Rock Chick Reckoning (Rock Chick #6)(43)
Author: Kristen Ashley

At first, Eddie thought Mace wanted to move in on his action but this proved not to be the case. After my trauma was over, Mace and I stayed connected. This meant, every once in awhile, Mace came over to Eddie and my place for dinner, sometimes when Eddie was there, other times when he wasn’t.

Mace didn’t talk much and he never shared but I knew he liked listening to me and he definitely liked my chil i and my meatloaf but his favorite was my roasted chicken and cheesy-garlic mashed potatoes.

Mace and I were a weird kind of friends. Because of what we shared (him saving my life, me being alive), he obviously meant a lot to me and, for some reason, I knew I meant a lot to him.

When you knew those kinds of things, you didn’t have to talk about it.

Eddie had told me about Mace’s sister but he didn’t go into detail.

Now, seeing as Mace was my alternate Hot Bunch Guy and next in the Rock Chick Firing Line, I needed to know and next in the Rock Chick Firing Line, I needed to know and I knew I could never ask Mace.

So I asked Eddie.

“I’d like to know,” I pushed.

“No, you wouldn’t.”

I lifted up on a forearm and looked down at him.

“Yeah, I would.”

“Jet –”

“His sister got murdered, Eddie. I know the story doesn’t have a happy ending.”

He watched me a beat then two then he sighed and I knew he was giving in.

I didn’t smile. Since my drama was over, living with Eddie, my sister back in Denver after spending years in LA, my mother happy, healthy again after her stroke and dating Tex, I had lots of smiling moments not counting, of course, being the target of a kil er.

But this wasn’t one of them.

He rol ed, forcing my arm out from under me until we were on our sides, face-to-face.

His hand came out of my panties but his arm stayed tight around my waist.

Then he started talking.

“Mace comes from money. Lots of it. His Mom and Dad divorced when he was young, his Dad had the money, kept it, didn’t share and went on to acquire a string of trophy wives. Mace stayed with his Mom, they moved from LA to her native Hawaii and their standard of living changed in a serious way. His Dad had another child, Mace’s half-sister, with wife number three of five. He moved on to wife after wife, leavin’ the women and kids behind with less than they were used to havin’. Mace was close to his Mom and established a long distance bond with his sister but he didn’t have much to do with his father.”

I wasn’t surprised. By the sounds of Mace’s Dad, I wouldn’t have much to do with him either.

Eddie had stopped and I watched his face, knowing from his look that what he had to share was unpleasant. My hand moved up his bel y to lie flat on his chest. When I did this, he started talking again.

“The Dad was loaded. We’re talkin’ loaded. Not mil ions, bil ions. Even so, when he moved on to a different woman, he left the life he had behind which meant he didn’t have much to do with his kids. This meant that even though it wasn’t a significant threat, with that kind of money, there would always be a threat and he left his kids unprotected.

Because of that, the sister got kidnapped, held for ransom.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed, stunned by this even though I, too, had been kidnapped. So had Indy. And Roxie. And Ava. None of our kidnappings had been enjoyable but most of them didn’t last very long, we’d al gotten away (or been rescued), and none of us had been held for ransom.

“Mace’s Dad’s a jackass. Strong man. Wouldn’t pay the ransom, wouldn’t get the police involved. He hired his own team of commandos. They had no clue who they were dealin’ with. They f**ked it up, botched the mission and, after, Mace’s Dad got his sister’s hand delivered to him in a box.”

I felt bile rise up my throat but I swal owed it down and I felt bile rise up my throat but I swal owed it down and closed my eyes tight.

Okay, so, maybe Eddie was right. Maybe I didn’t want to know.

It was too late, Eddie kept talking.

“At that point, Mace was done. He went against his father, got the police involved. They cornered the kidnappers and started negotiating. For some f**kin’

reason, the kidnappers asked for Mace to be the go-between, demanded he make the approach. The police refused until they heard her screamin’. Mace lost it, demanded to be sent in. Without much choice, her stil screamin’, they suited him up with vest and helmet and sent him in but the SWAT team was ready to go in right after him and put an end to it. The kidnappers knew they were f**ked; they had no intention of negotiating. The minute Mace hit the room, before SWAT could make their move, they blew her head off and pumped eleven rounds into Mace’s vest, one through his shoulder, one through his thigh, two into his helmet before they turned their guns on themselves. It was a bloodbath. Mace was the only one to come out alive.”

This knowledge settled in my brain then entered my bloodstream and it burned like acid.

I opened my eyes and felt the wetness leaking out the sides.

“Mace was twenty-five when it happened,” Eddie continued. “His sister was sixteen.”

I tilted my chin down and pressed my forehead against Eddie’s col arbone, unable to process the idea of a sixteen Eddie’s col arbone, unable to process the idea of a sixteen year old girl enduring that before her life was cut short.

Further unable to process the idea of her brother living with that knowledge for the rest of his life.

Mainly because it was utterly un-processable.

“I got this from Lee. Mace doesn’t talk about it. And this is where the story gets fuzzy,” Eddie went on, my head tilted back, the tears stil in my eyes, and I looked at him.

“It isn’t done?” I whispered.

Eddie shook his head.

“There’s more?” I asked.

Eddie nodded his head.

“What?” I prompted, not wanting to know but needing to know al the same.

“Don’t know who they worked for, the kidnappers, but it was a big operation. The Dad was involved. Could be guns. Could be drugs. Could be deeper, uglier. It may be just because he’s an ass**le that the Dad didn’t cal in the police or the FBI. It could be he was hidin’ somethin’. The kidnappers could have been after the ransom but them cal in’ Mace in with the intent to kil him smacks of retribution. Odds are, the Dad did something that required payback. That’s my guess, but I don’t have a clue and Lee won’t give me one.”

“What are you talking about?”