Rock Chick 01 (3 page)

“I’ll sleep in the guest room.”

“Girl,” Ally smiled, “Lee doesn’t have a
guest room. That second bedroom is locked up tight and no one gets
into that room. Hank and I call it the Command Center but no one
knows what’s in there.”

I turned to look at the three closed doors
that opened off the hall and when I turned back Ally had the front
door open.

“Later.” Then she was gone.

I grabbed the door and watched her sashay
down the hall.

“Call him!” I shouted.

She gave me the peace sign and got on the
elevator.

“She’s not gonna call him,” I said to the
empty hallway.

* * * * *

Ally was right.

I did a wee bit of snooping (as you do).Two
doors in Lee’s hall opened, one to the bathroom and one to Lee’s
bedroom. The other one was locked up tight. I even walked along the
wraparound balcony to check if I could see in but the French doors
to the second bedroom had curtains and those curtains were firmly
closed.

After what seemed like a lifetime of Food
Network, I found Rosie a pillow and blanket and crawled,
bleary-eyed and still a little scared (not only at the night’s
events but at our accommodation) into Lee’s big bed.

I considered sleeping on the floor but I was
too tired and anyway, Lee was busy these days and never in Denver
unless it was someone’s birthday, a holiday or a weekend the
Broncos were playing at home. I’d heard Kitty Sue lamenting that
fact so often, if I had a dime for every time she said it, I’d be
rich.

I’d taken off my jeans, boots, socks, and bra
and found a wife beater t-shirt of Lee’s, luckily in the first
drawer I opened. I didn’t want to be rifling through Lee’s drawers,
he might not like it.

I had to borrow Lee’s tee because I was
wearing my Guns ‘n’ Roses shirt that had rhinestones stitched in
and they would snag at the sheets, not to mention it was one of my
favorites and I didn’t want it to get misshapen while I slept.

I was not a light sleeper, I slept deep and I
moved around a lot, as in
a lot
. I moved around so much that
most of my boyfriends eventually opted for the couch (usually right
before they opted for the door). I tried to sleep in attire that
would not get me into trouble during my nocturnal twisting and
turning, which usually meant I slept in underpants and nothing
else. However, the thought of sleeping in Lee’s bed nearly naked
was simply not to be entertained.

I tried not to think of crawling into Lee’s
bed at all. It was just a bed. So it was Liam Nightingale’s bed. So
it kinda smelled like him, like leather and tobacco and spice. So
what?

The smell and the bed made me feel a little
bit like I felt when I touched Joe Perry’s chest and I had this
niggling inclination to do a little naughty activity but,
thankfully, I fell asleep before I could do anything about it.

The next thing I knew, something was wrapped
around my ankle and dragging me down the length of the bed, just
like the heroine in a horror movie

When my knees slammed into the footboard, I
whipped around to my back and gave a small yelp. I saw a big shadow
looming over me in the dark and I opened my mouth to scream,
knowing that whoever had shot at us had found us and this was the
end.

My life was over, finished, and I’d never
seen Pearl Jam play live.

Before I could scream, the hand left my
ankle, two hands grabbed at my hips and yanked me out of bed in a
way that my back arched painfully. My head snapped back and I
swallowed my scream on a surprised gulp.

I was set down on my feet, both of my wrists
were seized and pulled behind my back, making me give a whimper of
pain and I was slammed against a hard body.

“Talk,” a deep voice demanded and I could
smell tobacco, leather and spice.

It was Lee.

Shit, shit, shit.

Either I had really bad luck or Ally set me
up.

Maybe Ally
and
Rosie set me up. Ally
was really into the sister-in-law shit and maybe she was getting
impatient enough to hire someone to shoot at me.

“Two seconds,” Lee warned.

“Lee, it’s me. Indy.”

The hands on my wrists loosened but didn’t
let go.

“What the fuck?”

I took in a deep breath which pressed my
breasts further into his chest.

This was the closest I’d ever been to him, we
were full-frontal. Even in the days when I was throwing myself at
him, I hadn’t made it this close.

I explained (hastily), “I’m in a bit of a
bind and needed someplace safe to stay for a night. Ally let me
in.”

Lee took a moment to let this sink in.

“Who’s the guy on the couch?”

“Rosie, my barista.”

“Your what?”

“He makes the coffee at my bookstore.”

“Shit.”

He hadn’t let me go until that point, but he
released me, turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Something about the way he did it made me
follow him.

When I made it to the living room, Lee
snapped on a light and Rosie was lying face down in the middle of
the floor. His hands and feet were taped together behind his back
with duct tape and there was tape on his mouth.

“Lee! Jesus! What’d you do to him?” I asked,
running forward and going down on my knees by Rosie. Rosie eyes
were rabid and shifting everywhere as he struggled against the
tape.

I couldn’t believe it, I hadn’t heard a
thing.

Man, Lee was
good
.

Lee already had his pocket knife out and was
cutting through the tape.

“I came home and he was on my couch, you were
in my bed. What’d you think I’d do?” Lee answered as he ripped the
tape off Rosie’s mouth.

“Yeow!” Rosie cried.

I sat back, resting my behind on my calves
and stared at Lee.

This was exactly what I thought he’d do.

“Ally didn’t call you.”

“No, Ally didn’t call me.”

“I’m gonna kill her.”

“Jesus, fuck, shit,” Rosie said.

Lee had gone down to a crouch when he’d
released Rosie and now he stood, arms crossed on his chest.

“You okay?” I asked Rosie and Rosie gave me
an “are you nuts, that lunatic just tied me up with duct tape”
look.

You would think you couldn’t read all that in
a look, but trust me, you could.

“What’s goin’ on?” Lee said, surveying
us.

It was then I realized I was in a pair of
peach, lace, hipster briefs that showed a good deal of cheek and
Lee’s wife beater. Not exactly the attire I wanted to be wearing
during this conversation.

Not exactly the attire I wanted to be wearing
ever
in the presence of Lee.

“I’ll go get dressed,” I said, standing.

Lee shook his head.

“You’ll talk.”

“I need to put on some clothes!”

“What you need to do is tell me what the
fuck’s goin’ on,” Lee countered and, let’s just say, his tone
brooked no argument and his face registered pretty severe
unhappiness.

Regardless, I glared at him, just for good
measure.

“Jesus, shit, fuck,” Rosie said, tearing the
remnants of tape from his wrists.

I took another deep breath and let go of the
glare. It was time to expedite this situation so I could get to my
Levi’s. Generally, I felt naked without my jeans but at that moment
I practically
was
naked without my jeans.

“Okay, we have a situation here. Rosie and I
need somewhere to crash for the night and we’ll be gone
tomorrow.”

“Why?” Lee asked.

“Don’t tell him!” Rosie cried, looking
panicked.

“You talk or you walk,” Lee said.

I looked at Lee then I looked at Rosie.

I’d known Rosie for five years, he’d come to
parties at my house. We’d gone to concerts together. He was a cool
guy, a bit flighty and secretive and not as mellow as one would
expect, considering he was a screaming stoner.

I had no idea he had a business on the side.
I knew he made great coffee, I knew he thought Jim Morrison was an
earthbound god and I knew he was a stoner.

I looked back at Lee.

“You have to promise to keep quiet.”

“No!” Rosie shouted, getting to his feet.

“I don’t have to promise anything,” Lee
replied.

I did another glance at both of them.

Lee was being difficult, he was entitled we
were in his domain without his permission.

Rosie was also being difficult, but Rosie was
always difficult.

All I could think was I really needed my
jeans.

“You can trust him,” I told Rosie.

Rosie was staring at Lee. Rosie was
definitely far beyond mellow at this point. Rosie had been shot at
tonight and then trussed up like a Christmas goose and I’d slept
through it

However, Rosie had a lot to worry about.
Rosie needed to start making good decisions about who to trust.

Rosie made a decision, a decision I hoped
would take me closer to my Levi’s.

“He has to promise not to say anything to
anyone. This’ll all be over tomorrow,” Rosie announced.

Lee hadn’t uncrossed his arms. Lee still
wasn’t happy. This wasn’t hard to read, everything about him
screamed it.

“Can I talk to you a minute?” I asked and
then did a wave with my arm and Lee followed me to the entry
hall.

First things first. Since the situation was
still not stable and taking the time to dress, thus leaving Lee and
Rosie alone, did not seem a smart option, I tried a different
tactic in the hopes of covering my ass cheeks.

“Do you have a robe I could borrow?”

“No.”

“Does that mean you don’t have a robe I could
borrow or I can’t borrow your robe?”

Lee stared at me some more.

Then he said, “Indy, start talking.”

His patience, it seemed, was running out. I’d
have to leave my ass cheeks bared. I told myself this was Lee, he’d
seen me in bikinis in his backyard (and mine, and on a family
holiday to Mexico, and the one to San Diego). I was far more
dressed than a bikini.

I soldiered on. “Okay, the thing is, Rosie
has a little side business. Someone paid him in something and that
something is kinda valuable, as in kinda
really
valuable.
It’s also kinda stolen from someone else and that someone else
wants it back. Rosie gave it to Duke for safekeeping and Rosie
doesn’t have it. Duke’s away for a few days, back tomorrow morning.
So, until he can get it from Duke, we have to lay low.”

“Why is this a ‘we’ situation?”

“Well, I was kinda with Rosie when they came
after it.”

“And?”

“And, like I said, he didn’t have it.”

“And?”

“And I had a few words with them, in, er…
Rosie’s defense.”

Loaded and pissed off hesitation complete
with narrowing of eyes, then, “And?”

“And that’s when they shot at us and we took
off and called Ally.”

No verbal comment but a muscle jerked in
Lee’s cheek.

I didn’t take this as a good sign.

Probably, he wasn’t so happy I involved his
sister in this mess.

Probably, he was equally unhappy that I’d
involved him in this mess.

“What is it?” Lee asked.

“I can’t say.”

“If you don’t say, I’ll let him loose.”

I shook my head. “He’s pretty adamant that no
one knows.”

“I’ll escort him out of the building
myself.”

I looked back in the living room. Rosie was
peering around the corner, eavesdropping.

I let out another heavy sigh. “Maybe we
should go, get a hotel room.”

Rosie looked pleased at this
announcement.

We only had a few hours to wait. Denver was a
big city. It’d take longer than a few hours to find us.

“I didn’t say I’d let
you
loose, I
said I’d let
him
loose.”

This announcement gave me a start and I
turned to Lee.

“What?”

No answer.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Still no answer.

“What are you gonna do with me?” I kept
trying.

“You tell me what this is about,
nothing.”

“And if I don’t tell you?”

“I haven’t decided.”

“Lee!”

Lee’s patience ran out, he grabbed my arm,
pointed at Rosie and said, “You move, you’ll regret it,” in a way
that I figured Rosie would do a statue impersonation until he saw
Lee again.

Then Lee yanked me into the bedroom, hit the
light switch and closed the door behind us.

“Ow! You’re hurting me!” I pulled my arm
free.

“I should turn you over my knee,” he
snapped.

My mouth dropped open for a moment then my
eyes narrowed. “What did you just say?”

“He has a bag of diamonds and I cannot
believe you’re caught up in this disaster.”

I gasped. “How did you know?”

He didn’t answer.

“How did you know?” I said it a lot louder
this time.

“You get into bed. I’ll go talk to your
friend. Tomorrow, I’ll take care of the diamonds.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Now my voice
was
a lot
louder.

I mean, who did he think he was?

He took a step forward and dipped his face to
mine so we were nose-to-nose. “You’ve ignored me for years and now
you lay this shit on my doorstep. This is
not
a good
situation, Indy. This is a total fuck up. You’d do well to do
exactly what I tell you, keep your mouth shut and pray that the man
who wants those diamonds back is patient enough to wait through the
night.”

“I haven’t been ignoring you for years!” Now
I was shouting (and lying).

Lee decided nose-to-nose wasn’t good enough
and took the last step forward so I could feel his body heat.

Which, by the way, was immense.

“Bullshit.”

Okay, so I’d been trying to ignore him for
years but I didn’t actually succeed. I mean, didn’t he remember all
those Christmases and Thanksgivings?