He drew in a breath before he murmured, “That I can do.” My lips started turning up again, but his arms gave me a squeeze. “I don’t wanna do it, babe. That kind of book is not my thing and there are things about your brother and his woman I do not want to know…” He paused. “Like everything.”
I again had to fight my lips turning up as he carried on.
“But I should know how bad it is before I make a decision.”
“Or how good it is.” I gave him an alternate option.
“Whatever,” he mumbled.
I let loose my grin.
Ren caught it. The irritation leaked out of his eyes and he sighed.
Loved my man.
“I need to call, Lee, baby,” I reminded him.
“Right,” he replied and rolled to his back, taking me with him. He let me go to reach to my jeans on the floor where he pulled out my phone, settled back in bed and handed it to me.
“Thanks,” I muttered and went about engaging Lee.
After two rings, my brother answered with an, “Ally.”
“Yo, bro,” I replied. “Do you have some time for me this morning? It’s important.”
“Need to talk to you, too,” he stated.
Interesting.
My curiosity peaked, I asked, “About what?”
“About Indy,” he answered. “Last few days, morning sickness hit. It’s not good. It’s gonna be tough for her to be at the store. I know you’re workin’ a case, but with Indy in this state and Jet gettin’ to the point where she shouldn’t be on her feet for hours, she needs you. Indy feels shit she can’t take Jet’s back, but when she’s pukin’ half the time, she can’t do it. She won’t ask, but I will. She needs you.”
“Of course,” I said instantly. “I’m going to the store anyway. But need to talk to you.”
“About what?” he asked my question.
“Face to face, bro.”
“Shit,” he muttered.
“It’s not bad.” I thought on that statement and changed my tune. “Well, it’s not good. Actually it is bad, but I’m hoping it can be fixed.”
A pause before he asked, “You want me to come to you or you to me?’
“You’re close to the store, and I’m going there anyway so I’ll come to you.”
“Text me when you’re on your way and I’ll meet you at the store.”
“Copy that.”
“Later, Ally.”
“Right back at ‘cha, Lee.”
We disconnected and I looked to Ren. “Indy got hit by morning sickness, so I’m gonna be needed more at the store.”
“I take it that means there’s no time for a quickie,” Ren remarked.
Alas, that was what it meant.
I frowned at him in disappointment.
He grinned at me, curled up and gave me a light kiss.
When he was done, he whispered, “Go get ‘em, baby.”
I bent my neck, kissed his throat, gave him a smile then jumped out of bed in order to do what I did.
That was go and get ‘em.
* * * * *
Lee studied the note from Meena.
We were at Fortnum’s standing way at the back in the religion section. We were there because we needed optimum Fortnum’s privacy and this was the best there was. The religion section, right or wrong, didn’t see a lot of action.
Lee looked from the note to me.
“This is not good,” he stated.
“I know,” I replied.
“Ally—”
I leaned into him. “I need your help.”
He stared at me.
I kept talking. “It’s bad there, Lee. The vibe is total shit. The girls are scared out of their minds. Roam has seen Steiner take money from dancers and waitresses. I haven’t seen anyone else in the club who was giving me the willies, but my guess is that when Meena said there were eyes all around, she didn’t just mean Steiner and his partner. Something has to be done about that, and soon. Smithie’s in danger and, bottom line, this is bigger than me.”
Lee just kept staring at me.
So I kept talking.
“If you don’t want to take the case, then I need some of your guys. I need more of Brody’s time. I’ll pay them and—”
Lee cut me off. “It’s not about the case.”
“Then why are you hesitating?” I asked. “This is Smithie.”
He stared at me another beat and right before I lost my patience, he stated, “We’ll get into the why later. Right now, I’m gonna make some calls and get some boys in the field, focus Brody. I’ll call you when we got something and we’ll have a meeting. Yeah?”
We’d have a meeting?
We?
Me, my brother, and his team?
I didn’t ask. I didn’t do cartwheels. I didn’t grab him and do a girlie hug.
I just nodded and said, “Yeah.”
“Roam and Sniff off this thing?” he asked.
“Darius called them down when Gibbons entered the picture,” I answered.
“Good,” he muttered, looked at the note again and back at me. “Got shit to do. Keep your phone on you.”
I nodded.
He gave me nothing; not a look, not a smile, not a thing, and he was gone.
I wandered out of the books, got to the front and saw Daisy with her Juicy Couture covered ass in a couch with a laptop on her lap surrounded by Jet, Roxie, Stella and Sadie (not in Juicy Couture, and Stella’s awesome rock tee was making me nostalgic for my collection that was destroyed by an explosion).
Time to hit some concerts. Then again, it was always time to hit some concerts.
Daisy looked up and spied me.
“Sugar, get over here!” she called excitedly. “Roxie’s put some website ideas together and brought them in.”
“They’re all the bomb,” Stella said as I moved that way, curious to see and also feeling that feeling I was getting to know and oh-so-definitely loved flowing through me.
“I don’t know how you’re gonna pick,” Jet told me.
Sadie moved to an armchair so I could squish between Daisy and Stella.
“Here’s one,” Daisy stated then clicked. “And the next.” Another click. “And the third,” she said. “Aren’t they amazing?”
They were.
Every one.
Totally.
I looked across Daisy to Roxie. “They’re righteous.”
Roxie grinned. “I’m pretty pleased with them.” Her eyes moved to the screen. “Though, you need a name. It’s hard for Ava and me to come up with looks and color schemes if you don’t have a company title.”