Rock Chick 01 (37 page)

Darius Tucker was much the same, but he was
also absolutely hilarious, so funny you’d nearly wet your pants
laughing. He had soulful eyes and a dry shoulder to cry on
(especially for the girls). Everyone was certain he’d quickly get
married and settle down and make some woman a good husband.
Instead, his Dad was murdered when he was seventeen and he went off
the rails
and
off the radar. I hadn’t seen him in years and
I missed him. He was a good guy, he’d made me laugh and he’d let me
cry on his shoulder plenty of times. According to Malcolm
and
Dad, he was now bad news.

I didn’t know anyone named Marcus.

“Darius?” I said when I could say anything at
all.

Lee pushed his plate away and turned to me
again. “Yeah. The deal was, we all work together to cause problems
for Coxy, delayed shipments, missing deliveries, cops turnin’ up at
inopportune moments. I shared information and me and the boys
caused some of the complications that Hank and Eddie couldn’t
cause. Coxy’s network of buyers and suppliers started to
alternately freak or get pissed off and his men began to defect.
Rick and Pete decided on early retirement and, to augment their
pension, they stole Marcus’s diamonds.”

“Marcus?”

“A leftover from when I did security. He
keeps us on retainer for certain jobs. He’s powerful and not
someone who appreciates being stolen from. I was in DC and got an
urgent call from him when his diamonds went missing.”

“Why’d he call you?”

Lee shrugged.“I’m good at finding all
different kinds of things.”

Oh dear Lord.

I had a feeling this was one of those cases
where I didn’t want to know.

I changed the subject.“How on earth does
Rosie fit into all of this?”

“Rosie had a good operation going, small but
popular and not quiet which was not smart. Coxy heard about it and
wanted a piece, so he coerced Rosie into giving him one. Then he
coerced Rosie into doing other things for him, things Rosie didn’t
want to do but didn’t know how to say no. Rick and Pete decided to
play innocent about the diamonds until they had their shit together
enough to move to Brazil, which was only supposed to be a day or
two. They stashed the rocks with Rosie, thinkin’ he was scared
enough to do what he was told. Apparently, he was pissed off enough
to use the diamonds to blackmail Rick and Pete to get him out from
under Coxy. Unfortunately, he was playin’ out of his league. In the
meantime, word went out the diamonds were gone, Coxy found out his
boys had gone renegade. Even Coxy isn’t crazy enough to out and out
kick sand in Marcus’s face, especially not with his systems
breakin’ down. So everyone was in a rush for the diamonds. Enter
you.”

“I’m a little confused.”

“I would be too if I came in at the end of
this shit. It’s fucked up.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I’m gettin’ paid.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“No, it’s not. I should say I’m gettin’ paid
a lot.”

“Is it worth it?”

His arm slid behind me on the booth and he
twisted toward me again. I’d abandoned my tostada half eaten and
was turned toward him.

“I like what I do but it’s like football.
Your career has a shelf life. I intend to be retired by forty-five
with the cabin in Grand Lake and a condo in Florida, a damn good
boat in both places and enough money to make life good until I
die.”

“So, what you’re saying is, it’s worth
it.”

He went back to wrapping a lock of my hair
around his finger. His voice changed and so did his eyes, from all
business to warm and soft.

“Yeah, it’s worth it. Do you like
Florida?”

My stomach did a clutch. “Would Florida come
with a housekeeper that puts your towels on the rail after you
throw them in the sink?”

His eyes got warm. “That’s the ‘make life
good’ part.”

“Then I might like Florida.” His finger
tugged my hair playfully but I ignored it and asked, “Who’s paying
you?”

He let go of my hair, leaned forward and took
out his wallet.

“Story time’s over. We have to get back to
work.”

“I guess question time is over too.”

His eyes slid to me again telling me question
time was definitely over.

We were in the Crossfire when I told him we
had to go to Tod and Stevie’s to pick up Chowleena.

“Sorry?” he asked.

“I’m watching her for a couple of days.”

“We’ll go get her later.”

“We can’t go get her later! If we go get her
later, that wouldn’t be me watching her, that would be her, alone,
at home with
no one
watching her.”

“I’m not takin’ a chow dog out to work with
me.”

“She’ll be good. I swear, she’s a great
dog.”

“No.”

I had to pull out the big guns.“There’ll be
naked gratitude in it for you.”

Lee hesitated, but just for a moment.

“Shit,” he mumbled.

He steered the Crossfire toward Baker
District.

Eddie and Darius

We cruised up to Paris on the Platte with
Chowleena in my lap, her face out the open window, eyes squinty in
the wind, mouth panting and fluffy fur rippling. Steve Miller’s
“Jungle Love” was blaring from Lee’s radio.

There were some songs that it was a crime
against nature to listen to quietly and “Jungle Love” was one of
them, although Lee didn’t agree.

I was finding the promise of naked gratitude
went a long way.

As Lee parked, I looked to Paris on the
Platte, part-bookstore, mostly-funky-coffee-house, it had been
around for ages. They made Rosie’s coffee look amateur.

Sitting out front at one of the tables on the
sidewalk was Eddie Chavez, legs stretched out in front of him,
crossed at the ankles, elbows on the arm rests, hands hanging
loose.

Pure cool.

He had on a white thermal, short-sleeved tee,
a pair of worn out Levi’s, black cowboy boots and a black belt with
a big buckle pressed against his flat abs. He had dark skin, black
hair and he was wearing a pair of kickass mirrored shades. Shades I
knew hid eyes so dark brown, they were black. He was flashing a
grin at us, ultra-white against his skin.

He looked damn good.

I knew Eddie well growing up. He, Lee and
Darius hung out together most of the time and I tried my best to be
wherever Lee was so I spent a good deal of time with the three of
them.

Since then, I’d seen Eddie a lot, he stayed
close with both Lee and Hank. He came to Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s
parties and he’d come over to Hank’s when we all went over there
and watched football. I wouldn’t say we were great friends but I
liked him and I knew he liked me.

In fact, I think he
liked
me, liked
me. He could be hilariously suggestive in a flirty way but that
wasn’t it, that was just banter.

If Eddie was attracted to you, he didn’t make
it obvious by flirting. Eddie wasn’t the kind of guy who flirted a
girl into bed. His tactics were more subtle and practiced. He liked
to play a game, he liked a challenge. He was the stealth seducer.
Eddie showed his appreciation in nonverbal ways, mostly using his
eyes and being tactile in a way that kept you guessing, but felt
provocative. I expected that was because that’s exactly what he
meant it to feel like. There wasn’t a lot that Eddie did that Eddie
didn’t mean to do.

I got out of the Crossfire and led Chowleena
on her leash to Eddie. The minute Eddie saw Chowleena, his grin
widened to a blinding white smile.

“Indy.” His arm slid around my waist, he
brought me up against his hard body and he kissed my neck (see,
provocatively tactile!). He was four inches taller than me, one of
those inches from the heels of his boots.

I sat, Lee sat and Chowleena clicked over to
Lee and laid down on his booted feet. Eddie watched, the smile
never leaving his face.

His mirrored shades turned to Lee. “A
Chow?”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” Lee growled, his
voice low and impatient.

Eddie chuckled and I realized that a Chow was
not good for Lee’s Badass reputation. Especially not one who’s big,
fluffy fur was shaved into a dog version of a lion wearing
chaps.

Lee needed a German Sheppard or a Rottweiler,
not a Chow wearing fur chaps.

“There’s naked gratitude in it for him,” I
blurted in an attempt to save Lee’s reputation.

The mirrored shades turned to me.

“I should hope so.” Eddie leaned in close.
“Just for your information, for me, gratitude for hangin’ with a
Chow wouldn’t be naked. It would include black lace underwear, a
matching garter belt, stockings and stilettos.”

Wow.

I didn’t know, but that seemed pretty
brazenly flirty. What did I do with that? Especially from Lee’s
best friend, right in front of Lee. And here was me, just having
promised not to flirt.

Shit.

I turned to Lee. He was also wearing
sunglasses, but his were Top Gun flight glasses, smoky lenses and
gold frames. His face was blank but his mouth was tight.

“I don’t have black lace underwear and a
matching garter belt,” I told Lee.

Eddie leaned back and chuckled again. Lee’s
face didn’t change.

“I have
red
lace underwear and a
matching garter belt,” I said.

This was true, I did.

Eddie quit chuckling.

“And black
satin
underwear and a
garter belt. And then there’s my purple teddy thing with attached
garters.” I paused. “I’ll model them all and you can choose.”

I looked at Eddie out of the corner of my eye
and the smile was gone.

Then I sat back.

My work was done.

Lee granted me A Smile. It was small but it
was meaningful.

“You’ve always been a lucky fuck,” Eddie
murmured to Lee.

The waiter came and took our orders. I got my
usual, a Café Fantasia, hot chocolate at the bottom, espresso at
the top separated by a slice of orange and topped with whipped
cream that had teeny sugared-orange sprinkles. Lush.

I ordered a bowl of water for Chowleena.

“You have anything for me?” Lee asked Eddie
when the waiter walked away.

“Yep, word is Rick was done by someone from
out of town,” Eddie answered.

Lee sat back and his mouth got tight again.
“New York?”

“Yeah, but not in the family, an independent
contractor. Coxy’s havin’ to hire his guns these days. Gary
couldn’t put a bullet in someone’s brain if he had the barrel
restin’ against his forehead.”

I thought this was good news. Goon Gary
seemed less of a threat if this was true. I was taking my good news
as it came these days, no matter how freakishly scary it was.

“There’s talk that there’s two names on his
list, Rick was only one of them,” Eddie went on.

“Teddy?” Lee asked.

“Nope, Coxy wrote Teddy off, or at least he
did until Teddy hit the street an hour ago.”

“Who’s the name?”

“Coltrane.”

Oh no, Rosie.

All the breath went out of my body and I
stared at Lee. I was wearing shades too, mine were huge, shiny,
rock ‘n’ roll black, kind of a hybrid between Jackie O and Bono. I
thought the lenses would melt with the heat from my stare.

The waiter brought our coffees, Chowleena’s
water, and left.

“We have to find him,” I told Lee.

“We’ll find him,” Lee replied.

I wasn’t entirely sure how we’d find him,
considering we were sitting in the sun enjoying coffees.

As far as I could tell, there wasn’t much to
this PI stuff. In fact, it was more dangerous facing down the Rosie
Riot than doing Lee’s job.

Lee seemed completely calm about this news.
This news did not make me calm, there was a hired hit man after
Rosie. I was pretty angry at Rosie but I still liked him enough to
want his brains to remain in his skull for the foreseeable
future.

“You should know bookies are takin’ bets, you
against Coxy, who’ll win Indy,” Eddie told Lee then looked at
me.

Oh… my… God.

“Really?” I asked.

“Who’s got the odds?” Lee asked.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at Lee.
Was he nuts? Who cared? People were betting on us!

Eddie turned back to Lee. “You.”

“You’re joking right?” I put in.

Eddie shook his head.

I turned my attention toward my drink, which
was the only sane thing I could do.

If in doubt, coffee.

I loved whipped cream but I wasn’t a big fan
of whipped cream melting into coffee. Café Fantasias were stacked
in a plastic, ice cream parfait glass. I picked up the plastic
glass and opened my mouth over the cream and sucked it all in one
slurp. Then I grabbed my spoon to mush down the orange and mix the
cocoa with coffee. I felt a tingling at the back of my neck and
looked up at Lee and Eddie, both of whom had shades trained on
me.

Eddie turned to Lee and muttered, “You lucky
fuck.”

Lee’s phone rang. He snapped it open, said,
“Yeah.” Pause. “Un-hunh.” Pause. “Be there in ten.”

He flipped the phone closed, then said,
“We’ve got Rosie.”

* * * * *

We went in Eddie’s cop car, Lee in the
passenger seat, Chowleena and me in the back. Lee had his gunbelt
up front and mine was on the floor next to Chowleena.

We stopped in a ‘hood where there were
one-story row houses, the front steps and a small porch close to
the sidewalks, one window denoting the living room. It wasn’t a
good neighborhood, it wasn’t a bad neighborhood, it was just
forlorn, ill-kept and quiet.

Eddied barely come to a stop when the
backdoor opposite me opened and Darius Tucker slid in.

Lee and Eddie had moved naturally from
good-looking boys that caused girls to have sweetheart crushes to
handsome men that caused women’s vaginas to quiver at the sight of
them.

I noted that Darius hadn’t fared as well.
He’d always been tall and lean but now the lean had turned a shade
skinny. He had more worry lines, his once-close-cropped Afro was
now sticking out in funky twists which were admittedly cool but
instead of the soulful dark eyes I remembered, he looked angry and
even mean.