Rock Chick 08 Revolution (63 page)

And frequently, we sucked on our thumbs.

And each other’s.

If this wasn’t part of a mission, I would have giggled my ass off
through the whole thing. It was a blast. Absolutely. And the light in Lottie’s
eyes told me she felt the same.

We were both down to sequined bras and panties and platform stripper
shoes when we broke off. Lottie caught attention by catching the pole high,
swinging out, rolling off and hitting her hands and knees, crawling on the
stage with back arched, ass high, lips parted, hair in her face.

She was the total shit.

I jumped off the stage and it was during one of the rapid-fire rap
parts of the song so I could make some moves on a couple men on my way to my
target.

And as the song broke down, I did a lot of gyrating, hair whipping,
slow walking, dipping my ass into laps only to pull away before flesh hit
flesh, and shimmying.

I found my way in front of Gibbons just as the song kicked it up again.

I looked into his eyes.

He was looking at my breasts.

Fuck yeah.

It didn’t matter my last name was Nightingale. It didn’t matter that I
might be a threat.

I had tits.

And that meant I had him, the asshole.

I leaned down, putting my hands to his knees and whipping my head around.
I turned around and gave him a personal, long drawn out ass sway when Chad
Kroeger did the kickass drawn out “everyone.”

I flipped around and mounted his lap.

His hands immediately went to my hips.

I barely controlled a lip curl at his touch and I moved on him. I put
my hands on his shoulders, pulsing my hips under his hands, whipping my hair in
his face, catching his eyes to see his at my crotch.

Yeah.

I had him.

So I took him.

Reaching in his jacket, I went right for his gun.

His fingers on my hips bit in and his eyes shot from my crotch to my
face.

I felt for the snap, flipped it and yanked his gun out just as I jumped
off his lap, his hands sliding clean free since I was oiled up (and good).

I got three feet back and pointed the gun in his face.

The music stopped and the lights went up. There was some clapping, but
everyone around Gibbons and me had seen the dance change and were shuffling
away, seeing as there was a stripper with a gun.

Gibbons stared into my eyes, and I knew he was about to go for me right
when he was out of his chair and being slammed face first into the floor by
Mace.

Luke came to me and took the gun out of my hand.

“I need to find a way to erase the last three minutes,” he muttered,
sounding aggrieved.

“Why?” I asked.

“I just watched my boy’s sister strip. There’s laws against that,” he
replied, not taking his eyes off Mace who was cuffing a non-struggling Gibbons,
but I had a feeling what Luke was doing was studiously avoiding seeing me in
sequined undies and stripper shoes.

“No there’s not,” I said to Luke and he finally looked at me.

“Babe, there are. Trust me,” he stated.

At his tone, I trusted him. Then again, he was a guy. What did I know
what rules guys lived by?

Luke moved in to help Mace jerk Gibbons to his feet. They didn’t go
cautiously and his head snapped around, and not a little.

A lot.

I fought a smirk.

“What’s goin’ on? What the fuck is goin’ on?” Smithie shouted, elbowing
his way in.

“Don’t know how I took him down, seein’ as I’ve gone blind,” Mace stated,
ignoring Smithie.

“I hear you, man,” Luke agreed.

“What
the fuck
is goin’ on?”
Smithie yelled.

That was when Lee appeared.

My brother. He didn’t let me know, but he was also taking my back.

I was feeling slightly gushy and very jazzed when Lee said, “Cruiser’s
outside. Haul him out. Smithie, you come with me.”

“You gonna tell me what he fuck is goin’ on?” Smithie asked.

“Yes,” Lee answered.

Smithie glared at him. Then he glared at me.

I tipped my head to the side and gave him a scrunchy face.

Lee either didn’t see Smithie’s glare or didn’t care. His eyes went
beyond Smithie and he ordered, “Clear this place out.”

I looked that way just in time to see Lenny saying, “Gotcha.”

Lenny moved out and I looked at Gibbons.

He didn’t look upset.

He looked smug.

“Uh… just so you know, asshole dickhead of huge proportions,” I called.
His eyes came to me, and I noted when they did, “Good you know your name. Your
crew?” I asked and shook my head. “Right now, they’re taking rides in cruisers,
too.”

Gibbons stopped looking smug.

“Funny, thinking with your dick brought you to this pass, seeing as you
are
a dick,” I noted.

“Smithie,” Lee cut into my fun. “Your office.”

On a lingering glare at all of us, Smithie moved toward his office.

Lee moved, too.

He moved into Gibbons space and he got nose to nose with the asshole
(or kind of; Lee was three inches taller).

“After your stay at the penitentiary, you get out, you get the fuck out
of town,” he ordered. “Denver’s mine, and I don’t like your kind here. Now you
think on that. You ask around. Name’s Lee Nightingale, but I suspect you know
that. And I suspect you know to get your ass out of my town. You don’t and we
meet again, there won’t be a cruiser.”

“Fuck you,” Gibbons spat.

“Good,” Lee whispered, getting closer. “I hope you’re not smart,
because I’m lookin’ forward to meetin’ you again.”

Gibbons held Lee’s eyes.

Lee didn’t give him the honor of a staredown.

He sauntered away.

“
We’ll
meet again, bitch,”
Gibbons promised me, and my eyes went to his.

I clasped my hands together in front of me and cried in a shrill girlie
voice, “Oh goodie! I didn’t get to use my balls-in-a-vice move tonight and I
was
so
wanting to.”

Mace jerked Gibbons around and started marching him to the door.

Luke grinned at me before he followed.

I watched for a beat then looked through the thinning crowd the
bouncers were showing to the door to see Ren standing at the edge, arms crossed
on his chest, eyes on me, face carefully blank but eyes burning.

“I still have some work to do, honey,” I told him. “Can you wait for
me?”

He shook his head, but his lips quirked and he answered, “Yeah, babe.”

I smiled at him.

Then I hightailed my sequin-pantied ass to the dressing room.

* * * * *

Led by Eddie and Jimmy Marker, detectives and uniforms were in the
dressing room taking statements from strippers, waitresses and the female
bartender.

After I’d changed into tee, boots and jeans, I’d talked all the girls
into making statements. I would like to have been able to tell my brother my
efforts at this were heroic. But once they all learned that Smithie and his
family were no longer in jeopardy, they jumped at the chance.

I was leaning against the wall with my arms crossed on my chest beside
the door as I watched Jimmy with a hand light on JoJo’s arm moving toward my
station. JoJo was looking at the floor. I was looking at Jimmy.

“Me and Mizz Christensen need to chat in private,” he murmured as they
passed me.

I nodded. I knew what that meant. She had not so fun things to say. And
Jimmy, a good man (the best), was going to take her someplace comfortable to
say them.

Jimmy kept moving, but he did it with eyes on me.

I tipped my head to the side.

He jerked up his chin.

Then he winked.

I smiled.

He disappeared.

I jumped when not a second later, Luke’s head and shoulders were where
Jimmy had just been and he growled, “Ally. You’re needed.”

What?

I didn’t get the chance to verbalize that question. Luke disappeared.

I shoved away from the wall and followed him.

I heard it when I got into the main area of club. Someone was tearing
something apart.

And the noise was coming from the direction of Smithie’s office.

That was when I started running.

I passed Luke and hit the stairs to Smithie’s office which was up high,
where he had a window out to keep his eyes on the club. I ran up the steps and
ran by Ren, Mace and Lee who were standing inside, close to the door, all alert
but giving space.

When I hit the office, I saw I was right. The office was a disaster.
Completely torn apart.

And Darius was there, close to Smithie, hand out, mouth murmuring,
“Calm down, brother.”

Smithie picked up something from his desk and threw it across the room.
It slammed into the wood paneling, the paneling buckling all around, and it
stayed lodged there.

Then he turned on Darius and shouted, “You been workin’ this case with
Ally for days and you didn’t shut that shit down?”

“We didn’t know how bad it was until today,” Darius replied. “Now sit
down, you need a deep breath and a drink.”

“I don’t need a fuckin’ drink!” Smithie yelled. “I need to fuck
somebody up.”

I got close to Lee, got on my toes and whispered, “Call LaTeesha.”

He turned his eyes down to me. “Ally—”

“Do it, bro.”

I held his eyes. He nodded, peeled off from Ren and Mace and disappeared
out the door.

I approached Darius and Smithie.

“Stay back, Ally,” Darius ordered.

“Smithie,” I called, ignoring Darius, but Smithie’s eyes were already
on me. “Calm down a sec. The cops are gonna need to talk to you. Then you can
continue destroying your office.”

He threw out his hands. “What am I gonna tell ‘em? That I didn’t know
dick?”

“They’ll have some questions, honey. Just tell them what you know,” I
replied.

He leaned into me threateningly, and I saw Darius get close and felt
the men at my back move forward.

“I can tell them what I know fuckin’
now.
I know that motherfucker—in my own fuckin’
house
—extorted fucking
blowjobs
from
my
girls.” He thumped his chest on the word “my.”

“Smithie—”

“Took their money.”

“Smithie, please, listen for a—”

“And they gave all that shit up, for
me.
” Another whack to his chest.

“I know, but—”

“
For me!
” he roared in a way
that the entire room stilled.

He stood there, staring at me, breathing heavily, and I knew it was
going to happen before it happened.

So I ordered quickly, “Everybody out.”

Then it happened.

His arms went to cover his face and head and his legs went out from
under him.

I rushed to him, looking at Darius and mouthing, “Out.”

Darius nodded and moved.

I got down on my knees by Smithie and pulled his big quaking body in my
arms.

“For me,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

“They love you,” I whispered back.

“For me,” he repeated.

I said nothing. Just held him in my arms.

This lasted a long time before, not looking at me, still curled into
himself in my arms, he started to ask, “How do I—?”

“I don’t know,” I interrupted. “I just know you will.” I pulled him
closer. “I’ll help.”

He dropped his arms and turned his head to look at me. My breath caught
and my heart squeezed at the ravaged look on his face, his bloodshot eyes, the
wet on his cheeks.

“They did that shit for me,” he said, and it sounded like he was
pleading. Like I could take his words and make them and the fact that all this
happened go away.

“They love you,” I repeated and lifted my hands to his cheeks, moving
my face closer. “And that, Smithie, is a beautiful thing. You take care of
them. They took care of you. It was awful how they had to do it. But every
single one of them did it. That’s how much they love you.”

He shook his head, taking my hands with it. “I can’t fix this,” he told
me.

“Everything can be fixed,” I returned.

“Not this,” he whispered.

“Daisy? Ava? Sadie?” I gave him examples of women who lived on,
valiantly and magnificently, after being violated. I shook my head before I
lifted up, kissed his forehead then looked back into his eyes. “Everything can
be fixed.
Everything.
”