Luke’s fingers curled around my hip and he propel ed me, part in front of him part beside him, to the tables occupied by our party, situated at the right side of the stage.
Indy, Al y, Daisy, Annette, Jason, Jet, Tod and Stevie were at two connected round tables. Nancy, Uncle Tex and Nancy’s friends Trixie and Ada were at two others with three people I didn’t know. One was a tiny woman with dyed black hair with one-inch, steel-gray roots and a cigarette dangling from her lip. The other a huge, hairy man who made Tex look sane and civilized. The last was a big black woman with an enormous Afro and tawny brown eyes.
I pul ed the wrap off and Daisy squealed, “Sugar, you sure can put the sparkle on.”
“Thanks,” I grinned at her. “So can you.”
And she could, she was sitting and al I could see was her head to her cle**age but she was covered in sparkle, her hair was even sprayed with glitter-spray.
“Are those Jimmy Choo’s?” Tod asked, staring at my feet.
“Yeah,” I told him.
“I have the perfect song for those shoes. I don’t know what it is yet, but I know I have it.”
“You can borrow them,” I said.
“Girlie, you are my new best friend,” he sent me an air-kiss then aimed a meaningful glance at Indy.
I saw Uncle Tex glaring at me, clearly thinking a night out at a strip club was also not the chosen past time for a woman being stalked by a lunatic ex-boyfriend.
Nancy appeared not to agree, she gave me a wink and a wave.
I cal ed my hel os to everyone else and Jet got up and grabbed my hand.
“These are my friends, Lavonne, Bear and Shirleen,” Jet said and then turned to the table. “This is Roxie and Luke.”
“Holy shit but you girls go for the gusto. Look at this f**kin’ guy. Sorry, honey but you ain’t hard on the eyes,” Lavonne said to Luke. Then she squinted toward me through the smoke, “Wel done, girlfriend.”
“We’re not together,” I told her.
She blinked. Her eyes lowered to Luke’s hand, which was stil at my waist. Then she squinted back at me.
“You aren’t?”
“Bodyguard,” Luke said.
Lavonne’s eyes got huge. “You famous?”
“No, I just have a stalker ex-boyfriend who keeps trying to kidnap me and bad guys who are after him. Luke’s here to make sure I don’t get caught in the crossfire.”
“You gonna make sure we al don’t get caught in the crossfire?” Bear asked Luke, butting into the conversation.
“My only focus is Roxie,” Luke answered with brutal honesty.
Bear grunted and rol ed his eyes.
“That’s plain enough to see,” Lavonne said, her lips curling up in a grimacing smile, the cigarette stil dangling precariously there.
Before I could say anything, Luke’s fingers bit into my hip and he pul ed me back and stepped in front of me. Around Luke’s body, I could see a big, black guy jogging up to us, his eyes on Jet.
“Your sister’s gettin’ cold f**kin’ feet. You gotta go back there and talk to her. I got f**kin’ important people here. I got a f**kin’ senator here. She can’t back out. She can’t…” he trailed off when he caught sight of Luke in his peripheral vision and he turned, ful body, to face Luke. “Who the f**k are you?”
“This is Luke. He’s –” Jet started.
“I know who he f**kin’ is. He’s f**kin’ trouble,” the black guy said, not taking his eyes off Luke. “Get the f**k outta here.”
I could swear I saw the air around Luke start shimmering.