I had no idea why that compliment made me feel warm inside. It just did. So I went with it.
After hugs and setting up my next class the next day, I headed out to my car but before I took off, I sat in it and called Smithie to tell him we were on the case, were amassing a file and I would be making my debut on Thursday.
He was ecstatic. Not about the file, about me dancing.
I ignored that and the not-so-great flutter that it sent shifting through my stomach, hung up and called Duke.
He wasn’t at Fortnum’s, so I phoned his house.
Duke had always been the kind of guy that, if you wanted to connect with him, you did that on his terms. In other words, face to face. Therefore, until Indy bought him and Dolores an answering machine last Christmas, there was no way to get a message to him.
Thanks to Indy’s intervention, I was able to leave a message at his place. That said, it was a crapshoot if he actually listened to it.
What I said was, “Hey Duke. Please don’t erase this without listening. I know you’re pissed at me and we need to talk about that. You know you mean a lot to me so you gotta know I don’t like that you’re pissed at me. But more, something’s up with Darius. I need to sit down with you about that and get your wisdom. So please, stop avoiding me so we can talk things out.” I paused then finished, “Hey Dolores.” Then I hung up.
It was slightly manipulative to drop the Darius thing, because Duke might be rough and gruff but he looked out for the crew. He probably already had his eye on Darius and was worried. So sucking him into that was totally making a play.
But I told Darius I would stop at nothing.
So I was going to stop at nothing.
I parked in Lee’s garage, got out of my car and made my way into the building and to the elevators. After running, shopping and stripping, I couldn’t face the stairs.
Truth be told, I didn’t know how I was going to face my getting ready preparations and a late dinner with Ren. I really wanted our date, as in, really. But I’d been running around all day, was facing what would likely not be a happy conversation with my family, and would rather go home, eat Ren’s delicious food and curl up on the couch and watch Nathan Fillion (and, of course, the rest of the cast of Castle).
The elevator expelled me on Lee’s floor. I made my way down the hall and into his office.
Shirleen was not behind the reception desk, but Vance was standing beside it, tossing a file on the top.
When I entered, he turned to me.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“Ally,” he replied.
“What’s shakin’?” I asked.
He grinned his shit-eating grin and seriously—he was Jules’s; I loved Jules and I had Ren who I loved—but I had to admit that it wasn’t just once in the time I knew Vance that I wondered what it would be like to be horizontal and have him aim that shit-hot grin at me.
“Everything,” he replied. His grin faded and he said weirdly, “Tomorrow night.”
I stopped advancing to the door that led to the nerve center of my brother’s operations and turned to Vance. “What?”
“Tomorrow night. You’re ride along with me.”
My mouth dropped open, but the rest of my body jolted with pure, unadulterated glee.
“Got a security system I wanna show you how to bypass,” he went on.
That feeling stole through me, that one I liked, but I still didn’t move.
“You know how to pick a lock?” he asked.
I forced my mouth to move. “Um… not yet.”
“We’ll go through that tomorrow night, too.”
Holy shit!