Rock Chick 01 (36 page)

Lee jerked his head at Vance. Vance used a
fob and a light went green.

“Follow me in,” Lee said to me, opened the
door and walked in.

I did as I was told and, once I was in the
room, I saw Terrible Teddy, Coxy’s goon who hit me what seemed like
years ago. He turned in the bed and stood.

I sucked in air.

He had a bandage across his nose and a wicked
black eye, both nose and eye were grotesquely swollen to almost
Rocky-Balboa-post-Apollo-Creed-fight size.

Teddy spared me only a glance, then he turned
cautious eyes to Lee.

Vance stood in the door, one hand resting on
his taser.

“You’re free to go. Vance’ll escort you from
the building,” Lee declared.

Teddy’s glance swung to Vance. Vance had
unholstered the taser and was gesturing with it for Teddy to leave
the room.

My mind was reeling. I was trying to count
the days since I’d had my brief encounter with Teddy, remembering
that Lee told his boys to pick him up. Had he been in this little
room that long? And furthermore, how did his face get like
that?

“Free to go?” Teddy asked.

“Yep,” Lee answered.

“Just like that?” Teddy went on.

No one said anything. Teddy looked at me. I
didn’t say anything either. Lee told me to keep my mouth shut but
even if he hadn’t, I was too shocked to speak.

“I don’t get it,” Teddy said.

“Rumor’s spreading that you talked,” Lee told
him. “I don’t know how that happened.”

Lee looked at Vance, Vance shrugged.

They were playing with him.

Lee kept talking. “Coxy’s at war with me and
he’s tryin’ to impress Indy. You remember Rick?” Teddy nodded
slowly. “Coxy put a bullet in Rick’s brain. He fucked with Indy and
hurt her. Yesterday, Coxy gave Indy Rick’s body as a present, half
his head blown off. You hit her and marked her. Now you’re out.
Good luck.”

“Fuck,” Teddy cursed, looking at me like I
could help him out. He hit me and I was pretty sure he was a bad
guy, but I had to say I felt sorry for him.

“Let’s go,” Vance put in.

Teddy turned to Lee.

“I talk, he kills me, I don’t talk, he kills
me,” he said as if trying to explain.

“Life’s a bitch,” Lee replied, turned his
back on Teddy, jerked his head to me and I walked out of the room,
followed by Lee. Vance went into the room after we left it. I kept
walking until I got to Lee’s office and he stopped me, opened the
door, pushed me in and lifted his fingers, stared me in the eyes
giving me a three, two, two. I nodded and he closed the door.

I locked it.

Holy shit, shit, shit.

Not five minute later, the knock came. Three,
two, two.

I opened it and Lee walked in “He’s gone,
time for lunch. Let’s roll.”

* * * * *

I waited until we were rounding the Brown
Palace when I asked, “How did Terrible Teddy’s face get like
that?”

“Me.”

“You hit him?”

“He touched you, you said it hurt. I found
him and beat the shit out of him.”

Oh… my… God.

“Please tell me you didn’t do it in that
little room,” I said quietly.

“It was before he was put in the holding
room.”

At least that was something.

I was silent while Lee drove. I’d taken off
the gunbelt and put it in the trunk with the one Lee took from a
drawer in his desk. His was stocked like Vance’s.

Lee parallel parked the Crossfire in a choice
spot in front of Las Delicias.

I loved Las Delicias, it was the best Mexican
restaurant in Denver if you didn’t count El Tejado. Though, I
really didn’t have to choose since El Tejado was officially in
Englewood.

I was also silent while they sat us in a
booth and Lee slid in beside me rather than across from me.

I turned to him, looked down at the seat then
up at him.

“Let me guess, you aren’t much of a booth
sharer?” he remarked.

I shook my head.

“Me either but I’m attempting to control the
environment.”

I looked beyond him. He was turned toward me,
his back to the restaurant.

“Wild Bill Hickock got shot with his back to
the door,” I informed him.

“I’m not controlling the room, I’m going to
attempt to control you.”

Uh-oh.

The waitress came and slid a basket of chips
and a bowl of salsa on our table.

Neither of us had opened our menus. We didn’t
need to.

Ally and I went to Las Delicias or El Tejado
at least twice a month, sometimes more. Dad joined us on occasion.
Hank joined us most of the time, even when he was on duty, he’d
come in for a dinner break. Every once in awhile, and looking back,
much more often in the last year or two, Lee came. He was with us
so often, I could order for him. He’d have three chicken burritos,
smothered with lettuce and cheese, a beer if it was evening, iced
tea during the day.

Lee looked up at the waitress and ordered a
diet pop for me, an iced tea for him, his burritos and my bean
tostada and burrito chicharrone smothered with lettuce and
cheese.

I guess Lee could order for me too.

He turned back to me.

“We’re here because it’s good and it’s fast.
We have things to do.”

I nodded. I was still dealing with being
totally freaked out so I wasn’t processing much. I was just hoping
I could process my burrito and tostada or I’d be paying for a
professional cleaning of the Crossfire.

Lee’s arm came behind me on the booth and he
twisted fully toward me.

“First, Teddy. Bottom line is, he’s not a
good guy. Hittin’ you is the least of the shit he’s done. There’s
all kinds of justice, Hank delivers justice his way, I do it my
way.”

Um… yikes!

“I’m in a dangerous business and I have
enemies. You’re in my life now, I have to let it be known that if
anyone fucks with you, there will be consequences.”

“Simple as that?” I asked, trying not to let
on that he was kind of scaring me.

“Not simple as that. I didn’t like standin’
in my kitchen listenin’ to you tell me someone hurt you. It was a
pleasure puttin’ my fist in Teddy’s face and feelin’ his nose
break. He’s a big guy, he could have really hurt you. He’ll think
twice before hitting a woman again.”

Holy crap.

“Do you have a problem with any of that?” Lee
asked.

“Yes,” I answered honestly.

“Can you deal with it?”

“Yes,” I answered, again, honestly.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

That was no lie, either. I really didn’t want
to talk about it. In fact, I was going to deal with it by using
denial so talking about it would automatically defeat my dealing
with it strategy.

Lee watched me closely, as if he was reading
his special Indy Lie Detector Test and then he leaned forward and
brushed his lips against mine.

Guess I passed the test.

The waitress came back with the drinks.

If there was any fairness in the world,
everyone would be able to have salsa from Las Delicias. Crisp,
fresh onion, just enough cilantro. After a few margaritas, Ally and
I could even make a case for salsa from Las Delicias bringing peace
to the Middle East.

I picked up a chip and scooped a healthy
serving of salsa.

“What’s gonna happen to Teddy?”

“If he’s smart, he’ll skip town,” Lee said,
scooping his own chip.

“Is he smart?”

“Not really. Coxy had two smart guys, Rick
and Pete, though in the end, apparently not that smart. Rick’s
dead, Pete’s in jail facing kidnapping, assault and possibly
murder, two of those against a cop’s daughter. They’ll want to give
him his shoelaces but they’ll do everything by the book and be
thorough to make sure he gets nailed. Pete’s fucked.”

I grabbed another chip and broke it in half,
the better to scoop the salsa. I didn’t have a lot of time to spare
Pete, who I suspected was the guy I called Sandy. Pete had tied me
to a chair and shot at me, twice. I didn’t know what Lee was
talking about with regards to shoelaces but I had no problem that
he was fucked.

“Who do you think has the diamonds?” I asked
Lee.

“I have the diamonds.”

“
What?
”

Okay, I shouted it. The other diners turned
to stare. But, what the fuck?

“Keep your voice down,” Lee warned.

“Did you just tell me you have the
diamonds?”

Lee nodded, still turned toward me, eating
his chips and salsa with his right hand, his left arm fencing me in
on the back of the booth.

“You better explain before I start plotting
your murder.”

His eyes crinkled. “You’d never get away with
it.”

“At this point, I don’t mind doing time.”

Lee took a tug on his iced tea then said, “I
found the diamonds at Duke’s the morning after Rosie left my condo.
I have you to thank for that. Duke knows I have them, my contacts
in Sturgis told him when they found him.”

“Your contacts?”

“I farmed out the job to other PIs and bounty
hunters in places I thought Duke would go. They looked around,
asked a few questions, picked up his trail and the boys in South
Dakota tracked him down.”

“If you cost five hundred dollars an hour,
what did that cost?”

“Let’s just say you’re not a cheap date.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re getting paid for
this, remember?”

“I’ve got three jobs involved with this mess
and one of them was finding the diamonds.

I found them the first day. Making sure Duke
was alive and safely home in Evergreen was something I did for
you.”

Even though I was pissed off, my chest
fluttered. “I’ll pay you back.”

His hand went to my hair and he wrapped a
lock around his finger.

“You don’t have to pay me back.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Thank
you.”

“You can thank me tonight when you’re
naked.”

Jeez.

The waitress came and slid our plates on the
table. I unwrapped my cutlery from the weird perma-glue tab and
napkin.

“Before we talk about naked gratitude, let’s
talk about how you’ve been lying to me for days about the
diamonds.” I forked into my burrito.

“I haven’t lied, I’ve given creative
answers.”

“Uh-hunh.”

He let go of my hair and turned to his food.
“My having the diamonds was need to know information. You didn’t
need to know.”

With effort, I swallowed my mouthful of
burrito. “Excuse me?”

Lee downed his own bite and turned again to
me catching my Polar Freeze Glare.

“All right,” he said, “there’s not much I can
say but I’ll tell you what I can.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Some explanation first,” he began, “crime is
very organized at the top. Criminals have levels of management,
they have training, they have territories. Most of the time, these
operations are multi-faceted, running guns, drugs, girls, extorting
payment for protection, whatever. People know who does what and
they deal their own shit in their own neighborhoods.

They step over the line only when they have
the power to back up a takeover.”

I nodded while Lee took another bite and he
continued. “Coxy doesn’t play that game. Coxy does what he wants,
where he wants. He’s messy, greedy and insane. He’s also
determined, tenacious and, I’ll repeat, insane. He’s been causin’
problems with Denver crime for a long time. There’s something to be
said for organization, even in crime. Mess is just mess, in this
case more drugs, more guns but worst of all more dead bodies. Coxy
used to be a nuisance but that’s escalated. The criminals want him
taken out just as much as the cops.”

“I don’t understand, why don’t the criminals
just… um, take him out?”

“Family ties.” I stared at Lee and he kept
talking. “His mother’s Italian, she’s from New York and her family
is powerful. Coxy had backing, if something happened to Coxy, there
would be New York retribution. Or at least that was the word and
New York backed Coxy in a number of jobs and cleaned up a number of
messes.”

“Are we talking about the mob?” I
whispered.

Lee finished his second burrito and just slid
his eyes to me.

Holy shit.

“Problem is, Coxy’s made so many messes,
rumor has it New York is done. Who knows how much backing he ever
really had. His mother married outside the family, outside New
York, to a straight and narrow guy from Denver who was worth a
fortune. Maybe the ties don’t stretch that far and Coxy pulled them
to the breaking point. He’s not a made man, hasn’t been through the
program, as far as anyone knows, he’s a pipsqueak cousin in
Denver.”

I picked up my tostada and munched in an
effort at acting nonchalant when really I was thinking about Tony
Soprano and getting a little flipped out.

“Is all of this new?” I asked.

“No, it’s been goin’ on for years. The rumor
that New York is out is new but unsubstantiated. To restore order,
a deal was struck. Coxy had to be taken out but it couldn’t look
like he was
taken out
. That way, New York wouldn’t feel the
need to act and all would be well in the world of crime again.”

“What does this have to do with you?”

“I have connections on both sides. Eddie and
Hank used me as go-between with Marcus and Darius.”

I sat there with my tostada held aloft and
stared at him.

Eddie Chavez and Darius Tucker were Lee’s two
closest friends in High School.

Eddie Chavez was good-looking, smooth-talking
and morally dubious, exactly like Lee… and then some. Everyone was
pretty certain Eddie was going to go over to the dark side and
spend most of his time
doing
time. Instead, he became a cop.
He was now vice, considered a definite maverick (according to Dad,
with hints of admiration) and a loose cannon (according to Malcolm,
with hints of disapproval).