Rock Chick 01 (28 page)

I stood on the balcony with my phone and
without me having to ask, Lee brought me three ibuprofens and a
glass of water. He watched as I guzzled them, took the glass and
then disappeared.

Holy shit.

He was
very
good at this togetherness
stuff.

I called Tod and Stevie first.

They were home, safe and sound and maybe a
little freaked out but not mad at me. At least Tod wasn’t, he was
more interested in dissecting our act on stage.

“Girlie, we kicked
ass
. They were on
their feet. They were chanting. We gotta go shopping, we gotta get
you some mini-Burgundy outfits. We gotta take this
show
on
the
road!
”

Andrea and Marianne were also safe, though
Andrea’s husband said she wasn’t allowed to go out with me anymore
which caused a fight as no one ever told Andrea what she was
allowed to do. No one. Richie Sambora, the great and glorious lead
guitar of Bon Jovi and Andrea’s dream man could have given her an
order and she would have told him to go fuck himself.

Duke thought it was a hoot, Dolores was
considering backing out of girl’s night out on Wednesday.

I flipped my phone shut and walked into the
bedroom. Lee was in the same position he’d been in last night, in
bed, on his back, chest bare, sheet nearly to the waist. The light
was on but this time, he didn’t have a book and he was fast
asleep.

I’d never really had the time to observe him
while he was asleep and he looked different. He looked kind of like
the old, pre-Special Ops Lee, the hardness and scariness gone,
just… Lee.

I wanted to kiss him, as in
really
wanted to kiss him. He looked good, lying there sleeping. Seriously
good. Melt in your mouth good.

Instead I cleaned my face, brushed my teeth
and pulled on the Night Stalker tee. I double checked the door was
locked and the sliding doors to the balcony were secured. I tiptoed
to Lee’s side of the bed, switched off the light and then went to
my side of the bed and slid in carefully, so as not to wake
him.

I told myself over and over again that I was
not going to kick or hit Lee in his sleep. This helped me force out
thoughts of bullets flying and how totally out of control my life
was.

* * * * *

I woke up to a hand in my panties, cupping my
ass and another one under my shirt, stroking the side of my breast.
I was sprawled half-on, half-off Lee, my face tucked into his
neck.

“You awake?” he asked.

I nodded, sleepily assessing my semi-aroused
state.

His hand moved immediately to cup my breast,
his thumb sliding across the nipple. An electric pulse shot through
me and the “semi” part of my semi-aroused was a distant memory.

My head tilted to look at him and say
something like, “coffee”, “toothpaste” or “more” and his mouth came
to mine.

He hauled me up so I was sprawled fully on
him, his hand moved out of my underwear and both hands went up my
sides, his mouth disengaged with mine, and then,
whoosh
, the
Night Stalker tee was gone.

I was skin-on-skin with Lee. I felt a moment
of elation mingled with extreme panic and before I could decide
which one to give reign to, I was flipped over on my back and Lee
was on me.

At first he was kissing my mouth, his hands
everywhere, skimming, gentle and arousing. Then his mouth left
mine, went to my neck, my throat, my breasts, my belly, following
his hands and then…

Yikes!

My hips jerked in shock as he kissed me
there
, his mouth moving over my panties.

“You okay?” he mumbled against me.

I mumbled back, “Yes,” but my mind said,
Yes, yes, a thousand times, YES!

His fingertips went into the waistband of my
underwear and I knew we were close, very, very close. Or, at least,
I was close. Panic fled and elation and arousal took firm control
and my hands moved, my fingers delving into his hair.

Then the door buzzer went, three quick shots,
three longer ones, three quick ones.

Lee immediately stopped what he was doing and
came up over me.

“Fuck!” he exploded, “God, I’m sorry.
Really
sorry.”

He got up and stalked naked from the
room.

I laid there, half-naked and fully in
shock.

Foiled again.

What kind of luck was that? Was this divine
intervention?

I rolled, felt my aching body cry out in
belated protest, grabbed my discarded tee from floor and pulled it
on. By the time I got it down, Lee was back in the room.

“One of my men has been shot,” he told
me.

All aches and pains fled and I jumped out of
bed.

“Oh my God.”

“Bobby and Matt are comin’ up, I’ve got to
jump in the shower. Let them in, will you?” and he disappeared into
the bathroom.

I ran to the kitchen, tore through the
cupboards and set the coffee to running when there came a knock at
the door.

I looked out the peephole and let Bobby and
Matt in.

They looked grim.

“You guys okay?”

Nods, no words.

“Who is it? How is he?”

“He was wearin’ a vest, amour piercing
bullets.” This was all Matt said. This was all Matt needed to
say.

“Oh no.” I scrambled through the kitchen. Lee
had a collection of travel coffee mugs, definitely a man-on-the-go,
not one that hangs around and sips his coffee. I yanked three down
and asked, “Have you had breakfast? Do you want breakfast? I can
make some quick toast.”

“Not hungry,” Bobby forced through stiff
lips.

We all stood there staring at each other. I
couldn’t stand not doing anything so I pulled the coffeepot out,
wedged a travel mug under the spout, and filled the other two mugs
with coffee. I was screwing on the tops when Lee came in, hair wet
and freshly shaved.

“Let’s roll,” he said and Matt and Bobby
started moving.

I handed out coffee, yanking the last mug out
from under the spout and tossing the pot back underneath, trailing
behind Lee while I screwed on the top.

“This one isn’t full,” I told Lee at the
door, feeling stupid and useless.

“That’s okay.” He grabbed it.

“Call me when you know something.”

He bent to kiss me quickly and then he was
gone.

While Stevie and I were packing up Burgundy
the night before, Lee had gone over to my house and grabbed my bag.
He’d brought it up to the condo last night. This was good, I had
new clothes to wear and as it was early, I could get to Fortnum’s
and help open. The Monday coffee crush would take my mind off Lee’s
current activities and the fears that were encroaching that
whoever-this-guy-was got shot doing something to help me.

I’d take Lee’s Crossfire, I was pretty sure
he wouldn’t mind.

I showered, sucked down coffee and ibuprofen,
decided to let my hair dry by itself, slapped on some happy makeup
and tried not to look at the shiner which was finally fading. I
pulled on my yellow t-shirt that had a picture of Starsky and
Hutch’s car, the Striped Tomato, emblazoned across the chest. I
yanked on faded jeans, my red belt and red cowboy boots and eased
myself down to the garage.

I was sure the Crossfire was absolute heaven
to drive but my mind was filled with too much garbage to process
it. I didn’t know if the cops had caught Pepper Rick last night. I
didn’t like considering Lee, man of action, stuck in a hospital
waiting room and what he might learn when the wait was over. I
didn’t want to think of what the day might bring.

It was ten past seven, we opened at seven
thirty and as I drove up, I saw Jane standing outside the store
looking at the sidewalk. I parked the Crossfire right out front and
got out, my eyes on Jane who hadn’t moved.

Then I looked to where she was staring and
stopped dead.

Pepper Rick was lounging in the doorway to
Fortnum’s. It opened onto the corner, at an angle, and he was
sprawled, butt and back to the sidewalk, shoulders and what was
left of his head resting against our door. He was dead, dead,
dead
, just like Tim Shubert except there weren’t any
splattered brains.

“Jane, honey, step away from there,” I said
quietly.

She was frozen still and I noticed she had
her cell phone in her hand.

“Jane,” I said a little more loudly, trying
to get her attention.

She jumped, her cell came out of her hand,
flew end over end through the air and landed on Pepper Rick’s
chest, clattering down to rest by his hand.

We both watched the cell fly, land and
settle.

“Oops,” Jane said and I think I saw her make
the mental decision to get a new phone.

I dug my cell out of my purse, considered who
to call and settled on Hank.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Um, it’s Indy. I hate to tell you this but
there’s a dead guy lounging in the doorway to Fortnum’s.”

Silence.

Duke rounded the corner and Jane and my eyes
turned to him, his face began to light with greeting, his eyes
flicked down and he stopped short.

“Fuckin’ hell!” he boomed.

“Duke just arrived,” Hank said in my ear.

“Yep.”

“I’ll get someone on it, do we know this dead
guy?”

“Well, I don’t have to worry about being
kidnapped again.”

Hank disconnected and Duke looked at me.

“Was he makin’ a call?”

I wanted to laugh, then before that thought
fully formed, I decided I wanted to cry. Seeing as crying wasn’t an
option for me because I wasn’t a sissy, I decided I wanted to
scream.

In fifteen minutes, the place was surrounded
by cops including Hank, Dad and Malcolm and the scene was taped.
Gawkers and coffee customers were being directed away by
uniforms.

I stood off to the side and scrolled down my
phonebook to Lee and hit his number.

“Everything okay?” he said as a greeting.

“You’ve heard from your office,” I replied,
thinking the mysterious forces behind his commando cartel had
already alerted to my latest adventure.

“Heard what from my office?”

Oopsie.

“Well, I don’t want to disturb you but I
thought I should tell you before your office hears it on
police-band. Pepper Rick’s dead body was propped into the doorway
of Fortnum’s this morning.”

Silence, then, “A present.”

“What?”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Lee, you don’t have to…” but he’d
disconnected.

Jimmy Marker walked up to me and after asking
a few questions he wiped his eyes with his hand.

“Indy, tell me you aren’t keepin’ anything
from me.”

After Tex got shot, I told Jimmy everything
at the hospital, about Rosie, the pot, the diamonds, Terry Wilcox,
everything. Well, not everything, I left out my B and E, so
almost
everything. I had nothing left to tell and if Jimmy
was getting frustrated and impatient, he should step into my
shoes.

“Jimmy, I may be crazy but I’m not stupid and
whatever you think, I know right from wrong. I told you all I know
at the hospital.”

Dad walked up to me and slung an arm around
my shoulders.

“I just want to know why you’re the focal
point of all of this,” Jimmy said.

“I’d like to know that too,” Dad said.

“Well, when you find out, tell me because
this is beginning to
piss me off!
” As I talked, my voice
rose and I was screaming by the end.

Jimmy took a step back and a bunch of heads
swung in my direction.

I saw an SUV double park and Lee slid from
behind the wheel. His eyes were on me but Malcolm and Hank stopped
him before he could make his way to me.

“I take it you know what’s going on,” I said
to Dad, taking my eyes off Lee.

“What there is to know. Cops talk, you’re my
daughter. Jimmy’s keeping me briefed.”

“Why haven’t you said anything?”

“I trust Liam to sort it out and I trust you
to do the right thing.”

Simple as that.

Dad was cool, Dad had always been cool.
Somewhere in the last couple of days, Lee had been given Dad’s
blessing. Probably when I started to have certain incidents,
incidents the like of which any father would want Liam Nightingale
to be his daughter’s boyfriend.

I walked to the Nightingale huddle. Malcolm
had his back to me, Lee and Hank were at his sides, their backs
mostly to me.

As I walked up, I heard Malcolm say, “Hank, I
know you use Lee to do the shit that’d get your hands dirty and
Lee, I know you play the game pretty loose. I let you boys play it
the way you feel you need to ‘cause, so far, whatever deal you got
goin’ works. But I don’t like what I’m smellin’ and…”

Lee’s head turned and he looked at me out of
the corners of his eyes.

“Indy,” he said and I think he said this more
to Malcolm than to me.

All the Nightingale men turned to me and
whatever was happening stopped.

Great. Whatever. Fine by me.

I walked up to Lee and stopped, though not
close enough for his liking because his hand came out and curled
around my neck, pulling me into his side. Hank, Dad and Malcolm
moved off.

“How’re you doin’, gorgeous?” he asked
me.

“I’m losing my patience. This is getting
old,” I told him. “How’s your man?”

“No word, I have to get back to the hospital.
I see you confiscated the Crossfire.”

“Do you mind?”

“Nope.”

I turned into him and put my hand on his
stomach.

“Your man, he wasn’t doing… something… for
me?”

Lee’s hand around my neck twisted and he
tugged softly at my hair.

“A different assignment, nothin’ to do with
you or the diamonds.”

I felt a tremendous relief. I already had
Tex’s injury, Ally’s totaled car and everyone else’s worry resting
on my shoulders, I didn’t need something else. Then I looked at Lee
and realized all that, plus whatever this new thing was, still
rested firmly on his.