This time I felt a not so weird pain slice through my belly. There was no denying the respect in his voice.

“All right,” I said but my voice (damn it all to hell) betrayed me. It sounded small and hurt.

“Babe?” he heard and read my voice.

“Later,” I said.

“Babe,” his voice went low and I knew he wanted me to share.

“We’re at King Soopers, gotta go,” I shut it down, not about to share.

“Jesus, Ava,” he said, his voice strangely part curt, part amused like he found dealing with me frustrating but he found that frustration enjoyable. “It’s a good thing your sweet body and the f**kin’ things you don’t even know you’re doin’ give you away or you’d be a serious pain in the ass.”

I had no idea what he meant (okay, I knew what part of it meant) but I still said, “I’m so sure!”

“Later,” he said, now fully amused then he disconnected.

Santo was driving, Lucky in the passenger seat, Sissy and me in the back. I looked at Sissy when I flipped the phone closed and she was grinning at me, eyes shiny happy.

“You are so not f**k buddies,” she said.

Santo and Lucky glanced at each other.

Argh!

We’d trolled through King Soopers and I bought some food to supplement the anti-healthy living mojo provisions that I bought with Ren. Sandra’s supplies were running low.

Sissy and I carried them up to Luke’s loft (Santo and Lucky stayed downstairs) and put them away. We gabbed while I did laundry and changed the sheets on the bed and she swept the floors.

Then I went to work and Sissy went to the stereo.

I was finishing up a marketing leaflet for a client when we heard “Sissy!” shouted from outside.

My eyes swung to Sissy and found hers on me.

“Sisssss-eeeeeee!”

“Holy crap,” Sissy breathed and ran to the window.

I nabbed my phone and followed her.

“Sissy, I know you’re up there!”

I made it to Sissy at the window, flipped open my phone at the same time and hit the green button.

I looked down and saw Dom standing in the middle of the street, stopping traffic. Santo and Lucky were approaching him but he dodged them, running around in the street while he shouted. “Sisssss-eeeeeeee!”

“Holy shit, he’s like Stanley Kowalski without the rain and with two guys chasing him,” I breathed.

“Babe,” Luke said in my ear, making me jump.

“Dom’s here,” I told him.

“We’re on it. Stay in the loft.”

Disconnect.

I flipped the phone shut and watched as Dom kept yelling for Sissy and Santo and Lucky kept trying to catch him.

All of a sudden Sissy whispered, “I have to go to him,” and then she started to take off.

My stomach plummeted. “Sis, no!” I yelled and ran after her.

Catching up, I threw my arms around her waist trying to hold her back. We started stand-up wrestling then we fell to the floor with a (somewhat painful) thud. Sissy was so determined to get to Dom and I was so determined she would not, we immediately started lying down wrestling, rolling around on the floor, each of us trying to get the upper hand all the while cars honked and people were shouting outside, including Dom.

“Ava, he’s my husband!” she screamed, still struggling.

“I know! Let Luke deal with it,” I told her, trying to capture her hands.

Then we both froze as we heard gunfire. Three shots; bang, bang, bang!

And let me tell you, it was a terrifying noise.

I rolled off her. She and I got up and ran back to the window. We made it there just in time to see the blue SUV peeling away, its front end damaged from rear-ending me. No sign of Dom, Santo was running to the Volvo, Lucky running into the building and a Black Explorer was in pursuit.

I ran to my cell which I’d dropped in the Sissy Wrestling Match and phoned Luke.

I heard the connect and before he could say a word I screeched, “Gunshots!”

“I know, babe. Stay in the loft. Buzz Lucky up now. I want him with you until I can get a man on you. Got me?”

“Yeah.”

“Stay calm. Darius and Hector are in pursuit. They’ve reported in. Tell Sissy Vincetti’s okay. They didn’t hit him.”

“Okay.”

“You good?”

“I’m good,” and I sounded good, calm and rational (after my initial “gunshots” squeal) which was way weird because I was not good. I hated Dom but I didn’t want people shooting at him, especially not with Sissy in hearing distance.

“Solid,” he said in a soft voice then he disconnected.

Shit!

I did it again, exposing my strong woman-in-a-crisis. When was I going to learn?

I told Sissy Dom was okay (for now, though I didn’t share that part), Luke was going to call when they knew something and I buzzed Lucky up.

While we waited, Lucky called Ren. Sissy paced. I went to Luke’s utility room to take the clothes out of the dryer, switch them with the clothes in the washer and throw some more clothes in to wash. While I was there I tidied up the utility room (seriously, how Luke could find anything was a mystery, there was stuff all over the place and it appeared he hadn’t done laundry since the beginning of time).

I was putting away the last newly cleaned pair of Luke’s socks when the elevator doors opened. I expected to see one of the Hot Bunch but instead Luke walked in with a guy who looked a lot like Eddie Chavez except rougher around the edges. He may have looked rough but you could tell it was because he liked it that way and, I had to admit looking at him, I liked it that way too. Yum.

“Dom,” Sissy breathed, pulling me out of my mini-perv for Rough Hot Guy and I shut Luke’s sock drawer. She was in a state and I found myself wishing that Dom was a better guy and deserved this kind of devotion.

Why Dom was out in the street screaming her name, who knew? It was clear he didn’t like the idea of someone hitting her but I wasn’t a big fan of better a husband loves and protects his wife especially when she’s my bestest best friend late than never. I felt more that a husband should love and protect his wife always not after she got punched in the face by a big, burly, bad guy while in the throes of a kidnap attempt.

Nevertheless seeing as this was Sissy, I walked over to her to provide moral support.

“They got him,” Luke said and Sissy pursed her lips together, taking a deep breath through her nose at the same time and nodded. Luke went on. “The police got the boys who grabbed him,” Luke’s gaze moved to Lucky. “Hector and Darius handed Vincetti over to Santo. Santo is taking him to Vito.”