“There were three of us and we knew Vance was closin’

in and there was one of him. You made it impossible for us to take him down. What was in your head?” Hank was also back to shouting.

“He had a gun pointed at you. That’s what was in my head.”

“So, the f**k, what? It’s happened before, it’l happen again. I can handle it. We had it under control.” Holy cow.

I shirked off thoughts of Hank having guns pointed at him and scowled.

“Hank Nightingale, don’t you yel at me,” I snapped.

“It wasn’t smart, Roxie,” Dad decided to throw down.

“Dad!” I turned to him.

“It wasn’t,” Lee added, his voice sober and sharp.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at Lee.

“It sure the f**k wasn’t,” Eddie agreed and he wasn’t even there.

I opened and closed my mouth, words escaped me.

They were ganging up on me.

“Um… hate to butt in here, but, back, the hel , off,” Al y put in, standing at the bar fil ed with food. She had a half-eaten apple slice held aloft and she looked cool as a cucumber.

“Al y, stay out of it,” Carl ordered.

“Don’t tel me to stay out of it,” Al y flashed, dropping the apple slice and no longer looking cool as a cucumber.

“Everyone’s fine, everyone’s safe, it al worked out. Let’s calm down,” Annette offered, trying to play peacemaker.

“You don’t know what happened in there. She f**king walked right up to him. There were nine guns in there, eight of them pointed at Roxie. She could have been caught in the crossfire,” Jason threw in his lot.

Annette decided peacemaker wasn’t a good fit for her and her eyes narrowed on Jason, “Wel , what would you do? Hunh?”

“I wouldn’t f**king walk up to him. Christ!” Jason shouted.

“Oowee, you white people know how to fight,” Shirleen declared.

“Leave Roxie alone,” Daisy barreled in, hands on hips.

“She’s had enough to deal with tonight.”

“We’re not done talkin’ about this,” Hank warned me, ignoring Daisy.

We were stil toe-to-toe.

“We are so done talking about this,” I announced, not backing off one bit.

“Hank, honey, maybe I should get you a beer,” Kitty Sue tried to calm her son.

“He doesn’t need a beer. He needs to talk some sense into Roxie,” Malcolm stated.

Kitty Sue, who I didn’t know too wel , and always seemed quite even-tempered, went red in the face and turned to Malcolm.

“And exactly what sense is he gonna talk into her, Mal?” she demanded.

Malcolm turned to his wife. “The boys were handlin’ it.”

“Right. You know that and I know that but in the heat of the moment, she did what she had to do,” Kitty Sue said.

“She nearly got herself kil ed,” Malcolm shot back.

“Hardly. They wouldn’t have let that happen. And, I don’t care if you don’t like it, Malcolm Nightingale, but I rather like the idea of Roxie caring about my son so much, not to mention having the gumption to put herself in harm’s way for him. Just as long as harm didn’t find its way.”

“I like it too,” Mom whispered, coming close to Hank and me, grabbing my hand and looking at me like she was proud of me.

I felt a rush of warmth spread through me, though not enough of a rush to make me less pissed off, stil .

“Trish, you’re a f**kin’ nut. This is our daughter were talkin’ about!” Dad exploded.

“Yeah, and seems to me one of us raised her right,” Mom flashed back.

“Damn tootin’,” Daisy said.

“Fuckin’ A!” We al heard boomed from across the room.

I looked beyond Hank and Mom and saw Uncle Tex was standing at the door. He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and, if it could be possible, both his hair and his beard looked wilder than ever, like he’d been tearing at both of them. “How come I always miss al the action? God damn!” Everyone stared at him.

“Wel ?” he boomed again. “What happened? You okay darlin’ girl?” he asked me.

I nodded.

His eyes swung to Hank. “Nightingale?” he asked.

Hank moved to stand at my side. “Yeah.” he said.

“Wel , thank f**kin’ God,” Uncle Tex finished, completely oblivious to the charged air in the room. Then his gaze moved to the food. “Shee-it. Look at that food. Jesus Jones. What’re we waitin’ for? Let’s get this party started.

You got any hooch?” he asked Daisy.

“Champagne,” Daisy replied, her lips turning up on the ends.

“Wel , break it out, woman. None too happy I ain’t gonna get my go with that jackass in the holding room but, whatever. Now, I reckon if there was an occasion to drink somethin’ as stupid as champagne, this is f**kin’ it,” he looked to the room at large. “Am I right?” Everyone kept staring at Tex. No one was quite ready to let go of the latest battle.

“Wel ? Am I right?” Tex boomed.

Final y, Indy spoke. “You’re right, Tex. You are so right.”

“Marcus, Sugar Bunches of Love, bring us some champagne,” Daisy cal ed to Marcus but his head was already in their big, industrial-sized, stainless steel refrigerator. He turned, holding two bottles of champagne in one hand.

“I’l get the glasses,” Jet offered, moving toward a cupboard.

Hank’s arm went around my shoulders to wrap around my neck and I went stiff. I wasn’t quite ready to stop being pissed off at him.

His head dipped and his mouth was at my ear.

“We aren’t done talkin’ about this,” he murmured there.

I twisted my head to look at him.

“Yes we are, Whisky. No more talking, no conversations.

Official y, the minute that champagne touches my lips, Bil y Flynn becomes a memory.”

Hank stared me in the eyes; his eyes were working. I could tel he wasn’t done being pissed off either. Final y, he got it under control and his eyes cleared.

“You’re off the hook but only because this shit isn’t ever gonna happen to you again.”

I nodded in agreement but felt like having the last word.

“If it did, you have to know, I’d do the same thing. You aren’t the only one who’s al owed to protect someone you care about.”

He went back to being pissed off and clearly wasn’t going to let me have the last word.