“If I roll over, you won’t be in arms reach.”
I blinked then, sleepy or not, I started to get angry. “Luke, I’m not going to sneak out of your bed in the middle of the night and do something stupid.”
“That’s not why I want you in reach.”
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Stop right there.
Time to go to sleep.
I dipped my chin and closed my eyes. Then because I had Barlow Bitch Blood pumping through my veins, I muttered, “You do that with all your women, they’ll think you’re nuts.”
“I’ve never done it with another woman.”
Really.
Stop.
Time to nap for fifty years.
“Babe?”
“Yeah?”
“If you’re awake…”
I cuddled into him again. “Very sleepy,” I whispered, feigning a sleepy voice.
I felt his body start shaking with silent laughter and somehow, while he was laughing, I fell back to sleep.
* * * * *
My eyes opened and I saw a wall of chest.
My first thought was, Crap, Luke’s not in the shower.
Okay, so that was actually my second thought. My first thought was, Hmm. Yum.
Last night Luke and I walked from his loft to Wynkoop’s Brewery and had beer and dinner. During dinner, he took a call that made his mouth go tight and his eyes move to me. I had an Eek Moment thinking he’d found out about my visit to Uncle Vito through his varied tough guy, macho man, bounty hunting, private eye sources.
Relief flooded through me when he got off the phone and said, “Sorry babe, something’s come up. After dinner I gotta meet Hector. I don’t know how late I’ll be.”
Therefore the mouth tightening meant, for Luke, him missing another opportunity to “give me the business” and for me, relief that I’d dodged the bullet again.
“That’s okay,” I told him breezily.
He gave me a half-grin, totally knowing my thoughts.
He had walked me home and left me in his loft after giving me a hot and heavy kiss that left me in a Luke Lip Fog.
Looking at my face he said, “If you take care of yourself again, you’ll owe me.”
All righty then, I could scratch that off my list of Things to Do While Luke’s Away.
I wasn’t big on watching TV so I’d putzed around his loft all night. I spent my time calling Sissy to chew over the latest Luke episode, doing more of Luke’s laundry and tidying his magazines and mail into neat piles to the extent of putting notes on top: “To be opened”, “Deal with this”, “This needs to be filed”, etc. What could I say? I was an organizer.
Then I went to bed. Later, Luke woke me up by shifting me and we had had our scary chat.
Now, morning.
Ee-yikes.
I tried to slide away without him noticing. He rolled and his arms came around me.
“Babe,” he said, sounding very awake.
Foiled!
I looked up at him and he had his chin dipped toward me so I looked right in his eyes.
“Hey,” I mumbled.
“Hey,” he replied.
“I need to brush my teeth.”
His arms got tighter. “Later.”
“No. Now. I can’t face the day without brushing my teeth.”
“Your day can start later,” he said, his eyes turning inky and his thigh sliding between my legs to rest at the heart of my special girl parts.
“Luke –”
His mouth came to mine his eyes still open so I kept mine open too, captivated. Then he pressed his hard boy part into my belly.
Wow.
“I’m not waitin’ to get inside you any longer, Ava, this is happening now.”
Before I could say a word, he kissed me. It became very clear he was quite intent on this happening now.
I wore the Triumph tee to bed and it was gone within seconds. Then his hands were on me, all over me, all the while his mouth on mine. It didn’t take long for me to fall into a Luke Lip Fog and fall I did, head long.
In fact, he was so serious, it didn’t take long for me to surpass his dedication to the cause to the point where I tried to shove him on his back to get more of him. He stayed firm, mouth at my neck, hand trailing down my belly, his destination clear.
I planted a foot in the bed and heaved, rolling him to his back and dislodging his hand.
“Babe…”
He thought I was going to move away. I didn’t.
Instead I straddled him, bending over to use my mouth on him. I put my lips against his neck using my tongue, my teeth, I went down his chest, running my nails through his chest hair and over his nipples while my mouth explored. I went lower to his abs then lower and stopped. I sat up astride his thighs and got my first full look of all that was Luke.
Yowza.
Nice.
So nice, he should be cast in bronze.
I reached down and wrapped my hand around him, my half-mast eyes on his inky ones, my thumb moving over the tip.
I stroked. Then I was done.
He knifed up, sliced an arm around my back, lifted me clean off him and in the air for a moment before I was on my back. He tore my panties down my legs, settled between them and that was it.
It was going to happen. I was going to do the nasty with Lucas Stark.
And I could not fucking wait.
His lips on mine, both our eyes open, his fingers went between my legs. When he touched me, I did a happy gasp against his mouth and I felt his smile.
“Dripping,” he said against my lips.
Then he kissed me, his hand went away from between my legs, both of his hands went to my hips, he positioned, lifting his head. I saw as his eyes went molten when he watched my tongue wet my lips in anticipation.
Then the buzzer went.
No! My brain shouted.
But whoever was out there was serious, they didn’t take their finger off the buzzer.
“Ignore it,” Luke muttered.
“What if it’s someone needing backup?”
“Fuck ‘em.”
Yippee!
He lifted my hips and he was right there, I could feel him and I wanted him more than my next breath. The buzzer died and I lifted my mouth to press against his and that’s when we heard the scream.
We both froze.
Then it came again.
“Ava!”
My blood turned to ice.
“That’s Sissy,” I breathed but Luke was already off me, off the bed, grabbing his cargoes.
I rolled to the side, nabbed the Triumph tee and pulled it over my head then I hopped into my panties. By the time I did this, Luke was already clothed and headed to a door at the side of the loft. I saw that he was shoving a gun in the back waistband of his pants.
“Luke,” I called as he unlocked the door my voice, I could hear, was filled with fear.
He turned to me. “Stay here. Lock yourself in. Don’t go anywhere. I don’t care what you hear.”
I ran to him, he went out the door and I watched as he went down the fire escape.
I closed the door and ran to the drawer where I found a bunch of keys in my search for cookies the night before. I grabbed a key ring full, ran back to the door and found the right key on the third go. I locked the door, tossed the keys to the bar and I ran to my suitcases and grabbed my jeans, pulling them on.
Then I didn’t know what to do.
Sissy, my bestest, best friend was out there, screaming my name.
I put my hands to my forehead, fingers sifting into my hair, I shoved the heels of my palms in and I stood solid, listening.
“Luke, get to her, please, Luke, get to her,” I whispered to no one.
Breathe, Ava, in, out, in, out, Good Ava spoke quietly in my ear.
Snap out of it, girl. Go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, get your glasses, put your bra on, be ready for anything, Bad Ava advised.
I listened to both of the
m. Breathing deeply in and out, I went about the business of being ready for anything to the point of putting on a bra and deodorant, changing into my Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers tee and putting on flip-flops.
I’d flipped the switch to a fresh pot of coffee (don’t ask me, I wasn’t thinking clearly), when the elevator doors slid open. Luke and Sissy came in and I rushed to them. Sissy was bleeding from the nose and shaking visibly.
Luke looked like Luke. Once I ascertained that he was okay, it was all about Sissy.
I put my arm around her waist and the minute I did she started crying.
“Shh, Sissy, shh,” I sat her on a barstool and Luke went to the phone. I ran to the bathroom, wet a washcloth and carried it into the other room.
“I got a woman bleeding in my loft. Where the fuck is Bobby?” Luke snapped into the phone as I stopped by Sissy and whispered to her, wrapping my fingers around the wrist of her hand at her nose and pulling it away.
There was blood everywhere and I gently wiped at it, constantly whispering in a soft soothing voice as great, shaking sobs tore through her.
“Calm, Sis. Calm, honey. You’re safe. We’re here. No one can hurt you here. Let’s get you cleaned up and see about your nose.”
“He… he punched me, Ava. Right in the nose,” Sissy told me
“Who, honey?” I asked, wiping.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. He wa… was so big.”
My eyes slid to Luke. He had a fist to his hip, head bowed and he was listening to the phone at his ear.
“Do you think it’s broken?” she asked.
My eyes came back to Sissy. “I don’t know, Sis. Wait until Luke gets off the phone, he’ll look at it.”
Hearing his name, Luke’s head swung around and his eyes came to me.
“Right. Out,” he said. He beeped the phone off and walked to us, the whole time his eyes on me.
“Can you look at her nose?” I asked, shocked to find my voice sounded normal, not shaky and hysterical like I felt inside. “She’s worried it’s broken.”
Luke’s eyes stayed on me a beat, they were intense, partly angry, partly hyper-alert and partly something else. Then they turned to Sissy and I watched his always-hard face grow slightly soft. I was holding the washcloth to her nose but pulled it away as Luke put his hand to her forehead, gently pressing it back. He looked at Sissy’s nose and then turned back to me.
“She’s okay. We’ll take her to the hospital to make sure.”
I nodded.
“Darius will be here in five minutes with an Explorer. He’ll take you to the hospital. I’ll follow later,” Luke went on.
I nodded again.
He took the washcloth from me and gave it to Sissy. “Head back, gentle pressure. Ava and I need to talk. You okay with that?”
This time Sissy nodded.
I followed him to the utility recess behind the bathroom and, once there, he turned to me.
“I had a man on her. That man’s off the radar,” he told me.
He was standing close and I had my head tilted back to look at him. I made no sound or other physical reaction to this statement. Internally, however, my lungs forgot how to work.
“Darius will take you to the hospital. He’ll also stick around. Matt’s off duty but he’s right now gettin’ a call. He’ll relieve Darius. We’re going to find Bobby. You don’t leave that hospital unless it’s with me or one of the boys. We can’t get Matt, you’ll get Jack or Ike. Jack’s white, light brown hair, six two, built like a Mack truck. You’re concerned about his identity, you ask him what he saw you doin’ on the monitors Sunday, only you, me and him know about that. Ike’s light-skinned black, bald, about two inches taller than you and has a tattoo up the left side of his neck. You can’t mistake Ike. Darius won’t leave unless he has relief. Anything happens to Darius, you get to a safe place and call the police, got me?”
I nodded but asked, “You had a man on her?”
“Why did you think I let you leave the loft on your own yesterday? I knew you were covered. Bobby followed you two all morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You weren’t speakin’ to me, remember?”
Oh yeah. Right. I forgot about that. Moving on.
“Do you think Bobby’s okay?” I asked.
“Gonna find out.”
I nodded.
When he didn’t say more, I asked, “Anything else?”
“Yeah, show me your hands.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“Babe, lift up your hands.”
I lifted my hands, palms up.
His eyes dropped down to them and he whispered, “Solid.”
“What?”
His hands closed over mine and he gave them a jerk so I fell into him, our hands up between our bodies.
“You’re solid. You aren’t even shakin’.”
I stared at him, not knowing what he was talking about and he took one hand away, wrapped it behind my neck, brought me to him and kissed my nose.
He pulled back and looked me in the eyes. “Proud of you, Ava.” I felt happy heat spread through me at his words before his eyes went ultra warm and he continued. “Not one of those women who can hack this kind of life? Bullshit.”
He said it in his soft, gentle, affectionate voice and I knew I had just screwed myself royally. I couldn’t have exactly run around like a raving lunatic, not with Sissy bleeding and crying. Still, I should have at least affected a minor hissy fit to save my own hide.
Shit.
* * * * *
Darius was a quiet, handsome, black guy with twists in his hair.
I figured the Nightingale Investigations job application form had the question “Are you hot? Yes. No. If you answered no, please exit the building.”
He took us to Presbyterian/St. Luke’s and we found out Sissy didn’t have a broken nose.
Darius had been relieved by Matt by the time Sissy was done. Luke had not arrived and I had not had word from him. Matt ushered us to another Black Explorer and we belted in, me in the back.
Matt turned to Sissy. “Where do you want to go?”
I leaned forward and gave her an around-the-seat hug. “You want to go back to your Dad’s?” I asked softly. “I’ll give him a call at work.”
I saw her head shake. “I need coffee.”
I was thinking more along the vein of cookies but I had no say. I wasn’t the one who got punched in the nose by a huge stranger.
I let Sissy go and turned to Matt. “Fortnum’s.”
He grinned. “Gotcha.”
Matt took us to Fortnum’s and stuck around. I figured he did this because he was told to. He seemed wired though, like he needed to do something. I didn’t ask but I guessed he was anxious to find out about Bobby. Then again, I didn’t even know who Bobby was and I was anxious to find out about him.
When we walked in, Tex took one look at Sissy and his eyes didn’t leave her.
Then he said to the two customers in line, “Stand back. VIPs comin’ in.” When they didn’t move fast enough (even though they moved), he pointed the espresso filter at them and boomed, “Back!”
They jumped out of the way and Sissy and I went to the front of the line. We got our coffees, sat on the couch in front of the store window and the Rock Chicks crowded around, Indy, Ally, Daisy, Jet and Roxie were all there.
“What on earth happened, Sugar?” Daisy asked, taking in Sissy’s swollen nose and blackening eyes.
“I’m so stupid,” Sissy whispered.
I was sitting next to her on the couch and I slid my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me.
“Tell us,” I urged.
She looked at me and then at the girls. Then she took a deep breath and said, “My day’s Wednesday.”
Everyone looked at each other. Then our eyes went to Sissy.
“What, honey?” I asked.
She looked at me. “In the Ava and Luke do the business pool.
My day’s tomorrow. I knew you didn’t do it yesterday. But men like morning nookie. I thought I’d come by early, before anything could happen, take you to the gym. Keep you busy all day. I was protecting my fifty bucks.”
Oh, for God’s sake.
I just stopped myself from doing an eye roll when she continued. “I was trying to be funny. I was going to tease you about it,” she whispered to me. “I didn’t mean anything –”
I interrupted her softly. “I know.”
She nodded and went on, glancing around the Rock Chicks. “I was buzzing up when some big guy came up to me, saw which buzzer I was pressing and asked if I was you. I said no, I was Sissy Vincetti.” She shook her head and looked like she was going to cry again as her eyes moved back to me. “I’m so stupid. I shouldn’t have told him my name. Why did I do that?”
I shook my head too, mainly because I didn’t know why she did that and squeezed her shoulder as she took a calming breath.
Then she carried on. “The minute I said my name, he grabbed me. Didn’t say a word, just grabbed me. I started struggling. He pulled me out of Luke’s building and I saw he was taking me to the SUV from Sunday. That’s when I screamed and he punched me in the nose. Then I called your name. He almost had me in the car when Luke got there. He took one look at Luke and ran, leaving his car and everything. Luke told me to wait in the building and took off after him. A few minutes later, Luke came back and we went up to the loft. You know the rest.”
All the Rock Chicks looked at one another.
“I hope Vance doesn’t hear that some guy hit you. If he does, that guy’s fucked,” Ally said.
“Yeah, Vance isn’t a big fan of that kind of thing,” Jet put in.
“Who is?” Daisy asked.
Jet gave Daisy a look. “I’m just saying, Vance is really not a big fan of that kind of thing.”
“You can say that again,” Roxie muttered.
Sissy turned to me. “Which one is Vance again?”
My purse rang before I could answer Sissy. I pulled out my phone, flipped it open and put it to my ear.
“Yo.”
“She okay?” Luke asked.
I really wanted to smile when I heard his voice but stopped myself just in time.
“Her nose isn’t broken,” I told him.
“I know that. Is she okay?” Luke asked again.
I had to admit, I liked not only that he asked the question but that he knew to ask it.