I gasped at this news. Ava and the girls had been shot at? What was going on?
“Copy that. I’m on it,” Jack’s voice replied.
“Someone just shot at Stel a at the scene,” Mace added.
They weren’t shooting at me, were they? My brain asked.
Since I didn’t actual y utter the words, no one answered.
“Fuck,” Jack snapped.
“Cal Lee and check Roxie, Jules and Jet,” Luke ordered.
“Copy,” Jack said.
“Out,” Luke clipped and hit a button on the console while Jack repeated the same word.
“I don’t f**kin’ like this,” Luke muttered and you could sense his fear, clear and edgy, fil ing the cab. He wasn’t even hiding it. His woman had been shot at and not only did he not like it, he was terrified that she was in danger.
Mingled with the out-and-out panic I felt at the general situation, not to mention the fact I was bleeding from a gunshot wound, was a sense of beauty that Super Cool Luke cared about Ava enough to let his tough guy image take that kind of direct hit.
Mace was silent but he leaned forward and pul ed his cel out of his back pocket.
“Um, Mace –” I started again, thinking now the time was ripe to share the fact I was bleeding.
“Two seconds,” Mace replied.
Apparently the time wasn’t ripe.
I looked around the backseat for something to press against my wound. I was probably bleeding al over the seat. I saw a blanket on the floor opposite me, leaned over and grabbed it. I lifted a butt cheek, shoved it under, sat on it and pressed its edge to my hip. Why I cared about bloodstains on the seat of the Explorer, don’t ask me, but it was something to worry about that didn’t involve me and my friends getting shot at, at four o’clock early on a Wednesday morning. So I went with it.
Mace hit some buttons on his cel but the phone rang in the cab before he connected.
Luke hit a button on the console.
“Stark,” he answered.
“Luke, get to Jules. Now. She cal ed in. Drive-by, AK-47.
They shot out Nick and Jules’s windows,” Jack told us.
“God damn it!” Luke clipped.
“Sid,” Mace replied what I thought was nonsensical y.
“Cal Vance. Cal Lee. We need a rendez vous point,” Luke demanded to Jack. “Cal Louie and find out what the f**k is goin’ on with Ava.”
“Copy. Out,” Jack said.
Disconnect.
Luke took a turn without slowing, I went flying and so did Juno. My big dog and I became a tangle of furry limbs and not-furry-limbs. Once we were on the straight and narrow and my ass cheek was back on the blanket again, I thought it best to buckle in.
Mace was looking around the seat at me, his eyes watched me click the buckle then without a word he turned back to the front.
“Hang tight, Juno,” I whispered after I buckled in and I reached across myself with the hand that wasn’t bloody and stroked Juno’s head.
Juno woofed a calm woof.