Tex, Duke and Smithie just stared at me.

“Got me?” I snapped.

Tex looked at Duke “She’s got spunk,” he said.

“Where I come from, we call it sass,” Duke replied.

“Where I come from, we call it attitude,” Smithie put in.

“Oh for the love of God, whatever you call it, are you in or are you out?” Jules clipped.

Smithie looked at me. “I don’t know about your firsts and seconds or A’s and B’s, all I know is, Jet told me a friend of hers got violated. I ain’t down with that shit. I don’t care who nails this motherfucker, I just wanna be in on nailin’ him. So yeah, I’m f**kin’ in.”

“In,” Duke growled.

“Fuck yeah, I’m in,” Tex boomed.

I nodded to them. Once. “All righty then, here’s my plan.”

And I told them my plan. It was kind of a shit plan but luckily Indy, Ally and Jules had ideas to share and they were better than mine. In the end, I felt all right because instead of a half-assed plan, we had a pretty decent one.

When we were done, Tod raised his hand and I nodded to him.

“Can I just ask, after we find this guy, can we talk about the Vibrator Ceremony? I’m thinking of making us all kind of choir like robes to wear but with sequins and some satin sashes as belts. Maybe in chartreuse.”

It was then I was wishing someone would shoot me.

* * * * *

The gang handed out assignments, everyone prepared to move out and I approached Jules.

“Hey,” I said.

“You hanging in there?” she asked, looking at me closely.

I nodded. “Listen, I... um...” I started but May came up to our group and I stopped.

“It’s okay. You can talk in front of May,” Jules told me.

“About anything?” I asked.

“Hon, if you mean about you freakin’ out yesterday about Luke makin’ out with Jules on her couch while Vance was watchin’ on the monitors in the surveillance room, then yeah, you can talk about anything,” May put in.

My bugged out eyes swung to Jules. “Vance was watching?” I breathed.

“Yeah, I didn’t know that, neither did Luke. Vance installed cameras in my house during my troubles and he was on duty in the surveillance room the night Luke and I... um...” Jules stopped then started again. “Ava, you have to know, it didn’t go very far.”

“Vance was watching?” I breathed again. I didn’t know Vance very well (read: hardly at all) but I figured Vance was a lot like Luke. “Did he throw any lamps?” I asked.

I saw Jules relax before she grinned. “No, but he wasn’t too happy.”

“I’ll bet,” I said, thinking she got off easy.

“Did Luke throw a lamp?” May asked.

“Yeah, after he caught me with Ren,” I told her.

May looked at Jules. “Who acts like that?”

I thought this was a good question but I didn’t share. Instead I said, “Jules, listen, I don’t want you in on this operation.”

Both Jules and May looked at me. May’s eyes narrowed. Jules looked surprised.

“Why? She’s The Law. Right now, way I see it, she’s the best thing you got goin’ for you,” May said.

I looked at Jules. “I can’t explain it now but I think Jules understands.”

I saw the light dawn on Jules. It didn’t dawn on May. Therefore I reckoned May wasn’t in on the pregnancy news.

“You can’t cut her out of the action just because she made out with your boyfriend,” May protested.

In any normal situation a girl would be obligated to cut out another girl because she made out with her boyfriend.

This, however, wasn’t a normal situation.

Still.

I ignored May, it was up to Jules if she wanted to share that I was protecting her because she was pregnant. Instead, I looked for a compromise.

“Can you be the information person? Operate a Command Central? People can check in with you, you can keep tabs on things, where people are, what they’ve learned. I don’t know, that kind of shit?” I asked.

Jules smiled. “I can do that.”

“Hang on a second, Jules can drop a guy twice her size. I don’t –” May cut in.

“I’ll explain it later,” Jules interrupted her.

“But –” May went on.

“May, I’ll explain it later,” Jules repeated.

May looked from Jules, to me, back to Jules.

“You’re keepin’ somethin’ from me,” she accused.

“I’ll explain later,” Jules said again.

“Hon, you better explain later,” May snapped, really not happy to be out of the loop but she said no more and moved away.

Jules and I watched May retreat then Jules turned to me. “It isn’t that I don’t want her to know, I just want to be further along before I tell her. I don’t want her to get all excited and then... it’s just that, I have a history of... if I lose it, I just want Vance and me...” Jules stopped and looked away.

I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

She looked back at me and said quietly, “Thank you for keeping it a secret. There aren’t many of those in this tribe.”

I’d noticed that.

Instead of answering, I pulled on her hand to bring her closer and I hugged her. I hugged her because I was happy for her and Vance. I hugged her because she obviously didn’t think I was a screaming dork for my freak out the day before. Lastly, I hugged her because she was proof that Luke had good taste in women and he had settled on me which said a lot about both of us.

“Is there gonna be lots of huggin’ and carryin’ on or we gonna get this shit done?” Tex boomed from somewhere close.

I sighed. So did Jules.

We broke our hug and I looked at Tex.

“Let’s get this shit done,” I said.

* * * * *

Indy Ally, Tod and Stevie went to go talk to Brody, a friend of theirs and an employee of Lee’s. Apparently he was a computer genius and Lee’s hacker. They were going to pump him for any information he had on the Noah Investigation.

Jet, Roxie, Daisy and Smithie went to get provisions including stun guns, Tasers, pepper spray and handcuffs.

May and Jules went to Jules’s house where we were all going to meet later.

Shirleen, Tex, Duke, Sissy and I went to my house so I could get my Range Rover.

We trooped in my front door, Duke first. He stopped dead barely clearing the doorway from the entrance hall to the living room.