There was a time when Eddie Chavez crooking his finger at me would make my happy place spasm. Alas, your brother’s best friend was off-limits. Not to mention he had a thing for Indy before he lost his heart to Jet. So I had no shot.

Now, him crooking his finger at me and ordering me to the shelves in nonverbal badass I found annoying.

Still, he was championing my cause with Lee and Hank so I figured the least I could do was haul my ass to the shelves.

“Be back,” I muttered to the girls and hauled my ass to the shelves.

I didn’t know how deep into the bookshelves we needed to be for whatever Eddie had to say so I hedged my bets and stopped at the vinyl in the middle.

It appeared this was satisfactory because Eddie did no more pointing nor did he give me a chin lift or head jerk.

He stopped close to me.

“Bomb guys and police are done goin’ through what’s left of your apartment. They’ve released what they could find of your belongings that survived the blast. Hank wasn’t around so they gave it to me. It’s not much, two boxes, but I’ll drop it by Zano’s place.”

We had to be in the shelves for this?

I didn’t ask that.

I said, “Thanks, Eddie.”

I then wondered what survived the blast, and hoped it was my Firefly series DVD.

“Heard you’re gettin’ up in Darius’s shit,” he stated, and I focused on him to see his eyes were intent.

I was wrong. This was why we were in the shelves.

“Yes, Eddie, I am. And don’t give me any lip about it, all right? You guys need to give each other macho badass space? Fine. But I’m not a macho badass. I’m a girlie badass. And I’m getting into his space.”

Eddie made no reply. He just held up his hand, two fingers extended, and between them was a small piece of folded paper.

I took it, unfolded it and saw an address written on it.

“Anyone asks, you didn’t get that from me,” Eddie said firmly.

I looked up at him. “What is it?”

“You go there, you’ll know,” he replied mysteriously.

“Eddie, just tell me what it is,” I demanded.

“Like I said, chica, you go there, you’ll know.”

“Why the mystery?” I asked.

“Because I worked my ass off for fuckin’ years to keep Darius in my life. He’s mi hermano. What we got, our history, he means a fuckuva lot to me. And if he knows I gave you that, he’s a memory to me. I give you more, honest to God, no tellin’ what he’d do. So you take that. You go there. You’ll know why I gave it to you.”

He leaned into me and his voice dropped low.

“But I’m trustin’ you, Ally. You go cautious with what you do with what you find out. You fuck this up, we got problems. Hear me?”

Holy crap!

What was at this address?

“You didn’t answer me,” Eddie prompted.

“Right, big badass cop, I’m standing right here so I heard you. And just to say, I’m tight with Darius too. We also have history. So you saying that shit to me means you don’t understand that what I’m trying to do is get him right. Not fuck him up further and definitely not drive him away.”

Eddie held my eyes then leaned back, lips twitching as he murmured, “Jeez, you’ve always had balls, Ally.”

“No, I don’t. I’m a girl. What I’ve always been is a Rock Chick,” I retorted.

“Whatever, same thing” he muttered. “We’re done. Gonna go see my wife.”

Then without a good-bye (or even a chin lift), he was gone.

I looked down at the slip of paper in my hand.

Then I rearranged my afternoon.

* * *

I sat in my car, eyes on the house at the address Eddie gave to me.

It was a new build in Stapleton. Not big. Not small. Well-kept, but then again, in this ‘hood, the HOA Nazis wouldn’t let it be anything else.

It was late afternoon and I’d sorted what I needed to sort for my night’s activities. I’d also called my ex-landlord and got voicemail, but asked for a return call. I also left a voicemail to Brody because I didn’t think it was fair to let him keep obsessing about the Rock Chick books when the mystery was solved.

I just didn’t know exactly what to say to him to get him to stop or if I was going to let that cat out of the bag. And if I did, how to do it at the same time managing damage control.

Coming to no conclusions about any of that, and since nothing was happening on my stakeout and I was curious (okay, worried), I called Ren.

He answered with, “Hey, baby.”

“Hey back at cha,” I replied. “How’s your day?”

“If that’s non-invasive Ally Speak for how did things go with Vito, it went shit.”

Oh man.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He said if I try to pull our assets from under him, it means war.”

Holy shit!

“Oh my God, Ren,” I whispered.

“Babe, Vito… he’s got a bark and he’s got a bite. With me, he won’t bite. Me and Dom are the only sons he has and there’s no mistaking I’m a favorite. That said, it gets down to it, he’s also the only father I’ve had, and he knows that means something to me. He’s savin’ face. It’s bluster. He’ll think on this, give me shit, then he’ll back off and one of two things will happen. The Zanos will go legit, or we’ll go our separate ways. Either way, I’ll be the fuck out.”

“Well, I hope you go legit because I like it that your offices are across from mine.”

This was true.

It also meant I would have many opportunities to get creative and fuck up Dawn’s day.

Repeatedly.

I heard Ren’s soft laughter in my ear before he said, “Gotta say, honey, since I signed that lease, I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

“We could carpool to work,” I suggested and got more soft laughter.

Really.

Totally.

This together togetherness was super easy.

The door to the house I was watching opened and my back went straight.

The garages were in the back but I couldn’t stakeout back there without being seen. Therefore, I knew, unless I could find a vantage point to the garage not in my car, I would be lucky if I saw anything since coming and going activity would all happen at the back.

I was tenacious and this had to do with Darius, so I tried it anyway.

But now I was seeing something.

And I couldn’t fucking believe my eyes.

A very handsome African American boy-man, maybe sixteen, was walking out of the house. He was tall, his hair cut close to his head, very well-muscled, and he had a basketball held loosely under his arm.

But it wasn’t just him that had my attention.

Coming out behind him but stopping on the front step was Malia Clark. She was wearing attractive business-style clothes, but her feet were bare like she’d kicked off her heels when she got home. Her thick, black, straightened hair was long and had soft curls at the ends but the front was tucked behind her ear in a casual sexy way that worked great with her oval face and big eyes.

She was smiling at the boy as he walked away and they were talking to each other. I knew this since her mouth was moving and he kept looking over his shoulder.

Malia Clark had been Darius’s girlfriend in high school. I hadn’t seen her since his father’s funeral.

She backed into the house and closed the door.

My eyes went to the boy and my heart thumped.

“Holy fucking shit,” I whispered, completely forgetting I was on the phone with Ren.

“What?” he asked.

“Holy fucking shit,” I repeated, staring at the kid.

“Ally, what? Are you okay?” Ren clipped in my ear.

“Zano,” I said quietly because I was too shocked to get my voice to go louder. “Right now, I’m staring at Darius Tucker’s teenage son.”

Silence.

Then, “Wherever you are, get the fuck out of there, Ally. Now.”

An order. A firm one.

And a surprising one.

I tore my eyes away from Darius’s son, stared at the steering wheel and focused all my attention on the phone.

“Why?” I asked.

“Just do it.”

“Why, Ren?” I pushed.

 “I got shit to do. Can’t get away. Come to the office.”

“Why, Ren?” I snapped.

“Baby, I’m askin’ you, just do it.”

I lifted my head and looked down the street. Well down it, Darius’s son was now jogging and dribbling the ball.

Fuck.

Shit.

Fuck.

“I’ll come to your office,” I told Ren.

“See you soon, honey.”

“Later,” I replied, disconnected and started up my car

I gave one more look to the fast disappearing boy-man and one last look at the front door to Malia Clark’s house.

Then I drove to Ren’s office.

* * *

“Hey, Ally,” Dawn greeted me with such sugar-sweet fakeness, my teeth hurt.

“Hey, Dawn,” I replied, otherwise ignoring her.

Instead, I was taking in the fact that Ren’s offices were sah-weet. Lots of dark wood. Lots of glass art. Just like Ren, total class.

I kept walking toward the inner hall when Dawn called, “Ren likes guests to be announced.”

“Don’t worry. He knows I’m coming,” I told her as I disappeared in the hall.

I turned into the opened door to my right and the minute I entered Ren’s office I saw him coming my way, nearly at the door.

“Thought I heard you,” he murmured, making it to me.

“I’m here,” I noted the obvious.

He leaned in to give me a distracted touch on the lips then moved beyond me to close the door.

Oh man.

Here we go.

I took that moment to look around his office to see it was more of the same from outside. The difference being that his desk was a mess.

My man worked. That was obvious.

I liked that.

What was better was that Indy had told me that Lee allowed Dawn to come into his office and keep his desk tidy.

Clearly, Ren did not allow the same thing.

This almost made me smile, but I didn’t do it when I felt Ren’s hand at my back and I looked up to see he looked distracted but serious.

He led us around his desk, then, with a hand in my belly, he gently pushed me so I sat on the papers on the top. He sat in his chair, turned it my way and looked up at me.

“What I’m gonna tell you, Ally, you do not ever repeat.”

That was not a good start.

“Zano, you’re freaking me out,” I whispered.

“Good. Then you’ll take me seriously.”

Oh my God.

I braced, and it was good thing.

A very good thing.

“In my world, everybody knows everything they can know. You know it so you know how others operate. That way you can make educated guesses at their plays. You also know it so you know what’s important.” He paused and his eyes grew even more intense. “And what lines not to cross.”

“Oh God.” I was still whispering.

This wasn’t getting any better.

He went on.

“Seven years ago, Shirleen and Tucker had a falling out with one of their crew. A smartass, he had more confidence than brains. He also had a big mouth. When they got shot of him, he had big words to say pretty much everywhere about how he was gonna make them pay and take over their business. Fortunately, he didn’t share widely about exactly how he was gonna do that, and what I mean by that was his chosen tool at how to exact vengeance. Unfortunately for him, he was the kind of man who would carry through with his plans.

He stopped talking. I nodded, and he kept going.

“Tucker never did their wet work.”

My stomach roiled at these words used in conjunction with Darius. But I fought back any response, including keeping my expression blank.

“He’d order it, as would Shirleen, but neither of them would do it. Both of them could be cold-blooded. They had to be to get where they were and stay there. They did other things to inspire loyalty. But to make a point with this guy, Tucker stepped in.”

“Zano.” It came out as a soft plea.

“Liam Edward Clark is off-limits, baby.”

I closed my eyes.

Liam Edward.

Lee and Eddie.

Oh my God.

Ren kept talking and I opened my eyes.

“This guy was gonna make his play usin’ this kid. How, I don’t know. But he also had a point to make, so I could guess. Tucker made sure he didn’t do that. And he made sure how he did it that no one would get that same idea. And no one has. Not again. Although it is not known widely what Malia and Liam mean to Tucker, it’s known by those who do know, no matter if Shirleen and Tucker are no longer in the game, you do not get near this kid. You do not get near his mother.”