I felt his hands glide down my sides, around my back, low and he pulled me to him.
It was a great kiss. It was a hot kiss. There was a goodly amount of tongue and Luke seriously knew what he was doing.
But it wasn’t a Vance kiss.
I participated. I don’t know why, maybe because I thought it was safe but also because it felt really nice.
Luke’s head came up and he stared at me.
Then he muttered, “Fuck.”
“What?” I asked, keeping my arms around his neck, he still had his around my back.
“You taste like bubble gum.”
My stomach went into a painful twist and I slid my hands to his chest, putting my arms between us and pushing back a bit. He allowed this but his arms got tight when he was done allowing it, his message was clear and I stopped.
“Vance told me you’re playing games,” I said to Luke.
“Vance would know about games,” Luke said back.
“Please don’t talk about him like that,” I whispered. “You don’t understand what happened.”
“I understand.”
“You don’t.”
“Babe.”
The way he said that made me shut up.
“I’m thinkin’ you should train with Mace from now on,” he said.
Um.
Yikes.
What did that mean?
I decided I didn’t want to know and this was mostly denial because I did know.
“I’m thinking that maybe training is a waste of time,” I told him. “I’m hardly going to get into hand-to-hand combat with these guys doing guerrilla maneuvers.”
“You’re on the street you need to be ready for anything.”
I rolled my eyes. Drama.
“It wasn’t like it was before, Jules. They’re gonna be gunnin’ for you now,” he said to my eye roll.
I had to admit, he was probably right.
“All right,” I said, giving in.
“You still do ride-along with me.”
“Okay,” I agreed immediately.
At that, he grinned.
I realized his arms were still around me and my hands were still on his chest. I pushed back and he let me go, touched my nose then he was gone.
I did the getting-ready-for-bed gig, promised Boo I’d buy him treats tomorrow (and mentally added beer to my grocery list) and lay in bed waiting for Vance to break in.
He didn’t.
The longer I waited, the more my chest got tight, the more I had to practice deep-breathing in order not to cry.
It was my decision to break up with Vance. I made it. I carried it through. It was better for me, I knew it.
The problem was, lying in bed, alone in the moonlight, I didn’t believe me anymore.
Chapter Eighteen
Pizza, Football and Facials
From somewhere far away I heard my phone ringing.
With effort I dragged myself out of a deep sleep to hear the voice after my answering machine message.
“Babe, pick up the phone.”
Luke.
I rolled over and reached up to the high alcove next to the bed and dragged down the phone.
“What?” I said into it.
“Get dressed. We got a takedown. Be there in five.”
Disconnect.
I laid there with my phone to my ear for a second then blinked up at the clock. It was after two in the morning.
Luke had a takedown. That meant they were going after a bad guy. That also meant that Luke wanted me to come with them.
I threw back the covers, Boo screeched, “Meow!” and I swung off the bed.
* * * * *
It was Sunday night (Monday morning, really) and I’d had a day of no rest.
It was another shit day, post-Vance, still no word, no sign, nothing.
I’d woken up that morning after the Luke Kiss, dragged myself out of bed, dragged on my clothes and dragged my ass to the grocery store to get cat treats and the makings for quesadillas.
I had no idea what was in a quesadilla, or how to make one but I guessed. I bought a bunch of other stuff too.
While rolling my cart through the grocery store I decided to learn how to cook. I was going to take a new lease on life. I was going to be the New Jules. I was going to learn to cook. I was going to be a better mama to Boo. I might even learn to knit. I was going to be a domestic goddess, super-social worker by day and a drug dealer ass-kicker by night. I was going to fill every second with new, golden opportunities. I was going to take on the kitchen, make my cat the happiest cat on the planet, buy myself some knitting needles and then take on the world.
On the way home, I stopped by the liquor store and bought more Fat Tire.
I went home and gave Boo enough kitty treats to send him into a kitty treat coma. He got all purry and then flopped down in a sunbeam on the chaise lounge and didn’t move for hours.
I was cleaning the house and baking brownies from a box (starting small) when a knock came at the door.
It was Daisy.
It wasn’t just Daisy. It was Daisy carrying an overnight bag.
“Are you moving in?” I asked, staring at the bag.
“Home facial!” she shouted, shoved me aside and walked in.
She dumped the overnight bag down on my couch and started to pull out jars, bottles, towels, sprays and all sorts of stuff.
“Put on a camisole, I’m doin’ the neck too,” she ordered.
“Daisy, I’m in the middle of cleaning the house.”
“You can clean the house any ole time. Now’s a special time. Now’s facial time.”
“I’ve never had a facial,” I told her.
Her head snapped up from looking at the bag and her eyes bugged out at me. “Never had a facial?” she asked, like I said I’d never breathed oxygen outside of my little bubble room.
I shook my head.
She snapped at me with her fingers. “Camisole. Now.”
I put away the window cleaner and put on a camisole.
I was lying on my couch, a big pillow from my bed under my head and shoulders, a towel draped over the pillow, mud-colored gunk smudged all over my neck and face, cotton wipes doused in lavender water on my eyes, when there was another knock on the door.
I sat up and the cotton wipes fell into my lap. Daisy was sitting in my armchair, foot on my pub set, painting her toenails. I was supposed to be relaxing and letting the facemask dry.
“Get that, will you, Sugar? I’m wet,” Daisy said, not looking up.
I rolled off the couch, tossed the wipes on a towel on the pub set, walked across the room and opened the door.
“Fuckin’ A, Law. What’s all over your face?”
Tex was standing at my door.
I stared at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Came by with these,” he said, indicating an old, beat up workout bag he was carrying and he shoved inside. “Yo, Daisy,” he called to Daisy.
“Yo, Tex,” Daisy called back then she stuck her tongue to the side of her mouth and concentrated on her toenails again.
“What’s this?” I asked as Tex dumped the workout bag by the chaise.
“Tear gas. You don’t have to use ‘em but they ain’t goin’ nowhere at my place. Thought I’d drop ‘em by, just in case. What’s that smell? Somethin’ burnin’?”
Damn.
“My brownies!” I yelled and ran to the kitchen.
The brownies were burned to a crisp. Total disaster. I set them on the stove top and walked back into the living room.
Tex was lying on the chaise, stroking Boo who was lying smack in the middle of Tex’s big, barrel chest. They both looked like they were going to stay awhile.
“You got a cat,” he told me like I didn’t know.
“That’s Boo.”
“Hey Boo,” Tex said to Boo.
Boo purred.
“You ever need a cat sitter, call me, I got a business on the side,” Tex offered.
; “I’ll keep that in mind,” I told him, thinking it was a bit strange Tex was a cat sitter on the side. But then again he’d just dumped a bag full of tear gas in my living room, pretty much everything about Tex was strange. “I never go on vacation,” I went on.
“Vance’ll take care of that. Indy and Lee are goin’ to Grand Lake for Thanksgivin’. Jet and Eddie are goin’ to Cabo for Christmas. And Hank and Roxie are goin’ to St. Thomas in January.”
“Vance and Jules broke up,” Daisy put in.
Tex made a noise that sounded like “puh” then he said, “That’ll last, like, a minute.”
“She broke up with him two days ago. They’re over,” Daisy shared.
Tex’s big head swung to me. “Over?” he asked, like the concept of two people ending a relationship was foreign to him.
I nodded.
“Shee-it,” he muttered.
There came another knock on my door.
“What now?” I mumbled as I walked to it and opened it.
“Fuck,” Roam said, standing outside next to Sniff. They were both staring at me.
“Don’t say fuck,” I told him. “What are you doing here? You okay?”
“Yeah, what’s on your face?” Sniff asked.
“A facemask,” I answered.
Both of them kept staring at me. I knew it hurt my street cred, The Law walking around in a facemask.
“It’s important to take care of your skin,” I defended myself.
They blinked.
“Crowe around?” Roam asked, the first to get over the severe blow to my reputation, he was looking passed me.
“They fuckin’ broke up,” Tex boomed from the chaise.
Roam and Sniff stared at me again. Sniff looked disappointed. Roam’s face went hard. I knew what he was thinking.
“Roam, it isn’t…” I started.
“Get in here boys, we’re orderin’ pizza,” Daisy called over me.
“We are?” I asked when I’d turned to Daisy.
“Sure. Pizza, football and facials. What else do you do on a Sunday?”
Roam and Sniff pushed in.
Daisy stood up, twisting the top back onto the nail polish. “Time to wipe off the mud. Lay down, Sugar. You, Sniff, go wet this cloth, hot water. Hot as you can get it,” Daisy ordered Sniff and threw him a pale pink washcloth.
Sniff stood staring at the cloth a second then without a word (small miracle) he walked down the hall.
I lay down. Roam turned on the TV.
Thirty minutes later, slathered with face lotion and glistening from shoulders to hairline, facial done, enough pizza on the pub set to feed an army, the boxes sitting next to the jars and bottles of the facial debris, another knock came at the door.
Daisy, Tex, Roam and Sniff were all watching the game. I walked to the door.
It was Heavy and Zip.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked.
“Came to see if you’re still alive,” Zip replied, pushing in.
“That the Broncos game?” Heavy asked, pushing in too and staring at the TV.
“Naw, Broncos don’t start until three,” Tex answered.
“You want pizza?” Daisy asked.
“Fuck yeah,” Heavy replied, already sitting on the couch and reaching for a slice.
I stood by the door, staring at my ever-growing company and wondering how this had happened. I wanted a quiet day. I wanted to learn how to cook. I wanted to spend the afternoon at a hobby shop perusing skeins of wool.
“Crowe here?” Zip asked.
“They broke up,” Sniff informed him, eyes never leaving the game.
Zip hadn’t moved into the room. He was still standing by me at the door and his eyes turned to me.
“Girl, I told you,” he said.
“I don’t want to hear it, Zip,” I replied in a soft voice.
He stared at me a moment then he looked to the floor and shook his head. Then to my surprise when he looked up again he also lifted a hand and patted me on the shoulder. Then he got himself a slice of pizza and a seat on the couch.
Heavy wasn’t watching at the game. He was looking over the back of the couch at me.
“I don’t want it from you either, Heavy,” I told him.
He watched me a beat then nodded once slowly then looked back at the TV.
My cell phone rang. It was Ally telling me that she was coming over.
“Bring beer,” I said to her and stared at my living room, “lots of it.”
“Gotcha,” she replied.
“And some pop, Roam and Sniff are here.”
“No problem.”
“Indy, Jet and Roxie coming?” I asked.
“Negative, sister. They’re spending the day with their men.”
I felt a stomach twist.
“See you in ten,” she said in my ear.
I flipped the phone shut, beginning to get good at ignoring the stomach twist and I sat on the floor beside Heavy. He pulled at a lock of my hair. I looked up at him. He winked at me.
My stomach twist felt a little better at the wink but my eyes got blurry.
Then a knock came from the backdoor.
“Jules?” Nick called from there.
“We’re in the living room,” I called back.
* * * * *
I swung into the black Explorer next to Luke.
Luke stared at me.
“Ready,” I informed him, buckling in.
“You wearin’ purple pants to a takedown?” he asked, eyes on my thighs.
I looked down at my cords. They weren’t purple, as such. They were more like a lavender-ish gray. I also had on my black cowboy boots, a black belt, a dusty gray, thick knit, long-sleeved tee with a hood and my black leather blazer. The hood of my tee was over the back collar of my blazer.
I thought my outfit was kickass, especially putting it together after two in the morning with only five minutes to do it.
One look at Luke said he didn’t agree.
“Just drive,” I said.
He drove but he drove with a grin on his face.
We went to the old Stapleton airport area. Not the ritzy part that had been redone, the shitty part that hadn’t.
“What’s the deal?” I asked on the way.
“Skip. High bond, means the bondsman’s out a whack if we don’t pull him in. Name’s Warren. Total scum. He’s a dealer and a pimp. More the second, keeps his girls high and workin’ for him doin’ the first. You know him?”
I shook my head. “No,” I said.
“I got a taser for you,” Luke told me. “Please tell me you got your gun somewhere in those purple pants.”
I pulled it out of my back waistband and showed it to him.
“You need a holster,” he said to me.
I nodded thinking of going shopping at Zip’s tomorrow night. A holster would be dead cool.
“Ike’s on him. Says he went into a house and hasn’t come out. Called backup. Warren’s a mean motherfucker and usually not far from his gun.”
I nodded again, rethinking my excitement at a ride-along for a takedown.
We stopped in a not-so-good neighborhood. The second Luke cut his lights, my door was thrown open. I jumped and twisted in my seat.
“Calm, Law,” the man said and since Luke didn’t shoot him or anything I figured he was one of the good guys.
He was Vance’s height, bald, lean and wiry and from what I could tell in the dark, black with light skin. He had a killer tattoo slithering up his neck from the collar of his black tee.
“I like your tattoo,” I told him.
“You haven’t seen it all yet,” he told me.
He’d said “yet”.
Hmm.
“Do all of you guys flirt rather than just talking like normal people?” I asked who I assumed was Ike.
“Mace doesn’t flirt,” Ike told me, stepping out of my way so I could get down.
“I don’t flirt either,” Luke added coming around the back of the Explorer, atta
ching a fully loaded gunbelt to his hips.
I whirled on Luke. “You’re the King of Flirt! You flirt all the time.”
Luke’s eyes sliced to me. I could feel them hot on me in the dark.
“Maybe you wanna call Warren. Tell him we’re waitin’ out here to take him down. Give him a good chance to load up his gun so he can blow our brains out?” Luke asked after my outburst.
Okay, so maybe I was a bit loud.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
I looked at Ike. Ike was smiling.
Damn.
I was screwing up my first takedown.
“He’s got a couple women in there and Barry White’s playin’. He can’t hear a thing,” Ike informed us.
Ike and Luke looked at each other. All of a sudden they seemed pleased about something.
Then Luke’s eyes cut back to me. “Keep quiet and stay behind me,” he ordered. I nodded and he handed me a taser. “We try for alive when we’re bringin’ ‘em in. Dead is a last resort,” Luke went on.
Yikes.
I nodded again. Then we moved in.
As we approached a house a couple doors down from where Luke parked, Ike disappeared, vanishing into the night. Luke walked right up to the door, bold as brass and something about the way he did it was way, fucking, cool.
I could hear Barry White crooning inside the house.
Luke shoved me to one side of the door. I had my gun stuck into my waistband at my left hip and the taser in my hand.
Luke pounded on the door and shouted, “Bond enforcement.”
Then after waiting about three seconds, Luke put the sole of a boot to the door by the handle and it popped open. Then he disappeared inside. I followed him.
It was dark and I could barely see but Luke moved through the house liked he’d been there hundreds of times before. I kept my eyes on his back and moved behind him.
There was dim light coming from a hallway, the source of Barry White. We went down the hallway and then into a room lit with candles and lamps with scarves over them. Luke stopped just inside the door silent, still, watching.
I moved to his left to look.
“Euw!”
Yes, that was me and I said it loudly. I couldn’t help it. On the bed were two skanky, skinny women, so skinny, their ribs showed. Both needed to shampoo their hair in a major way. They were naked and working on a big, fat, hairy, naked white guy. Hairy as in hairy. He was covered in hair to the point that you could call it fur.