Mom looked at me. “We listened at the side of Mrs. Conrad’s house. You were wrapped up in things, didn’t see us.” Her eyes got soft. “Ava, sweetie, I had no idea. Your troubles.”

Fuck.

Fuckity, f**k, f**k, f**k.

“I’m fine, Mom, honest, I’m over it,” I assured her and turned my attention back to Super Mom Stark. I wasn’t certain Olivia Conrad was the kind of girl who liked anyone getting into her business, especially middle-class, white Super Moms. I thought that might be more pressing at this juncture than Mom finding out I was conned, beaten up and violated by a total jerk. I would deal with Mom later. “Mrs. Stark –” I started.

“That Louis, he was no good,” Rhonda told Olivia, I thought unwisely. “I was always sayin’ you should cut him loose.”

“Mm-hmm,” Olivia’s other two girls, Tamika and Camille, murmured their affirmation in unison.

“Well, I loved him,” Olivia defended herself.

“You loved his big dick,” Camille put it then she looked sheepishly at Super Mom Stark. “Sorry, but it’s true.”

“Sex is not love,” Mrs. Stark said sagely.

“If it’s good nookie then it’s close enough,” Shirleen muttered under her breath.

I stared at them, stunned speechless at the fact that Mrs. Stark seemed to be intent on holding an impromptu woman’s talk show on a stranger’s lawn. The dogs were barking, Smithie was up a tree and Tex looked like the kind of guy no one wanted loitering around the neighborhood. I was pretty certain it was dumb luck that the police hadn’t already descended on our party. I was also pretty certain that dumb luck wasn’t going to hold out.

Before I could intervene, Duke did. “Time for the honesty,” he growled, looking, scarily enough, at me.

“I’ll say, brother,” Tex boomed, crossing his arms on his chest and also glaring at me.

Before I could run away or will my body to spontaneously combust, Duke walked up and stared at me, straight in the eye. “I know you’re tryin’ to protect Luke and I’m okay with that ‘cause you care about him and he’s a good man. He deserves to have a good woman carin’ about him. I’m not okay with standin’ out in the bright sunshine with the neighbors watchin’ and a black man in a tree. I’m not sure I want to explain to Luke Stark why his mother’s been fingerprinted. I’m equally unsure of my desire to explain to him why I let his woman get fingerprinted. What I am sure of is that you don’t want to explain it to him either.”

“Duke –” I began but he kept talking.

“I don’t disagree with what he’s doin’. Someone put their hands on my wife Dolores hell would get paid and I’d be the one huntin’ down the jackass who’d be payin’ it. You got a whole bunch a people caught in the middle here and your shit is so far south we’re hangin’ onto a pole by our fingernails. Pretty soon we’re gonna have some angry badasses descending if this shit doesn’t get sorted and fast. Girl, I’m tellin’ it to you straight, give up the ghost. You got no idea what you’re doin’. Sort this shit out and sort it out now.”

My eyes bugged out. “What am I supposed to do?”

“You know what you gotta do,” Duke’s gravelly voice rumbled low.

I did know what I had to do. And I knew I had to do it fast. Mainly because I didn’t feel like getting fingerprinted. Also, the fingerprinting ink would likely stain Mrs. Stark’s bone-colored handbag.

Hell and damnation.

With a heavy sigh, I pulled my phone from my purse and flipped it open. I scrolled down my phonebook, found the name I needed, pressed the green button and put it to my ear. It rang twice as I walked several feet away.

“Yeah?” Luke answered.

“Luke?”

“Beautiful, I wanna say I have time to talk but I’m doin’ somethin’ important.”

I wanted to know what important something he was doing but Smithie was up a tree, I didn’t have time to ask.

“I’m sorry. I wouldn’t call but I’ve got a situation.”

Silence for a beat then, “Talk to me.”

“Well –” I started then stopped, mainly because I didn’t know where to begin.

“Ava,” Luke sounded impatient.

“See, the thing is…” I started then stopped again and before Luke could say anything I rushed on, deciding to let it all hang out. “We went to visit Winnie Conrad. She’s a nice lady but she didn’t have much for us. The thing is, her granddaughter, Olivia, showed up while we were talking with Winnie and apparently, somewhere along the line, both Indy and Jet had stun-gunned Olivia and Daisy got in a catfight with her. She wasn’t so happy seeing Daisy at her grandma’s place and there was kind of a mini-incident. Then she found out who I was, what happened to me and that we were after Noah so she decided to join the hunt, after we go to the mall and get Smithie out of the tree that is.”

I heard noise as his hand covered the mouthpiece of the phone. Then I heard words and they were indistinguishable but, even though I couldn’t make out what he was saying, I could tell whatever it was, it wasn’t happy.

Then he came back to me. “Let’s talk about why Smithie’s in a tree.”

“That’s why I’m calling. Two German Shepherds have treed him in a stranger’s backyard. He was canvassing Noah’s old neighborhood. I’m not clear about how that happened but the dogs aren’t happy and we can’t get him down.”

“Call the fire department.”

“He’s in a stranger’s yard and we don’t have a good story about why.”

“Call the fire department.”

“Luke, he’s in a stranger’s backyard. He’s a black man in a stranger’s backyard. And there are, like, twelve of the now-extended Rock Chick gang hanging out beside the house. We don’t have time for me to describe Daisy’s outfit and you’ve seen Tex. I’m not sure the fire department is going to let us slide.”

“Ava, call the fire department. I’ll call Eddie. Smithie won’t have any trouble.”

“I’m not quite done with my story.”

Silence. Or, more accurately, scary silence.

I continued. “See, my Mom and I had a nice chat after breakfast but I’ll tell you about that later. Anyway, your Mom and my Mom got worried about my troubles and they decided to follow us. They’re here too. Your Mom thinks we should get steaks for the dogs but she’s also counseling Olivia on her man troubles.”