Rock Chick Reckoning (Rock Chick #6)(110)
Author: Kristen Ashley

I didn’t let that faze me as I moved toward him until we were toe-to-toe.

I tilted my head back to look at him and rested my hands lightly on his chest. I felt his heart beating hard and fast under my hand.

This frightened me but I pushed on. “And don’t tel me I don’t know what I’m talking about. I know you didn’t want me to but I’ve seen the papers, Mace. I saw the photos of her. I saw the photo of her with you. She loved her brother.

She’d want you to be happy. You need your family.

Everyone in this room is your family. Everyone’s here because they care about you.” I hesitated, smiled and then said, “Wel , except maybe Pong and Hugo. They’re here because there’s usual y free beer in The Rose’s dressing room.”

I was trying to be funny, cut the tension.

It didn’t work.

Mace stared at me. I stared back.

Mace’s stare got scarier. So much scarier it scared me but I took it and stared back.

There was movement at our side. Mace and my heads turned and Chloe was there.

She lifted her hand as if she was going to touch Mace.

His eyes moved to her hand and they narrowed so she dropped it.

She took in a breath and held it, on the exhale she said,

“She’s right, honey. Tiny would want that.” Mace’s body jerked when he heard his sister’s nickname but he didn’t say a word. He just stared at her.

This isn’t going very well, my brain informed me.

Shut up! I returned.

Chloe lifted her hand and touched my arm. She put pressure there so I moved to the side. Now Lana was there, standing next to Mace, across from me. But my eyes were on Chloe. She had her hand in her jeans pocket and when she pul ed it out, a chain was dangling from her fingers.

I watched in stunned, frightened silence as Chloe pul ed in a breath so deep her chest visibly expanded with it. She let the breath go and leaned into Mace. She got up on tiptoe, put her arms around his neck, the chain between her hands, a tiny ring dangling from it. She clasped the chain around Mace’s stil frozen neck.

Then Chloe settled back on her feet but lifted a hand to touch one finger to the ring that was now resting at his throat.

“She loved that ring. Never took it off. I’ve been wanting to give it to you since…” She stopped and shook her head slowly then went on, “You gave her that, remember? On her fourteenth –”

She didn’t finish. Mace’s arms shot out and he yanked her to his body so hard her head jerked back and she let out a smal cry. His back arched as he buried his face in her neck.

My throat closed and I felt the tears immediately fil my eyes and spil over.

She hesitated, likely stil recovering from al of a sudden being in his arms. Then Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tight.

“Out, now,” I heard Lee say and there was movement al around us.

Lana threw her arms around the two of them and I took a step back. The others were leaving and I was going too.

This family needed space.

I didn’t get a second step. Mace’s hand darted out and closed around my wrist. His head came up, his eyes locked on mine and pinned me to the spot.

He didn’t have to say a word.

I settled in.

He let me go and turned to his mother.

She slid into his arms as if she’d been there only yesterday.

As Mace hugged his Mom, I looked to the door.

Floyd was there.

So was Lee.

Floyd winked at me.

So did Lee.

Floyd went out first.

Lee closed the door behind him.

* * * * *

“And it’s your turn girl to cry, ” I sang into the mic. I started the “na-na’s” of Journey’s “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’”, the band kicked in the second set and the entire crowd shouted them back at us, hands up in the air, jacking out the beat. The crowd included Lana and Chloe who were front and center with the Rock Chicks.

Lana, I noticed right off, was super comfortable up front at a rock gig. I’d watched as she sung out loud, knowing every song we played (except the three new songs of Buzz and Leo’s, of course). She danced and swayed and let’s just say that Mace’s Mom could move. She was sexy as al get out and I could tel she loved rock and rol .

For Lana, an afternoon of Guitar Hero was definitely the way to go.

On the other hand, it took Chloe awhile to get into it (her favorite music was probably Tchaikovsky too). Stil , The Gypsies were on a tear, it didn’t take very long for her to feel the vibe and let it take her where she needed to go.

The security detail was the same as the other gigs except Hank and Eddie weren’t there because they were dismantling Sidney Carter’s operation. In their place was Indy’s Dad, Tom and Hank, Lee and Al y’s Dad, Malcolm.

Tom and Duke both were close to the stage guarding me and the Rock Chicks.

I’d had just enough time after the reunion to tel Mace about Dixon Jones and the Chateau Marmont (and to let his smile of approval and his lip touch give me a happy shiver).

Then Chloe and I let him alone with Lana.

In order to give them privacy, instead of hanging backstage with the band as normal, I sat at the bar, drinking beer with the Rock Chicks and Chloe (who didn’t drink beer, she drank martinis, Chloe was one classy lady), talking to some of my fans with Duke plastered to my side until it was time to take the stage.

I was smiling as I sang the “na-na’s”, my arm up in the air, moving back and forth. The crowd caught my rhythm and, as one, their arms moved with mine and they chanted the “na-na’s” with the band.

My eyes slid through the crowd and I saw Luke at the doors, back to the stage, arms crossed on his chest, talking to one of the club’s bouncers.

I kept singing and my eyes kept moving and I saw Mace, standing head and shoulders above the crowd, his eyes were scanning. I waited and, just as I knew it would, his gaze came to me. I didn’t know it but the minute his eyes hit me, my smile grew brighter. I also didn’t know that Lana and Chloe caught my smile and turned around to see what I was smiling at. Further, I didn’t know, when they saw it was Mace, Chloe burst into tears again and Lana hugged her.

Mace’s eyes left me to scan the crowd again and my eyes kept moving, stil singing the “na-na’s”, stil living in my happy place, my lucky place. The place where my band was heading to LA to record an album. The place where I’d chased Mace’s demons away and gave him back his family. The place where I lived now. The place where Mace loved me.