Rock Chick 01 (47 page)

“Are
you
okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, looking at me funny.

“She doesn’t understand,” Eddie said.

“Understand what?” I asked.

Then it hit me. Last night, I was rolling
around in fried rice with Cherry, today she’d almost been blown
up.

I looked at Eddie. “I have an alibi.
Actually, I have two! And I don’t know anything about
explosives.”

This wasn’t exactly true. Ally and I had
famously set off a couple dozen bottle rockets in Nina Evans’s
front yard after Nina had started a nasty rumor that Ally had
herpes.

Still, bottle rockets and car bombs didn’t
exactly compare.

“Yeah, she spent most of the night with me
and the cats, eatin’ chips and drinkin’ moonshine. She wasn’t out
of my sight until you came and got her,” Tex threw in, looking at
Lee.

Eddie stared at Tex, some of the intensity
going out of his eyes at the thought of me, Tex and the cats eating
chips and drinking hooch.

“Darius told me that one of his guys was at a
strip club last night and heard Coxy’s boy Gary talkin’ about your
cat fight with Cherry,” Lee said.

This wasn’t interesting news. I figured I’d
been a prime topic of conversation on police band for at least a
week. I probably had my own code by now, Indy-666 or something.

Anyone could listen to police band.

“And?” I asked.

“And Coxy’s already gone out of his way to
eliminate what he might consider your problems.”

I dropped Lee’s hand and took a step back.
“You think Wilcox tried to kill Cherry…
for me
?”

Eddie answered again. “Too early to know.
Cherry didn’t have a lot of friends but crisping her seems harsh
retribution for bein’ a bitch.”

“This isn’t happening,” I said.

I was reeling. I didn’t know what to do, what
to think.

“You guys want coffee?” Tex asked Lee and
Eddie.

“Sure, triple shot cappuccino,” Eddie
said.

“Yeah, Americano, black,” Lee said.

Tex ambled off to the espresso counter while
I continued my silent meltdown searching the depths of my fried
brain for Denial Zone.

Then Duke asked, his Sam Elliott voice low
and serious, “Could we not talk about fuckin’ coffee and maybe talk
about how you two badass motherfuckers are gonna protect Indy from
this crazy fuck?”

I turned to look at him and noticed
immediately that he was pissed.

Duke looked at Lee. “Isn’t it about fuckin’
time you quit fuckin’ around and took care of this fuckin’
guy?”

Uh-oh.

Duke wasn’t afraid to use the F-word but he
only dosed his vocabulary liberally with it when he was close to
losing it.

Lee looked at him. “I’m workin’ on it.”

Duke took a step forward. “Work harder.”

This was not good.

I knew, because I saw, that Lee could kick
ass. Duke was no slouch. He might be an old guy but he also knew
how to handle himself through a fuckload of practice.

I wasn’t sure how Lee would take an
accusation of “fuckin’ around” and I didn’t want two people I loved
to go head-to-head in my bookstore.

“Duke…” I said.

Duke looked at me and the look in his eye
made me move closer to Lee.

“We don’t know when this fuckin’ lunatic is
gonna lose his patience and turn on you. Bullets are flyin’, cars
explodin’, dead bodies everywhere. This has got to fuckin’ stop.
Now,” Duke said to me.

“He’s right,” Eddie agreed. “Indy needs to be
protected. You got a safe house for her?”

“Yeah,” Lee answered.

Yikes!

“No! No, no, no,” I cried, beginning to
panic. “I can’t go to a safe house. I can’t. I’d feel like a
sitting duck.”

Lee’s arm came around me. “It won’t be for
long.”

I pulled away from him. “No! I can’t do it.
I’ll climb the walls. I swear, Lee, you lock me up and the minute I
get out, I’m moving to Argentina.”

Either he didn’t believe me or he knew he
could track me through the wilds of Argentina because he didn’t
look like he was gonna cave.

“Lee, give me back the stun gun, I’ll carry
it everywhere. Put a man on me. Anything, just don’t lock me
up.”

“I’d put a man on you but if we’re gonna take
Coxy down I gotta keep my boys on target.”

This wasn’t good, this was like being
grounded but without the tree out your window to climb down when
your Dad was asleep. I hadn’t been grounded in twelve years, I
forgot how much I hated it, hated being penned in, hated my freedom
restricted. I couldn’t stand it.

Surprisingly, Eddie caved first.

“We’ll take turns playin’ bodyguard,” Eddie
said, staring into my deer-caught-in-headlights eyes. “I’ll talk to
Hank, Willie, Carl. I’m off-duty. I’ll take the first shift.”

Shit.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

This did not sound good.

Lee slowly turned to Eddie. “I’m not sure I
like that idea.”

Eddie looked at Lee. “Get over it.”

They stared at each other and moments passed
while testosterone permeated the air.

“Oh for fuck’s sake. She might be pregnant
with your baby, Lee. She’s hardly gonna wander,” Duke said.

My mouth dropped open.

Eddie looked at me, his eyes moved down to my
belly then back up to my face. Then he turned to Lee.

“That didn’t take long,” he said.

“I’m not pregnant,” I said, (perhaps wishful
thinking).

Tex came up with the coffees and handed them
around.

“All right, boys, get to work,” he said.

Eddie walked to the couch and sat down,
putting one cowboy-booted ankle on the other knee, spreading an arm
along the back of the couch and taking a sip of cappuccino. He was
looking at me and grinning in a sexy way.

Great.

Lee snagged my neck and pulled me to him.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said.

I nodded even though I didn’t believe
him.

He kissed me and walked out.

Ally waved at Lee, who was getting on his
bike as she walked in, and announced, “You have to miss a period,
but I bought a couple pregnancy tests anyway, just in case.” And
she waved around the boxes.

I looked at Eddie.

Eddie smiled.

Long-Lasting Reliability

I filled Ally in on the Cherry explosion and
the reason for my new bodyguard.

Ally said, “There are a lot of things I
imagined happening to her after she tried to trap Lee, that wasn’t
one of them.”

Then, she put some Black Crowes in the CD
player and turned up the volume.

Ally wasn’t one to reflect, she preferred
rock ‘n’ roll.

More customers came in and luckily, we were
busy enough to keep our minds off the latest disaster.

I was sitting behind the book counter,
finishing an emergency order for coffee because if we continued at
this rate, we’d run out by the end of the week, when my cell
rang.

It was Dad.

“Hey Daddy-o,” I said.

“Hey, sweetie pie.”

His voice was soft and mushy. My Dad wasn’t a
soft and mushy type of guy.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Kitty Sue called. If it’s a boy, you gotta
name him after your Grandpa Herbert. I promised him if your mother
and I had a boy, we’d do it and we never got ‘round to it so it’s
up to you.”

I was sitting frozen to the spot, like a
statue.

“Indy?”

I stayed silent.

“Okay, you can use Herbert as a middle
name.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I shouted and everyone
looked at me.

“Then why’d Kitty Sue call me asking me to
your baby shower? Though, I’m not into this co-ed baby shower shit.
I’ll send a gift.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I repeated.

“You’re not?”

Man, this was embarrassing.

“I’ll call you later.”

I flipped the phone shut and glared at Ally.
“You called Kitty Sue.”

“No I didn’t,” she replied.

Duke was edging to the door.

“Duke!” I yelled.

“Gotta go see a man about a…” he started.

“Stop right there! Did you call Kitty
Sue?”

He turned to me. “Nope.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you say
anything to Dolores?”

He scratched under his bandanna. “I might
have mentioned it.”

I flopped my head down on my crossed arms on
the book counter.

My life was shit.

I looked up and in the general direction of
where one of Lee’s hidden cameras had to be and talked direct to
Command Headquarters.

“Lee! Your mother is planning a baby shower.
Call her!”

I grabbed my purse, threw my phone in it,
stormed around the counter and pointed at Eddie. “You! Macho man!
Come with me,” and out the door I went.

I was flipping and flopping down the block,
double time. Eddie caught up to me and grabbed a handful of my belt
and the waistband of my jeans, forcing me to a stop.

“Hang on there,
chica
.”

He threw his arm tight around my neck and my
front was pinned against his side. I started up again, walking like
a crab for a few paces then his arm loosened and I could walk
normally. Even so, I walked normally with his arm wrapped around my
neck, his hand dangling down and my shoulder and part of my body
tucked into him.

He had his mirrored shades on but I could
tell he was scanning. I realized he was being watchful and the way
we were walking made him the easier target. This made me feel warm
in my belly. He also smelled good which helped that warmth to
spread.

By the time we got to Walgreen’s and went
inside I was in a little Eddie Daze.

See what I mean? Eddie didn’t need to sweet
talk you or toss you a line, Eddie was just… Eddie. That in itself
was potent stuff.

He dropped his arm and took off his shades
when we went inside the drugstore and I shook off the daze.

I roamed the aisles, trying to remain focused
on my task and thus ignore the cosmetics and candy aisles.

Then I found what I wanted and I came to a
halt.

I turned to Eddie. “Okay, I’ve never done
this. This is the guy’s department. What do I do? We need to get
Lee’s size and we need industrial strength. Show me which ones to
buy.”

Eddie looked at the display and looked at me.
“You’re askin’ me to help you buy condoms for Lee?”

“
Industrial strength
condoms,” I
reminded him.

Eddie stared at me like he was re-thinking
his crush on me.

“Okay,” I said, trying to be helpful, “we’ll
break it down. We’ll start with the size.”

He shook his head. “First, I’m a little
worried you’re lookin’ to me to tell you Lee’s size. Lee
es mi
hermano
, but we aren’t that close. Second, they don’t come in
sizes.”

I couldn’t believe it, that couldn’t be
true.

“You mean it’s one size fits all?” I
asked.

He didn’t bother to answer.

“That’s impossible,” I said, and it was. It
wasn’t like I’d seen millions of them but I knew they weren’t all
one size.

He remained silent but his eyes got kinda
scary.

Yikes.

“All righty then, let’s go on to the next
category, strength, durability, that kind of thing.”

Eddie walked away.

My cell rang, I grabbed it and saw it was
Lee.

“Where are you? The guys said you freaked out
about a baby shower and took off with Eddie behind you,” Lee said
by way of greeting.

“Your mother is planning a baby shower.”

“Where are you?”

“You have to call her.” I told him.

“Where are you?”

“Lee!”

“I’ll call her, where the fuck are you?”

“I’m at Walgreen’s with Eddie. I’m actually
glad you called because Eddie is refusing to help. What kind of
condoms do you use? And please, nothing colored or flavored or any
of that crap. I want the ones that are known for long-lasting
reliability.”

Silence.

“Lee?”

I could swear that the mouthpiece was being
covered on his phone.

“Lee!” I shouted.

“Let me get this straight,” he said and I
could tell he was laughing, “you dragged Eddie to Walgreen’s to
help pick out condoms for me?”

“Well, I didn’t know! I’m not the kind of
girl who keeps condoms around. That’s the guy’s job and you said we
were gonna have to use different precautions.”

“Did you tell Eddie the part about
long-lasting reliability?”

Oh Lord.

“Forget it,” I said.

“Indy?” he called.

“What?” I snapped, kinda pissy.

“I love you.” He still had laughter in his
voice and there was something very cool about him laughing and
saying I love you at the same time.

He hung up before I could say anything.

I grabbed a smorgasbord of condoms, Lee could
have a selection.

Eddie caught up with me while I was lost in
the lip gloss section and pulled me away. I managed to snag a
bottle of multi-vitamins (just in case) and several bars of
watermelon taffy before Eddie marched me up to the counter.

I bought my seven boxes of condoms, six taffy
sticks and my vitamins and then our little shopping expedition was
over.

* * * * *

After we closed Fortnum’s, Eddie drove me and
the Crossfire the one block to my house and parked it in the second
space I owned behind the house, a space relegated to visitors.

I was pretty certain I was going to start
hyperventilating at the idea of the visitor’s parking spot being
the permanent residence of Lee’s Crossfire but I managed to tamp
down the panic.

We walked through my backyard and Eddie took
my keys and opened the door.

The minute I walked in, I knew something was
wrong.

“Someone’s here,” I whispered to Eddie and
put my Walgreen’s bag on the kitchen counter.

Eddie turned and looked at me. “No shit,
there’s a television on.”