I was pacing Lee’s office.
The Kevster, healthy and all in one piece (thank God), was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Lee’s desk.
For some reason, the police cruiser we were loaded into took us to Lee’s offices in lower downtown Denver (known as LoDo) instead of the station. We were escorted into Lee’s office and locked in.
Yes.
Locked in.
When we left my place, the entirety of the Hot Bunch were milling about with police and firefighters.
And when we left, looking out my window with a totally freaked out Kevster at my side, Ren and Lee were nose to nose, and neither of them looked happy.
I was not either, being carted off like a girl (or a pothead) who needed to be protected.
What was that all about it?
I also wanted to know why Lee and Ren were in each other’s faces, but neither of them were answering their phones. Sadly, before I could try to get to either by proxy, as in calling Indy to call Lee, my phone ran out of juice.
The Kevster didn’t have one.
And Mace had destroyed Lee’s office phone in a fit of (justifiable) rage during his and Stella’s drama and Lee elected not to replace it. This meant Shirleen couldn’t transfer annoying phone calls from clients that he didn’t want to handle and therefore he could spend more of his time “in the field.”
It also meant, since we were locked in (again, locked in), I was incommunicado.
And I was steaming.
My apartment had exploded!
What the f**k was that?
And here I was, pacing in an office across town, not knowing anything, and worse, not able to do anything, all because the macho alphas in my life deemed it fit I should be carted away.
I had been, at the time, semi-flipped out, seeing as my apartment had exploded, so I didn’t argue.
I made a mental note to delay flip outs in future so I would not give the macho alphas in my life the opportunity to treat me like a girl.
After making this mental note, I eyed Kevin and decided I’d given him enough time to control his freak out, or get it together enough to converse with me (insofar as The Kevster could do either, even when things weren’t exploding) so I moved to Lee’s desk. I rested my h*ps against it and looked down at Kevin.
His wide eyes looked up at me.
Okay, maybe I hadn’t given it enough time.
Still, I had to do something.
“Kevin, do you feel like talking?” I asked carefully.
“I nearly exploded,” he told me instead of answering.
“I know. You may have saved Ren’s and my life, and dude, I don’t know how to thank you for that. That was way cool. I’ll try to figure out a way to express my gratitude, but now we need to talk. I gotta know how you knew—”
The door opened before I could finish and my eyes went there.
Lee was prowling in, but looking behind him, arm raised, finger pointing at something or someone.
I watched him order angrily, “Keep the Rock Chicks back and I don’t give a f**k what it takes to do it.”
Then his eyes came to me and coming in behind him were first Ren then Hank, Eddie, Luke and Mace.