“Sissy –”

“No, Ava. I know about your vow and I know you like your vibrators and I know you think all men are shit but there are good ones out there and I think Luke is one of them. I’m not standing in the way of that and, I’m telling it to you straight, girlfriend, neither should you.”

Jeez.

Was no one on my side?

I’m not, Bad Ava said. I want to get MORE of a taste of Luke.

I’m not either, Good Ava agreed. I think Luke is lush.

Argh!

I focused on Sissy. “Seriously, I told you how he’s been behaving since I saw him again. He’s not a normal guy.”

Her hands came to either side of my face and she looked me in the eyes. “No, he’s not and that’s a good thing,” she pulled my face down to hers so our foreheads were touching. “Call me a hopeless romantic but I want to see my friend with the guy she’s been pining for forever,” her voice dropped to a whisper. “I want that more than anything on this earth.”

Oh crap.

Tears filled my eyes but before I could let them loose her hands moved away, she gave me a smile and a wink then she was gone.

I locked the door behind her and rested my forehead against it.

“My life is shit,” I told the door.

The door had no response.

I went back to work. Half an hour later, my phone rang.

“Yo.”

“Babe.”

Hell and damnation.

It was Luke, my knees wobbled and I wasn’t even standing.

“Did you get my cookies?” I asked.

I heard his soft laughter then, “Not yet.”

What was I doing?

I was trying to be cute and funny. I wasn’t supposed to be trying to be cute and funny with Luke. I was supposed to drive him away by behaving like a screaming shrew.

Bad, bad Ava.

“Why are you calling?” I asked, trying to pull up the Barlow Super Bitch but it sounded halfhearted.

“I’ll pick you up at seven. We’re goin’ to Lincoln’s for dinner, my place to talk afterward. Sissy got anybody who’ll stay with her or do I need to arrange company?”

“Sissy’s gone.”

Silence.

“Luke?”

“Come again?”

“Sissy’s gone. She’s staying with her Dad for a couple of days.”

“You’re alone in your house?”

“Well… yeah.”

“Fuck,” he clipped, sounding pissed.

“What?” I asked.

“Tell me your doors are locked.”

“Of course.”

“Somebody will be there soon. If it’s someone you haven’t met, I’ll call you to tell you who to expect.”

“Luke, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Right. That’s what Lee thought when he left Indy at her house before they let off a car bomb that drew her out and she was kidnapped and nearly taken to Costa Rica.”

Oh yeah. I forgot about that.

Belated eek!

“Don’t open the door to anyone but one of Lee’s boys, got me?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll see you at seven.”

Disconnect.

Oh shit.

I didn’t even get a chance to argue with him to tell him I wasn’t going anywhere with him that night. My mortal danger was getting in the way of me protecting myself from the carnal danger that was Luke.

I mentally shrugged it off and went back to work. I was making some good headway on my deadline so at least that wouldn’t be stressing me out along with everything else.

Five minutes after I put down the phone from Luke, I heard a floorboard creak in my office. I swiveled in my chair expecting to see Luke (who, incidentally, I noticed pocketed the extra set of keys I gave him last night).

Instead, I saw Dom.

I shot out of the chair, opened my mouth to scream, Dom was on me in a flash and everything went black.

* * * * *

This was my early evening:

I woke up in the back of Dom’s BMW. I’d been in Dom’s BMW, like, a gazillion times but I’d never been lying in the back unable to move my limbs (okay, so a few drunken times I’d been lying in the back but I’d been able to move my limbs).

The inability to move my limbs freaked me right the hell out.

“Dom,” I whispered.

He didn’t reply, maybe he didn’t hear me, maybe he was concentrating on driving. I started to get tingling in my extremities which I took as a good sign while I felt the car moving, like it was going in long circles. I was getting my strength back and was just able to pull myself into a sitting position when Dom parked and got out of the car then got in the backseat with me.

“Hey, you’re awake,” he said, settling next to me and turning toward me. Then for some bizarre reason, he pulled my still not entirely under my control body across his lap and leaned into me.

I blinked. “What did you do to me?” I asked.

“Stun gun. Sorry, Ava, but we need to talk and I didn’t want to put up with your mouth.”

Stun gun?

Stun gun?

Dom stun-gunned me?

I’d never even seen a stun gun. I saw a video of someone getting Tasered on YouTube (and I might add I was not at all happy that Dom had done that to me) but I’d never seen a stun gun.

What a jerk!

“You stun-gunned me?” I asked.

“We need to talk.”

I was getting back to fighting fit (read: could control my hands) and I shoved against him but his fingers wrapped around my wrists and he held on tight.

“We don’t need to talk,” I told him then said, “What are you doing here? Where have you been? The police said you were missing.”

His eyes narrowed. “You talked to the police about me?”

“No, the police talked to me about you. Your living room was shot up and for some reason a Mister Zano sent some henchmen to kidnap me and it has something to do with you. Is this Mister Zano related to you and Uncle Vito?”

A weird look crossed his face before he muttered, “Fuck.”

“Fuck is right!” I snapped. “What’s going on?”

“I got a problem at work, I’m fixing it,” he said, passing it off like it was nothing. “Listen, Ava, you and me –”

“There is no you and me,” I interrupted him.

His hands tightened on my wrists. “Listen!” he clipped. “I know you got a problem with the whole Sissy thing –”

The whole “Sissy thing”?

Oh… my… God.

I vowed quadruple-revenge against Dom, rat-bastard.