Rock Chick Bonus Tracks

Track 8

Rock Chick Revolution

Never in Any Doubt

* * *

Ren

* * *

Ren opened his eyes to a dark room.

Then he tossed the covers off, angled out of bed and headed downstairs.

He had the kitchen light on and the fridge open by the time she came in the back.

He turned his head to her, doing a quick scan, top to toe.

Seeing no blood, bruising or torn clothing, he relaxed. Not that he’d ever seen any of that, but with her job, the scan had become automatic.

Once he accomplished it, he greeted, “Hey, baby.”

“Hey,”

Ally replied, coming to him.

They touched lips, she reached beyond him, grabbed a Fat Tire and wandered to the drawer where they kept their bottle opener.

She snapped the cap then hefted herself up on her usual place on the counter.

“Baked ziti?” he asked.

“You have a great ass and great eyes and know how to use your dick, but I’d be with you just for your cooking,”

she said by way of reply, then took a drag off her beer, but he didn’t miss her eyes twinkling.

Ren smirked and decided to take that as a yes on the ziti.

He cracked the lid and threw the Tupperware in the microwave.

When it was nuking, he leaned a hip on the counter.

“Tonight go okay?” he asked.

“My brother is a badass.”

She was ride-along with Lee that night.

“Know that. Did you learn anything?”

“I learned my brother is more badass than I already knew, and I thought he was a pretty kickass badass already.”

Ren crossed his arms on his chest and smiled at her.

She wound her head around to get tension out of her neck, and he didn’t like it.

“What?”

he pushed quietly.

“It’s like, he’s forgotten more than I’ll ever learn,”

she told him.

“He’s been doing this for years. You’ve been officially doing it for a couple of months.”

“Yeah. I told myself that. Newsflash, it didn’t make me feel any better.”

Ren felt a heat start burning in his chest. “Lee make you feel like this isn’t what you should be doing?”

He asked because he wasn’t convinced Lee was fully onboard, even if he said he was. Since he said it, he’d put training and ride-alongs behind that assertion.

Still.

Your little sister enters a game that can be dangerous, even if you say you’ve got her back, you might still do shit to put her off, even unconsciously.

She shook her head. “No. He was cool. He’s patient. It wasn’t like I fucked up. It’s just…he’s such a natural at this shit. He thinks five moves ahead. He’s so intuitive, it’s like he knows what someone is going to do before they know they’re going to do it.”

“Again, he’s been doing this longer than you. You’ll get to that place.”

“I—”

He cut her off gently. “Don’t.”

She shut her mouth.

“This is what you want,”

Ren reminded her. “This is who you are. You’re going to have times like these. Times where you question yourself. You gotta shake that off and keep going.”

She held his gaze for long beats.

Then she whispered, “My champion.”

“Fuck yeah,”

he whispered back.

She smiled the famous Nightingale smile at him.

The microwave binged.

Ren walked across the hall and entered Ally’s offices to see if she wanted to head out and get a quick lunch.

He stopped inside the door when he saw Tex’s enormous back, seeing as Tex was standing in front of Daisy’s desk, all but obscuring it.

And Daisy didn’t have a small desk.

He also looked to Ally’s office, which had a wall of windows.

She wasn’t there.

“It’s not like she’s gotta pay my insurance,”

Tex boomed, bringing Ren’s attention back to them. “Indy’s got that covered. She’s just gotta throw me some action once in a while. In case you haven’t noticed, woman, shit around here has gotten boring.”

“I hear you, sugar,”

Daisy replied. “But it isn’t like her cases all have high-speed chases and shootouts.”

Thank fuck, Ren thought.

“A lot of times it’s staking someone out and waiting for your shot to close in and take pictures of someone doin’ the nasty,”

Daisy went on.

“Want no part in that,”

Tex mumbled (but somehow, it was still a boom).

Daisy’s tinkling laughter sounded. “I hear that too. I see the pictures. Me and my Marcus went to this place that had a lot of mirrors once, and I was sure to get prepared. Good hair. Full face of makeup. Glitter dust on my skin. The nasty is just nasty if you don’t go in prepared.”

Tex’s hand shot up. “Too much information,”

he growled.

Ren agreed.

He also walked forward.

Tex swung around and Daisy smiled at Ren. She did it the way only Daisy can do it…huge. “Hey there, honey bunches of oats.”

“Hey, Daisy,”

he replied, and looked to the big man. “Tex.”

“Zano.”

“I take it Ally isn’t here?”

he asked Daisy.

“Due back soon. Want me to send her over?”

“Would you? If she has time, wanna take my woman to lunch.”

“Love to, darlin’.”

He nodded to her, lifted his chin to Tex, then he headed back to his office.

When he got there, their new receptionist, Sarah, who was quiet, pretty, in her mid-forties, and very good at her job, immediately said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Zano. I tried to stop him.”

Shit.

“But your uncle is here. He’s in your office,”

she finished.

Fantastic.

“I really did try to stop him,”

she went on.

“It’s okay, Sarah,”

he assured. “He’s unstoppable if he wants to be.”

She appeared relieved he understood.

Ren headed to his office.

Vito didn’t get up when he hit it, just turned in his chair and watched as Ren walked to his desk.

He sat behind it and didn’t get a word in before Vito spoke.

“Father Paolo says Ally’s takin’ Catholic classes.”

Ren nodded. “She is.”

“Good,”

he grunted.

Vito said no more.

Neither did Ren.

They hadn’t spoken since the big blowup. Even though Vito was sitting right there, Ren knew it was going to have to be him who officially extended the olive branch. Vito was too damned stubborn to do it. It just pissed him off it had to be him.

But family was family.

Vito taught him that.

He opened his mouth.

Vito beat him to it again.

“You know,”

Vito began, “before we got married, Angela and me named all our kids.”

Ren felt something tighten in his chest since he knew with this opener it was story time from Vito, he just wasn’t going to like this story. He also knew, when Vito was in the mood to tell a story, he had no choice but to sit back and listen.

So he did that.

“We picked eight names. The middle name and everything,”

Vito shared. “Not that we wanted eight kids. We wanted four. But, you know, you never know what a kid’s gonna come out like. We figured we’d have to have alternates just in case an Antonio turned out to be a Massimo.”

“Right,”

Ren said quietly.

“We gave it time in the beginning. I just wanted Angela. She just wanted me. But we knew when we were gonna add on. We had it all planned. We had years, we thought, to make our family.”

Vito and Angela were childless.

Yeah, he knew he wasn’t going to like this story.

“Vito,”

Ren whispered.

It was like he didn’t speak.

Vito continued.

“When the time came, months went by. Years. Nothin’. Took her to doctors, every one we could find in Denver. One in LA. One in San Francisco. Two in New York. One in DC.”

Christ.

“It was just not gonna happen,”

he carried on. “They all said the same things. Even when science advanced, it wouldn’t have happened. My Angela just didn’t have something down there that worked right.”

Ren said nothing.

“She tried to leave me.”

Ren said something to that.

“Jesus.”

Vito was a family man. He was also Italian. He was powerful, and he was wealthy.

But Ren had never even seen him look at another woman other than his wife.

He and Vito had a father-son relationship, and Vito didn’t share about that kind of thing. But Ren would be shocked stupid if Vito had ever stepped out on Angela.

He loved her. Doted on her.

Dom could be an ass, but Vito hadn’t given up on him, until Dom started cheating on Sissy. That was something he couldn’t abide, a character flaw that Vito found indefensible. Ren agreed.

It also gave further evidence to the thought that Vito would never do that to his own wife, and not because God said you shouldn’t cheat.

Because he respected her too much.

He loved her too much.

And just that she was the only woman he wanted.

“She knew I wanted kids as bad as she did,”

Vito kept going. “The problem wasn’t with me. It was with her. She thought if I was free to find another woman, I’d have what I needed most in this world. It was the hardest blow I’ve ever sustained.”

Ren again said nothing, but this time, he didn’t because of the look that came into his uncle’s eyes.

“I fell down on the job, son. That my Angela would ever…ever think I needed anything else in this world. I died a little death when she said that to me. I still haven’t recovered, and she said that shit to me thirty years ago. Hear me, Lorenzo, make certain your woman knows, without ever questioning, that there is not one thing on this earth you need more than her at your side.”

“Think you already taught me that, Uncle Vito,”

Ren murmured.

Again, it was like Ren didn’t speak.

“You’re my boy,”

Vito said softly. “You all grown up, not wantin’ to do what I did, makin’ it plain you didn’t wanna be grown up and be like me. That was the second hardest blow I ever took.”

Goddamn fuck.

“Vito—”

His uncle raised his hand. “I get it. Talked with Angela about it. She told me what a stubborn ass I am and that I did what I did for the reasons I did it. But I’m not you. Any good father lets their son choose his own path. It isn’t an indictment if they don’t choose yours. It’s a gift you got to give. And I fell down again because I didn’t give it.”

“I should have been more sensitive to you bein’ in that place,”

Ren replied.

Vito shook his head. “It’s on me to show you the way. You and Ally, you’re gonna have kids. You gotta know the way. That’s the only path it’s on me to show you. You’re young. Got your life ahead of you. It’s not on you to make shit easy on me. It’s on me to show you the way.”

“You showed me the way, Uncle Vito,”

he said low.

This time, Vito nodded his head. “Proud of you, son. Proud of your cousin for gettin’ his head out of his ass and turnin’ his attention to his wife, where it should be. Wasn’t sure he had that in him. He’s a lucky guy, she gave him a second chance. But you, Lorenzo. I’ve always been proud of you.”

Fuck it.

Ren stood and walked around the desk.

Vito stood and turned to Ren.

When Ren got close, Vito’s hand shot out, curved around the back of Ren’s neck, and he yanked him into his body, wrapping his other arm around. Ren took the same hold, neck and back, and as men do, they both pounded the love into each other’s shoulder blades.

The door opened.

They broke and looked that way.

Ally was backing out. “I’ll just come back.”

Vito clapped his hands. “Nope! I’m gone. Said what had to be said.”

He clamped his hand on the side of Ren’s neck and squeezed while looking into his eyes.

Ren smirked.

“Love you too, Uncle Vito,” he said.

Vito nodded once, let Ren go, walked to the door, stopped so Ally could kiss his cheek, then he was gone.

Ally didn’t move into the room after the door closed behind him when she asked, “You okay?”

“He was hurt I didn’t want to follow in his footsteps.”

Understanding lit on her face. “Ah.”

“He’s over it now.”

“Good.”

Ren tipped his head to the side. “Is there some reason you’re standing all the way over there?”

“Yes. Because I feel the need to comfort you, which will lead to us fucking on your desk again, and I’m hungry. A miracle has happened. I’m so hungry, I want to eat instead of fuck. Or, at least, before we fuck. Does this mean we’re turning into an old, staid, boring couple?”

He moved her way, grinning and saying, “No. It just means you’re hungry.”

He put his hands to her hips when he arrived at her. “And just sayin’, stomach rumbles are a turn off, baby.”

She smiled at him.

He took her in.

He’d had dreams too.

Dreams, actually, of finding a woman like Angela.

A woman like Sissy.

Quiet and supportive, happy to keep house and plan parties and build her life around her man.

His first indication that wasn’t what was truly in his heart was when he became attracted to Ava.

The definite proof was when Ally walked out on him because he struggled with holding on to a dream that wasn’t ever his. It was Vito’s.

His dream was standing right in front of him, sass and fire and strength, and so much love, her every move was guided by it.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

she asked.

“Because Vito and I talked about something else. Now I realize how much I fucked up when I fell down on the job.”

“Fell down on what job?”

“The job of making sure you know, and you’re never in any doubt, that there is not one thing I need on this earth more than having you at my side.”

She leaned into him and whispered, “Ren.”

Christ, he loved it when she said his name like that.

Especially when it came with her beautiful face getting soft like that.

Just for him.

She had a lot of love to give.

But that was all his.

“So, I’m going to say it now and do my damnedest to show it from now on. But that’s where I’m at.”

“We had a hiccup, it’s over,”

she asserted.

“I nearly lost you, and we’re not getting lunch until you know I’m not gonna fuck up like that again.”

“It isn’t about the fact I’m seriously hungry that I share, I already know that, Ren Zano, and I’m not in any doubt.”

“Good,”

he grunted.

“Though, you’re gonna have to get over the stomach rumbles.”

“Why?”

She started pushing him backward. “Because you’re being so sweet, I need to blow you.”

He smiled down at her, not about to argue.

So he didn’t.

Rock Chick Rewind – Hit Play

Darius

Some time ago…

Ally collapsed on the couch at his side.

“Ugh,”

she groaned.

Darius turned his head and grinned at her. “What?”

“Look at them,”

she said, throwing out her hand. “I wish they would just get together already.”

Darius looked, but he knew what she was talking about. He’d been watching this shit play out for a long time.

Indy was flirting with Brian Archer, doing this to rile Lee. Although she was too into doing it that she didn’t notice she was achieving her goal: Lee was staring at Archer like he wanted to rip his head off.

Indy had the patience of a gnat. If she’d stop trying so hard to get Lee to notice her, she’d notice he was all about her, and she just had to wait for him to make his move.

Good or bad, guys needed it like that.

At least, guys like Lee.

“She’s fourteen,”

Darius pointed out.

“So?”

Ally, also fourteen, asked.

“He’s gotta wait at least until she’s eighteen.”

“Why?”

Darius fake leered at her.

“Gross!”

she shouted.

Darius started laughing.

She put her hands to her ears. “La, la, la, not thinking about that.”

“You’re the one who came over here, complainin’ about them getting together.”

“Yeah, Darius,”

she said his name like “duh,”

and he fought busting a gut laughing.

Shit, Ally Nightingale was funny.

He loved her. It was a brother-sister type of love, but even if he was seventeen and she was fourteen, he felt it in a way he knew it’d never die.

“But that’s about me,”

she concluded.

Now he was confused. “What?”

“They get together, stay together and get married, she’s my real sister, and, like, we’ll spend Christmases and vacations together.”

“You already do that.”

“Well, some other guy takes her and whisks her off to some boondocks, I won’t get to do that anymore, will I?”

she returned.

“India Savage is never gonna live in the boondocks,”

he replied. “And she’s never gonna leave you.”

Or Lee, he didn’t add, but if anyone knew that, Ally did.

“Whatever,”

she muttered. “We need someone to go out and score some beer.”

“We’re in your mom and dad’s basement.”

“And?”

“And your dad is a cop and he’s sitting upstairs, watching TV.”

She rolled her eyes.

Rarely did Ally let that get in her way, except when she was under her father’s roof.

He had this thought as he noticed movement across the room.

He shifted his attention there and watched Hank, down from school in Boulder for the weekend, stick his head in the door. He whistled then gestured to Lee. Lee stopped staring murder at Archer and went to the door. Hank repeated this with Eddie. Eddie quit jacking around pretending not to flirt with Jaclyn Johnson while still flirting so good, he was going to get in her pants soon, and he followed Lee.

Darius waited for his summons. Hank’s face had been weird.

What was weirder was the summons didn’t come.

The door closed behind Eddie and that was it.

“Sooooooo,”

Ally drew that out, also drawing Darius’s attention. “Malia Clark. You two are hot and heavy, hunh?”

“Gonna marry her,”

Darius said without hesitation, and he shook off the weird feeling he got from the look he saw on Hank’s face, the fact Lee and Eddie got the call, but he didn’t, and he was never left out, and he grinned big at Ally’s huge eyes.

Mostly, he grinned big thinking about Malia.

“She’s smart. She’s classy. She’s beautiful,”

he explained.

“Check. Check. And check. But, dude…married?”

“Not like…now. After I get back from Yale and she finishes getting her law degree. Okay, maybe before she finishes that. We can get married when she’s in law school.”

Ally stretched out her lips. “Yikes. You have it all planned out.”

He did.

His dad told him he knew, the minute he met Darius’s mom. He knew that was the only woman for him.

Darius didn’t get it when his dad said it.

Until he met Malia.

One thing he did get, and always got, was that he was totally like his dad.

“I like you two together,”

Ally said quietly. “You’re sweet. She’s sweet. You’re good-looking, or as good-looking as my brother from another mother can be.”

He shot her another grin.

“She’s gorgeous. Perfect match,”

she finished.

“Yeah,”

he agreed, distracted because the door opened again, and Eddie came through.

But he didn’t fully come in.

He stepped to the side and Lee filled the doorway.

They both had eyes to him, and he liked the looks on their faces a whole lot less than the one that was on Hank’s.

“Hey, bro, can you come upstairs a second?”

Lee called.

“What’s going on?”

Ally asked.

“Don’t know,”

Darius said, pushing out of the couch.

Ally came up with him.

“Just Darius, yeah, cari?o?”

Eddie said to Ally, all gentle like.

And…damn.

Eddie didn’t pull out the cari?o for anybody.

Ally must have felt that too, because for once, Ally did what someone asked rather than doing whatever the hell she wanted.

Lee walked partly up the steps to get out of his way before Darius stopped in the small landing at the foot of the stairs at the door to the rec room. Eddie came into the space, crowding him and closing the door behind him.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Just…”

Lee’s voice sounded choked. “Come upstairs,”

he finished, like he was forcing out the words.

Nope.

Darius didn’t like this shit at all.

They got up the stairs and into the kitchen, and he liked this less.

He noticed it all, all at once.

He did this knowing, even if he lived to be a hundred, he’d never forget it.

Not any of it.

Hank was shoulders against the back wall, arms crossed on his chest, ankles crossed, head bent so deep, Darius couldn’t see his face.

Tom was sitting at the table.

His eyes came right to Darius.

His face was ravaged.

Malcolm was standing, holding Kitty Sue.

Kitty Sue was silently crying.

Malcolm looked wrecked.

Darius’s insides seized.

“What’s up?”

he repeated, but this time his voice was small.

Because he knew.

His mom.

One of his sisters.

Maybe an accident.

It was something like that.

Something bad.

Kitty Sue stepped out of Malcolm’s hold and called, “Honey, come here.”

He didn’t go there.

He backed up and ran into a wall that was made of Lee and Eddie.

One of them grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt.

The other wrapped his hand around the back of Darius’s neck.

Fuck, he knew.

This was bad.

The adults, they didn’t know. They didn’t know how to deal.

And two of them were fucking cops.

It was Hank.

It was Hank who lifted his head, looked Darius in his eyes, and the infinite sorrow and pain and love in his made Darius’s knees weak.

And then Hank opened his mouth and said words that changed Darius forever.

* * *

Fast Forward – Hit Play

His boy approached, wearing cap and gown.

He went to his momma first.

She hugged him and the tears fell silently from her eyes.

They held on a good while before Liam touched his forehead to hers, smiled at her, let her go and then bent to pick up his baby sister.

“Congradlations, LeeLee!”

she shouted.

Liam grinned at her, let her hug him and give him a wet kiss on his cheek.

Then he put her down and turned to his father.

Darius waited for him to make the move.

He did.

Liam wrapped his arms around his dad and pounded him on the back.

Darius returned the gesture.

“Proud of you,”

Darius muttered.

“Yeah. Proud of you too.”

Darius swallowed.

Liam held on.

“Oh my God, stop hugging. If you don’t, I won’t stop crying, and I’m hungry. I need to eat,”

Malia demanded.

Darius and Liam both leaned back, but they didn’t let go.

They just smiled at each other.

Only then did they let go.

Liam claimed his baby sister again, planting her on his hip.

Darius claimed his wife.

They followed their kids to the car.

And then Darius Tucker took his family to dinner.

Fast Forward – Way Forward – Hit Play

Jimmy Marker

Jimmy’d had the bottle a long time.

A long…fucking…time.

He took it from the place it had inhabited for years at the back of the fridge, got the glasses and walked out on the deck where his wife was sitting.

She looked to the bottle, the glasses, then to her husband.

“No,”

she said, not believing it.

It had been years.

But now…it was official.

He sat, put the glasses down on their patio table, and started to take the foil off the two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar bottle of champagne.

“Jorge called,” he said.

“From Phoenix?”

she asked.

“Yup.”

Jimmy’s friend, and ex-colleague, Jorge Alvarez, was now in Phoenix.

In fact, Jorge moved down there fifteen years ago, and now he was Chief of Police in Phoenix.

Jimmy threw the foil on the table and went after untwisting the wire.

“Cap Jackson moved down there. He’s gonna be part of the new NI setup. Their new branch.”

His wife appeared confused. “Cap Jackson? Is he any relation to Roam and Sniff?”

“Yup.”

Jimmy popped the cork and started pouring while explaining, “Seeing as he is Sniff. Kid got back from the Army and he’s no kid anymore. You might try to call him Sniff if you wanted your face rearranged. They called him Cap in the military, not because of his rank. Short for Captain America. And not just because he’s strong, loyal and fearless. But because he looks like Chris Evans, and word got ’round about the scrawny bugger he used to be. The name stuck when he got back.”

His wife fought a smile as she said, “Oh boy.”

“Oh boy is right,”

Jimmy agreed. “And Jorge tells me some vigilante, calling themselves the ‘Avenging Angel,’ is doin’ stupid shit in Phoenix.”

“Oh boy,”

his wife repeated, her eyes lighting.

“Yup,”

Jimmy said yet again, putting the bottle down, picking up both the glasses and handing one to his wife. “Jorge suspects this Avenging Angel is female.”

She was losing the fight with her smile.

Jimmy kept talking.

“And as we both know, Phoenix isn’t even in the same fucking state as Denver. So way, way out of my jurisdiction.”

His woman lost it and started laughing.

Jimmy offered his glass for a clink. His wife reached out and clinked.

“Here’s to Jorge having a shit ton of patience. Here’s to that shit happening down there and not up here. And here’s to it finally being over.”

“And here’s to new adventures in true love,”

she returned.

“Whatever,”

he muttered.

She kept laughing even as she drank, which meant she started choking.

Christ, his wife was a goof.

But fuck, he loved her.