Rock Chick 06 Reckoning (54 page)

“Harry’s a name for someone else’s kid not
my
kid.”

“Crowe –”

His face came close. “You know I enjoy fightin’ about this with you, Jules but I got shit to do.”

My body got stil and I nodded. His mouth came to mine and he gave me a brief kiss. Then he walked away, hands at his belt.

“You want toast?” I yel ed to his departing back.

“I’l make it,” he yel ed back, disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door.

“I’m thinking that’s a good choice,” I told Boo who was sitting on the kitchen floor, his big, black, bushy tail sweeping widely, giving me a kitty pouty face, not at al pleased that Vance had come in and given me al the attention.

“Meow,” Boo agreed.

* * * * *

May was a volunteer at the Shelter and even though she was thirty years older than me, she was my closest friend.

She had a tough hide, a soft center (literal y and figuratively) and a heart of gold.

“We got a problem,” she announced.

I opened my mouth to ask but I saw what the problem was immediately.

Roam was in the room.

“I’l take care of this,” I told May and stalked to Roam.

The minute I made it to him, I demanded, “What are you doing here? You should be in school.”

Roam was with Clarice who was a runaway too but now she spent a lot time with the tutors, a lot of time with Daisy and, even though she was just seventeen, was more like a volunteer than one of the kids. She kept the kids in line, helped to get them off the streets, quietly fed info to the social workers and sometimes talked the kids into sessions with the tutors.

Roam and Clarice were talking with a couple of other kids, both of whom were new around the Shelter so I didn’t know them very wel .

Roam’s eyes came to me and he got up from where he was sitting on the back of the couch.

“Law,” he said and that was it.

He walked several steps away and I assumed he expected me to fol ow.

When he stopped and gave me a look, I realized I was not wrong.

Roam had been one of my kids. In a way, even though he was sixteen now, living with Shirleen and growing up fast, he stil was one.

A special one.

Seven months ago, he took a bul et to save my life. In turn, I took two to save his and kil ed a man. We didn’t talk about this but, obviously, we were close. With May and Sniff, he’d stood up with me at my wedding.

Vance had taken both Roam and Sniff under his wing and when they weren’t at school, out on dates with girls, doing homework or being given tough love by Shirleen, they worked the surveil ance room at Nightingale Investigations.

It was unusual but sometimes they went on ride-alongs with Vance and lately Luke had been taking them out too.

However, Roam cal ing me by my street name and then arrogantly expecting me to fol ow him smacked way too much of the Crowe Effect. In fact, it was so Hot Bunch-like that I was thinking maybe he should have his time at Nightingale Investigations curtailed.

Even though I wanted to say something, I fol owed him.

The kids at the Shelter respected him. He’d been out on the street a long time and made it through. He’d lost his best friend to bad drugs and he’d taken a bul et for me. Now he was in a good home, getting an education and, there was no other way to say it, he was a Nightingale Investigations Apprentice. The Nightingale Men had a badass reputation.

Roam hanging with them was huge.

When I made it to him, in a low voice, I snapped, “Why aren’t you at school?”

“May have a line on Tex,” he replied.

I blinked but the rest of my body froze. I came unstuck, grabbed his arm and pul ed him further away.

May came up to us and got close. “What’s goin’ on?” I ignored May, my eyes glued on Roam. “Talk.”

“Some kids saw somethin’. They know who Tex is, gave me a cal . Sniff and I snuck out last night, took Shirleen’s Navigator and started checkin’ things out. Sniff’s watchin’

the building the kids said they took him into. I been makin’

the rounds, askin’ questions. I think it might be true,” Roam answered.

“Have you told Vance this?” I asked.

“Didn’t want to look the fool if it wasn’t gonna –” Roam started but I interrupted.

“Cal him. Right now. Tel him everything you know.”

“I stil haven’t made certain –” Roam began again.

I leaned in. “You know better than that. It doesn’t matter.

Any lead needs to be fol owed.”

He looked at me a beat, nodded then yanked out his phone, took two steps away and hit a button. I watched him put the phone to his ear and then he started mumbling into it.

“That boy,” May said and she sounded both proud and exasperated.

“Yeah,” I agreed and both May and I kept our eyes on Roam.

I felt my ass vibrate just as I felt my stomach churn.

I was looking forward to having Vance’s baby,
really
looking forward to it. Because once I had our baby then I wouldn’t be sick al the fucking time (amongst other reasons).

I pul ed the phone out of my back pocket and swal owed my nausea.

The display said, “Sniff cal ing”.

My eyes flew to May, I flipped open the phone and put it to my ear.

“Talk to me,” I demanded and I heard panting but no words. “Sniff?” I cal ed sharply, saw May’s eyes go narrow and felt Roam’s slice to me.

“Law?” Sniff said through the panting.

I started moving to the door. “Keys,” I snapped at May and her body jerked then she started running toward the kitchen where she kept her purse.

Into the phone, I asked, “Where are you?”

“Runnin’ from the building. Tex is with me. It… fuck, Law, he blew it up,” Sniff told me.

I stopped moving. “What?”

More panting but he talked (Sniff talked a lot, it would take more than running from an exploded building to get him to shut up). “Tex blew up the fucking building. It was
insane
.”

“Give me that fuckin’ thing,” I heard Tex boom through his own panting and then I heard him in my ear. “Jules?” At the sound of his voice, my hand went to my throat, tears hit the backs of my eyes and I shifted my body until it was close to a chair. I was sinking into the chair when I asked, “Are you okay?”

“Fuckers conked me a good one. I got a splittin’ fuckin’

headache,” he answered. “We need a ride,” he said this last like he’d been at a party and the designated driver ditched him and he was partial y annoyed but stil enjoying the party.

In other words, Tex was al right.

May was running up to me.

I turned to her and shook my head.

“Where are you?” I asked Tex.

I heard scraping on the mouthpiece then, “Where are we, kid?”

“Commerce City,” Sniff replied and then I heard him

“Commerce City,” Sniff replied and then I heard him giving some streets and cross streets. My eyes moved to Roam who’d come close and I snapped my fingers for his phone.

“Hang on, Tex,” I said and then snatched Roam’s phone out of his hand and put it to my other ear. “Vance?”

“You got me, Princess,” he said.

“I’ve got Tex on my phone. He’s fine. He’s with Sniff.” I gave him al the info I had.

Vance repeated the streets in my ear, likely he did this for the benefit of whoever he was with. Then he clipped,

“Roger that, Jules. You stil got him on the line?”

“Yeah. He’s on Sniff’s phone.”

“Get off. Darius is closest. He’l cal Sniff.”

“Okay.”

“You said he blew up a building?”

“That’s what Sniff said.”

Silence for several beats then, “Christ, we got it on police band now.”

Then he started laughing.

“Crowe! There isn’t anything fucking funny about this!” I yel ed and everyone turned to listen.

“You’re right.” He was stil laughing then he said, “Out.” Disconnect.

I flipped Roam’s phone shut and went back to mine.

“Tex, you there?”

“Where the fuck else would I be?” Tex boomed and even though this was rude, it was Tex and he was alive and wel enough to be rude so I could have shouted with joy.

“Vance knows where you are. Darius is in the area.

You’l have a pick up soon. Keep the line open for Darius’s cal .”

“Gotcha.”

Disconnect.

I looked at May but it was Roam who said, “Law, you shouldn’t say fuck.”

I growled.

Then I felt it coming, ran to the bathroom and puked.

* * * * *

Stel a and Ava were already in his Explorer.

We al went to Fortnum’s.

Tex was behind the espresso counter when we got there. Roxie was close by his side. Jet, Indy and Al y were al behind the counter with them. Lee, Eddie, Hank, Sniff and Darius were al standing in front of the counter. Duke and Jane were standing at the end. There were no customers, Fortnum’s was official y closed.

Tex swung a portafilter at us the minute we entered the store. It was stil ful of used coffee grounds. The grounds flew across the room and splattered next to a table.

“If you girls get near me, I swear to God, I’m gonna rip someone’s head off!” he boomed. “I’m al right. No more
fucking hugging!
”

We al reared back and Ava even put her hands up.

“Al right, al right. No hugging,” Ava said and we cautiously moved into the store.

Roam went to Sniff. They didn’t hug either, just did some complicated handshake and then moved away from the complicated handshake and then moved away from the adults.

“Tex, I’m happy you’re alive and al but I kid you not, you toss a portafilter fil ed with grounds around one more time,
I’m
gonna rip
your
head off,” Indy snapped.

This made Tex lose his scowl and grin at Indy.

“What happened?” I asked when I got close to the counter.

“He hasn’t said,” Al y informed me.

“I’m gonna tel the story once. Daisy and Shirleen ain’t here. If I told it to Indy and Jet when I got here, I would have had to tel Al y when she got here and then Roxie when she got here. Now you. Then Daisy and then Shirleen. You’re gonna have to fuckin’ wait,” Tex boomed.

“He blew up a building!” Sniff shouted, deciding he liked the adult conversation better than the teenage one.

Ava and Stel a both gasped. Obviously, they hadn’t had the ful brief yet.

“You blew up a building?” Stel a stared wide-eyed at Tex.

“Morons took me to a building with chemicals,” Tex explained.

“He built a bomb!” Sniff shouted, coming to the group at the front of the counter.

Everyone’s eyes moved to Tex and he shrugged then said, “They’d locked me in. I had to get out somehow.”

“So you blew up the building?” Stel a asked.

“I just meant to blow open the door. But, like I said, the place was fil ed with chemicals,” Tex replied.

“So once you blew open the door, the entire building blew up,” Stel a said, clearly not able to take it in.

Tex shrugged again. “Shit happens.”

The bel over the door went and Al y shouted, “We’re closed!”

Everyone turned to the door as the unwitting male customer muttered, “But, it’s Friday. Everyone’s open on Friday.” He pointed at Tex. “And it says in the papers his coffee is the best in Denver. Maybe even America.”

“He just blew up a building,” Al y told the customer. “He might stil be contaminated with chemicals. Like the sign on the door says, we’re closed.”

At Al y’s words, the customer’s eyes grew round and then moved through al of us.

Final y, he breathed, “It’s true, everything they say about al of you is true.” His eyes focused on Stel a. “Oh my
God
.

You’re Stel a Gunn.”

“Dude. Do you
n o t
know what ‘closed’ means?” Al y snapped.

Lee walked toward the customer and his eyes skittered to Lee.

“Wow, I know you. Saw your picture in the paper. You scored

the

redhead

and

you

own

Nightingale

Investigations,” the customer said, wide eyes on Lee and I couldn’t help it, I had to laugh a little because he was looking at Lee like he was an honest to goodness movie star. “Are you gonna, like, throw me out?” he asked Lee as if he wanted him to do it.

“No, you’re gonna walk out, like, right now.” Lee answered.

The customer’s mouth dropped open at Lee’s deep voice and threatening tone then he whispered, “Have you ever kil ed anyone?”

Lee leaned in threateningly. “Do you mean today?” At that, the customer took the hint, did another store swipe with his eyes then he took off.

Lee locked the door behind him.

“It’s like that al the fuckin’ time,” Tex boomed. “I’m gonna kil whoever’s talkin’ to the papers. Either they act star struck, like I’m Paul Fuckin’ Newman, or they expect me to be nice to them, like I fuckin’ care they’re breathin’. Only good thing about it is the tip jar needs to be emptied three times a day. I’m thinkin’ about getting one of those kitty water bowls that refil with fresh water al the time, like a kitty fountain.”

Stel a was stil staring at Tex who had, not five minutes ago, talked about blowing up a building and now he was talking about kitty water fountains.