Rock Chick 01 (16 page)

And then the buzzer went. Three quick blasts
and then one long one.

Lee stopped kissing me and put his forehead
on mine. “You have got to be
fucking
kidding me.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s code, urgent, God dammit.” He put his
hands on either side of me, pushed up and started to walk away then
turned back. “How hot and bothered are you now?”

“On a scale of one to ten?”

His eyes crinkled at the corners and he
walked out of the room.

Fucking Lee.

* * * * *

I laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling
thinking to myself,
what was that?

My cell phone was ringing, so I rolled off
the bed, grabbed my bag, sat in the chair and saw it was Andrea.
Probably calling for a Lee and Indy Sex Update. Boy, was she going
to be disappointed.

I answered the phone with, “No, we haven’t
done it yet.”

“Uh-oh, I feel bad vibes,” Andrea said.

“We’re on the phone, how can you feel bad
vibes?” I asked.

“I’ve known you since you were twelve, I can
sense
bad vibes.”

So I told her. About Lee, about his getting
pissed off and essentially kicking me out, then changing his mind
again and the whole, “who I am, what I want, you decide”
speech.

Andrea was silent for a moment and then she
said, “Well, he’s fighting his reputation. And that man has a
reputation
. Only boy worse than him was his best friend
Eddie, it was like they were in a competition to see who was the
worst rutting dawg out there. Can’t be fun to be practically famous
for fucking anything that breathes and being able to do so by
expending the immense effort of just sending a smile their way.
Then, later, you find yourself in a position where you’re serious
about a woman who’s known you all your life and knows this fact
real
well and have to convince her you’re serious.”

Man, Andrea was a mother and she still had a
mouth on her.

Still, it was true.

I sat down in the chair and I tried to ignore
the fact that my stomach was clenched.

“Do you think he’s serious?”

Andrea was silent for a second. “Are you
being funny?”

“Funny ‘ha ha’ or the other kind of funny?” I
asked.

“I can’t believe…” Andrea started, “girl, at
Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s New Year’s Bash you were there with
what’s-his-name…”

Oh Lord, I didn’t remember his name. “Um,” I
said, “Brad? Brett?”

“Whatever,” Andrea cut in. “Anyway, when Lee
wasn’t looking at you with a look in his eyes that, let’s face it,
made every woman in the room breathe heavy, he was looking at
Brad-Brett like he wanted to rip his head off.”

“No way!”

“Way.”

Holy shit.

“So yeah, I think he’s serious,” she went on.
“And I can’t imagine that Liam Nightingale is the kind of guy who
appreciates the woman he’s serious about questioning his
seriousness when he’s right in the middle of… you know.”

Holy shit.

Holy, holy, shit, shit, shit.

“Anyway, call me when you actually get around
to doing it. I want details.”

Great.

Andrea disconnected and I flipped the phone
shut. It rang again immediately.

It was Ally.

I took a deep breath, pretending everything
was all right (which
it wasn’t
) and answered, “What’s up,
chickie?”

“Girl, I’ve had half a dozen calls,
everyone’s seen Rosie
and
Duke. We got leads coming out of
our ears. We gotta roll.”

I immediately got excited. I had to admit, I
was kind of digging this super-sleuth stuff.

Then I remembered last night.

I let out a sigh.

“No can do. Tex, the cat sitter, and me kinda
broke into Tim’s last night and found him dead in his kitchen and
it wasn’t pretty.”

Ally was silent for a beat and then she said,
“You went without me? You went with the
crazy cat
sitter
?”

“I was breaking and entering! Tex showed up
in the middle of it. We found Tim dead, Ally. Trust me, be glad you
weren’t there. This is over. Lee’s turned it over to Hank.”

“What about your bet?” Ally asked.

I thought about Lee’s plans for the day. I
thought about what Andrea said.

“I think I lost.”

Truthfully, I wasn’t too broken up about
it.

“Well, at least
that’s
a piece of good
news.”

I told her about Fortnum’s and she told me
she’d call Jane if I put up the sign. Then I flipped the phone shut
and walked into the kitchen.

Matt was there and so was another guy. The
other guy was at least six foot six and looked like Tex’s son,
except without the beard and with a little bit more of his mental
health intact.

Matt said, “Hey.”

I tilted my head and smiled.

“Hey yourself.”

Lee was standing in the kitchen with his
fists at his hips and he watched this exchange, his mouth set.

I noticed, belatedly, that Lee had already
showered that morning, his dark hair was still slightly damp,
curling a bit along his neck and behind his ear. I also noted he
needed a haircut but it looked good on him. Very good. Too good. He
wore supremely faded jeans and a red t-shirt that was tight in all
the right places. His feet were bare.

When I got within reaching distance, his arm
shot out and pulled me to him with a hand hooked around my neck. My
front pretty much slammed against his side and his arm curled
further around my shoulders. From the blood draining out of Matt’s
face, I’d say that the Lee’s point had been made. If he banged on
his chest and grunted, “Indy, my woman,” he wouldn’t have made the
point any better.

Men.

Lee introduced the other guy as Bobby and
then said, “We’ve found Duke.”

My stomach clenched and my body tensed. At
that point, I simply could not handle bad news, especially about
Duke.

I tilted my head to look up at Lee and before
I could control my reaction and not look like a total girl in front
of the guys, I breathed, “Please.”

Lee’s eyes went that melty-chocolate again as
he looked at me and his hand went from my shoulder to stroke my
jaw.

“He’s fine, took a bender detour to Sturgis.
He’s been briefed and he’s on his way home now.”

That sounded like Duke. Only Duke would
detour from the Western Slope of Colorado to South Dakota for a
bender.

The door buzzer went and I disengaged from
Lee to answer it. It was Hank.

Hank smiled his greeting at the door I opened
for him and we walked in, his arm slung around my shoulders.

“I guess you were wrong about being broken up
with Lee by your Dad’s barbeque,” he teased.

My eyes shot to Lee and his eyebrows went
up.

Oopsie.

“Yeah, guess I was wrong,” I muttered.

Hank dropped his arm and looked at Lee, no
more teasing, all business.

“We gotta talk about last night.”

“Yeah?” Lee said.

“Anyone want coffee?” I asked.

Hank’s eyes slid to me, then back to Lee.

“Maybe we should go into the Command Center,”
Hank said.

Lee’s lips twitched at Hank’s reference to
the Command Center but he said, “You can talk in front of
Indy.”

Hank quickly sucked some breath into his nose
and then on an exhalation said, “I was afraid of that.”

I passed coffee all around, everyone took it
black except me. I jumped up on the counter to listen.

“They think they caught a break. Shubert had
been dead more than a day, looks professional, but they found fresh
blood at scene. Whoever broke in cut themselves at the window.
They’re hoping that the killer went back in search of
something.”

Without thinking, I looked to my shoulder,
where I’d landed on the glass, pulling back my tee to see if I’d
been cut. I hadn’t noticed any cuts or felt any but the time since
the break-in had been pretty filled up with emotional mayhem, a cut
could go unnoticed.

Then it hit me how very,
very
stupid I
was and I turned, slowly, back to the men.

Lee had a hand at his waist, the other one
holding the mug and he was looking at his feet. I was pretty sure
he was trying not to smile (at least I hoped so). Matt and Bobby,
who were undoubtedly recruited for clean up last night and knew the
whole story, were both watching me and smiling, flat out.

Hank was staring at me like I was a
particularly gruesome roadside accident.

Hank’s eyes swung to Lee.

“I was worried it was
yours
.”

Both Matt and Bobby pulled in breath at this
shocking statement.

Even Lee was incredulous. “I wouldn’t leave
blood at a scene. Hell, I wouldn’t even break a fucking
window.”

I stared at Lee, wondering uncomfortably how
often he had the opportunity to “leave blood at a scene”.

Hank’s eyes swung back to me.

Uh-oh.

“Please tell me you didn’t have anything to
do with this.”

I tried to look innocent. Since I was not, it
was hard. Especially with Hank, Hank was a smart guy and he knew me
too well.

“With what?” I asked.

“Indy, I swear to God –” Hank started.

Lee’s coffee cup hit the counter, he grabbed
mine and set it down, pulled me off the counter and into the
bedroom, where he closed the door.

“Shirt off,” he demanded.

“What? Now?” I stared at him, confused.

Lightening quick, he had the shirt pulled
over my head. At this point, I was pretty glad I put on my bra.

“Where’d you land?” he asked and I stared at
him. “When Tex threw you through the window, where’d you land?”

Oh. That’s what he was on about.

“Back right shoulder,” I told him.

He whipped me around and his hands roamed my
skin, then before I knew what he was about, they came around to the
front and undid my jeans and the jeans were down to my ankles.

“For goodness sake, Lee!” I cried.

He’d disrobed me in nary a second. I would
have thought it was impossible if he hadn’t just done it.

I tried to bend over and grab my jeans but
his hands were all business and running down the backs of my hips,
thighs and calves.

He pulled up my jeans and turned me again.
Pulling my hands away from doing up my fly, he checked the
palms.

“You’re clean,” he announced.

“Thank you,” I said it snippy, as I should,
as
anyone
should.

His hands ran up my sides, forcing my arms
over my head and he put my shirt back on me. I finished my zip,
buttoned my jeans and hooked my belt buckle.

“Was that really necessary?” I snapped.

He smiled The Smile, pleased with
himself.

“Nope, but it was fun.”

He kissed my nose and then strode out of the
room.

I was on his heels, staring daggers at his
back and plotting his murder when we made it to the kitchen.

“She doesn’t have anything to do with this,”
Lee told Hank and I could swear I heard Bobby do a
mini-snort-laugh.

Hank’s eyes were narrowed. “Do we need to
send someone over to check Ally?”

I shook my head, all innocence and light, a
halo could be shining over my head. “Can’t imagine why you’d need
to do that.”

“Would you like me to give you half an hour
to answer that question so you can call Ally?”

I looked Hank in the eye. “Why would I need
that?”

“Thank God,” Hank breathed, rolling his eyes
to the ceiling to make sure God knew he was taking his gratitude
seriously. Then his eyes focused on me. “Anything else you want to
say?”

I thought about it and then said, “Just, when
you find out whose blood it is, remember there are all kinds of
breaking and entering. There’s the naughty kind and the nice
kind.”

Lee’s arm shot out again, this time his hand
hooked around my mouth and he pulled me head first into his side,
hand still covering my mouth.

“Hey!” I said but it came out, “Hrr.”

Bobby had walked into the living room and I
could hear his quiet laughter, Matt was staring at the ceiling as
if it was fascinating.

Hank looked from me to Lee then back to
me.

“I’ve been lookin’ into Tex MacMillan and he
has a record. He’s a Vietnam Vet who didn’t deal when he got home
and he got into some deep shit with drugs, not takin’ them,
vigilante justice against the ones who sold them. He didn’t handle
prison well, that kind of confinement was not his gig, fucked with
his head. He got out and has barely left his porch in twenty years.
Every once in awhile, he’ll aim some buckshot at someone who tries
to steal a car radio on his block, but won’t go so far as nailing
them. It won’t go so good for him if he’s involved in a homicide
and he’ll never make it through another jail sentence, and as an
ex-offender, even with a
nice
B and E, he might be facing
one.”

Lee kept me where I was with his hand over my
mouth. Hank kept watching me.

“You got something for me that might help Tex
out?”

I pulled Lee’s hand off my face and said, “I
know Tex, I do my shopping at Mr. Kumar’s corner store down the
street from him. Tex wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless you’re Nixon. He
doesn’t like Nixon much. Since Nixon’s dead then the rest of the
human population is pretty safe. If he’s messed up in this some
way, I’ll be happy to stand as a character witness.”

I could hear Bobby’s laughing in the living
room. Matt was leaned over on his elbows on the counter that
separated the kitchen from the dining room, his head hanging down
and his shoulders shaking. Lee pulled me deeper into his side with
his arm around my neck.

“This isn’t funny,” Hank said quietly to me.
“This is a homicide. A man is dead, his brains splattered against a
wall.”

Just as quietly, I said, “I know.”

Hank cut his eyes to Lee.

“Tell me she’s done.”