Page 29 of Ignite

“Fuck reasonable, and fuck you!” She punctuated the sentence by throwing her phone at Jazz, striking her on the cheek. Jazz yelped and jerked to the side from the impact. Camshaft swore and moved to block the out-of-control woman from any more physical shit.

Wolf lost his temper. “Oh hell no. That’s not happening here. You have about a minute and a half before I call the police.”

“I said I’m not leaving!’

“Suit yourself.” He dialed 911 to make the report.

“Please, Liz. If you get arrested, who’s gonna watch the boys tonight?” Jazz held her hand to her cheek but kept her distance.

“Mom ’n’ Dad are at the house.” She turned to Wolf with an ugly sneer on her face. “Sure. Call the police. I’ll report how you assaulted me.”

Wolf rolled his eyes and kept his attention on the angry woman. Camshaft kept himself in front of her, arms out wide to keep her from running back into the club. No one could say he touched her, but he made sure she didn’t come near the entrance or Wolf and Jazz.

Wolf made a come-here gesture to Jazz. “Let me see.” He examined the spot with gentle fingers. There was a nice bruise forming but no blood. He wasn’t sure he could hold back if she’d been cut.

Blue lights appeared but no sirens. This wasn’t the first time the police had been called to the club, and Wolf was sure it wouldn’t be the last, but since no guns were involved, he requested that they not come in hot.

“Yo, Wolf. What’s up?” The officer approached casually. “Someone get a little too excited around the girls?”

“Not this time, Denny. Ex-wife showed up.”

“We’re just separated!” Liz’s face was beet red, and she showed no signs of de-escalating.

Jazz stayed to the side, as if she realized there was nothing she could do but let the scene play out.

Wolf hated doing this, but Liz was not giving him any other choice. “That’s her if you didn’t catch it.”

Officer Denny turned to Liz and started talking with a placating tone. Liz wasn’t having it, and the words that came out of her mouth would make a sailor raise an eyebrow.

Jazz pulled at Wolf’s arm to get his attention, still holding her cheek. “What’s going to happen to her? Is she going to jail?”

Wolf sighed. “That’s up to her and what she does next. Hey, Cam. Go get me some ice, yeah?”

Cam leaned in and kept his voice low. “I took a look at room two. He’s… um… engaged with Candie.”

Can there be any more shit to pile on tonight?Wolf’s temper was about to explode. “You’re fucking with me, right? Candie damn well knows there’s no ‘engagement’ at the club. What the fuck are they doing?”

Camshaft’s eyes shifted to the screaming woman and then to a curious Jazz. “They’re busy. Uh, house special.”

“We don’t have house specials. Busy how?”

The younger man hesitated a moment more and finally said in a low voice, “She’s giving him a blow job, and under the circumstances, I decided to let them finish instead of making more trouble.”

“Fuck.” Wolf raised his eyes to the dark sky and counted to ten. Then did it again. Not helping.

Jazz kept her silence. This was good, as another unholy screech erupted from Liz’s mouth.

“You cocksucking fuckwad!”

Denny had his cuffs out and moved to put them on Liz. She, of course, screamed and fought back, making that task impossible without more force. Jazz stood to the side, her face incredulous, as if she couldn’t believe the drama unfolding in front of her eyes.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the person who started all this mess appeared a second later.

“Liz? What the fuck are you doin’ here? Hey, leggo my wife!”

“Fuck,” Wolf repeated.What else could go wrong?

He regretted that thought a moment later when an old dark gray Buick drove by and opened fire.

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