Like a sixth sense, I felt rather than saw Crowe coming up behind me. Then he got up beside me and stopped, his eyes were on the man at my boot.

I guessed I was wrong about not having a tail.

God, he was good.

Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow move from behind Clarence. I focused and Mace arrived at the scene. He was looking at Vance. At the sight of Mace, I got over my admiration of Crowe.

This is just great, I thought with mental sarcasm.

“Did I see what I think I just saw?” Mace asked to Crowe.

“You saw it,” Crowe replied then he looked at me.

It was dark; I couldn’t read his eyes and didn’t try. I looked back at Mace and Clarence.

Mace’s eyes had cut to me; he stared at me a second and I could tell by the white flash in his mouth area that he grinned. Then he grabbed Clarence’s wrist, twisted it around to his back and shoved him face first against the brick wall. He pulled some cuffs out of the back of his cargo pants and slapped them on Clarence.

“Stay,” he said to Clarence as if he was a dog.

I dropped my gun and put it in the back waistband of my jeans.

“You can take your boot out of his neck now,” Vance said to me.

I looked down. Jermaine was still curled up in apparent agony and not going anywhere.

“Whoops,” I muttered and lifted my foot.

Vance crouched and cuffed Jermaine. Mace had pulled a phone out of his pocket and he’d connected.

“Luke. We got a pick up. Yeah, another couple from Law,” he faded a bit into the shadows and I heard him say, “You are not gonna f**kin’ believe this…”

I walked to Martin and Curtis. “You guys okay?”

They didn’t speak, just nodded, mouths open in disbelief.

“Curtis, your head?” I asked.

He just kept nodding.

“Why were they chasing you?” I asked them.

They kept staring at me.

“Come on boys, spill. These are bad guys, worse than most. What were they doing chasing you?”

“We thought we’d help you go after the drug guys,” Curtis told me.

“Yeah, we been followin’ them two for awhile,” Martin threw in with pride.

Oh crap. Not this again.

“All the kids are talkin’ ‘bout doin’ it. We got sick of talkin’ so we decided just to do it,” Curtis went on.

“It’s so f**kin cool you’re workin’ with Crowe,” Martin said and turned to his brother. “Told you she was workin’ with Crowe.”

Curtis nodded but was silent, overwhelmed by the excitement of it all. His eyes moving between me and Vance who had pulled up Jermaine and was positioning him against the wall next to Clarence.

My eyes returned to the kids. “Don’t say f**k and I’m not working with Crowe.”

“Yeah you are. I heard he’s like, your man and you’re like, his woman,” Martin replied.

“Yeah, Sniff said that, today, you two were huggin’ at that bookstore where they all hang out,” Curtis put in.

Damn Sniff and his mouth.

I looked at Vance and noticed he had turned to us. I didn’t know him well enough to guess his reaction to this latest fiasco but, if I’d had to guess, it wouldn’t have been him smiling wide like he was pleased about something which was exactly what he was doing.

I sent him a look and turned back to the boys. “All right, kids, let’s get this straight. You two do not go out on the street and get in the faces of bad guys. Anyone else you hear talking about it, you tell them I said the same to them. Do you hear me?” I said in my word-is-law voice.

“We hear you,” Curtis said.

“No need. You workin’ with Crowe and that Mace guy in on it too…” Martin replied, trailing off, awe still in his voice.

“Streets’ll be clean in no time,” Curtis added, like we were superheroes.

I looked back at Vance and he was still smiling.

I rolled my eyes.

Headlights came from behind me and I turned and saw a black Ford Explorer heading down the alley. It stopped close to us and Stark swung out of the driver’s side. A huge blond guy that looked like a relative of the big man at Fortnum’s got out the passenger side. They walked up to us, both of them were grinning.

Martin and Curtis’s mouths had dropped open again.

“God dammit,” I hissed under my breath.

Just what I needed, Super Dude Stark and Paul Bunyon sweeping up the trash. The kids were going to talk about this until Christmas.

Mace re-emerged from the shadows just as the huge blond said, “Jesus, Law, you ever take a night off?”

“The Law never takes a break,” Curtis offered.

I looked skyward. As I was doing so Vance approached me and curled an arm around my neck, pulling me into the side of his body. Martin and Curtis had trained their gazes on us and, again, their mouths dropped open but now their eyes were bugged nearly clear out of their heads.

“Knew you were his woman,” Martin finally said.

I’d had enough. “You two know Hazel?” I asked.

More awestruck looks.

“Your Camaro?” Curtis breathed.

“Yeah. She’s parked on the street, lock yourselves in until I get there. Tonight, you’re sleeping at King’s.”

“We get to ride in Hazel?” Martin asked.

“Move!” I snapped.

They both ran.

I turned toward Vance, which only succeeded in my curling into his body. I pulled back at the neck but his arm didn’t go anywhere so I gave up.

He was grinning down at me.

“Take your arm away,” I said.

He didn’t, instead he leaned in and kissed my forehead. This was such a strange thing to do in the current situation, and I was so shocked by it, I blinked at him.

“What was that for?” I asked.

“I’m just relieved that when you told me you knew what you were doin’, you actually knew what you were doin’.”

It wasn’t a well-lit alley but I was pretty sure he was looking at me with new respect. I felt a rush of warmth, starting at my belly and going outwards. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

The big blond guy and Mace were pushing Clarence and Jermaine toward the Explorer.

“Where are they taking them?” I asked.

“Don’t know. We still got Shard in the holding room. You’re challenging our capacity,” Vance replied.