We stopped in a ‘hood where there were one-story row houses, the front steps and a small porch close to the sidewalks, one window denoting the living room. It wasn’t a good neighborhood, it wasn’t a bad neighborhood, it was just forlorn, ill-kept and quiet.

Eddied barely come to a stop when the backdoor opposite me opened and Darius Tucker slid in.

Lee and Eddie had moved naturally from good-looking boys that caused girls to have sweetheart crushes to handsome men that caused women’s vaginas to quiver at the sight of them.

I noted that Darius hadn’t fared as well. He’d always been tall and lean but now the lean had turned a shade skinny. He had more worry lines, his once-close-cropped Afro was now sticking out in funky twists which were admittedly cool but instead of the soulful dark eyes I remembered, he looked angry and even mean.

“What the f**k is she doin’ here and what’s with the dog?” he asked.

Well, hello to you too.

Luckily, I thought it but didn’t say it.

Lee and Eddie had both turned to look at Darius.

“Do we have time to explain?” Lee asked.

“Don’t know, had business take me away for a minute and couldn’t watch the house,” Darius replied. “I know I don’t have all day to waste on this shit.”

“Where is he?” Eddie asked.

“Third door up,” Darius answered.

Lee was focused on something beyond me, out the back window.

“We gotta move, someone got here before us.” His voice had changed, sounding clipped and urgent. His eyes cut to me. “Stay down, out of sight. Jesus Christ, how’d I let you talk me into this shit?”

“I was cuffed to the bed,” I reminded him, speaking automatically and not really processing what was going on, just realizing that the vibes had turned bad.

“Lucky f**k,” Eddie muttered, opened his door and then he was gone. I swear to God, he disappeared into thin air. One second, he was exiting the car, the next second he was nowhere in sight.

“Your Dad teach you how to handle a gun?” Darius was talking to me and I looked at him. His eyes were cold and it was so wrong in his face, a face I’d once known so well, that I felt it in my gut.

I nodded to him.

Lee was leaning forward, reaching under the driver’s side seat. He came up with a gun and handed it to me.

“Show me,” Lee demanded, his voice sharp.

Shit.

Under pressure.

It was a Glock, Dad had a Glock.

“Safety lever in the trigger,” I murmured then dumped the magazine, I pulled the slide back and a bullet flew out of the top. I snatched the bullet up, clipped it back into the into the magazine and shoved the magazine back into the gun.

I looked back at them, I didn’t know what else to do.

They didn’t say a word, they both opened their doors and were gone.

Poof.

Vanished.

Just like Eddie.

I pushed Chowleena down on the seat. She didn’t seem real concerned about the drama, she thought it was time for a nap. I could have kissed her.

I took one look at door number three, Rosie’s door, before scooting down in my seat.

Then I shot back up and stared into door number three’s window.

Ally was in there with Rosie.

I’d only seen a flash of her but I knew she was there.

Holy, shit, shit, shit.

What was she doing there?

Did Lee know?

I couldn’t exactly call him.

Shit!

Then I saw him, walking down the street, looking like he didn’t belong there. Mainly because he looked like nothing, nobody, everyman. Made to fit in with the scenery. He was Tom Hanks. Problem was, Tom Hanks didn’t live in this neighborhood.

I felt a chill up my spine.

I grabbed my gunbelt, pulled out the pepper spray and rammed it in my front pocket. Then I pulled out the taser and rammed it in the waistband of my shorts. Then I shoved the Glock in the back of my shorts, pulled my Xanadu t-shirt over the gun butts and, before my mind could think of excuses, I got out of the car.

I had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it. All I knew was, three guys with guns were out there as smoke as well as a potential bad guy and Ally was between all of them and Rosie.

I hurried across the street and down the sidewalk.

He was nearly to door number three when he heard my flip flops.

He turned.

Casually I lifted my chin and smiled, as if I was a passerby saying hello and kept walking toward him.

His eyes dropped to the waistband of my shorts.

Unfortunately my t-shirt was fitted, not loose around the waist so the taser butt showed in obvious relief.

He moved and I moved, yanking the taser out and bringing my shirt up and out with it, giving him a flash of my lacy, lemon-yellow bra. The shirt snapped back as I lifted my arm and pulled the trigger. The prongs went sailing forward, snagged him as he yanked the gun out of his shoulder holster, momentarily taken aback by my accidental flash of bra. I didn’t care, he was down before he got his arm straight and I didn’t have any holes in me seeping life-blood.

No sooner had he hit pavement then strong hands snagged me around the waist and I was slammed against a parked car, a hand pressed against my stomach holding me there.

“Where do you think we are, the f**king OK Corral?” Eddie snapped, his face close to mine and he was pissed. He yanked the taser out of my hand and then he started talking in rapid-fire Spanish, none of which I could understand but that might have been a good thing.

Lee materialized next to us. Lee wasn’t pissed, he was furious, it rolled off him in waves.

“Ally’s in there. I saw her through the window,” I told Lee.

Both Lee and Eddie turned toward door number three. I felt the fury waves recede. They knew I’d put myself in front of a bus, a train or an assassin to save Ally.

The door opened and Ally stood in its frame behind a rickety screen.

“What’s going on?” she asked, looking down at the stunned hit man and then up at us, brows raised and cool as a cucumber.

Gotta love Ally.

There were some muttered oaths. Eddie’s hand came away from my stomach and he moved to the hit man, cuffs out. Lee moved to Ally and I ran back to the car and got Chowleena. By the time Chowleena and I made it in the open front door, Eddie was rolling the cuffed hit man over on his back. When I walked in, I saw Rosie on his stomach on the floor, grunting and moaning, Lee beside him in a half crouch, one foot on the floor, knee bent, the other knee in Rosie’s back. Lee was cuffing him.

Lee hauled Rosie up to his feet while Eddie dragged the hit man into the living room and propped his still stunned body on the couch.