head that nearly got blown off,” Pong demanded.
“They were aimin’ at Stel a Bel a,” Buzz commented, throwing himself on his side lengthwise at the foot of the bed.
“So?” Pong snapped.
My eyes moved to Pong. “Are you okay?”
Pong looked at me, lost his annoyance and grinned.
“Sure. Bitches were al over me last night. Bein’ in mortal danger appears to be an aphrodisiac.”
I rol ed my eyes back in my head.
“You’re a f**kin’ idiot,” Buzz said to Pong.
“A f**kin’ idiot who had a foursome last night,” Pong shot back.
Oh lordy.
“I’m too old for this shit,” Floyd muttered.
The phone rang and I got up on my elbows and watched Hugo move toward it.
“No comment, Hugo,” I reminded him.
“I speak English not Swahili, mama. I heard Mace. I hear you. Jesus,” he paused, beeped on the phone and greeted,
“Yeah?”
I flopped back down on the bed re-thinking my career path. Then re-thinking my romantic path. Then my careening thoughts conjured up a sketch of a woman who would be sil y enough to shut Hector down. Then the look in Mace’s unguarded eyes flashed before mine and I got a ful body shiver.
Then I heard Hugo say from above me, “Stel a, it’s Monk.”
I opened my eyes to see Hugo standing at the side of the bed.
Effing hel .
I did an ab curl and reached a hand out for the phone.
I wasn’t looking forward to this conversation.
Monk had had someone with a rifle in his club last night.
Worse, that someone fired the rifle. Even worse, Monk had missed out on post-gig last cal due to a frenzied stampede. Even worse, Monk would have no entertainment tonight. We were set to play there again and there was no way in hel we were going to do that.
“Monk,” I said into the phone.
“Stel a, beautiful,” Monk gushed exuberantly, not sounding angry at al .
Erm, what?
“Monk, I’m sorry about –” I started.
“Did you see The Denver Post? ” Monk interrupted me.
“Um, no,” I told him. “Not exactly.”
He didn’t care if I saw it or not and I knew this when he announced, “The Pal adium was mentioned five times in The Post. Best advertising you can get, f**kin’ free! This is shit-hot.” Monk continued speaking happily in my ear.