I just nodded.

He gave me a look as if to assess my honesty. I must have passed the honesty test because he nodded and left.

While I was eating a dinner of microwave popcorn (I might not be any good with an oven but I was hell-on-wheels with a microwave), Sniff had called.

He was full of stories. He told me of their official tour through the Nightingale Investigations offices, their “cool-as-shit” (Sniff’s words) hour-long shift in the surveillance room and working with Brody, Lee’s hacker, on the computers.

He told me of dinner at Lincoln’s Road House and I made a mental note to have a word with Vance about taking my (underage) boys to a biker bar for dinner.

He also told me of their ride-along with Vance after they ate.

I was only slightly alarmed to learn that Vance had gone gung-ho. Not starting slowly, he had taken them along on a break-and-enter search that included disabling an alarm, picking a lock and rifling through the possessions and computer files of a possible corporate embezzler. Vance did this so well, the “possible” became “definite” and the boys were high with excitement. They were also left understanding that you had to be more than just physically fit to do the job. It wasn’t just about cracking heads, you had to know computers; you had to understand electronics; and you had to be smart, thinking three steps ahead so you didn’t get caught.

If Roam and Sniff thought Vance was the shit before, they were even more convinced of it now.

“He didn’t make, like, a sound. It was like he was a ghost. It was f**kin’ cool!” Sniff told me.

I smiled into the phone but said, “Sniff, for the last time, don’t say f**k.”

After my conversation with Sniff, I knitted and pearled a line about the length of my house and took a bubble bath. I was about to head to bed with a book when a knock went at my door.

I looked out the window and saw Tex standing outside.

I opened the door and looked up at him. “What’re you doing here?” I asked.

“You got any plastic wrap?” he asked in return.

I stared at him.

Then I smiled. “Yeah.”

He smiled back. His smile was kinda scary but it worked.

I loaded Tex up with my plastic wrap stash and waved him on his merry way.

My phone rang about ten minutes after Tex left. It was Zip.

“You still breathin’?” he asked after I answered.

“Yes,” I replied unnecessarily.

“Good.”

Disconnect.

This was rude but it was also sweet and I felt the warm whoosh in my belly again.

After Zip’s call I went to bed.

I told Vance about my adventures in boring, everyone else having fun and me knitting the world’s longest micro-scarf and taking a bubble bath.

“How was your night?” I asked.

“I picked up Clarence and Jermaine.”

My body went still.

Wow.

That didn’t take long.

God, he was good.

“And?”

“Mace is workin’ with them.”

Yikes.

I didn’t figure that was good for Clarence and Jermaine. Mace had a reputation for f**king people up and good.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“I’m thinkin’ you don’t want to know.”

“I’m thinking I do.”

Vance pulled me deeper into his body and I felt his lips touch the nape of my neck.

Then he said, “Mace doesn’t have a lot of patience with men who f**k with women. He doesn’t give a shit if they do it or threaten it. Livin’ in fear of gettin’ hurt is almost as bad as gettin’ hurt. Mace’ll do what he has to do to get them to back off.”

“What about their boss? Won’t he be pissed, you guys f**king with his boys?”

“You already know we’ve declared protection. Lee drew a line in the sand. Everyone on the street knows you’re marked which means they’ve stepped over that line. What that means is, if the bosses back their boys, we’re at war. That kind of war has no rules.”

Oh my God.

I had no idea this was so huge.

I rolled around so I was facing Vance and looked at him in the moonlight. “Does that mean you guys are up against the drug lords?”

He shook his head. “The bosses have cut their boys loose. Shard’s got no beef with you, I took him down. He’s just an ass. Clarence and Jermaine have gone against direct orders. You’re an annoyance, but you’re also a social worker. There are lots of ways to put you out of commission that don’t include what those boys had planned for you. I made a deal with their boss. They reneged on that deal. Looks bad for the boss. This morning we spread word you’re off the street. They should have backed down. They didn’t. They’re on their own. Not a lot of people would invite war against Lee, at least not about this.”

“So now it’s just Shard.”

“It’s just Shard.”

“You going to find Shard?”

He shook his head again. “Luke and Ike are tracking Shard.”

I figured Shard would shortly be joining Mace’s party.

“What about Hector?” I asked. “Did you tell Lee I saw him?”

“Yeah. Lee told Eddie, they intensified Brody’s hack. Hector’s DEA. Deep cover, been workin’ at gettin’ close to a local big man for over a year and has had success. Anyone finds out he approached you, he’s dead.”

Fuck!

I closed my eyes and pressed into him, nuzzling my face in his neck.

I was such an idiot.

What was I thinking, going out and annoying drug dealers? How lucky was I that, in the end, I found Vance?

If I hadn’t and I was alone facing this shit, I’d be f**ked and not in a good way.

“I’m an idiot,” I whispered.

His arms got tight around me. “You’re not an idiot,” he whispered back.

“I just wanted to –”

He interrupted me. “You got passion, you got courage. Nothing’s wrong with either of those. You just got to learn to point them in the right direction.”

He was right. I hated it when he was right.

“If anyone gets hurt because of me –”

“No one’s gonna get hurt.”

He said that with such certainty that I believed him.

I willed myself to relax, willed my mind and body to go still.

It didn’t work.

“Vance?”

“Yeah, Princess?”

I looked up at his face in the moonlight.

It was time.