Luke moved in to help Mace jerk Gibbons to his feet. They didn’t go cautiously and his head snapped around, and not a little.

A lot.

I fought a smirk.

“What’s goin’ on? What the f**k is goin’ on?” Smithie shouted, elbowing his way in.

“Don’t know how I took him down, seein’ as I’ve gone blind,” Mace stated, ignoring Smithie.

“I hear you, man,” Luke agreed.

“What the f**k is goin’ on?” Smithie yelled.

That was when Lee appeared.

My brother. He didn’t let me know, but he was also taking my back.

I was feeling slightly gushy and very jazzed when Lee said, “Cruiser’s outside. Haul him out. Smithie, you come with me.”

“You gonna tell me what he f**k is goin’ on?” Smithie asked.

“Yes,” Lee answered.

Smithie glared at him. Then he glared at me.

I tipped my head to the side and gave him a scrunchy face.

Lee either didn’t see Smithie’s glare or didn’t care. His eyes went beyond Smithie and he ordered, “Clear this place out.”

I looked that way just in time to see Lenny saying, “Gotcha.”

Lenny moved out and I looked at Gibbons.

He didn’t look upset.

He looked smug.

“Uh… just so you know, ass**le dickhead of huge proportions,” I called. His eyes came to me, and I noted when they did, “Good you know your name. Your crew?” I asked and shook my head. “Right now, they’re taking rides in cruisers, too.”

Gibbons stopped looking smug.

“Funny, thinking with your dick brought you to this pass, seeing as you are a dick,” I noted.

“Smithie,” Lee cut into my fun. “Your office.”

On a lingering glare at all of us, Smithie moved toward his office.

Lee moved, too.

He moved into Gibbons space and he got nose to nose with the ass**le (or kind of; Lee was three inches taller).

“After your stay at the penitentiary, you get out, you get the f**k out of town,” he ordered. “Denver’s mine, and I don’t like your kind here. Now you think on that. You ask around. Name’s Lee Nightingale, but I suspect you know that. And I suspect you know to get your ass out of my town. You don’t and we meet again, there won’t be a cruiser.”

“Fuck you,” Gibbons spat.

“Good,” Lee whispered, getting closer. “I hope you’re not smart, because I’m lookin’ forward to meetin’ you again.”

Gibbons held Lee’s eyes.

Lee didn’t give him the honor of a staredown.

He sauntered away.

“We’ll meet again, bitch,” Gibbons promised me, and my eyes went to his.

I clasped my hands together in front of me and cried in a shrill girlie voice, “Oh goodie! I didn’t get to use my balls-in-a-vice move tonight and I was so wanting to.”

Mace jerked Gibbons around and started marching him to the door.

Luke grinned at me before he followed.

I watched for a beat then looked through the thinning crowd the bouncers were showing to the door to see Ren standing at the edge, arms crossed on his chest, eyes on me, face carefully blank but eyes burning.

“I still have some work to do, honey,” I told him. “Can you wait for me?”

He shook his head, but his lips quirked and he answered, “Yeah, babe.”

I smiled at him.

Then I hightailed my sequin-pantied ass to the dressing room.

* * * * *

Led by Eddie and Jimmy Marker, detectives and uniforms were in the dressing room taking statements from strippers, waitresses and the female bartender.

After I’d changed into tee, boots and jeans, I’d talked all the girls into making statements. I would like to have been able to tell my brother my efforts at this were heroic. But once they all learned that Smithie and his family were no longer in jeopardy, they jumped at the chance.

I was leaning against the wall with my arms crossed on my chest beside the door as I watched Jimmy with a hand light on JoJo’s arm moving toward my station. JoJo was looking at the floor. I was looking at Jimmy.

“Me and Mizz Christensen need to chat in private,” he murmured as they passed me.

I nodded. I knew what that meant. She had not so fun things to say. And Jimmy, a good man (the best), was going to take her someplace comfortable to say them.

Jimmy kept moving, but he did it with eyes on me.

I tipped my head to the side.

He jerked up his chin.

Then he winked.

I smiled.

He disappeared.

I jumped when not a second later, Luke’s head and shoulders were where Jimmy had just been and he growled, “Ally. You’re needed.”

What?

I didn’t get the chance to verbalize that question. Luke disappeared.

I shoved away from the wall and followed him.

I heard it when I got into the main area of club. Someone was tearing something apart.

And the noise was coming from the direction of Smithie’s office.

That was when I started running.

I passed Luke and hit the stairs to Smithie’s office which was up high, where he had a window out to keep his eyes on the club. I ran up the steps and ran by Ren, Mace and Lee who were standing inside, close to the door, all alert but giving space.

When I hit the office, I saw I was right. The office was a disaster. Completely torn apart.

And Darius was there, close to Smithie, hand out, mouth murmuring, “Calm down, brother.”

Smithie picked up something from his desk and threw it across the room. It slammed into the wood paneling, the paneling buckling all around, and it stayed lodged there.

Then he turned on Darius and shouted, “You been workin’ this case with Ally for days and you didn’t shut that shit down?”

“We didn’t know how bad it was until today,” Darius replied. “Now sit down, you need a deep breath and a drink.”

“I don’t need a f**kin’ drink!” Smithie yelled. “I need to f**k somebody up.”

I got close to Lee, got on my toes and whispered, “Call LaTeesha.”

He turned his eyes down to me. “Ally—”

“Do it, bro.”

I held his eyes. He nodded, peeled off from Ren and Mace and disappeared out the door.

I approached Darius and Smithie.

“Stay back, Ally,” Darius ordered.

“Smithie,” I called, ignoring Darius, but Smithie’s eyes were already on me. “Calm down a sec. The cops are gonna need to talk to you. Then you can continue destroying your office.”