I looked to the ceiling as the Rock Chicks discussed Jet’s forthcoming KitchenAid appliance purchase.

Then I thought, my life sucks.

Chapter Fourteen

You Missed It Again, Babe

After I got off the phone with Luke, I planned my day carefully.

I hung with the Rock Chicks, Tex and Matt at Fortnum’s all afternoon and I made a call to Shirleen. Duke, Indy’s second-in-command, came in and even though I hadn’t seen him in months, smiled at him and yelled, “Hey Duke!” he scowled at me and disappeared in the books.

“What’s that all about?” I asked Indy.

“He’s not a big fan of the ‘during’ part of a Badass Motherfucker Courtship. He prefers the ‘after’,” Indy explained.

I couldn’t say I blamed him.

Detective Jimmy Marker stopped by at Luke’s request. Sissy and I told him about the car chase and the recent kidnapping attempt and I took that opportunity to explain that my first kidnapping was a “misunderstanding” – news that made him stare at me hard.

He gave me a lecture about talking to the cops next time I nearly rolled my car over onto I-25 while being pursued by a bad guy. Then he and Duke carried on a loud conversation about “how these boys need to get their heads examined”. Then Detective Marker left.

Matt and I dropped Sissy at her Dad’s and we both stayed while Sissy told her Dad the latest story. Then we stayed while Sissy’s Dad hit the roof. We left after he calmed down.

Sissy walked us to the door and gave Matt a look. Matt correctly interpreted this look and stepped outside of hearing distance.

I turned to Sissy. “What?”

“Remember when you pretended not to care when you didn’t have a date to the senior prom?”

Oh no, where was she going with this?

“Yeah.”

“Well, tonight you’re going out with one of the hottest guys we know and then you’re going home to the hottest guy ever. How’s them apples?” She gave me a big smile, so pleased for me she didn’t seem to remember she got punched in the face that day for the first time in her life.

I shook my head. “You’re a dork.”

“And you’re a knockout.”

I shoved her shoulder. She shoved mine back.

After a few more shoves, Matt and I left.

Matt took me to Luke’s loft and I held my breath until the elevator doors slid open and we saw Luke wasn’t there. As the place was under surveillance, Matt didn’t stick around. He was itching to get into the search for Bobby. I spent a few moments sending good vibes to Bobby and encouraging vibes to the Nightingale Boys to find him, and fast. Then I called Shirleen as scheduled.

“Shee-it,” she answered instead of saying hello. “You still gonna do this?”

“Yes,” I told her.

She sighed. “I’ll be there in ten.”

I’d called her from Fortnum’s and as she was my Rock Chick and Badass Motherfucker Courtship Mentor, she was bound by Rock Chick Law to help me (yes, it was weird but at that point it worked for me).

She picked me up in her Lincoln Navigator (seriously, Lee had to pay his employees well if his receptionist had a Navigator) and took me to my place. She hung out watching TV while I got ready for my date with Ren.

Halfway dressed, my phone rang.

I looked at it scared to death it would be Luke. It said “Dom calling”.

What the hell?

“Yes?” I answered.

“Ava, don’t hang up,” Dom said quickly.

“You’re a dickhead,” I told him.

“Our last thing didn’t go too well…”

I wanted to shout “Ya think?” but he kept talking.

“I’m sorry about that but Ava, you gotta listen to me. There’s some serious shit goin’ down. You and me, we gotta get out of town, you gotta meet me at –”

“Fuck that, Dom. You’re nuts.”

“No, this is some serious shit.”

“Yes, it’s your serious shit. Keep me out of it,” I snapped.

“That’s what I’m tryin’ to do,” he snapped back.

“Can you please tell me why I’m in it?”

“They’re tryin’ to get to me.”

“No kidding, they’re trying so hard, they nearly kidnapped Sissy this morning. Punched her in the nose, blood everywhere. We thought it was broken. She was a mess.”

Silence.

“Dom?”

“What’d you just say?”

“Some big guy in a dark blue SUV punched your wife in the nose this morning while trying to kidnap her.”

Silence again.

I was losing patience, and time, quickly.

“Dom! I don’t have time for this.”

“He hit Sissy?” Dom asked quietly.

Something about the way he said it made my mind still. “Yeah,” I told him.

“He’s got at least a foot and probably a hundred pounds on her.”

“Do you know this guy?” I asked but he ignored my question.

“And he hit her?” Dom was sounding a bit scary.

“Dom, tell me, who is this guy?”

Dom still wasn’t listening. “You say her nose isn’t broken?”

“She’s fine. It’s swollen, her eyes are black but she’s okay.”

Was I reassuring Dominic Vincetti about his wife’s well-being? Was it me who’d stepped into an alternate universe?

“I’ll call her,” Dom told me.

Oh no.

“Dom, don’t,” I said.

“Later.”

Disconnect.

Fuckity, f**k, f**k, f**k.

I looked at my alarm clock on the nightstand and it was already seven o’clock. I wanted to call Sissy but I didn’t have time. As it was I rushed through my final preparations.

I had decided to go gung ho for the night. I was telling myself this wasn’t an in your face to Luke after his last tough guy speech. I was telling myself this was for me. That even though I had sworn off men, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t look cute.

I was wearing a black skirt, so tight it fit like a glove and cupped my ass. Its hem hit me at the top of the knees and had a front slit that went to mid-thigh. I topped it with a black, ultra-wide, low scoop-necked, long-sleeved, stretchy t-shirt that also fit like a glove and had a long hem so it came down well over the waistband of the skirt and gathered around my waist. I put on tons of silver bangles and charm bracelets on my right wrist and hoops at my ears but didn’t add rings and necklaces (in the latter area, I was going to let my cle**age do the work). I finished with pointy-toed, pencil-heeled, sling-backed, black pumps. I left my hair long and wild, had done my makeup in “Drama!” and spritzed with my expensive perfume.