Rock Chick 01 (27 page)

Lee dragged me to Ally’s car, a newish,
convertible Ford Mustang. Hank was shoving Ally in the driver’s
seat. Lee shoved me in the passenger side.

“Indy!” Dad shouted from somewhere.

“Here. Safe,” Lee shouted back.

My eyes found Dad and I noticed he lifted his
index finger and snapped it smartly at Lee in a “you the man”
gesture. He got in with Malcolm and Kitty Sue as Lee started
talking to me.

“Stay here, lock your doors, stay down and
out of sight.”

I turned to him.

“Tod, Stevie, Tex. Ohmigod, Andrea’s a
mother!”

But he wasn’t listening, he slammed the door
and ran back to BJ’s.

“And now you,” I whispered, watching him
go.

Ally’s hand took mine.

“He’ll be okay,” she said. “You know, you
wouldn’t even want a man who wouldn’t go back to save someone’s
mother and a drag queen.”

This was true.

Her hand went from mine to my neck and forced
me down and my torso explored the limits of the seat belt Lee
buckled on me.

“I’ll tell you what’s happening,” she
offered.

I bent forward as far as I could to hide
myself, heard the locks go on the doors and she started the car in
preparation just in case we needed a fast getaway. I listened as
Ally counted off Duke and Dolores, who roared off on their hog.
Marianne came out with Hank, who took her directly to her car.
Andrea came out with Lee, trailed by Andrea’s husband. Lee made
sure they were in their mini-van before he went back in. Tex raged
out on his own power but this included from Ally an, “Uh-oh, I
think he’s bleeding again”. I nearly shot up but she kept me down
with a hand at my neck.

The locks went, I was pressed further forward
as the back of my seat was tilted, the seatbelt strained to its
limits and cut into my chest, and Tex threw himself in back.

“Holy fuck, pandemonium at the gay bar!” he
yelled.

I reached out and closed the door, the locks
went again and I turned my head and looked back as best I could in
the position I was in.

“You okay?” I asked Tex.

“Think I tore somethin’ lose either throwin’
you or doin’ the dive or maybe when I got in a fight with that guy
in leather. Doesn’t matter. I feel fuckin’ great! It’s bedlam in
there. Fuckin’ nuts!” He stopped, leaned forward and looked out the
windshield. “Hey, that’s the guy that shot me!”

My head popped up and sure enough, it was
Pepper Rick.

He ran to a car with people in it, a little
Mini. The people had left the bar and were trying to get away. I
could hear sirens as I watched Rick yank the driver out, the
passenger throwing himself out the other side. Rick got behind the
wheel and burned rubber.

“Go! Go, go, go!” Tex shouted and Ally didn’t
hesitate, she laid rubber too.

I turned my head to her.

“What are you doing?” I shouted.

“He can’t get away!” she shouted back.

With my head turned, I saw Terry Wilcox’s
boys, Goon Gary and The Moron as they exited BJ’s.

Jeez, it was like an Indy Torture Squad
convention.

Then I could notice no more as Ally jerked
around a car trying to exit the parking lot and jumped the curb,
screeching south onto Broadway, cutting off a car as we swerved
across the two lanes going north and pulling right out in front of
a squad car coming south.

The cop car was about to execute a turn in to
BJ’s but jerked back out onto Broadway behind the Mustang.

“Pull over, let the cops have him,” I
said.

“No way! This guy shot me!” Tex yelled.

Ally wasn’t listening anyway, she rocketed
down Broadway, shifting gears quickly, ratcheting up the mph to
levels so far beyond safe it wasn’t funny.

“Ally, pull over!” I screamed.

“He’s two cars in front of you. Pass! Pass!”
Tex shouted.

We shot passed two squad cars going north,
their lights on and sirens blaring. One screeched to a halt and did
a uie behind us.

“Stop now! There are more cops, he won’t get
away!” I yelled.

“Don’t stop!” Tex shouted. “Never say
die!”

I went to bars and clubs without my purse,
usually carrying money, credit cards, driver’s license and lip
gloss in my front pocket and my cell in my back. It was now that I
felt my cell phone vibrate against my ass as I heard it ring. I
snatched it from my pocket and tore my eyes from the road long
enough to read, “Lee calling”.

I flipped it open as Tex crowed, “No cars in
front of us, bump him! That’s it!”

“Don’t bump him!” I shrieked “He’s in someone
else’s car.”

Ally didn’t listen, we bumped Pepper Rick,
did a nauseating, out of control jerk from side-to-side before Ally
righted us and then she yelled, “Righteous!”

I was too scared even to scream.

“Indy.” I heard Lee’s voice in my ear and
didn’t realize I’d put the cell there.

“Yeah?” I replied, sounding calmer than I
actually was.

“Bump him again, girl,” Tex encouraged.

“Where the fuck are you?” Lee, on the other
hand, didn’t sound calm.

Another cop car going north screeched to a
halt and swung a uie. I looked behind us and we had three squad
cars trailing us now, their sirens blaring and lights rolling. It
looked like other cars were back there too, members of the chase,
and one of them looked a whole lot like Lee’s Crossfire.

I turned back forward and answered Lee.

“We saw Pepper Rick so we’re following him.
Going south on Broadway.”

A car shot passed us, looking like it had
Terry Wilcox’s goons in it. It jerked in front of Pepper Rick and
slammed on its brakes. Everyone behind it, including us, slammed on
their brakes and went into evasive maneuvering. Ally’s Mustang did
a couple more sickening lurches and then we all accelerated, Pepper
Rick and Coxy’s boys jockeying for position in front of us like
they were on a NASCAR track. Thankfully everyone on Broadway was
pulling well over because of the squad car posse behind us.

“Pull over,” I heard Lee demand in my
ear.

“She won’t listen to me,” I told Lee. “She
and Tex are on a mission.”

“Indy, tell Ally to pull… the fuck… over,”
Lee repeated.

“Ally,” I said, “Lee wants you to pull
over.”

“I can’t,” Ally returned. “I can’t do it.
He’s not gonna get away. He shot at you.”

It was then I lost my mind, pulled the phone
from my ear and screeched,
“Pull over, God dammit!”

We were well into Englewood when a squad car
came up beside us, Willie Moses at the wheel. I saw Brian Bond
sitting in the passenger seat doing hand gestures at us, his face a
mask of disbelieving fury. Ally turned her head to look at him and
lost control of the Mustang.

We pitched right then left, nearly
side-swiping Willie and Brian. Willie avoided us, shot forward and
then we bounded across the median, cars coming the other way
swerving and blaring their horns.

With incredible luck, we careened into an
old, unused lot, knocked down a chain link fence, driving over it
and then coming to a smashing, bone-jarring halt when we slammed
into a concrete slab.

Was He Makin’ A Call?

Upon impact, the airbags blew out.

I sat in a daze for a few seconds, my mind
automatically doing a body inventory to assess any damage. When I
realized that I was okay, I pulled back from the airbag and asked,
“Everyone all right?”

Ally mumbled something, there was a grumble
from the backseat and my door was wrenched open.

I saw a penknife puncture the bag, which
deflated immediately. A hand was at my chest to hold me back
against the seat so I didn’t crumple forward with the loss of the
airbag. Not that my seatbelt was going to let me go anywhere, it
had contracted on impact and my chest was killing me. Lee was
crouched in the door beside me.

“You okay?” he asked, though he was finding
out for himself, his hands running along my limbs, his eyes doing a
body scan, searching for blood or bones protruding through my skin.
In the lights illuminating the vacant lot, I could see his face was
pinched with anger and concern.

Hank was on the other side, Ally’s bag was
flat and he was doing the same thing.

“Yeah. I think so,” I told Lee.

“We need to get them free of the car,” Hank
told Lee.

Lee reached across me and undid my buckle. He
helped me out and walked me well away from the car toward the
street. I used this time to pull my head together, take stock of
the new aches and pains coming my way, flip my cell shut and slide
it back in my pocket.

Ally and Tex were standing five feet away,
Tex stomping his feet for some reason looking like he was doing a
war dance without moving his arms. There was a blood stain at the
shoulder of his sling. Luckily, that was the only blood on any of
us.

I decided in an instant I was going to kill
them both.

“You’re both nuts!” I shouted, charging
forward, intent on murder or at the very least, maiming. “You could
have killed us!”

I’d made it two strides before an arm snagged
around my middle, hooking me and jerking me back. I slammed against
Lee’s body but still struggled forward, pumping my arms and
stamping my feet.

“I can’t believe,
cannot
believe
, you just did that,” I shrieked at Ally “You’re
crazy. Totally gonzo! What were you
thinking?
” I
shouted.

“He was gonna get away,” Ally shouted
back.

“Who cares!” I screamed.

“I care!” Ally screamed back.

“It wasn’t very smart,” Hank interjected his
understatement in an angry voice. In fact, his voice, his face and
his body screamed not only anger, but barely controlled fury.

Ally glared at me, her head swung to Hank and
then she blew out a breath of pure exasperation.

“He shot at Indy! Twice! He kidnapped her.
I’m not gonna let him get away. Give me a
fucking
break. I’m
a Nightingale. If either of you…” she pointed to Hank then to Lee,
“were sitting in a car and saw the opportunity, you’d take it
without a thought. What? I can’t because I’m a
girl
?”

Okay, she had a point there.

I stopped struggling to get at her.

“And you,” she pointed to me, “someone did
those things to me or your Dad or any of us, and you were behind
the wheel of a car and had a chance to nab him, would you even
hesitate?”

Hmm, another excellent point.

I bit my lip.

Being caught up in the events of the last
several days, I had not stopped to consider how the people I loved,
who loved me, felt about everything that was happening.

So I put my foot in the other shoe and the
feeling it gave me was overpowering. Tears came up my throat and I
swallowed them back.

“Ally, girl,” I whispered.

Ally wasn’t done. “I’m not a badass cop or a
badass…” she stared at Lee, “whatever-you-are but if I get the
chance to do my bit, I’m gonna do it. I mean, that guy interrupted
‘No More Tears’. Burgundy and Indy were kicking ass up there.
Something had to be done!”

“I think you made your point,” Lee said from
behind me. His arm was still around me tight.

A car angled into the lot and Dad, Malcolm
and Kitty Sue were there.

Malcolm charged out of the car, assessed that
his loved ones were breathing and healthy and then roared at Ally,
“Tell me you didn’t just participate in a high speed chase!”

“We’ve covered this ground,” Hank said.

Lee let me go and turned me into Dad’s arms.
Dad held me and kissed my forehead.

“You okay?” Dad asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

A squad car angled in and Jorge and Carl were
there. Carl shot out of the car, his face angry.

“Have you lost your mind?” he shouted at
Ally.

It obviously wasn’t going to be Ally’s
night.

Though I had to admit I found it a tad
interesting how upset Carl was.

Hmm.

Jorge came out slower, his face set and
showing little emotion. He approached Lee, Dad and me.

“I don’t know what’s goin’ on, Nightingale,
but you should consider putting Indy in a safe house until it’s
over,” Jorge remarked.

Lee made no comment to this. Ally and Carl
were shouting at each other and Dad was holding on tight. Lee and
Hank started making phone calls, Jorge got out his notebook and we
all made statements.

Lee put me in the Crossfire after a wrecker
came in to tow Ally’s Mustang. Carl sat in the car, the radio
microphone in his hand, calling in a report. Tex was going with
Carl and Jorge who were taking him back to the hospital to get
re-stitched up. Ally and Hank were catching a ride with Malcolm
back to BJ’s to pick up Hank’s SUV.

I waved to everyone as Lee pulled away,
heading north on Broadway.

“I don’t want to go into a safe house,” I
told Lee.

“You’re
in
a safe house, the condo’s
safe. You just keep leaving it.”

I didn’t like the way he said the second
sentence.

“Are you thinking of cuffing me to the bed
again?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Great.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Thinkin’ about it isn’t the same as doin’
it. You’re a security challenge. I have to keep you safe while not
lowering my chances of gettin’ into your sexy underwear, or, more
to the point, gettin’ you out of them.”

I thought it likely that Lee was up to that
challenge. At least I hoped so.

“By the way, nice performance back there. I
especially liked the part where you kicked the guy in the chest.
Class.”

Great.

At least his voice sounded a mixture of
amused and admiring.

When we got to the condo, Lee let us in and I
told him I had to do the round of calls to make sure everyone was
all right.