Rock Chick Bonus Tracks
Track 9
82%
Rock Chick Reawakening
Batman
* * *
Marcus
* * *
“Where’s my wife?”
he asked Conchita, their housekeeper, when she poked her head out of one of the rooms as he walked down the hall of his home.
“Upstairs, Mr. Sloan. Your bedroom.”
He nodded and headed that way.
He heard the voices before he got there because the door was open.
But he knew they were there because of the car that was outside.
So he stopped in the door, rested his shoulder on the jamb and just stood there, watching.
His wife was on the bed. She had one of her marabou trim robes on, the blue one. She also had her hair held back in a wide, white band and her face covered in something purple.
Roxie was also there. She too was wearing one of Daisy’s robes, without marabou, and her face was covered in something white.
Last, Annette was there. It was no surprise she picked a marabou robe, and she had on a pair of Daisy’s high-heeled, feathered slippers, even though they didn’t fit her feet, so her heel was hanging over an inch. Her face was covered in something green.
All three were in a line on their backs, their legs straight and up, heels resting on the headboard.
Daisy was speaking. “It drains the nodes.”
“What nodes?”
Annette asked.
“I don’t know what nodes, sugar, I’m no doctor. I just know, you sit like this for a good ten, twenty minutes, the swelling in your feet goes down,”
Daisy shared. “And it also feels good. Energizing-like. But in a relaxing way.”
“Though, the swelling’s not gonna go down so much your size eights change into Daisy’s size sixes,”
Roxie warned, clearly referring to Annette’s feet in the slippers.
“I know I should care that probably some birds lost their lives for these feathers, but I feel like such a girl in them,”
Annette declared. “It’s phat.”
“I hear that, sister,”
Daisy said. “I got a strict rule. Feathers, but no fur. I know birds got rights too, but a girl’s gotta draw the line somewhere and still get her pretty things.”
A rule, one of many, Daisy lived by.
“Don’t tell Jason I wore this robe,”
Annette ordered.
Annette’s partner was a vegetarian.
Marcus heard his wife’s extraordinary laugh. He also, like always, felt it in the left side of his chest.
“Your secret’s safe with us,”
she assured.
“I can feel my face morphing,”
Annette announced. “It’s like I’m ten years younger already.”
“That’s the point, darlin’,”
Daisy told her. “Though, it ain’t the truth, it’s the point. Doin’ nice things for yourself makes you feel like a million bucks.”
“Amma used to be my guru, you’re my guru now,”
Annette declared.
“Let Amma keep your spirit, sugar,”
Daisy advised. “I’ll take care of your skin.”
“Deal!”
Annette exclaimed, punching the air as her exclamation point.
Again, he heard his wife’s laughter.
Silently, Marcus moved out of the doorway.
It was girl time for Daisy.
All her life, she’d wanted girls to share facials and feet-swelling remedies with.
Now she had them.
It wasn’t like he felt he was intruding, and not just because it would upset Daisy greatly if she knew he thought that way.
It was that, a person like Daisy, who had the love Daisy had to give, and who deserved all the love she could get, having that hole in her life all her life…she had some making up to do.
It was fortunate the Rock Chicks gave sisterhood better than any other.
They’d make that up in no time at all.
Indeed, maybe they already had.
He still left them to it.
Because Daisy deserved a lot of love.
And the Rock Chicks did too.
They were at the breakfast table and his wife had just slid his plate in front of him.
He’d kept in shape before her with daily workouts.
When she entered his life, he adjusted his eating schedule where lunches were light, or he just had a protein drink, and he added a half an hour to his workouts. He did this because her Southern breakfasts had also entered his life.
“Thank you, darling,”
he murmured, picking up his fork when she sat down. After he swallowed his first bite, he asked, “What are your plans for today?”
“Got a scheduled RCG at Fortnum’s this mornin’,”
she answered, scooping up some of her hash brown casserole.
RCG was the acronym for Rock Chick Gathering. These were unofficially official meetings of the Rock Chicks.
However unofficial, attendance was mandatory.
“What’s this one about?”
Marcus asked, hiding his disappointment, something he’d become adept at doing.
It was Saturday.
He wanted her to have girl time, but since the Rock Chicks came into her life, it sometimes interrupted their couple time.
“We’re headin’ off Rock-Chick-Eggedon.”
He chuckled, even not knowing what this was about.
Sadie and Hector’s wedding date was set now that Seth’s release date was set.
Ally had Ren’s ring on her finger.
No one’s apartment had exploded, or business had burned down now for months.
So he figured “Rock-Chick-Eggedon”
was not something he truly had to worry about.
Not anymore.
When Daisy explained, she proved him right.
“We got a situation happening between Kitty Sue, Ally and Indy. See, Kitty Sue wants to host Ally’s shower. But Ally doesn’t want a shower. She says Ren’s all set up and he does the cooking and his towels are real nice, so she doesn’t need any shower type stuff. She said he even has a champagne bucket, so, you know, that there’s proof positive the man is set. Ally just wants a bachelorette party. This, I think, is code for her not wantin’ her momma to throw a shower for her that requires attendees to bring lingerie. Ally’s weird about sex like that.”
Marcus ate, listening and smiling.
“Now, at the same time, we got Indy, who is down with letting Kitty Sue have shower duties, but ain’t no way she’s gonna let Kitty Sue horn in on the bachelorette planning action. So she needs Ally to let her mom throw a shower so she can be clear to throw the bachelorette party. ’Cause Kitty Sue decreed she’s throwin’ somethin’ for her girl. She don’t care what it is. And she’s a momma, so what she says goes.”
“What do you think is going to happen?”
he asked while she took a sip of coffee.
Daisy put her cup down. “Ally will cave and let her mom throw the shower, mostly ’cause Ren’s like you. He’s visual as well as tactile in the sex department, so she needs as many sexy nighties and teddies as she can get. That’ll free Indy to do her bachelorette mojo. Then all will be well again in the world of the Rock Chicks.”
“So really, Ally just needs to stop being stubborn.”
“Yeah, so that’s probably gonna take us through about three of Tex’s lattes, ’cause that girl’s got a chokehold on stubborn.”
Marcus chuckled and continued to eat.
It took him a while to realize Daisy didn’t fill the silence.
He turned his attention from his plate to her.
The instant he did, she asked, “What you doin’ today, honey bunches of love?”
He’d wanted to spend it with her. Maybe take her to a movie. Out to lunch. Spend the day in bed like they used to, ordering in food when they needed it, but mostly just feeding off what they already had. Each other.
“I think I’ll go to the club. See if I can find a foursome to play with.”
Her head tipped to the side and so did her pretty hair.
Her eyes also narrowed.
“You like golf, Marcus?”
she asked a good question, since he’d taken it up only recently.
And actually, he detested it.
But he liked being outside. It worked muscles in a way he didn’t work them in the gym. It was a personal challenge, attempting to better his game, and Marcus liked challenges. And he didn’t mind strolling the eighteen lanes.
“Of course,”
he semi-lied.
Her eyes stayed narrowed.
“Meet you at the club for a late lunch,”
he suggested.
“I don’t know…”
she started slowly. “I might have plans for lunch.”
“Then we’ll go out somewhere for dinner.”
“That sounds good,”
she said, like her thoughts were far away.
“Eat, baby,”
he urged. “You don’t want to be late for the Gathering.”
“Right,”
she mumbled.
Marcus cleaned his plate. Daisy gave him the warning look she always gave him when he made a move to take it to the sink.
Through his wife, he knew no one cleaned the table of a Southern woman, except that Southern woman.
Even so, he’d never take her for granted.
But as she wished, he left it where it was, kissed her cheek, and also left her finishing her coffee.
He needed to find a golf shirt.
He clocked them first on the ninth hole.
Then again on the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth.
It was the fourteenth when club personnel nabbed them.
It was on the fifteenth when a member of staff came and apologized for interrupting his game before asking him if he wouldn’t mind accompanying him to the clubhouse.
Marcus left his foursome and accompanied him.
The man led him to the membership office, stopped outside the closed door, smiled and rather nervously said, “This is an unusual situation, Mr. Sloan. Normally, our members know the rules and follow them. In this case, the rule that states you can’t be on the course unless you have a tee time. Also, members need to sign in non-members if they’re using our facilities. So Mrs. Sloan and her…er…companions…erm…activities on the course are somewhat frowned upon. We were hoping you might have a word with her.”
“I will. Thank you for your discretion.”
“Always a pleasure, Mr. Sloan,”
the man said and scooted away.
Marcus took in a breath before he opened the door.
Shirleen was sitting behind the desk, her feet on top of it, her Louboutin heels on display.
Daisy, Ava and Sadie, the skulking culprits, were sitting in the chairs in front of it, an extra one having been brought in so Sadie could use it.
He could see they’d either divested themselves of their camouflage, or it was confiscated.
“It wasn’t me,”
Shirleen announced. “I was havin’ a drink at the bar while they were doin’ their silly-ass nonsense.”
“Marcus—”
Daisy started.
“Ladies,”
he cut her off, addressing Ava, Sadie and Shirleen. “Do you have rides or do you need me to arrange them for you?”
Shirleen took her feet off the desk. “That means get the fuck out, I got words to say to my wife.”
It absolutely did.
Shirleen stood, “I brought ’em all here. I can take them back. I assume you’ll take Daisy home?”
“You assume correctly,”
Marcus confirmed.
Slowly, Ava and Sadie stood, giving Daisy “I’m sorry”
expressions as they trooped behind Shirleen out the door.
Sadie still had a leaf stuck in the back of her hair.
He waited until it closed, then he shifted his position to lean against it and face his wife.
“Marcus—”
she started again.
“Please begin by explaining why you’re spying on me.”
“I wasn’t spying. You’re my husband. You can’t spy on your husband,”
she returned.
“When you’re wearing a makeshift camo hat with branches stuck in it and lurking through trees on a golf course, watching me when you think I don’t know you’re there, that’s spying.”
She pressed her lips tightly together.
It took effort to keep the bite out of his voice when he demanded. “What is it, Daisy? Do you think I’m cheating on you?”
This was the only thing he could dredge up as explanation for her behavior, considering the foursome he’d joined included two women.
She jumped to her feet and cried, “What? No!”
“Then why on earth would you…and Ava…and Sadie…shove branches in knit caps, don safari shirts and creep through trees watching me?”
She threw her hands out to her sides and snapped, “Because I love you.”
“I know you do. You don’t have to prove it by keeping an eye on me every moment of my life.”
“Take your own advice, darlin’,”
she shot back.
He stiffened.
“Your life can’t be just me,”
she went on.
Marcus stood stone still and silent.
Daisy didn’t.
“In the beginning, I needed it. Lord knew, and definitely you did, that I needed a good man’s attention and his love and devotion. You give your heart, Marcus, and God, there’s so much in there to give. All for me. But I can’t hack it. It’s not fair.”
She walked to him and put both hands on his chest (and he noted she might have been skulking through the rough around six holes of golf, and she might have somehow found a safari outfit to do it in, but she’d also managed to find some camo-covered platform boots to wear with it).
“The time has gone when I need you to give me your everything, Marcus,”
she concluded.
“I realize you have the Rock Chicks now and?—”
“I’m not talking about the Rock Chicks. I’m talking about the rape.”
Marcus clamped his mouth shut and gritted his teeth.
She noticed and cupped his jaw in her hand. “Life is life, sugar bunch. You can’t shield me from it. You can’t cushion every fall I might take. And you can’t live your life in the wings like you’re Batman waitin’ for the Bat Signal to come out so you can be available to swoop to my rescue anytime I might need you. You gotta have your own life. Not one without me, but one that’s about you so it can be as full as it should be. And you’d be givin’ that to me too. Because I want it for you.”
“I have a full life, Daisy.”
She dropped her hand and stepped back. “You have no friends.”
“I don’t need friends.”
“Okay, then, I’ll remind you, you’re not in that business anymore where you gotta always be lookin’ over your shoulder and wonderin’ if every person you deal with is gonna turn around and fuck you over. I’ll also remind you, there are some damn fine men in our midst. They respect you. They like you. Hell, darlin’, you could take your pick, and I bet they’d welcome you.”
“I’m not a beer and wings and football person.”
“Heads up, Marcus. Those boys like their sports, sure, but most of their downtime they spend sittin’ at Lincoln’s, drinkin’ beer and wonderin’ where they went wrong, gettin’ involved with a crazy group of bitches like us. And I’m sure you might have a few things to say on that matter yourself.”
His tone was gentle when he told her the absolute truth. “I never wonder why I’m with you.”
“I bet you wondered why I was there when some lunatic chased my friends down in a haunted house.”
He had to admit, he definitely wondered that.
“Or nearly rolled onto I-25 when someone was chasin’ Ava’s Range Rover.”
And absolutely that.
“Or when someone had to pull me off Harvey Balducci when I was beatin’ his stupid ass in the alley behind a gay bar.”
He didn’t really have to wonder about that.
“Or when Roxie and I got shot at when that bad man from Chicago’s boys were on our ass through the streets of Denver.”
He didn’t even want to think of that.
“Stop talking,”
he ordered.
“See?”
she said like she’d proven her point. “What do you think the men are doing when an RCG is going on?”
“I don’t know. Drinking raw eggs before taking Krav Maga classes?”
Her laugh filled the room, and she shook her head. “No, sugar. They’re havin’ HBAs.”
“What’s an HBA?”
“A Hot Bunch Assembly, where they hang at Lincoln’s, or one or the other’s houses, shooting the shit and makin’ bets on stuff that don’t matter, and silently hoping that Tex isn’t gonna be given a reason to craft another makeshift bomb.”
He smiled at her.
She didn’t smile back.
“You’re a member of the Hot Bunch, honey,”
she told him in all seriousness. “All you gotta do is join the club officially.”
He felt something he didn’t understand, because it had been so long since he felt it.
It came to him.
Uncomfortable.
“I’ve never really been a joiner,”
he admitted.
She approached again, putting her hands back on his chest and leaning into him.
He loved everything about his wife.
But he wasn’t so sure about the look in her eye.
“Don’t you worry, honey bunches of love. Leave that part to me.”
Right, then…
Fuck.
His intercom in the office buzzed.
He hit it. “Yes, Sarah?”
“Mr. Nightingale is here for his appointment.”
“Bring him back.”
“Right away, Mr. Sloan.”
Marcus wasn’t sure what this was about. He and Ren still had NI on retainer for various things, but it wasn’t like the relationship Marcus used to have with Lee and his men.
And Lee had made this appointment.
So it was either Daisy meddling after their conversation at the club last weekend.
Or it was Lee coming to tell him that his client list had expanded beyond his current capacity, so he needed to drop a few of his less challenging ones.
He wondered what Ren would think of moving those issues to Ally.
The door opened and Sarah ushered Lee in.
“Coffee? Sparkling water? Regular water?”
she offered.
“I’m good,”
Lee said, moving in to shake Marcus’s hand.
Marcus had stood and rounded the desk to do the same.
“We both are, Sarah,”
he told her, “Thank you.”
She nodded and stepped out, closing the door behind her.
He gestured to a chair in front of his desk and said, “Have a seat.”
Lee sat.
Marcus returned behind his desk and started it.
“What’s up?”
“I need some advice.”
That wasn’t what he expected.
“What kind of advice?”
“I’m hiring two more men. The demand is too much and coming so often, I worry I’m leaving money on the table, so I’m getting back into security. To see to current client loads, and add that back to our menu of services, I not only need to upgrade current equipment, I need more space.”
“All right,”
Marcus replied when Lee paused.
“So I got three choices at the moment. Find another office. Wait and hope the tenants next to my current one vacate and take over their space, which obviously is not optimal, but it might be doable. Or last, buy the whole building, seeing as the property management team told us that the owners were about to put it on the market, so they were feeling out their tenants to offer the opportunity to buy.”
Marcus knew what he’d do. He just didn’t know if Lee had the capital to do it, or the credit to leverage it.
Therefore, he asked, “Are you in a position to buy?”
“No. Got a new baby. New house. I got money in the bank, but it’d wipe me out if I bought in cash. And not feeling having that kind of debt on top of adding property management on the list of shit to oversee.”
“You get a good property management firm, it shouldn’t take much of your time at all.”
Lee smiled. “Yeah, I know one of those.”
Real estate was the bulk of a variety of interests he and Ren managed.
Marcus smiled back. “We’d be happy to take your building on. It’ll be a nice change, me looking out for your interests for a while.”
“Thanks, man. But I’m not there yet.”
“I don’t want to add weight to an already weighty decision, especially with your expanding responsibilities including an expanding family. But it’ll be a very good investment.”
“I got one more option open to me, it’s the one I’m leaning toward taking, but it’s the one that concerns me the most.”
“And it is?”
“Luke, Vance and Hector all said they’d buy in.”
“I see,”
Marcus murmured.
“Mace is probably gonna be on the road a lot with Stella, and they might be moving to LA. But he wants a buy in too.”
“What are we talking?”
“I’ll always be controlling at fifty-two percent. They’ll take a quarter each of the rest.”
“Are you okay with giving up forty-eight percent?”
“It means they’re tied to the operation, and since I never want to lose any of them, abso-fucking-lutely.”
Marcus smiled.
He then asked, “And are they in position to give you enough to buy the building?”
“Luke and Mace are. Hector and Vance are going to get second mortgages on their houses, though Sadie might circumvent that for Hector. She’s got the cash to give him. He’s just gotta stop thinking with his dick and let his woman be a part of their financial situation.”
“Regardless if Hector figures it out, no way around it, with all of them investing, more weight lands on you,”
Marcus surmised.
Lee nodded. “I can’t fuck this up. They do that, too much is riding on it.”
“That isn’t your problem.”
“It is when it’s family.”
“Yes, true,”
Marcus whispered.
“So what would you do?”
Lee asked.
Well.
Damn.
This wasn’t about Daisy setting this up.
This was about respect. This was about the fact that Lee thought highly of him and honestly wanted his advice.
And Marcus felt something else he hadn’t felt in a long time, unless Daisy was making him feel that way.
Good.
“You, nor those men, are stupid, Lee. I believe there’s a part of them that’s investing in you because they believe in you, and they know you’re solid. But they also have women and families, or they will, so they’re not going to do something to put those important parts of their lives in jeopardy. To end, they believe in this as an investment. They believe it will have fruitful returns. And I believe they’re right. Take on these partners. And buy that building.”
Characteristically, Lee thought on this for only half a second.
And then he said, “That’s what I’ll do. Thanks, man.”
“My pleasure.”
Lee looked over his shoulder at the door, then to his watch, then to Marcus. “Close to quitting time,” he noted.
“You’re my last appointment.”
Lee grinned. “Wanna go out and get a drink?”
For a second, Marcus didn’t move.
Then he started laughing.
“Daisy?” he asked.
Lee started laughing too. “Gotta say, Marcus, when she marched her stonewash-denim-clad ass in my office and told me to be friends with you, I was half scared of her, half wondering if someone time warped me back to middle school to Mrs. Zhang’s class, a real ballbuster, when she made me be friends with all the kids who didn’t have any because, ‘You’re a leader, Mr. Nightingale. Lead.’”
Marcus kept laughing even as he said, “Please don’t worry about it. I’m not a friend type of person.”
Lee wasn’t laughing at all when he replied, “Yes you are.”
Marcus’s amusement ceased as well.
“If I remember correctly,”
Lee said, “you had Jet’s back. And Roxie’s. And Ava’s. Wait, back up, you started with Indy’s?—”
Marcus interrupted. “Your point is taken.”
“I’m not sure it is. It wasn’t missed, Marcus. This isn’t about you bein’ one of those kids from Mrs. Zhang’s class. This is about you already having a crew, but you leave us hanging.”
Marcus said nothing because he didn’t know what to say.
He didn’t even know what he was feeling.
What he did know was what came out of his mouth. “You had Daisy’s back.”
“Damn straight,”
Lee returned. “And that shit’s never happening again, but if she needs me, you need me, I’m there. Any of the men will be there. And that won’t earn an invoice. Invoices don’t happen when it’s in the family.”
Marcus turned his head and looked out the window.
Lee gave him a second.
And then he urged, “Come have a drink. My sister’s getting married. I overheard just a hint of Indy’s plans for her bachelorette. That shit hasn’t even happened, and I already need fortification.”
Marcus looked back at Lee.
And then he made a decision.
“Let’s go.”
Immediately, Lee smiled.
Marcus returned it.
Several hours later, Marcus walked into his and his wife’s bedroom.
Daisy was on the bed with a plethora of magazines, her journal, a stack of self-help books (something she always bought but never cracked open) an open, partially-eaten box of Godiva, a glass of rosé on the nightstand, the bottle in a marble sleeve along with it, a pile of pillows stacked behind her and her phone to her ear.
She spied him, said quickly, “Gotta call you back, Shirleen, my man just got home.”
She hit the screen, tossed the phone on the bed and stared at him.
He reached a hand to his tie, walking to the foot of the bed.
“I’m sorry, darling. I know I texted I’d be late, but just to fully explain. Lee and I got to talking. So we decided to stay for dinner.”
She bounced up and magazines, books and chocolates went flying when she raced across the bed and threw her body into his arms.
As ever, he caught her.
She smiled down at him, “Has my man accepted his membership in the Hot Bunch?”
“Yes.”
She threw her head back and cried, “Yippee-kay-yay!”
He smiled at her.
But when she looked back down at him, he kissed her.
Then he fell on her in the bed.
And sometime later, he helped her clean chocolate ganache out of her hair.