“Rock Chick Investigations,” I announced and felt all eyes on me. “Colors, hot pink and black.”

“Aces,” Sadie breathed.

I looked at her and grinned. “I know, right?”

“That’s perfect,” Jet said.

“Hot pink and black, like the book,” Roxie pointed out.

I moved my eyes to her and nodded.

As if on cue, Tex boomed from behind the espresso counter, “Loopy Loo! B.A.! You feel like workin’ or you gonna hen peck all day?” He looked to Duke who was beside him. “And where’s Jane? Indy’s at home hurlin’. Loopy Loo’s in the bathroom all the time. We need f**kin’ help.”

He stopped booming long enough to point at me before he started up again.

“You! B.A.! You got a man in your bed now, you get pregnant, I’m quittin’.”

The customer waiting at the end of the counter for her coffee turned to me and immediately begged, “Please don’t get pregnant. My life sucks. All I have to look forward to every day is this crazy guy’s coffee. If he quits, what will I do?”

“I’m not getting pregnant,” I assured her and she looked visibly relieved. I then turned my attention to Tex. “And you’ve only got two customers. You and Duke can handle it.”

“I got two customers, but I’m low on mugs. You want me to fill ‘em, you wash ‘em. I don’t wash. I fill. That’s the deal,” Tex shot back (loudly). “So get to clearin’ and cleanin’.”

This was true.

Still, I was doing something.

I was also curious.

“What’s with the B.A. shit?” I asked.

“Bad,” Tex pointed at me, “Ass.”

Holy crap!

I loved that!

I was Fortnum’s own Mr. T, except white, female and without the Mohawk.

Righteous!

“You know,” Jet put in. “Because Indy’s not here doesn’t make you the boss. If anyone’s the boss, it’s Duke.”

Tex turned to Duke and declared (again loudly), “I don’t wash.”

“Man, been workin’ beside you two years. I know you don’t wash. I don’t care that you don’t wash. What I do care about is you shoutin’ at me when I’m two feet away. And don’t shout at the girls either. They’ll get to the empties.” Duke shook his head. “Jesus. You just got married a few days ago. You’d think connin’ a good woman into takin’ your name would get you to cool it.”

“You got married?” the customer Duke was handing coffee asked Tex and didn’t wait for an answer before she said, “Congratulations.”

“Shut it,” Tex boomed.

“Tex!” Jet snapped.

“What?” he snapped back.

Jet gave up on Tex and looked at the customer. “I’m sorry.”

“He’s told me to shut it three times this week,” the woman replied then took a sip of coffee, lifted her paper cup and let that say what she needed it to say (and it said it) before she wandered out of the store.

Tex piped down and I turned my attention to Sadie when she asked, “Where is Jane anyway?”

There were some looks and no one said anything so I waded in. “Do you all know?”

“About the book?” Jet asked and I nodded.

“Yep,” Stella said.

“Mm-hmm,” Roxie mumbled.

“Hector told me this morning,” Sadie added.

“Marcus told me last night. Shocked the shit outta me at first, then I got it,” Daisy said.

I tested the waters. “Are any of you angry?”

“Hell no,” Stella answered right away. “My record company is beside themselves. They say those books are gonna sell a shit ton of records. Mace is still pissed though. First he was pissed because the books existed. Now he’s pissed because he can’t say anything. Then again, Mace has a short fuse and he gets pissed a lot.”

This was true, but the sultry grin on her face said, at least for her, this wasn’t a bad thing.

“I know,” Jet put in. “Anyone but Jane, those guys would lose their minds. Jane, though, she wouldn’t hurt a fly. So what do you do?”

“Hector doesn’t care,” Sadie added. “Then again, he was more worried about me.” Her eyes wandered the room and she continued quietly as they did, “But this place, it’s where dreams come true.” She looked to us. “So why shouldn’t Jane’s come true, too?”

“You got that right, sister,” I replied and Sadie smiled.

The bell over the door went and a couple of customers walked in.

Tex took this as his prompt to shout, “Hello! Empties?”

Jet jumped up.

I reached in, commandeered the laptop touchpad, clicked and looked to Roxie. “Can we work with that one?”

She smiled. “Absolutely.”

I smiled back, got up and got to work.

In order not to set Tex off, I bided my time and corralled Duke when Tex had plenty of clean mugs to fill, Jet was not in the bathroom and we were in a rare lull.

I approached Duke behind the book counter.

“Two shakes?” I asked.

“Got as many shakes as you need, darlin’,” he answered.

I grinned, got close and put my back to the room. “Don’t wanna take you out of this space and make anyone curious by going into the books but I need your wisdom. I also need your promise you won’t share anything I say until we decide it needs to be shared.”

“Won’t say a word, Ally.”

I nodded and got a little closer. Then, as quietly as I could, as fast as I could but as thorough as I could, I shared the situation with Darius, Malia and Liam Edward Clark.

When I stopped talking, his eyes were wide and his lips formed the gravelly words, “Fuckin’ hell.”

“I know,” I agreed.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he repeated.

“I know, Duke,” I replied. “Now what do we do?”

For some reason, he turned his head and looked to the front door. What he did not do was look back at me.

“Duke?” I called.

That was when he looked back at me to say, “It’s worse than I thought.”

“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled.

“I need time with this,” he told me.

I got that, so I nodded.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Duke repeated.

“Duke—”

He interrupted me. “Would sell my soul to have Joshua back. He’s got a boy in this town he don’t see?”