“No shit?” one mumbled.

“No shit,” I replied. “What’s your deal with Dom?” I demanded.

“He stole money from us,” one of the men said.

“So?” I asked.

“A lot of money,” another one said.

“So?” I repeated.

“We want it back,” the one I took the gun from said.

I turned to Uncle Vito. “Can you give them back their money?”

“I already told ‘em I’d pay ‘em,” Uncle Vito replied.

I turned back to the men. “Okay then, what’s the problem?”

“The man we work for don’t like it when people steal from him,” the first man said.

“Charge interest. Make it worth his while. This isn’t rocket science boys. Yeesh,” I returned.

“That sounds like kind of a good idea,” the second man said.

“Twenty-five percent,” the first man told Uncle Vito.

“Ten percent,” Ren returned.

“Twenty,” the first man haggled.

“Ten,” Ren repeated.

“Fifteen,” the first man tried again.

“Ten. You take it or you got war with the Zanos,” Ren told him.

The three men shifted, not liking this idea but still not wanting to give up. I sighed, heavy and huge. Men!

“For goodness sake!” I snapped.

“We just want Vincetti,” the third man said.

“Dom’s a Zano,” Ren replied.

“We don’t want family trouble, just cut him loose,” the second man threw in.

Ren shook his head. They all looked at each other.

“All right, ten. Fuck,” the first man relented.

“Tell The Man he’ll have it in the hour,” Uncle Vito cut in.

Finally!

“While we’re here, we should get a coffee. I hear it’s good here,” the second man told the first man.

The third man’s eyes were on Eddie. “You think I could have my gun back?”

Eddie’s answer was to shove it in the back of his jeans then he pulled his badge out of his back pocket and clipped it on his belt.

“Shit,” the third man mumbled.

“What’ll it be?” Tex boomed.

The newest bad guys moved toward the espresso counter and some of the tension went out of the room. Not all of it, seeing as Detective Marker sat back down obviously deciding not to leave and Hank, Eddie and Duke took different, slightly more aggressive/defensive positions within the coffee area.

The door opened, the bell rang again and I turned around to see Luke, Vance, Matt, Lee and Hector striding in.

Luke’s eyes scanned me then they scanned the room then they stopped on the cookies. After he got a good look at the cookies, his eyes cut back to me.

“Babe,” he said on a half-grin.

“If there’s any time that’s Cookie Time, this is Cookie Time,” I stated the obvious.

“Why are Sid’s boys here?” Lee asked, standing by Luke.

“Who’s Sid?” I asked in return.

Lee’s head inclined toward the new bad guys.

“Oh, they were after Dom,” I replied.

“I know that. Why are they in my fiancée’s bookstore ordering coffee?” Lee went on.

Ee-yikes.

He sounded pretty unhappy.

“The situation is cool,” Dom put in and Lee’s eyes moved to him and they were even less happy.

Luke’s arm slid around my shoulders and he pulled me into his side. Without delay, I relaxed and put a hand to his abs, hooking my other thumb in the middle back belt loop of his cargoes.

“Ava settled it,” Ren informed Lee then, done with this topic, his gaze came to me. “You’re okay?”

I nodded. “Thanks for the cookies.”

He smiled and said quietly, “Anytime.”

Luke got tense beside me at the very mention of Ren ever buying me cookies again in this lifetime. Ren’s eyes moved to Luke and I got tense.

They had a Badass Faceoff for several beats then Ren jerked his chin and Luke did the same. Ren’s eyes came back to me, he gave me another smile, this one softer, less cocky and very sweet.

“Take care of yourself, honey,” he said.

Then he, weirdly, gave Ally a swift, unhappy look. Then he was gone.

“That’s our cue,” Uncle Vito stood.

“But we haven’t sorted things out with Sissy,” Dom protested.

“We’ll do it tomorrow,” Uncle Vito walked around the coffee table and bent to give Sissy a kiss on the cheek.

“Hang on, my shit’s sorted now. I want to talk to Sissy,” Dom pushed.

“Piss off, Dom,” Sissy said, standing and walking Uncle Vito to the door.

“Sis, baby,” Dom cajoled, giving her one of his killer smiles.

Sissy shot him a look, clearly immune to Dominic Vincetti’s killer smile. This made me smile.

“Tomorrow, after Ava’s recovered from the drama,” Uncle Vito ordered.

“Uncle Vito,” Dom said.

“Tomorrow,” Vito snapped.

Dom turned to Sissy, the killer smile gone. His face, I was shocked to see, looked serious. “I f**ked up. I admit it, all right? I f**ked up. It won’t happen again.”

Sissy kept on giving him the Sissy Glare.

Dom turned to me. “I f**ked up, with my wife and with you. It was a shit thing to do.”

“You got that right,” I told him.

He turned back to Sissy and promised, “I can make it good between us again.”

She continued with the Sissy Glare and against my will I began to feel sorry for him. He had a huge audience but he seemed not to care. Any man would be humiliated, except maybe a man who genuinely wanted his wife back.

Wow.

I couldn’t process this and didn’t try. Instead I looked at Sissy to ascertain if she needed bestest best friend assistance and I saw she wasn’t backing down.

“Just think about that,” Dom urged quietly and it sounded like he sincerely wanted her to think about it and he wasn’t lying through his men-are-jerks teeth.

And, somehow I suspected, he wasn’t.

Then he and Uncle Vito were gone.

I watched as Sissy deflated right in front of me all the bravado just leaked right out of her.

“You okay?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“I think we’ve moved on to Tequila Time,” I said.

She nodded her head.

“My place!” Shirleen yelled. “I got tequila. I got rum. I got vodka and I got mixers. I even got popcorn. Someone should bring some tortilla chips and guacamole because I haven’t had breakfast and I’m definitely peckish.”