“What I need is for you to put this on me,” I said quietly and Ren’s eyes moved from the pendant to me.

His voice was rough when he stated, “You carried it with you.”

“Yes.”

“Always?”

I took a breath in through my nose.

Then I nodded and whispered, “Always.”

His eyes stayed locked to mine, heated and intense, before he grinned and declared, “I was so in there.”

I palmed the necklace and snapped, “Zano, do you want me pissed at you?”

“Semi-sweet Ally, just seein’ how far she goes,” he replied.

“You reached the end, mister,” I returned, twisted to exit the vehicle but instead found myself in Ren’s lap, wedged between him and his steering wheel.

Oh, and he was kissing me.

I decided to forgive him and kissed him back.

Then kissing turned into making out.

After we were done doing that, he put the necklace on me.

When the guitar was dangling in the dent of my collarbone, Ren touched it as his eyes watched.

He lifted his gaze to mine and stated, “You do know you aren’t bullshitting me. There is no semi-sweet Ally. She’s pure honey all the way through.”

I slid my fingers along the dark stubble at his jaw and whispered, “Don’t tell anybody.”

“Baby, your secret’s safe with me.”

I smiled at him.

He smiled back, touched his mouth to mine and deposited my ass in my seat.

We got out of his car and walked hand in hand into my complex and up the stairs.

I was in my head. Precisely what I was thinking up there was which dresses and heels I was going to pack to take to Ren’s.

On the way home, we’d made the deal that we were going to try this together togetherness, not f**k around and not delay. That meant me staying at Ren’s (because, seriously, his house was awesome; he even had a sauna in his bathroom).

This also meant me meeting his mom and two sisters, him meeting my family not as Ren, a member of the Zano Crime Family, but as Ren, the boyfriend of me, and me sitting down to dinner with Vito and his wife Angela.

None of this scared me. Vito liked me. Ren loved me and he was the kind of guy who, if he made that decision, even if his mom and sisters didn’t like me, they’d have to deal. As for my family, Ren was Ren and his family was his family and mine were who they were and usually this would be a Romeo and Juliet type of scenario. But I wasn’t big on Shakespeare so my family was also just going to have to deal.

I was narrowing down my dress and heels choices when I felt his hand tighten in mine and he pulled us both to a dead stop.

I looked up and tensed when I saw The Kevster running our way down the hall.

“Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bo—!” he was shouting.

But he didn’t get the last one out.

This was because my apartment exploded. The Kevster was taken clean off his feet and was blown our way. Ren and I rocked backward, Ren tugging my arm and curling me into him so when he landed on his back, I landed partly on his front but my left side slammed into the floor.

Instantly, he rolled me so I was on bottom and he tucked me low so he fully covered me.

Oh man.

Here we go.

Shit.

Chapter Nine

Sixteen to Me

I was pacing Lee’s office.

The Kevster, healthy and all in one piece (thank God), was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Lee’s desk.

For some reason, the police cruiser we were loaded into took us to Lee’s offices in lower downtown Denver (known as LoDo) instead of the station. We were escorted into Lee’s office and locked in.

Yes.

Locked in.

When we left my place, the entirety of the Hot Bunch were milling about with police and firefighters.

And when we left, looking out my window with a totally freaked out Kevster at my side, Ren and Lee were nose to nose, and neither of them looked happy.

I was not either, being carted off like a girl (or a pothead) who needed to be protected.

What was that all about it?

I also wanted to know why Lee and Ren were in each other’s faces, but neither of them were answering their phones. Sadly, before I could try to get to either by proxy, as in calling Indy to call Lee, my phone ran out of juice.

The Kevster didn’t have one.

And Mace had destroyed Lee’s office phone in a fit of (justifiable) rage during his and Stella’s drama and Lee elected not to replace it. This meant Shirleen couldn’t transfer annoying phone calls from clients that he didn’t want to handle and therefore he could spend more of his time “in the field.”

It also meant, since we were locked in (again, locked in), I was incommunicado.

And I was steaming.

My apartment had exploded!

What the f**k was that?

And here I was, pacing in an office across town, not knowing anything, and worse, not able to do anything, all because the macho alphas in my life deemed it fit I should be carted away.

I had been, at the time, semi-flipped out, seeing as my apartment had exploded, so I didn’t argue.

I made a mental note to delay flip outs in future so I would not give the macho alphas in my life the opportunity to treat me like a girl.

After making this mental note, I eyed Kevin and decided I’d given him enough time to control his freak out, or get it together enough to converse with me (insofar as The Kevster could do either, even when things weren’t exploding) so I moved to Lee’s desk. I rested my h*ps against it and looked down at Kevin.

His wide eyes looked up at me.

Okay, maybe I hadn’t given it enough time.

Still, I had to do something.

“Kevin, do you feel like talking?” I asked carefully.

“I nearly exploded,” he told me instead of answering.

“I know. You may have saved Ren’s and my life, and dude, I don’t know how to thank you for that. That was way cool. I’ll try to figure out a way to express my gratitude, but now we need to talk. I gotta know how you knew—”

The door opened before I could finish and my eyes went there.

Lee was prowling in, but looking behind him, arm raised, finger pointing at something or someone.

I watched him order angrily, “Keep the Rock Chicks back and I don’t give a f**k what it takes to do it.”

Then his eyes came to me and coming in behind him were first Ren then Hank, Eddie, Luke and Mace.

“What’s—?” I started but Lee jerked his finger toward my face and interrupted me.

“You. Shut it,” he growled then turned his attention to The Kevster and jerked his finger in Kevin’s face. “You, tell us how you knew there was a bomb.”