“you broke up with me, walked out of my life. Now someone is shooting at me, using my band to get to you, kil ing people because of shit you’re involved in and you want me to ‘get over my attitude’?”

“Yeah,” he replied, unaffected by the damning statement I just made.

I got up on both my elbows, which brought me closer to him. He didn’t move.

Then I shouted, “You’ve lost your mind!”

“Calm down,” he ordered.

“Calm? Calm? I was shot last night!”

His jaw got tight. “I haven’t forgotten that, Kitten, in fact, that’s what we’re f**kin’ talkin’ about.” Then something else hit me, something important, something I wanted an answer to right away. “Why was I shot last night? Why am I involved at al ? We aren’t together. I’m not your woman. I’m not Indy to your Lee, Jet to your Eddie, Roxie to your –”

“Yeah, you are.”

My elbows went out from under me and I fel back to the bed. A weight hit my chest, it felt like it weighed a ton and it took my breath away.

Move! My brain demanded.

I rol ed and tried to escape. I had no idea where I was going but I was going there.

Mace’s arm grabbed me around the waist; he threw me back to the bed flat on my back. Before I could do a thing about it, he shifted, both his hands came either side of me, he did a semi-push up and landed on top of me but his weight was slightly skewed to my healthy side.

Okay, so maybe I wasn’t going “there”.

“Get off me! ” I screamed, shoving at his shoulders.

“Stel a, listen.”

“No! Get off!”

“No! Get off!”

“Listen to me, God damn it!” he yel ed.

For your information, Mace had a short fuse. We argued when we were together, quite a lot. He was a passionate guy but also, like I said, he had a short fuse. It wasn’t always happiness and light. Then again, the make up sex was magnificent.

“Piss off!” I yel ed back.

“Sid’s boys were there that night you sang Hank Wil iams to me.”

Oh no. I just knew that’d come back to haunt me.

I thought back and remembered Linnie was there that night too, with her bad dudes. Now I knew they were Sid’s bad dudes.

Shitsofuckit!

“I didn’t sing Hank to you,” I lied.

“You did.”

“I did not.”

“You did, everyone knew it, everyone saw it. Even Sid’s boys.”

“You’re a big guy. The bar was dark. You were just a shadow that I focused on. And anyway, I was lost in the song.”

“Bul shit.”

“Get over yourself, Mace. You broke up with me, I’ve moved on,” I told him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You got another man?”

Oh dear. Wel , there we were.

“Yes,” I told him and this was not a lie. I was semi-dating a guy named Eric. He was very good-looking, he was into me and he was clear he wanted to be more into me if you catch my drift. I was holding back because, first off, he wasn’t Mace and second, I wasn’t sure about him, there was something about him that I thought wasn’t quite right.

I saw Mace’s eyes flash again. This was a different kind of flash, an unhappy flash.

“Don’t lie to me, Stel a.”

“I’m not lying. His name is Eric. We’ve been dating for about a month. We’re considering taking it to the next level.” Eric was considering it. I wasn’t so sure but Mace didn’t need to know this.

Mace stared at me as if trying to assess the validity of my statement.

Then he spoke. “Your relationship progression with Eric just stal ed.”

I felt my eyes get wide. “Erm, excuse me?”

“He’s out of the picture.”

At that, I felt my eyes narrow. “He is not.”

“He is.”

“Who do you think you are?”

“In our current scenario, I’m the guy who’s gonna keep you safe. I’m the guy who’s gonna keep you alive. And I’m gonna do it however I need to do it and while I’m doin’ it, I don’t need to have to deal with any of your groupies.” My groupies?

Okay, I had groupies. I was in a band, a somewhat successful band at least local y. Groupies came with the territory.

However I wasn’t a col ector of groupies. I had enough to deal with considering Pong and Hugo were both in my band because they were dedicating their life to perfecting the art of col ecting groupies.

And anyway, when did Mace turn into such an ass**le?

“He’s not a groupie!” I yel ed.

“Discussion about Eric just ended.” He said Eric’s name like it tasted bad. If I was smart, I would have read something into that. Instead, I was seething that he was being so bossy. “Now you and I are gonna get things straight –”

“No we aren’t,” I interrupted him.

He ignored me. “You and Juno are movin’ in with me.” Uh… what?

“No we aren’t!” I shouted

“Okay,” Mace said amicably. “Then I’m movin’ in with you and Juno.”

“No you aren’t!” I screeched.

He kept ignoring my outbursts. “You don’t go anywhere unless I’m with you or I know where you’re goin’ and I got a man on you. Got me?”

I decided to extricate myself from the current conversation and start my own.

“You’re a jerk.”

“I’l tel Pong, Leo, Buzz and Hugo that you’re out of commission as their twenty-four-seven babysitter.” What he said pissed me off but I ignored it in order to stay with my own theme. “You’re not a jerk, you’re an ass**le.”

“I’l cal Floyd and tel him what’s goin’ down and he’l back me with the band.”

Effing hel , he was pul ing out the big guns.

My eyes narrowed again and I hissed, “Don’t you dare.”

“Floyd knows I can keep you safe and Floyd won’t take any shit from the band.”

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted.

“And when this is al over, you and me gotta talk.” I did not like the sound of that.

“This is al over. I’m not your woman, just let it be known to Sid’s boys that you don’t give a f**k about me and I can go about my life –”

“You and I both know that’s bul shit and, obviously, so does Sid.”