Lee ran down what happened outside Liks for Marcus. It was embarrassing, sounding like schoolyard antics being discussed by the teachers. Lee and Marcus were not the type of men who messed around with ice cream cones.

Marcus listened to Lee without reaction.

“You’re being patient,” Marcus commented when Lee was done.

“My patience just ran out,” Lee replied.

A chill ran down my spine the way Lee said that. Something was happening here, something not about Rosie and The Kevster and ice cream cones.

“They didn’t even look at me,” I cut in, I probably shouldn’t have but what happened this afternoon was not about me, it was about Rosie.

Marcus ignored me.

“Your next move?” he asked Lee.

“Do a sweep. Come tonight, Coxy’s out of commission.”

Holy crap.

That didn’t sound good.

Marcus nodded then his eyes came to Ally and me.

“Nice to meet you,” he said politely and, without another word, he left.

I turned to Lee. “What just happened?”

Lee sat on the edge of his desk, leaned forward and grabbed my hand, pulling me to his side. I leaned a hip against the desk and looked at him. Ally moved in closer.

“Rosie and Kevin are going to a safe house. Hank set it up for them. I’m sendin’ Mace out to pick up Coxy’s boys, all of them. I want Coxy vulnerable before the show.”

“What show?” I asked.

Lee didn’t answer.

Uh-oh.

“Lee –”

“I’m done f**kin’ around. Tonight, it ends.”

“What about the mob?” I asked.

“The mob?” Ally cut in.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lee said.

I put my hands on my hips.

“I’m hardly not gonna worry about the possibility of you getting in trouble with the mob.”

“In trouble with the mob?” Ally cut in again.

“I said, don’t worry about it,” Lee ignored Ally and responded to me.

“Do I have to cuff you to the bed?” I asked.

Lee grinned, as, of course, he would.

This did not make me happy.

“Cuffed to the bed?” Ally persevered.

I ignored Ally this time.

“Seriously, Lee. Maybe we should just go to the cabin in Grand Lake for a little while, let this blow over.”

I was thinking maybe a year or two would do it.

“It’s over. Tonight. If there are consequences, I’ll deal,” Lee replied. I opened my mouth to say something but Lee beat me to it. “We aren’t discussing this.”

My eyes narrowed and my hands went from my h*ps so I could cross them on my chest in my, We’ll Just See about That, Mister Pose.

“Hello! I haven’t ceased to exist. I’m still in the room. Is anyone gonna talk to me?” Ally was sounding a bit pissed off.

Before either Lee or I could answer, there was a quick knock on the door, then it opened and a man was there, hand still on the knob, he barely entered the room.

He was not just any man, with one look at him, I knew he was one of Lee’s men.

Tall, taller even than Lee, black hair, fantastic body, jade eyes, he looked like he had a hint of Asian in him. He was beautiful, beyond beautiful, artists and sculptors would likely beat each other to death for the opportunity to use him as a model.

Not that this guy would ever model.

It took all my effort but I tamped down the instinct to flirt and I just smiled at him (without the tilty-head-flirty bit, Lee was in a bad enough mood as it was).

The man’s eyes swept over me, over Ally, face blank, then they settled on Lee.

When he’d looked at me I’d caught something in his eyes, something not happy, something that tugged at my reflexive flirt instinct just to get a rise out of him, a smile, a grin, some reaction.

He was the Ultimate Girl Flirt Challenge.

“Oh my,” Ally breathed.

Obviously, Ally felt the same.

“Mace, this is Indy and my sister Ally,” Lee introduced us.

At this point, I was regretting my thought that any guy named Mace was a macho idiot. If anyone could pull off a name like Mace, this guy could.

Mace’s eyes did another slice through Ally and me, then they went back to Lee.

“Get Coxy’s boys. Bring them to the holding room. All of them. I don’t care how you do it and I don’t care who you have to pull from their cases to help you do it. Just do it,” Lee said.

Finally, Mace grinned.

Oh Lord.

Maybe I was wrong about that macho idiot thing.

Without a word, Mace backed out and closed the door behind him.

Lee looked at me.

“You’re hanging with the boys until I can take you home.”

“Can I hang with the boys?” Ally asked.

Lee nodded.

Ally’s face got happy.

“What boys are we talking about?” I asked. Lee had one guy in the hospital and the rest were probably going to be out rounding up bad guys.

“You have your choice, surveillance room with Monty or computer room with Brody.”

Hmm.

Tough choice.

Not.

“Surveillance room,” Ally spoke my thoughts immediately.

I thought it was prudent to inform her about Monty, just in case she got any ideas. “Monty’s married and has five kids.”

She looked at me.

“Surveillance room,” she repeated.

I nodded.

Surveillance room definitely sounded better than computer room with Brody.

“We’ll take surveillance room,” I told Lee.

* * * * *

I felt a hand lightly touch my shoulder and I woke with a start to see Vance standing over me.

I blinked at him and stared.

I was in the surveillance room and had fallen asleep in my chair.

Ally and I had made the wrong decision, the way wrong decision.

The surveillance room might seem cool, but spend more than fifteen minutes in it and it was boring as hell. I wasn’t into that kind of thing, but after thirty minutes of staring at pretty much nothing happening on the monitors, I was praying for some poke-the-nanny action just for a little excitement.

“Let’s go,” Vance said.

I looked around, I had no idea what time it was but I figured it was late, Monty was gone and Ally and I were alone in the room. Ally was staring at Vance. Even in all my years of knowing her, I noticed she was staring at Vance with a new look, one I’d never seen before. It was an oh-my-God-that-guy-is-hot mixed with an oh-my-God-what-the-fuck-is-going-on look.

My eyes turned to Vance and he was not in a flirting, grinning, hot guy mood. He was in a serious, badass, hot guy mood.