I walked to the book counter, took the phone and put it to my ear. “Yo.”
“You want Rosie to stay alive, you deal,” a man’s kinda whiny, definitely weasely voice said to me, and my back went straight. “We want Rosie alive ‘cause we want him growin’ for us. We wanna talk about what it’ll take to buy him outta your protection. You don’t deal, face to face, you comin’ alone, we find a farmer who can take over the crops and his pain in our ass gets dead. You hear me?”
My heart pumping, blood singing, I made a split second decision. I lifted my head and hand and snapped my fingers, my eyes moving from Luke to Mace.
They were both already studying me and they immediately moved my way, their hands going to the back pockets of their jeans.
“You’ll understand I’m not big on a meet seeing as your last approach was detonating a bomb in my apartment,” I replied, eyes to Luke.
“That was before we knew your connections,” the voice returned. “We want no beef with you. We just want Rosie.”
My eyes moving to Mace, I said into the phone, “I may have misunderstood. Do you currently have Rosie?”
“Not yet. But you askin’ that means you don’t either. Which, gotta say, has us confused as to why your crew is searchin’ for him when he has your protection.”
I decided not to share with Lee that these idiots thought his crew was my crew and stated (mostly lying), “Rosie knows I’m not a big fan of explosions. Firefights, okay. Car chases, I dig. Rescues, a specialty. Shattered kneecaps, not my gig, but I got a guy who does that. Everything me or those under my protection owns burning to a cinder, not so much. He brought that down on me, he knows to avoid me for a few days.”
“We apologize for that error, and you can tack reimbursement onto us buyin’ out your protection on Rosie,” he offered.
Thinking on the check I wrote to Roxie the day before to reimburse her for the bags of clothes currently sitting on the floor in Ren’s bedroom, I thought this actually wasn’t a bad deal.
I heard a snap. I focused on Luke, saw he had his phone to his ear and he jerked his head to Mace.
Mace was bent over the counter, phone to his ear, other hand scribbling. He straightened and turned a pad of paper around to me.
On it, it said, Take the meet. Tell them you’re sending an intermediary.
I shook my head.
Mace jerked a finger at me then down to tap the pad.
I slid my eyes away and said into the phone, “Lincoln’s Roadhouse. Today. Three o’clock.”
“Fuck.” I heard Luke bite out quietly.
“Nowhere public,” the voice said in my ear.
“It’s public or it doesn’t happen. If it doesn’t happen, I have more time to focus on getting Rosie under my wing, unleashing the dogs to deal with you, and moving his operation back to Denver where I can keep an eye on him.”
This was obviously a partial lie. The first two were already happening. The last one, never.
I kept going. “You’re on my turf and you don’t sound entirely stupid, so you gotta know you’ve got no hope of locating Rosie before me. But given time, Rosie knows I’ll calm my shit and he’ll come to me. Then I can focus all my energies on you. And I had a lot of really sexy underwear in that apartment, all of it with fond memories. I’m feeling a little grumpy I’ve got to start from scratch.”
“Fuck,” I heard Luke bite out again, this time less quietly, and I looked at him to see him scowling at me.
I held his eyes as I said into the phone, “Lincoln’s. Bring your checkbook. Rosie’s a pain in my ass, but he’s mine. You make an offer that’s motivating and reimburse me for your error, he belongs to you.”
Then I hung up.
The minute I did so did Luke. Mace walked away, phone still to his ear.
Luke instantly launched in, leaning toward me growling, “Jesus, Ally. What the f**k’s the matter with you? Talkin’ about your underwear? Christ. You never sexualize yourself to guys like these.”
“You do when they think you’re a badass who isn’t scared of them, which I’m not because you nor Lee nor anybody would let anything happen to me,” I shot back. “You lose the upper hand if you act like anything they can do puts the fear of God in you. And newsflash, Luke. They knew where I lived, they know where I work. It’s a possibility they’ve had eyes on me. Therefore, unless they’re blind, they know I’m a girl. They don’t need me to sexualize me. They’re guys. They’ve already done it.”
Luke’s mouth got tight, which was silent macho badass for point taken.
“You need to set up for a takedown at Lincoln’s,” I ordered.