouldn’t get. Only hot guys who deal in the world of crime and punishment would get it. So I didn’t get it.

“Yeah, I do,” Eric replied, his tone now dangerous and I felt something not happy crawling along my skin at this admission. “What I wanna know is, what the fuck are you doin’ here?”

“I could ask you the same fuckin’ thing,” Mace returned.

This did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Most especial y because they both looked like they were about to rip each other’s head’s off and, outside the obvious, there was more to it, I just didn’t know what it was.

“Erm… boys?” I cal ed.

Eric tore his gaze from Mace and did a head-to-toe of me, his eyes snapping back to the bandage peeking from under my shorts.