Rock Chick 01 (17 page)

Lee’s face was serious.

“She’s done.”

Hank nodded. “Now, do
you
have
anything for me?”

Lee’s hand moved to my shoulder.

“Duke’s been found, he’s knows what’s
happening and he’s coming home. His house has been tossed.”

I froze and asked Lee, “Someone was in his
house?”

“Yeah,” Lee answered.

“A good someone or a bad someone?”

Lee looked down at me.

“Both, but only the bad someone tossed the
house.”

“Do they have the diamonds?”

Lee exchanged another glance with Hank that I
did not understand and then shrugged.

“Duke wouldn’t say where he stashed them, we
won’t know until he comes home to check.”

I looked between the two brothers and I got
the distinct feeling that something was going on.

Hank glanced at Matt who’d straightened and
was quietly watching and listening.

“I hope you and your boys are being careful,”
he told Lee and I had this weird feeling we were on a different
subject.

“We’re workin’ this for a client,” Lee
answered.

There were more looks passed around then Hank
sighed the sigh of a man beleaguered, kissed me on the top of my
head and left. Matt and Bobby waited around expectantly. Lee turned
me into his arms.

“Don’t let Hank scare you about Tex. He’s
trying to mess with your head enough to keep you out of this.
Tex’ll be all right.”

I nodded.

“We’re gonna have to postpone our plans for
the day. I’ll take you to the store then I have to go check a lead
on Rosie. I also need to have a chat with Tex. I’ll be at your
house no later than three. Earlier if I can make it.”

I nodded. “Do you think Rosie went into
Duke’s house?”

His hand went to my chin and tilted it
up.

“You have to prepare for the worst, Rosie may
no longer be of this world, and if he is, he may no longer be able
to walk free amongst its citizens.”

I nodded again.

Then, right in front of his boys, he kissed
me, full-on, full-tongue, full-throttle. His arms wrapped around my
back and mine went around his neck.

He lifted his head and I breathed, “That shot
me straight to a six.”

Good ole boy Lee used to laugh all the time,
but when he went into the Army, that changed. The grins were few,
the smiles were rare and a laugh from Lee felt like a gift.

After I said that, for the first time in a
long time, I watched as Lee threw his head back and laughed.

The New Definition of Fine

Lee dropped me by Fortnum’s, kissing me
quickly before he took off in his Crossfire. I watched him go and
tried to shut down my mind.

I failed.

I was trying not to think of the night before
or that morning. I had a feeling of definitive joy mixed with
complete and total fear. It was sinking into my brain that Lee told
Kitty Sue we were together not because it was what she wanted to
hear or because it got us out of a tight jam being caught in a
clinch, but instead, because we were.

Together that was.

Liam Nightingale and India Savage, an
item.

There was evidence that Andrea was right, he
was
serious.

Oh. My. God.

I put out a sign, closing Fortnum’s for the
weekend, then walked home.

It was cool and comfortable in my house but
it felt like it had been a week since I’d been home, rather than
just a night.

In an effort not to think about Lee, I put
the water on to boil for the macaroni, opened the backdoor to let
in the non-existent breeze and checked my voicemail.

Seventeen messages.

Of course, it had been several days since I
checked my mail but seventeen messages was an all time high. I
listened to the messages as I got out the ingredients for my salad,
thinking most of the messages would be Duke and Rosie
sightings.

I was wrong.

The news had spread that Lee and I were
together and every girlfriend I’d ever had (even some who had moved
out of town and one who lived in England) felt it necessary to
phone and get the lowdown first hand. Both Marianne and Andrea had
called (Marianne twice), demanding updates.

For women far and wide who knew him, hooking
up with Lee was a hot news item. Lee was the Holy Grail of
boyfriend-dom. Especially since it was me, who had been on the
sacred quest for many long, fruitless years. They all wanted the
facts,
all
the facts.

If I but breathed a word of what it actually
was like to kiss Lee, be held by Lee, or, dear Lord, what Lee
looked like naked, I might cause a riot, even a war. I might have
to arm myself and fight them all back lest Lee be torn
limb-from-limb.

It was for the better health of the female
population and peace in the land that I kept my mouth shut.

Of course, I had kinda told Andrea but I’d
kept Andrea’s Richie Sambora secret, she’d keep my Lee secret, no
sweat.

I made a pot of strong coffee and started
cutting up pickles and onions and I let my mind wander.

Lee had made it pretty clear that I meant
something to him and this was the cause of the joy that I couldn’t
quite tamp down. He didn’t like me thinking I was a quick fuck, he
didn’t like me crying, he didn’t like me trembling and he
really
didn’t like it when Terrible Teddy punched me in the
face.

I shivered a little bit at what might have
happened to Teddy if Lee’s boys had picked him up as Lee
ordered.

Which brought me to the subject of just who
Lee was. He said I didn’t have a fucking clue and at the rate he’d
surprised me the last couple of days, I was thinking he was
right.

I ran down the facts.

I thought Lee thought of me as his little
sister. That obviously was not the case.

Lee had a workforce, people he employed, at
least two of them, three if you counted Judy, the housekeeper.
There were likely more. This meant responsibility and
dependability. This meant people counted on him to keep them paid
so they could put food on their table and roofs over their heads.
This meant that somewhere along the line, Lee had become
disturbingly grown up.

I, on the other hand, was avoiding growing
up. My grandmother never grew up. I remembered many a time when my
grandfather said to my grandmother, “Ellen, some day you’re gonna
have to grow up.” And Gram would always say, “Why would I do a fool
thing like that?”

I agreed with my grandmother, growing up
didn’t sound like much fun. Growing up meant diaper bags, ironing
your clothes and balancing your checkbook. That seemed really
boring and I was avoiding it.

Then, there was the fact that Lee seemed to
be a little bit better at this relationship stuff than I was. It
had only been a couple of days but he talked casually about going
out to dinner or when he’d pick me up from the store. He seemed
pretty comfortable with me in his bed, in his house, my clothes in
his drawers, my toothbrush next to his.

How this could be when Lee went through women
like water was beyond me.

Granted, the longest relationship I’d had
lasted eight months but there was a reason for that, none of the
guys were Lee.

Now that it seemed like I had Lee, would I
drive him away with my thrashing around in bed (although he seemed
to have conquered that obstacle pretty quickly)? Then there were my
crazy escapades with Ally (although he’d had a lifetime of that and
always seemed to find it amusing). Of course there was also my
somewhat crazy and uncontrollable bent towards doing stupid shit
all the time (although he was showing alarming dexterity at
cleaning up the messes I made). And, of course, my hell-bent
independence and need for space (although he’d also managed to get
by that by forcing me out of my space and into his, and his space
was rather nice, with a great view and a housekeeper).

Yikes.

Finally, there was the scary part of Lee.

My Dad was a cop, the danger level to that
job was a lot higher than most and I’d lived with it my whole life.
I knew it and understood it, I didn’t like it but I was proud of
him. He was one of the good guys that made the world safe. The
world needed guys like Dad, Malcolm and Hank and the people in
their lives had to give them space to do their jobs or we’d all be
up shit creek.

Lee was… I didn’t know.

Death didn’t freak him out. He seemed to
wander around comfortably both in the sunny real world that I
inhabited and the slimy underworld that I hoped was temporary for
me.

For Lee, bad guys had nicknames.

For Lee, driving twenty miles per hour over
the speed limit, weaving in and out of crowded mid-day traffic on
Speer Boulevard was like a Sunday drive.

Lee was offended at the thought that he’d
botch a B and E. Lee oozed so much authority that crazy guys like
Tex did what he ordered without comment. Lee was so dangerous that
even Goon Gary and Creepy Terry Wilcox barely could hide their fear
of him.

I dumped the cooked macaroni in the colander,
rinsed it and left it to cool.

Then I went upstairs and slathered my body in
factor 8 suntan oil that smelled deliciously coconuty. I dressed in
my turquoise bikini that had the silver hoop between my boobs and
the ones holding the material together at my hips and wrapped a
sarong around my hips, tying it in a big knot at the front.

After doing this, I decided that I’d just
have to wait and see what Lee had to say.

He told me he’d show me who he was, what he
wanted and then I could make my decision. This did nothing to shift
the joy or the fear, but it definitely mingled it with not a small
amount of excitement.

It felt like Christmas Eve.

I was assembling my macaroni salad
extravaganza when the back security door was thrown open and Rosie
stepped into the kitchen.

He was carrying a gun.

And the gun was pointed at me.

I stared at him, wooden spoon in hand,
dripping mayonnaise.

He looked like hell. Rosie had never been one
to worry about personal hygiene overly-much, he groomed enough to
make it not gross that he was serving coffee.

It was clear he’d slept a helluva lot less
than I had and hadn’t had a shower since I last saw him.

“Rosie!” I cried. “Where have you been? I’ve
been looking all over and worried sick.”

“Where are the diamonds?”

Uh, excuse me but this was beginning to piss
me off. Why did everyone think I had the diamonds or knew where
they were? I hadn’t even seen the fucking things.

He moved the gun jerkily and I quit thinking
about the diamonds.

“Where are the diamonds?” he shouted.

I stopped staring at Rosie and started
staring at the gun.

“I don’t know where they are.”

“Duke’s gone, they aren’t at his house.”

My eyes moved back to Rosie. He was
definitely freaked out, panicked, and not in an artist-on-the-verge
kind of way. It was far worse than that.

“You didn’t toss Duke’s house did you?” I
asked.

“No! It was like that when I got there. I
thought it was you and that crazy guy who taped me up.”

“I haven’t been to Duke’s but Duke’s coming
back and I’m sure he knows where the diamonds are.” I tried to be
calm and calm him. “Rosie, put down the gun, you need to stay
someplace safe. I can call Lee –”

Rosie started waving the gun around and I
stopped talking and stepped back.

“Don’t call that maniac. He taped me up! It
took him, like, two seconds. I didn’t even get the chance to yell.
I didn’t even hear him come in. He’s nuts.”

“Okay, I won’t call Lee. But Rosie, you have
to be smart. Your friend –”

“He’s dead, they shot him. They fucking shot
him!” He was shouting now, waving the gun around and seriously
freaked out.

“Rosie –” I started.

“Yoo hoo!”

I heard the call from out the backdoor,
complete with the clickety-clack of high heeled shoes and
Chowleena’s nails on the bricks.

My neighbor, Tod.

“Tod, go back!” I yelled but Rosie had turned
and pulled the trigger, shooting wild out the backdoor, three shots
were squeezed off in as many seconds. I saw Tod’s arms flung out
before him as he hit the deck and Chowleena started barking, each
bark sending her upper body straight in the air. I knew this
because I could hear the click of her nails hit the bricks every
time she landed.

Rosie stared at the gun as if he forgot he
was holding it and then ran out the door.

I ran after him.

“Rosie! Come back here! Don’t be stupid!”

But Rosie wasn’t listening to me. Rosie threw
himself in a dark gray, old-model Nissan Sentra that was parked
blocking my back alley and took off. I managed to read half the
license plate before he turned left on Bannock and disappeared.

I ran back to the house. Tod was standing at
my backdoor wearing a pair of white, to-the-knee jeans shorts, a
wife beater and a killer pair of high heeled, strappy black sandals
with sweet little bows on the peek-a-boo toes with rhinestones in
the bows. He had his hand at his chest, his face was pale and
considering the bloody areas, he’d scraped his knees and palms.

“Great shoes,” I said, trying to stay
calm.

“I was coming over to show them to you,
bought them yesterday,” Tod replied.

“Can I borrow them sometime?”

“Sure.”

Chowleena walked forward and shoved her face
against my shins, completely unfazed by the gunplay. She was beige,
small for a chow, fluffy in the extreme around her ruff with her
butt shaved. The shin-butt was her way of giving a hug and saying,
“hi” and, “give me a dog biscuit”. Her Dads were pretty strict
about her diet but Auntie Indy was a pushover, one Chowleena hug
and I had the dog biscuit box out.