“Holy fuck,” Rob breathed out.
“And I’m in a mood, so take this as you will, I wouldn’t normally get involved, but Mom knew. She knew my apartment had been destroyed and she didn’t give a fuck. She phoned me and hurled words at me, ticked I didn’t keep those drugs safe for Mick. They got them, after jacking up my car to steal them from my trunk. I’ll grant she couldn’t know that would move onward to me being kidnapped and Danny shot. But since Mick is a drug dealer and he involved me in his work, it isn’t a big surprise either.”
“Did you know?” he asked, not me.
“Is that her? Is that my Evie?” I heard Mom ask in the background. “Let me talk to her.”
“Did you know about her apartment and those drugs being taken?” Rob pushed.
“Let me talk to her, darlin’. I gotta know where she is. I gotta see with my own eyes my baby’s all right,” Mom pleaded.
“Woman!” Rob roared so loud, I had to take the phone away from my ear. “Did you know she was in this kind of danger?”
“Rob—”
“Answer me, goddamn it!”
“Don’t talk to me that way!” Mom shrieked.
He was back to me. “Evie, are you okay?”
“I have friends around me.”
“Your man?”
“I’m told he’ll be fine.”
“Let me talk to my daughter!”
“I gotta go now, sweetheart,” Rob said. “But I’m gonna call a little bit later. Please, answer when I call, and just to say, it won’t have anything to do with your mom.”
“What does that mean?” Mom demanded.
Lottie was motioning to me, so I said, “I’ll think about it, Rob. Good luck. And good-bye.”
I was about to take the phone from my ear to disconnect, but I didn’t when he said softly, “Love you, Evie. You’re a good kid. From the minute I met you, wished you were my own.”
Tears filled my eyes again and my voice was husky when I replied, “Thanks, Rob. That means a lot.”
“Take care of you and I hope we speak soon.”
“Okay.”
“’Bye, sweetheart.”
“’Bye, Rob.”
On that, I disconnected and focused on Lottie.
“She didn’t do the block so maybe the stepdad isn’t a total dickweed,” Pepper muttered.
I heard her but more, I heard Lottie say, “Eddie’s got you in.”
My heart jumped, and before I could lose the will to go forward with all this, my mouth moved.
“Let’s roll.”
I grabbed my bag off the kitchen island and marched to the door, feeling bodies close in on all sides.
So I stopped, looked around, and I was right.
Bodies were closed in on all sides.
“You guys can take off,” I said carefully to Pepper, Ryn and Hattie, going carefully because they all were wearing determined expressions. “Thank you for, well…everything today and it sounds lame, but truly, I’m really so sorry this got out of hand the way it did. Now you need to go home, chill out, and this can be Lottie, Tex, me and hottie biker guy.”
“I’m going with,” Ryn stated.
“Me too,” Pepper decreed.
“I’m not leaving your side,” Hattie declared. “Except, of course, when you talk to your brother, if the cops won’t let me in, but I’ll be waiting for you in reception after you’re done.”
Hattie really was all kinds of cute.
Axl was in for a world of goodness.
I didn’t focus on that.
I started, “I really don’t think—”
“Clue in, Evie,” Ryn interrupted me. “This is how it’s done, sister.”
I stared at her.
I stared at Pepper.
I stared at Hattie.
I looked to Lottie.
She was smiling.
I didn’t have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, but from Lottie’s smile, it seemed Ryn was correct.
This was how it was done.
“You said something about rolling?” Lottie prompted.
I nodded, turned and barely took a step when I was brought up short by hottie biker guy standing in front of the door with his long legs planted and his arms crossed on his wide chest.
When he caught my eyes, his deep voice rolled out.
“Guts me to do this, you bein’ on this tear, and I don’t know you, but seems like it’s been a long time comin’, I still gotta say we do not have the go-ahead to ride.”
“I’ll take responsibility for Evie makin’ this play,” Tex said.
Aw.
I loved Tex.
“Not sayin’ she can’t make this play,” Dutch said to Tex. “Just sayin’ she’s gotta make it when her man lifts the house arrest.”
Say…
What?
House arrest?
“Are you being serious?” I asked.
His gaze came to me. “After I got shot, found my woman tied to a chair in a warehouse with her face lookin’ like yours, I set a man on her to look out for her with the simple instructions to keep her safe in my crib, and he did not follow those instructions, I would not be happy.”
“Danny’s more enlightened than you,” I probably lied.
“You do know I know your man?” Dutch asked, and in so doing, sharing that he knew I was lying.