Rock Chick 01 (21 page)

Both men and I stared at it as it bounced
across the floor, hit the couch and rolled back and then came to
rest a couple of feet away from the couch.

It looked kind of like a grenade.

Of course, I’d never seen a grenade so it
could have been something else.

No sooner had the first thing come to a rest
then something else bounced across the floor. It also looked like a
grenade but its sides were smooth and it was leaking white
smoke.

“Is that what I think…?” Sandy started to
say.

Then the first thing exploded.

I was right, grenade.

Smoke and dust were everywhere, I was choking
on it, blinded by it and I couldn’t move.

There was coughing, shouting, thuds of flesh
against flesh, someone came at me and then my chair was tilted and
I was dragged across the room.

I looked behind me but my eyes were tearing
from the dust and smoke. It was torture, I couldn’t wipe them
without the use of my hands.

Nevertheless, I swear I could see a blurry
version of Tex behind me, wearing what appeared to be a World War
II gas mask.

He pulled me out the backdoor and righted the
chair. He did something behind my back that made the rope fall
free, pulled the mask off his face and shouted, “Run!”

I wasted no time, jumped up and ran. This was
not easy. I was stiff and sore from sitting tied in the chair. I
had my hands cuffed behind my back, I was still coughing and
choking and could barely see. And I was wearing flip flops, not
exactly the chosen footwear when running for your life.

You do what you have to do, especially when
doing nothing might mean you’d never have the opportunity to see
Lee’s cabin in Grand Lake. I ran for all I was worth, keeping the
blurry vision of Tex in my sights.

We got half a block when I heard gunfire. Tex
whipped around and batted me with a beefy arm sending me sprawling
headfirst into some bushes. I heard the ratchet of a shotgun and
then, “Boom!”

The bushes were tearing at my skin as I
rolled out. There was more gunfire then another “Boom!” I thought I
saw Tex, both feet planted wide, presenting a huge target, like the
madman he was, looking oblivious to the flying bullets and calmly
reloading the shotgun.

I had rolled onto my back and I was like a
turtle, trying to push myself this way and that, entangled half in
the bushes, my arms pinned behind my back. I heard the squeal of
tires, shouting, gunfire and another “Boom!” more gunfire and I saw
Tex do a scary jerk backward and then go down on a knee.

“Jesus Christ!” I heard Hank shout. “Lee,
she’s here!”

I think I focused on what could have been
Hank looming over me, but I still couldn’t see. Then I was hauled
up and Lee was there. I could tell because I could smell faint
traces of leather, spice and tobacco.

“Hold your arms back as far as you can,
wrists wide and keep them steady,” Lee ordered.

I did as I was told and felt a strong hand
wrap around my forearm and then a gunshot that made me jump but
also made my arms fly out beside me.

Free at last.

Regardless of the pins and needles running up
my arms, my hands went straight to my eyes and I swiped at the
tears running freely from them.

“Don’t rub, you need to rinse the gas off
your face. You okay?”

I nodded but said, “Tex.”

Lee’s blurry head looked to Hank. “You got
her?”

“Yeah,” Hank answered.

Then Lee took off.

I staggered to where Tex was now sitting
cross-legged in the grass, holding his shoulder. I still couldn’t
see very well but I dropped to my knees beside him and wrapped my
hands around his good upper arm and held on. I had no idea what I
was doing but it would have taken a crow bar to pry me away.

There were sirens and the squad cars would
slow but Hank was signaling them to continue down the road and they
sped off.

Mr. Kumar showed up out of nowhere carrying
paper towel and bottled water from his store. I let go of Tex long
enough to pour water over my face and on my hands. When my vision
cleared sufficiently, I could see that Tex was bleeding so I ripped
open the paper towel and pressed a big wad of it against his
shoulder.

I saw we were in Tex and Mr. Kumar’s
neighborhood. If we’d made it the last half a block, we would have
been at Kumar’s corner store. The shooters took me nearly right to
Tex.

Was I lucky or what?

Was Tex unlucky or what?

I saw the flashing lights of a squad car that
screeched to a diagonal halt in the road.

Brian Bond and Willie Moses angled out of the
car and came jogging up to Tex and me.

“Holy shit, Indy. What the fuck?” Willie
asked.

Willie was a friend, graduated High School
the same year as Hank. Still in uniform, he preferred it that way.
He wanted action, not a desk. And anyway, the uniform looked good
on him,
real
good. He was tall, with perfect,
smooth-as-satin, black skin, a beautiful white smile and a body
made of pure muscle. He was a full scholarship wide receiver for
the University of Colorado, he was good but not good enough for the
NFL. Just like Hank, he graduated college and went right to the
Academy. He taught me how to play poker, badly on purpose, and beat
me every time we played. I’d met Brian a couple of times, but he
was barely out of rookie status.

“Call an ambulance,” I said to Willie.

Brian answered, “It’s two minutes behind
us.”

“Let’s get you up,” Willie grabbed my upper
arm.

“No, no way. I’m not letting go until the
ambulance gets here.” I was trying hard not to cry and pressing the
now soaked-through-with-blood towel against Tex’s shoulder. The
blood was coming fast and there was a lot of it. In normal
circumstances this would make me gag and possibly vomit but I was
fast acquiring new skills, including adrenalin-fueled
nursemaid.

“Now you’re bein’ a girl,” Tex said. “Soon
you’ll be slobberin’ on me. It’s just a shot to the shoulder. Shit,
I’ve had worse than this.”

I looked at Tex. He was pale, his eyes were
in a permanent wince and his voice betrayed the pain. I decided to
communicate in a way he’d understand.

“Well, excuse me!” I shouted. “I’ve never
seen anyone shot in the shoulder. I’ve never seen anyone shot at
all! News flash, Tex. I
am
a girl and I’m not fucking
letting go until the fucking ambulance gets here. Do you fucking
hear me?”

Willie let me go and took a step back.

“All right, no need to get all PMS about it,”
Tex relented, then his eyes focused beyond me and I looked over my
shoulder.

Lee strolled toward us, one of his arms down,
a gun held loosely in his hand. He was pushing Sandy forward with
the other hand and Sandy’s arms were cuffed behind his back. Lee
shoved him into the yard we were all occupying and Sandy went down,
hard, to his knees.

“This one of them?” he asked Tex, not looking
at me.

“Yep,” Tex answered.

“He shoot you?” Willie asked.

“Shot
at
me, and Indy. The other guy
nailed me though.”

Brian and Willie were no longer listening.
They only heard “and Indy” and then half the night air was sucked
into their lungs and Brian and Willie’s eyes narrowed on Sandy.

Almost worse than shooting a cop was shooting
at
a cop’s daughter.

Sandy just bought a first class ticket up
Shit Creek.

It was then, the ambulance came.

* * * * *

I made the ambulance crew allow me to ride in
the back with Tex. I did this by having the hissy fit to end all
hissy fits. Until they wheeled him away in the Emergency Room, I
stuck by his side. Tex allowed this mainly because he’d witnessed
the hissy fit and knew I was hanging on by a thread. There were
times when you humored a woman, even if you were a crazy man
unafraid of flying bullets, and this was one of those times.

Tex told me in the ambulance that Kumar lived
a couple of houses away from the one I was taken to and saw them
unload me. As was apparently practice in the ‘hood, Kumar went
straight to Tex and Tex gave him my card and told him to call Ally
and ask for Lee. That was how Hank and Lee got there so
quickly.

Detective Jimmy Marker, who had long ago
caught me underage drinking, bought the case and questioned me in
the hospital waiting room. Jimmy was somber and trying not to look
as pissed off as he actually was. When I was eight, Jimmy took me
to a father-daughter day because Dad was on duty. We did the
three-legged race together. I suspected he would have preferred to
be escorting Sandy, wearing cuffs and ankle shackles, down a very
long, steep flight of stairs.

The questioning took awhile because half of
the Denver Police Department came through the waiting room to see
if I was okay. I’d amassed a lot of buddies on the Force, half of
them had babysat me and the other half had partied with me.

Then, of course, there was Kitty Sue and
Ally’s hysterical arrival with Malcolm and Dad dogging their
heels.

Kitty Sue wasn’t crying and carrying on, she
was shouting and carrying on. Gram told me often enough growing up
that in times of emotional strain, shouting was just as good a
release as bawling. Both of them made you ugly but only one of them
ended in red, puffy eyes and a blotchy face. Kitty Sue was the wife
of a cop, she’d long since learned that teary hysterics would get
her nowhere but yelling captured attention. Men as a whole didn’t
know what to do with tears, but they’d do anything to make a woman
stop yelling.

Mr. Kumar had come to the hospital too and he
didn’t seem to know what to make of these goings-on so he remained
quiet and tried to be invisible. Jimmy questioned Mr. Kumar after
he questioned me.

Once Jimmy left, I finally went to the
bathroom and, I kid you not, the relief was so immense I nearly
cried.

Then I told everyone I was waiting for Tex to
get out of surgery. I did this in a way that no one said a word in
protest. I still had the cuff bracelets on my wrists and a goodly
amount of blood on my body from cuts from the bushes and possibly
also from Tex. I wasn’t in a state, physically or mentally, to be
trifled with.

I sat down next to Mr. Kumar, grabbed his
hand and held on tight. Mr. Kumar didn’t seem to mind this, but
then again, he’d witnessed my hissy fit too.

Everyone else settled in for the long
haul.

On Kitty Sue’s command, Dad and Malcolm went
in search of refreshments and hideous machine coffees were passed
around. Kitty Sue and Ally hung close to Kumar and me. Lee and Hank
had disappeared.

I’d lost track of them during my hissy fit
but waiting for news of Tex, moments of clarity came to me.
Memories were jogged and pieces started floating together.

I was pretty pissed off I’d been kidnapped
again. I was also pretty certain I was about five seconds away from
losing a kneecap. I’d never paid a lot of attention to my knees,
but after inspecting them closely in the waiting room, I decided I
liked them just the way they were.

I’d been afraid, afraid for my life, afraid
for my kneecap and although I’d been nearly blinded by tear gas,
I’d seen Tex take a bullet for me.

Being afraid made me mad. It made me mad that
I’d been kidnapped on the doorstep of my home. It made me mad that
Kitty Sue was hysterical. It made me mad that Malcolm stood
glancing at me every few seconds as if he wanted to say something
but thought I was too fragile to hear it. And it made me mad that
my Dad sat across the waiting room wearing his worried
expression.

And as I ciphered the bits and pieces of the
puzzle that had been floating around me for days… pieces of the
puzzle I’d been too stupid to fit together, I became pretty fucking
angry.

The thing was, I was pretty certain that Lee
had played me.

Lee and Hank walked into the waiting room and
everyone looked at them. Lee’s face was stony. Hank looked angrier
than me and he shook his head in negative once to Malcolm and
Malcolm’s face became even tighter. At the silent communication,
Dad cursed loudly.

I guessed (correctly) Pepper Rick got
away.

Hank walked right up to me, pulled me out of
the chair and gave me a tight hug that stole my breath.

Lee stopped at Dad, Malcolm joined them and
they started to have a quiet discussion that I couldn’t hear.

This made me mad too.

Hank came to hug me but Lee barely even
looked at me.

Jerk.

I mean, he might still be mad at me for what
I’d said at the barbeque, but I’d just been kidnapped, for God’s
sake. That deserved at least a pat on the shoulder.

Hank let me go because the doctors came in
and said Tex was okay. The bullet entered at the shoulder, breaking
the shoulder blade and ricocheted out a second hole.

They said if we were quiet and didn’t stay
long, Mr. Kumar and I could go and visit Tex together.

Tex looked out of place, too peaceful and way
too big for the bed. I didn’t know what to make of him without his
night vision goggles.

I barely knew this man at all, and he’d saved
my kneecap.

He came to groggy, opened his eyes and they
focused on me.

“You’re a fun date, what’re we gonna do
tomorrow night?” he asked.

After he asked the question, he fell back to
sleep hearing my stunned laughter.

* * * * *

Mr. Kumar drove to the hospital and took
himself home. Ally took Kitty Sue home while Hank drove the rest of
us. Malcolm sat in front with Hank and I sat sandwiched between Lee
and Dad in the back. It was clear they were my honor guard.

Dad held my hand, tight, and Lee had his arm
along the backseat of Hank’s 4Runner which meant it also ran along
my shoulders. This was not a show of affection but so we’d have
more room.