His house was, like, three years old, situated in a modern development. No personality. Al the houses one of three styles, al of them one of three colors.

Boring.

This hadn’t bothered me before since we spent most of our time at my place but it bothered me now. It bothered me because I knew that his house wasn’t his home. It was just a house. After this was over, I didn’t want Mace ever to live in a house. I wanted to make Mace’s house a home.

“Then we’l find another place,” he said, like it was al the same to him (and, it probably was).

The fight went out of me.

“Real y?” I asked.

He watched me a beat and then went back to grinning.

“Real y.” His head bent and he touched his mouth to mine.

“But it’l have rooms.”

“I could do rooms,” I whispered.

His face got soft and so did his eyes. “You set your music up in the bedroom though.”

My body melted under his, I pul ed my arms out from between us and wrapped them around his back.

“I could do that too.” I was stil whispering.

His hand went to the side of my face, the tips of his fingers slid into my hair at the temple and went back. This made me do a happy shiver. He watched his hand move and his eyes came back to mine. I held my breath at the intensity behind them then something flashed in them, the demons came out, my breath hitched then the guard slammed down.

Even though I thought I lost the moment, he proved me wrong by saying, “When I’m with you, sometimes, I forget.” I knew exactly what he was talking about.

I wanted to get up, punch the air and shout with joy, take THAT demon scum!

Instead, I put my hands on either side of his face, lifted up my head and kissed him.

He kissed me back.

It got heated.

Some time later, the timer on the oven went off and, against my wil , I had to rol him to the side and push away. I got to my feet and he got up to a sitting position. Before I went to the kitchen, standing between his legs in front of the couch, I leaned down, put my hands to his thighs, brushed my lips against his, kept my mouth there and whispered,

“Every time I’m with you, I forget.”

I saw another flash in his eyes before I quickly straightened and walked away.

And I just stopped myself from licking my finger, pointing it high and slashing my score in the air.

* * * * *

Mid-morning, after Mace had been gone for an hour, the cel phone Hector gave me rang. I went to it, flipped it open and said, “Hel o.”

“Kitten.”

I felt another happy shiver.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Hector told me he gave you a clean phone.”

“Yeah.”

“When’d that happen?”

Oh dear.

“Erm, last night. When he took me home from Head West.” It wasn’t a lie unless it was lying by omission as to why he gave me the phone and that he stayed while I used the phone for the secret reason he gave it to me.

“Not al fired up about this newfound closeness you got with Chavez,” Mace said in a low, unhappy voice.

“Hector’s my manager.”

Silence.

“So are Daisy and Shirleen. I think the Rock Chicks on the whole are mini-managers too.”

“Jesus,” Mace muttered.

“It’s al good,” I said breezily, even though that was definitely a lie.

Mace decided to move on.

“You wanna come to the offices? Have lunch with me?” Fuck yes! My brain shouted.

“Sure,” I said out loud.

“We’l cal your Mom after lunch.”

Shitsofuckit.

“Erm…” I muttered.

“Kitten, you gotta cal her.” This was said softly.

“I know,” I whispered, squeezed my eyes shut hard then said, “Fuck.”

“I’l be there. You’l be fine.”

At least that made me feel better. “Okay.”

“One of the guys’l pick you up.”

“Okay.”

“Around one.”

“Sure.”

“You got a list for the grocery store, bring it. I’l swing by King Soopers on the way home.”

Another happy shiver.

“You want Belgian waffles tomorrow or leftover coffee cake?” I asked him.

“Coffee cake.”

“You gonna be home for dinner?”

“I want to say yes, but we’l see.”

“Okay, I’l plan flexible.”

“Later, Kitten.” I heard the smile in his voice.

“Later.” I hoped he heard the smile in mine.

Disconnect.

God, I loved him.

* * * * *

The cel phone Hector gave me rang at a quarter to noon. I went to it, thinking it would be Mace again and hoping he didn’t have to back out on lunch (or dinner) when I flipped it open and said, “Hel o?”

“Stel a?”

It was Lana.

“Hey Lana. How’re you?”

“I’m packing and freaking out. That’s how I am. Chloe and I’l be in Denver tomorrow.”

Oh my God!

“That’s great!” I said to Lana.

“I hope you’re right, sweetie. Chloe’s freaking out even more than me. Kai and her… Kai was bad after… he thought Chloe blamed him. He convinced himself of it. No matter what she said…” She trailed off then breathed, “Oh God.”

“It’s al gonna be okay,” I said like I knew it was true but I knew no such thing.

“She looks like Caitlin,” Lana told me.

Oh man.

Oh shit.

Oh man.

That was it.

No matter what Mace said, I needed the Rock Chicks.

No way in hell I was going to be able to pul this off without the Rock Chicks.

“You’re gonna be good,” I promised. “Mace, I mean Kai, has a lot of friends. Good friends. Good people. We’l take care of you and we’l take care of him.”

“If you say so.”

Last night, during my planning, I realized that I had to keep Lana (and now Chloe) protected. Not only did we have Sidney Carter to worry about, we had Preston Mason and maybe that jerky George guy too.

“Don’t book a hotel. You have to stay with friends,” I told Lana.

“Oh, we couldn’t impose.”

“You have to,” I said quickly. “Kai would never forgive me if I didn’t take steps to keep you safe.” Silence, then, “Oh.”

“That’s okay too. Safe is these people’s middle name.” I was thinking about the Hot Bunch. They had other middle names like “Bossy” and “Scary” and “Badass” and “Hot” but I decided not to share those middle names with Lana. She was already freaking out.