Rock Chick 02 Rescue (44 page)

“Daisy…”

Up came The Hand again.

“Too late, Marcus has already got the bal rol in’. He likes his water, he ain’t messin’ around. I figure Eddie should be gettin’ a cal just about now. You just got to talk him into it.” Wonderful.

I had no more chance to argue, Daisy was finished and glancing around. Her eyes locked on Mom. “Is this your Mama?” she squealed, in an abrupt change of mood and marched over to Mom, leaned over and gave her a big hug,

“Ooowee, been lookin’ forward to meeting you.” Ada was staring at Daisy with huge eyes. Mom looked dumbstruck or perhaps her face had been frozen in place after coming into contact with Daisy’s super-hold hairspray.

“I like your boots,” Ada said.

Daisy turned blue eyes to Ada, “Wel , ain’t you sweet?

I’m Daisy.”

I left them to introductions and retreated to the espresso counter.

“I feel like I’m standing on quicksand,” I told Duke, Tex and Jane.

“That’s ‘cause you are,” Duke shot back, scowling at Daisy. He stomped into the bookshelves and disappeared.

Shit and damn.

My cel was in my back pocket and I heard it ring. I pul ed it out and the display said “Eddie cal ing”.

I sighed, then I flipped it open and said, “It wasn’t my idea, I didn’t have anything to do with it, I swear.”

“
Chiquita
…” Eddie said.

“You don’t have to do it,” I whispered so Daisy wouldn’t hear me, “I’l think of something, I’l get you out of it.”

“I already took the meet.”

I was silent.

Then I said, “Eddie…”

“Remember what I said about wantin’ you to see your next birthday?”

The quicksand slurped up my shoes and headed for my knees.

“Eddie…”

“Stay close to Matt. Don’t worry,
Chiquita
, it’s gonna be fine. I’l cal you later.”

Then there was a disconnect.

I flipped my phone shut and looked at Tex, he was watching me.

“Eddie just took a meeting with his mortal enemy for me.

Daisy cut off Marcus’s water. Duke broke a broom. Lee’s hemorrhaging money to keep me in bodyguards. It goes on and on and on. How is this happening? Why is it happening?” I asked, and I real y wanted to know.

Tex laid a big, beefy hand gently on the top of my head.

“What goes around comes around, Loopy Loo.” Then his hand went away and he boomed across the store, “Yo, Daisy. What’l it be?”

I stood behind the espresso counter, letting my second, far more brief lecture about karma wash over me.

Wel , then, fuck it. If everyone was so intent on being nice to me, let them. I’d deal with the consequences later. I mental y pul ed myself out of the quicksand while Daisy walked up to the espresso counter and ordered a mocha, double chocolate, skimmed milk.

I stared at her.

“Chocolate’s good for you, milk’s not. I don’t care what those stupid celebrity-mustache ads say,” Daisy told me.

Whatever.

“Do you know where Shirleen lives?” I asked her.

“No, but I can find out,” she said. “We gonna pay a visit?” I hadn’t expected it to be a “we’ situation but then again, with Daisy in the mix, it was never anything but.

I turned to Tex.

“Put it in a to go cup.”

I turned to Daisy, “Make the cal .”

I turned to Matt, “Fire up the SUV, we’re rol in’ out.” Daisy was watching me.

“Shit, Sugar, did Vince blow some bossy into you, or what?” Daisy asked.

Tex chuckled low.

“I’m not al owed to joke about the shooting,” I told her as Tex handed her the cup.

“Says who?” Daisy asked.

“Says Eddie,” I answered.

She cocked her head a bit and nodded. “What’d I say about the coffee maker?”

Wonderful.

* * * * *

Daisy, Matt and I marched up to the house (wel , Matt didn’t march, after listening the whole way to Daisy talk a mile a minute, bouncing around subjects ranging the scope of revenge threats to skincare tips, he fol owed us looking like he’d much rather be anywhere else, in the middle of another shoot out, having his nails yanked out by the roots, anywhere).

Daisy rapped on the door and within seconds, it opened.

Darius stood there.

What in
the hell
?

“What are you doing here?” I asked, too shocked at his presence to be polite.

“Shirleen’s family,” he answered, obviously not surprised at my surprise.

Wonderful.

Only I’d get a scary drug dealer’s family member conked unconscious while my shit went down.

My
fucking
luck.

I couldn’t dwel , I just had to go with it.

“Can we talk to her?” I asked.

He stepped wide and we marched through.

Half a dozen people were hanging around in the living room/kitchen open plan area that had high, cathedral ceilings. They al watched as we strol ed in.

Shirleen was lying on a big, poofy couch decorated in bold black swirls against a white background. It made me dizzy just looking at it.

She looked fine, but how would I know, I was no nurse.

“Hey Shirleen,” Daisy said.

“Hey Daisy-girl,” Shirleen replied, a big smile on her face, then her eyes slid to me and the smile died.

I didn’t take that as a good sign.

I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Hey Shirleen.”

“What happened to your head?” she asked.

I looked to Daisy, then back to Shirleen. “Fratel i held me at gun point. I got grazed trying to get away.” Her eyes grew wide, then her lips went thin.

“You okay?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Head hurts and I’m pissed off, other than that, fine.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“What you sorry for?”

If she didn’t know, I wasn’t certain I wanted to enlighten her.

Oh wel , in for a penny, in for a pound.

“It’s my fault you were hurt.”

At that, she burst out laughing.

“Girl, you got a screw loose. You hit me on the head?”

“No,” I said.

“Don’t you worry about Shirleen, Shirleen can take care of herself. If she can’t, she’l find someone who can.” That’s when Shirleen looked to Darius.

“You know ‘bout Jet gettin’ shot?” she asked.

He nodded.

“That’s it, son, you hear what I’m sayin’ to you?” He nodded again, this time his lips were turned up a little at the ends.

Something scary was going on and I knew it was the truth when Matt tensed and Daisy’s wide eyes swung to me.

“Shirleen,” Daisy said, turning back to Shirleen, “I got Marcus on the case.”

“Wel , then, I got Darius on the case. This is good, this means them stupid-ass motherfuckers won’t get away, wil they? Think they can fuck around at Shirleen’s table, shoot my friends, I don’t
think
so.”

No.

No, no, no.

I mean, okay, I liked it that Shirleen wasn’t mad at me and thought of me as a friend but I figured we were talking about someone getting whacked. Although I wanted my problems to go away, and I wanted the fix to be permanent, I wasn’t ready for that.

“What are we talking about here?” I asked.

Shirleen opened her mouth to speak but Daisy cut in,

“Her man is Eddie Chavez.”

Shirleen’s mouth snapped shut and her eyes grew wide.

Wonderful. Now, Eddie was “my man”.

I took in a deep breath.

Whatever.

“Real y, I can’t…” I started to say.

“Shut your mouth, get yourself an iced tea and sit your ass down. We’re gonna watch
Days of Our Lives
.” Without further ado, she flipped on the TV and someone handed me an iced tea. I was a little too scared of Shirleen to disobey her order to watch
Days of Our Lives
, even though I had other things to do,
a lot
of other things, like tel Eddie that I was pretty certain I just saw Shirleen give the order for Vince Fratel i to be whacked. Instead, I walked forward and sat down in a chair that was upholstered in Barney the Dinosaur purple.

Shirleen’s eyes watched Matt and Darius move toward the door.

“She’s got Nightingale’s protection,” Daisy said, settling in on the migraine couch at Shirleen’s feet with her own iced tea.

“Figured that after I heard his army swept through last night. That boy rocketed straight from wild child to badass motherfucker, now he scares the shit out me.” I was a little surprised to hear Lee could scare the shit out of Shirleen.

Shirleen didn’t seem to be scared of anything. Though, I knew where she was coming from and I nodded to her in agreement. She caught my nod and looked at me, “What’s the story with you and Eddie?”

Before I could answer, Daisy got there.

“They bought a coffee maker together the other day.” Shirleen’s eyes nearly popped out of her head and then she roared with laughter.

“Eddie Chavez and a coffee maker! Holy fuck! Darius, you hear that?” she cal ed.

Darius was standing at the door with Matt, he looked down the hal , not pleased at being interrupted.

“I heard it,” he said.

“Jet, girl, you’re workin’ on becomin’ a legend. Kneein’

Fratel i in the bal s, traipsin’ around with Nightingale protection and buyin’ kitchen appliances with fuckin’ Eddie Chavez. Shee-it. Darius!” she yel ed, displaying no sign of concussion or that she had a care in the world that Scary Darius didn’t want to be interrupted. I decided to focus on that semi-positive fact rather than the new frightening turn in the conversation. “How many girls wished they’d bought a coffee maker with Eddie? What, a hundred?” I sent word to the Good Lord that I real y,
really
needed deliverance.

Darius didn’t answer.

At least that was something.

Then Shirleen leaned into me and I realized I should have been more specific about my heavenly request.

“Darius is my nephew, I know Eddie from way back. That boy nailed every piece o’ booty that moved. Made Lee Nightingale look like a choirboy. Eddie sent his mother into despair. Think they wrote to the Pope claimin’ it was a miracle when he became a cop. Stil , even after he got the badge, he fucked everything that breathed, no coffee makers in
sight
. Jet, girl, you are the shit!” Daisy leaned back and tucked her denim, platform boots under her skinny ass, preparing to stay awhile. I realized immediately I should have come alone but I was thankful I hadn’t shared about the toaster.

“She thinks she’s boring and out of his league,” Daisy threw in.

I shot her a kil ing look.

She let out a tinkly-bel laugh.

Shirleen matched it with another burst of hilarity.

Shirleen matched it with another burst of hilarity.

I sat back, put my iced tea on a coaster, crossed my arms and legs, one foot bouncing with angry impatience and pul ed out The Glare.

“I don’t know what’s so fucking funny,” I said to them, and maybe it wasn’t worth the f-word and maybe I shouldn’t have confronted the likes of Daisy and Shirleen with the f-word, but I was feeling a bit ticked off. “You’l see. When this is al over he’l be gone like a shot.”

They took no notice of the f-word or my attitude. They burst into gales of laughter and if they’d started rol ing around the floor giggling, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

When they got control of themselves, Shirleen held out her hand to one of the hangers-on and snapped her fingers.

“Get me the phone, Wanda. I gotta cal Dorothea. This shit’s too good not to share.”

Wonderful.

“Dorothea?” Daisy asked, careful y wiping away a tear of humor, so as not to smudge her mascara.

Wanda handed Shirleen the phone.

“Darius’s mother. She’s gonna
love
this.” Her eyes came to me while she punched buttons with her thumb,

“What brand of coffee maker was it, girl?” I looked at the TV set.

“KitchenAid,” I muttered.

“Ooowee! No sil y-ass Mr. Coffee for Eddie Chavez.

When that boy does somethin’ he goes whole hog,” Shirleen hooted, putting the phone to her ear, “Dorothea?

You are
not
gonna believe this!”

Daisy giggled and I clenched my teeth.

My life sucked.

I listened to Shirleen tel Darius’s mother about the coffee maker, clearly both of them appreciating the story a lot more than I ever would.

Then we watched
Days of Our Lives
.

Then Dorothea came over.

She was pretty, soft-spoken with eyes that went bright when she met me, then settled into what I suspected was a permanent sadness that she tried to hide but it didn’t work too wel .

She wasn’t what I would expect a drug dealer’s mother would look like, she looked normal and kind, a lot like Darius looked when he wasn’t being scary.

We left, with Dorothea making me promise to tel everyone she said hel o and Shirleen making me promise to come back and watch
Days of Our Lives
with her and to keep her informed of any new kitchen appliances Eddie and I bought together.

Darius was long gone.

Matt was looking like he was going to ask for a raise.

Daisy took off the minute we got to Fortnum’s and I found out from Indy that Mom, Tex and Lottie were at our place for Mom’s PT, then they were going to hit the El Camino to cruise neighborhoods looking at apartments.