Rock Chick 08 Revolution (65 page)

Although this was gross, she now had so much practice hurling, a quick,
“Hang on,” dash to the bathroom, return, “I’m back” happened frequently.

My BFF.

Nothing fazed her.

All was settling in Rock Chick/Hot Bunch Land, which also meant in Ren
and Ally Land.

For me, it was mornings at Fortnum’s, work my cases, evenings with Ren.

For Ren, it was work enduring a Vito freeze-out and thus working to
wrap things up in order to leave, then evenings with me where I tried to make
him feel better.

He hid it, but it was wearing on him.

I’d done what I could do with Vito.

The rest was up to Ren to decide.

That was, of course, if I didn’t lose it, charge into Vito’s office and
rip him a new one. Though, I suspected that wouldn’t help.

And I had cases. Two of them. One, Shirleen (and thus Lee) had punted
me. One was from a friend who had a friend who needed help.

Surprisingly, when I shared that I didn’t accept gift cards or
discounts as payment anymore; she said she’d talk to her friend and share this info.
Then her friend came in and chatted with Daisy. After that, she hired me.

Both cases were domestics and I was working them with Matt. From
experience, neither case would last long. That said, it was interesting having
a partner.

Interesting in a good way.

Matt was kind of the Unknown Hot Bunch Guy. I’d spent time around him.
Partied with him. Shot the shit with him. I knew his girlfriend, Daphne. I knew
he was hot in a boy next door kind of way. But other than that, not much.

Now I knew he was good at his job.

Oh, and since we were working the job together and this necessitated
communicating, I also now knew that he’d bought Daphne a ring. I further knew
that the day of the Big Ask was this coming Saturday.

“And if you tell even a single Rock Chick, Ally, I’ll shoot you,” he’d
warned me with a not-very boy next door look on his face.

So Matt could be badass.

Good to know.

I’d zipped my lips. He’d shaken his head. But I didn’t tell a single
Rock Chick.

I was one of the girls.

But now I was also one of the guys.

How totally fucking righteous was that?

The one pall hanging over everything was the fact that neither Lee and
his boys, nor Ren unleashing Lucky and Santo, had meant success in finding
Snookie Rivers.

I tried to tell myself that he’d realized he’d been made and he’d found
someone else to stalk. When I did this I didn’t believe myself, nor did I like
the idea of him stalking someone else. So this concerned me and I was keen to
have that situation done.

But Brody had a lock on my phone. I had devices in my car and purse,
and they tracked me in the surveillance room at Nightingale Investigations all
the time. Not to mention, I frequently saw Lucky or Santo hanging close.

So I was covered.

I still wished someone would find the sicko.

As I made my way to the elevator, I texted Ren with,
In the building.

In the elevator on the way to our floor, my phone binged with,
All right, honey.

I grinned, not caring that I had to check in (and frequently), with
Ren. If it made him breathe easy, I’d do it. If I could do anything to make him
breathe easy, I’d do it (mostly).

I exited the elevator, walked down the hall, opened the door to my
offices and was confronted with World War III.

Namely, Daisy and Shirleen going at it.

“You’re makin’ me look bad!” Shirleen shouted, hands on hips, leaning
across Daisy’s desk toward Daisy.

“So do the filin’, and not the kind you do to your nails!” Daisy
shouted back, also with hands on hips doing the leaning thing.

Uh-oh.

I moved in, making sure the door swung closed, hoping that would drown
out the noise.

“Ladies—” I began.

Daisy looked at me. “Just so you know, sugar, I got an appointment for
fills, I do it on my lunch hour.”

“Suck up,” Shirleen snapped.

“I’m not suckin’ up!” Daisy snapped back.

Shirleen leaned back. “At least Shirleen don’t suck up.”

Daisy slammed a hand on the desk, her long nails (white with green
glitter tips) clicking, and she screamed, “
I’m
not suckin’ up!
”

Hmm.

That would filter into the hall.

Definitely.

Time to end this.

“Yo!” I shouted, and they both swung their eyes to me.

Okay. So. I didn’t get scared.

Shirleen and Daisy pissed with their eyes to me?

I had to admit. I felt it.

“Daisy isn’t a suck up. She doesn’t have to suck up. We’re a team,” I
told Shirleen.

“See,” Daisy said snottily.

“Just like,” I put in quickly when Shirleen opened her mouth, “you’re a
member of Lee’s team. You have your way of doing things over there.” I threw
out an arm. “We have our way of doing things here.” I pointed to the floor.

“You’re workin’ with the boys,” Shirleen said to me. “They’ll see Daisy
in action and get ideas.”

Was she high?

I wasn’t certain that Lee’s boys even knew Daisy worked for me. And if
they did, it was in passing and they didn’t give a shit.

“Does Lee care if you file?” I asked.

“The word ‘file’ isn’t even in Lee’s vocabulary,” Shirleen answered.

This, I figured, was true.

“Do the boys pay any attention to administration at all over at Lee’s?”
I kept at it.

“
Hell
no,” Shirleen replied.

I swung an arm out again. “Then why would they here?”

Her head cocked to the side.

“I see your point,” she muttered.

Jeez.

“Okay. So are we done with this ridiculous fight?” I asked.

“I am,” Daisy declared, sitting her ass, encased in a skintight green
skirt, down in her office chair. This afforded us a view only of a white blouse
that was unbuttoned
way
beyond
professional levels that had the added attraction of being nearly see-through,
so we saw the miles of lace that was her bra. Not to mention a head of hair
that needed its own area code.

Shirleen narrowed her eyes on Daisy, and I cautiously got closer to the
desk.

“What’s really on your mind?” I asked Shirleen and she looked at me.

“Shit’s boring,” she decreed.

Oh man.

Tex in black woman form.

I didn’t know which was worse, but at that moment, with Shirleen close
and in a pissy mood, she was.

“Everyone’s hooked up, you were the last, and you were boring,” she
complained. “Sure, you stripped. And it was hot. La-di-da. But now, no more
apartments exploding. No one’s left to get kidnapped. Nothin’. The boys, they
take care of business. I answer the phone. I send invoices. I run payroll. Then
I go home and watch TV. I didn’t sign up for that shit.”

“So you came over and picked a fight with Daisy?” I asked.

“What the hell else am I gonna do?” Shirleen asked back then leaned in.
“
File?
”

My answer to that would be yes.

If I was insane enough to verbalize it.

I wasn’t, so instead I studied her and got closer.

My voice also dipped lower when I pressed, “Okay, Shirleen, now tell us
what’s
really
on your mind.”

She pulled in a breath, looked at Daisy, looked at me then declared,
“Sniff’s got a girlfriend.”

Oh shit.

“They’re tight. He’s never home,” she went on.

Crap.

“I never see him,” she kept going. “And when he’s home, he’s on the
phone…” she paused, “
with her.
”

Hmm.

Momma wasn’t liking her cubs shifting away from the den.

Shirleen wasn’t done, and she saved the scariest for last.

“And we gotta have
the
talk,
and not only do I not wanna have
the talk,
I don’t know
how
to have
the talk.
”

I was thinking, with Roam and Sniff (mostly Roam, but it also could be
with Sniff) it was a little late for
the
talk
as in,
the sex talk.
Both
had been serial daters for a while, with Roam going for the world record.

I didn’t share that either.

But Daisy (as always) was in the mood to share.

She flicked a wrist and advised, “Just buy him a pack of condoms and
put it on his pillow.”

“Say what?” Shirleen asked, eyes huge.

“That says it all,” Daisy answered.

“What it says is I’m down with him havin’ sex, which I am
not,
” Shirleen fired back.

“He’s a boy. He’s seventeen. It’s gonna happen, if it already hasn’t,
sugar,” Daisy pointed out.

“He’s
my
boy and it’s
not
gonna happen until he gets what it means,”
Shirleen retorted and finished, “And it has
not
already happened.”

Hmm.

Maternal denial.

I moved to switch subjects by asking, “What does it mean?”

She swung her gaze to me, and I successfully stopped myself from taking
a step back.

“You don’t know?”

“I know what it means to me. I just don’t know what you want Sniff to
know what it means,” I replied.

“You do the business with Zano. What’s that mean?” she returned.

“I said I knew what it meant
to
me
,” I repeated, trying for patience. “I want to know what you want to
share with Sniff.”

“That he should find a girl that means something to him so it will mean
what it means when you do the deed with Zano. Or Indy with Lee. Mace with
Stella—”

Daisy interrupted Shirleen with, “We get it.”

Shirleen looked at her. “You with Marcus.”

“Oh darlin’,” Daisy waved a hand, palm out, “to get to a Marcus, he’s
gotta get in the saddle before he finds The One. And do it a
lot.
Comprende?”

“And maybe along the way get some silly white girl knocked up?” Shirleen
shook her head. “No fuckin’ way.”

Daisy leaned toward Shirleen and put her hand to the desk, reiterating
with strained patience, “That’s why you
buy
him a
pack
of
condoms
and put them on his goddamned
pillow.
”

“Uh… just saying,” I butted in, and both of them looked to me. “You
don’t want to do the talk. You don’t know how to do the talk. But you know
about eight guys you can call on who are tight with Sniff and found a woman
where sex means what you want it to mean to Sniff who can talk to him.”

Shirleen’s eyebrows nearly hit the edge of her enormous afro. “Lordy,
are you sayin’ you think one of the Hot Bunch should give my boy the sex talk?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” I confirmed.

“Are you crazy?” she asked.

“No,” I answered.

“Well, just sayin’ right back at cha, all ‘a those boys have been in
the saddle so often before they got their Rock Chick, it’s a wonder none of
them are bow-legged,” Shirleen remarked.

“Doin’ the business doesn’t require the man to have his legs open,”
Daisy muttered, and Shirleen swung her glare to her.

“It’s been a while for Shirleen, but I remember that part,” she
snapped.

Seemed it was time we hooked Shirleen up.

“Personally, I think we should ask one of the Hot Bunch,” Daisy stated,
her hand reaching to the phone on her desk. “And tape it.
That
I would love to see.”

Holy shit!

I would, too.

Totally.

“Call Mace,” I ordered, immediately losing interest in our earlier
subject. “That would be
awesome
.”

Daisy nodded, her hair nodding with her, and she started jabbing buttons
on the phone with the tip of a nail.

“Daisy girl, put that phone down,” Shirleen demanded.

Daisy held the receiver aside and lifted her eyes to me. “I’m changin’
my mind. Luke.”

I shook my head and grinned. “Hector. Totally Hector.”

Shirleen’s hand darted out, pulled the receiver out of Daisy’s and
slammed it in its base while Daisy’s head snapped back and she yelled, “Hey!”

“Fuck it,” Shirleen muttered, stomping to the door. “I’ll do it.”

“Shirleen,” I called.

She turned, hand to the handle, and bit out, “What?”
 

“Hank,” I said softly. “And while he’s at it, get him to talk to Roam,
too.”

Her face got soft.