Rock Chick 08 Revolution (44 page)

This gave us nothing.

“So I got eyes on him last night,” Darius told me.

“And?” I prompted.

“So he wouldn’t tag me, I stayed outside. Don’t know what he does
backstage, but whatever business he’s doin’, he’s also doin’ it in the parking
lot.”

I perked up. “What does that mean?”

“That means he has conversations with the girls he escorts to their
cars. Not long ones. But not comfortable ones. Least not for the girls.”

My mind started working.

“We need to get one of the girls wired,” I murmured.

“Yeah. And you need a sit down with Lottie,” Darius stated.

“She’s after I drop a bundle in Lucy,” I told him.

He nodded then asked, “When you goin’ in?”

“I have my first stripper class this afternoon.”

He grinned.

I rolled my eyes.

“Tex and Nancy are getting married on Wednesday. My aim is to be in
Thursday, but I have to confirm that with Smithie,” I shared.

“Want you covered,” he replied. “So you keep me in that loop. I’ll be
there, but you won’t see me.”

I nodded again then told him, “You need to keep track of your hours and
get in touch with Daisy to set up a contract. I’m billing them to Smithie and
I’ll be paying you.”

“Unnecessary.”

Argh!

I loved my friends, but this was getting crazy.

“Totally necessary,” I returned.

“Ally, I’ll keep track of my hours. You bill him, but I do this shit
for you, not money.”

God, Darius was great.

And everyone was being way cool, but enough was enough.

“Darius, this is my business now and I intend to do it right.”

“To get set up, you need capital. Bill Smithie. Invest that in your
agency.”

“Darius—”

“This job,” he cut me off. “We’ll discuss what goes down with future
jobs. Jump off on this one, Ally. You sort his shit, Smithie’ll talk you up and
half of Denver’s male population strolls through his doors. Shirleen’s puntin’
you business. And Daisy’s got Marcus droppin’ your name. Me workin’ for free is
just this job. Take it, pocket it, we talk when we got the next one.”

That I could do. I didn’t love it, but I could do it. Not to mention,
agreeing meant we’d stop discussing it so I could get shopping, get to Lottie,
get to Daisy’s to take my stripper class then get to my brother’s office for
the meeting.

“This one job,” I agreed.

“Right, now got other shit to do,” Darius ended our meeting.

But I wasn’t done.

“We need to talk,” I declared.

“About what?” he asked.

I held his eyes and stated, “About you.”

His chin jerked back.

“Ally—”

I shook my head. “No. You. Me. Tequila. As soon as we can sit down.”

“There’s nothin’ to talk about,” he told me.

“You don’t even know what I want to talk about,” I told him.

“You said it was about me. And I know me.” He leaned in, his face got
hard and his voice got kinda scary. “And when it comes to me, there’s nothin’
to talk about.”

Luckily, I didn’t scare easily.

“We’re talking, Darius,” I contradicted. “And we’re doing it soon.”

“This conversation is over,” he decreed. “Outta the truck.”

“Darius—”

He leaned in deeper. “Outta my fuckin’ truck, Ally.”

I leaned right back.

“I love you,” I hissed, and his face behind his shades blanked but I
didn’t stop. “And something’s not right with you. You’re holding back and I’m
gonna find out why that is and help you get things right.”

“Outta the truck.”

“You know me, honey,” I said. “You know I won’t give up.”

“How’s this?” he asked, leaning back at the same time retreating. Not
physically. Emotionally. “What’s wrong with me can’t get right.”

Fuck.

I had a feeling, and my feelings usually were right.

Still, I returned, “That isn’t true.”

“You know?” he asked.

“Yeah. I know. That isn’t true. It’s never true. Anything wrong can be
made right.”

“You don’t know dick,” he bit out.

“Darius—”

“Outta my truck.”

“Darius!”

He leaned back in and rumbled (definitely scarily, even to me), “Get
the fuck outta my truck.”

I sucked in breath but I didn’t get out of the truck.

I leaned in deep so we were nose to nose, shades to shades, and I
declared, “I won’t give up on you. I’ll
never
give up on you. What I’ll do right now is get outta your truck. But I’ll do it
with you knowing me doing it does not mean I’m giving up on you.” My voice
dropped to a whisper. “Brace, brother. Because I’m gonna knock myself out to
heal what’s broken in you. And I won’t quit until I’ve done it.”

On that, I didn’t give him a chance to reply.

I got out of his truck and sashayed into Lucy.

But I did it not thinking about the kickass running gear I was going to
buy that would make my man lose control and give me orgasms in his kitchen (or
elsewhere).

I did it worried.

* * * * *

I drove into the underground parking lot of Lee’s offices, my mind on a
number of things.

One was trying to figure out what dress I was going to wear out to
dinner that night with Ren. I hadn’t had a chance to try any of the four on
that Roxie, Tod and Stevie bought me, but I knew just looking at them they were
all on par in hotness so there wasn’t an obvious frontrunner.

This meant I needed time to try them all on and make a decision.

Another was the fact that my sit down with Lottie got me nothing.
Whatever this guy was doing, he was not doing to her.

She did tell me she felt the vibe and had talked with some of the girls
even before Smithie approached her to talk to the girls. They were closed up
tight.

Even as the headliner, she didn’t have her own dressing room, although
Smithie offered it. But she was social; she felt they were sisters and didn’t
want to foster that kind of thing with the girls so she was in with them.
Though she was, she hadn’t seen this dude do anything or heard him say
anything.

Nothing there.

But she was also worried.

She came with me to Daisy’s house to help with my stripper classes.
Once at The Castle, I discovered that Daisy had one of her many rooms set up with
a stage that had a couple of poles.

“Gotta keep up my skills, sugar,” she said after she led us there and I
stopped and stared at the set up. “Anyway, how do you think I keep this killer
body?”

I had actually never asked how she kept her killer body, though I knew
she power-walked regularly.

Thus commenced my stripper instruction, and even with two women I cared
about the only ones in attendance, I felt awkward and danced stiffly.

After both of them showed me some moves, however, Daisy put on some
music.

That did it.

Then again, music always did it for me.

Thus, three hours later when I finally hopped off the stage, Lottie
gave me a huge-ass grin and declared, “You’re a natural. You’re even gonna give
me a run for my money.”

I had no idea why that compliment made me feel warm inside. It just
did. So I went with it.

After hugs and setting up my next class the next day, I headed out to
my car but before I took off, I sat in it and called Smithie to tell him we
were on the case, were amassing a file and I would be making my debut on
Thursday.

He was ecstatic. Not about the file, about me dancing.

I ignored that and the not-so-great flutter that it sent shifting
through my stomach, hung up and called Duke.

He wasn’t at Fortnum’s, so I phoned his house.

Duke had always been the kind of guy that, if you wanted to connect
with him, you did that on his terms. In other words, face to face. Therefore,
until Indy bought him and Dolores an answering machine last Christmas, there
was no way to get a message to him.

Thanks to Indy’s intervention, I was able to leave a message at his
place. That said, it was a crapshoot if he actually listened to it.

What I said was, “Hey Duke. Please don’t erase this without listening.
I know you’re pissed at me and we need to talk about that. You know you mean a
lot to me so you gotta know I don’t like that you’re pissed at me. But more,
something’s up with Darius. I need to sit down with you about that and get your
wisdom. So please, stop avoiding me so we can talk things out.” I paused then
finished, “Hey Dolores.” Then I hung up.

It was slightly manipulative to drop the Darius thing, because Duke
might be rough and gruff but he looked out for the crew. He probably already
had his eye on Darius and was worried. So sucking him into that was totally
making a play.

But I told Darius I would stop at nothing.

So I was going to stop at nothing.

I parked in Lee’s garage, got out of my car and made my way into the
building and to the elevators. After running, shopping and stripping, I
couldn’t face the stairs.

Truth be told, I didn’t know how I was going to face my getting ready
preparations and a late dinner with Ren. I really wanted our date, as in,
really.
But I’d been running around all
day, was facing what would likely not be a happy conversation with my family,
and would rather go home, eat Ren’s delicious food and curl up on the couch and
watch Nathan Fillion (and, of course, the rest of the cast of
Castle
).

The elevator expelled me on Lee’s floor. I made my way down the hall
and into his office.

Shirleen was not behind the reception desk, but Vance was standing
beside it, tossing a file on the top.

When I entered, he turned to me.

“Hey,” I greeted.

“Ally,” he replied.

“What’s shakin’?” I asked.

He grinned his shit-eating grin and seriously—he was Jules’s; I loved
Jules and I had Ren who I loved—but I had to admit that it wasn’t just once in
the time I knew Vance that I wondered what it would be like to be horizontal
and have him aim that shit-hot grin at me.

“Everything,” he replied. His grin faded and he said weirdly, “Tomorrow
night.”

I stopped advancing to the door that led to the nerve center of my
brother’s operations and turned to Vance. “What?”

“Tomorrow night. You’re ride along with me.”

My mouth dropped open, but the rest of my body jolted with pure,
unadulterated glee.

“Got a security system I wanna show you how to bypass,” he went on.

That feeling stole through me, that one I liked, but I still didn’t
move.

“You know how to pick a lock?” he asked.

I forced my mouth to move. “Um… not yet.”

“We’ll go through that tomorrow night, too.”

Holy shit!

“I—” I started, but Vance kept going.

“We document those hours, I sign off on them for the License Board.”

Holy shit!

“I… uh,”
Pull it together, Ally!
“Why?” I asked.

“Saw the tape,” Vance answered as I heard the door to the inner sanctum
open.

But I didn’t look there.

I kept my eyes to Vance. “What tape?”

“You, cool as shit, dealin’ with those guys in Lincoln’s.”

“Impressive.” I heard muttered, and saw Hector standing with us, the
strap of a workout bag over his shoulder. He was looking at Vance. “You offer
ride along?”

“Yep,” Vance answered.

Hector looked at me. “You need help on a case and someone to sign off
on your hours, call me.”

I stared.

Was this happening?

Hector did a chin lift to Vance and me and sauntered out.

I looked from the door that closed on Hector back to Vance. “What’s
going on?”

“What’s goin’ on is the team saw the tape. Darius and Brody both talk
you up. But we saw evidence of what they’ve been sayin’. You want this. You’re
good at it. You should have it. So some of the guys are up for backin’ your
play.”

Oh my God.

I didn’t know what to do.

I did know what to feel.

Ecstatically
freaking
happy.

I also knew what to ask.

“Is Lee okay with this?”

“None of us work here to have someone tell us what to do unless we need
direction. So it doesn’t matter. He knows we do what we do. He also knows we
won’t work here anymore if he gets up in our shit about what we do.”