Rock Chick 01 (38 page)

“What the fuck is she doin’ here and what’s
with the dog?” he asked.

Well, hello to you too.

Luckily, I thought it but didn’t say it.

Lee and Eddie had both turned to look at
Darius.

“Do we have time to explain?” Lee asked.

“Don’t know, had business take me away for a
minute and couldn’t watch the house,” Darius replied. “I know I
don’t have all day to waste on this shit.”

“Where is he?” Eddie asked.

“Third door up,” Darius answered.

Lee was focused on something beyond me, out
the back window.

“We gotta move, someone got here before us.”
His voice had changed, sounding clipped and urgent. His eyes cut to
me. “Stay down, out of sight. Jesus Christ, how’d I let you talk me
into this shit?”

“I was cuffed to the bed,” I reminded him,
speaking automatically and not really processing what was going on,
just realizing that the vibes had turned bad.

“Lucky fuck,” Eddie muttered, opened his door
and then he was gone. I swear to God, he disappeared into thin air.
One second, he was exiting the car, the next second he was nowhere
in sight.

“Your Dad teach you how to handle a gun?”
Darius was talking to me and I looked at him. His eyes were cold
and it was so wrong in his face, a face I’d once known so well,
that I felt it in my gut.

I nodded to him.

Lee was leaning forward, reaching under the
driver’s side seat. He came up with a gun and handed it to me.

“Show me,” Lee demanded, his voice sharp.

Shit.

Under pressure.

It was a Glock, Dad had a Glock.

“Safety lever in the trigger,” I murmured
then dumped the magazine, I pulled the slide back and a bullet flew
out of the top. I snatched the bullet up, clipped it back into the
into the magazine and shoved the magazine back into the gun.

I looked back at them, I didn’t know what
else to do.

They didn’t say a word, they both opened
their doors and were gone.

Poof.

Vanished.

Just like Eddie.

I pushed Chowleena down on the seat. She
didn’t seem real concerned about the drama, she thought it was time
for a nap. I could have kissed her.

I took one look at door number three, Rosie’s
door, before scooting down in my seat.

Then I shot back up and stared into door
number three’s window.

Ally was in there with Rosie.

I’d only seen a flash of her but I knew she
was there.

Holy, shit, shit, shit.

What was she doing there?

Did Lee know?

I couldn’t exactly call him.

Shit!

Then I saw him, walking down the street,
looking like he didn’t belong there. Mainly because he looked like
nothing, nobody, everyman. Made to fit in with the scenery. He was
Tom Hanks. Problem was, Tom Hanks didn’t live in this
neighborhood.

I felt a chill up my spine.

I grabbed my gunbelt, pulled out the pepper
spray and rammed it in my front pocket. Then I pulled out the taser
and rammed it in the waistband of my shorts. Then I shoved the
Glock in the back of my shorts, pulled my Xanadu t-shirt over the
gun butts and, before my mind could think of excuses, I got out of
the car.

I had no idea what I was doing or why I was
doing it. All I knew was, three guys with guns were out there as
smoke as well as a potential bad guy and Ally was between all of
them and Rosie.

I hurried across the street and down the
sidewalk.

He was nearly to door number three when he
heard my flip flops.

He turned.

Casually I lifted my chin and smiled, as if I
was a passerby saying hello and kept walking toward him.

His eyes dropped to the waistband of my
shorts.

Unfortunately my t-shirt was fitted, not
loose around the waist so the taser butt showed in obvious
relief.

He moved and I moved, yanking the taser out
and bringing my shirt up and out with it, giving him a flash of my
lacy, lemon-yellow bra. The shirt snapped back as I lifted my arm
and pulled the trigger. The prongs went sailing forward, snagged
him as he yanked the gun out of his shoulder holster, momentarily
taken aback by my accidental flash of bra. I didn’t care, he was
down before he got his arm straight and I didn’t have any holes in
me seeping life-blood.

No sooner had he hit pavement then strong
hands snagged me around the waist and I was slammed against a
parked car, a hand pressed against my stomach holding me there.

“Where do you think we are, the fucking OK
Corral?” Eddie snapped, his face close to mine and he was pissed.
He yanked the taser out of my hand and then he started talking in
rapid-fire Spanish, none of which I could understand but that might
have been a good thing.

Lee materialized next to us. Lee wasn’t
pissed, he was furious, it rolled off him in waves.

“Ally’s in there. I saw her through the
window,” I told Lee.

Both Lee and Eddie turned toward door number
three. I felt the fury waves recede. They knew I’d put myself in
front of a bus, a train or an assassin to save Ally.

The door opened and Ally stood in its frame
behind a rickety screen.

“What’s going on?” she asked, looking down at
the stunned hit man and then up at us, brows raised and cool as a
cucumber.

Gotta love Ally.

There were some muttered oaths. Eddie’s hand
came away from my stomach and he moved to the hit man, cuffs out.
Lee moved to Ally and I ran back to the car and got Chowleena. By
the time Chowleena and I made it in the open front door, Eddie was
rolling the cuffed hit man over on his back. When I walked in, I
saw Rosie on his stomach on the floor, grunting and moaning, Lee
beside him in a half crouch, one foot on the floor, knee bent, the
other knee in Rosie’s back. Lee was cuffing him.

Lee hauled Rosie up to his feet while Eddie
dragged the hit man into the living room and propped his still
stunned body on the couch.

Darius walked in on cat’s feet from somewhere
in the back of the house. He looked around at everyone.

“I forgot to bring the dip,” he remarked.

I nearly laughed, that was more like the
Darius I knew.

“Darius,” Ally said, finally showing some
reaction, she was staring at Darius and her face was wearing a
tentative welcoming smile.

“I see you and Indy haven’t changed much,”
Darius told Ally.

Everyone looked at everyone else. No comments
were made because it was more or less true.

“That was anti-climactic,” Eddie said after
several beats.

I walked up to Rosie and slapped him upside
the head.

“Ow!” Rosie shouted at the same time
Chowleena barked.

I stared at him then slapped him upside the
head again and Chowleena barked again. She thought we were playing
and wanted to be in on the fun.

“You idiot!” I yelled and then smacked him
another one.

“Ow! Quit it! She’s hitting me.” He looked at
Lee. “Do something, you’re the police!”

Lee simply watched.

“He isn’t the police,” I told Rosie and hit
him again.

“Ow!” Rosie looked with desperate eyes to
Darius.

“You?”

“Me? Police?” Darius actually started
laughing. It took years off his face and made him handsome again.
If I wasn’t in such a tizzy, I might have stopped to appreciate
it.

I smacked Rosie upside the head again,
Chowleena barked again.

Rosie looked wildly around and yelled, “You
all have handcuffs and guns. How do you have handcuffs and guns
unless someone’s the flipping police?”

Instead of hitting Rosie upside the head, I
shoved his shoulder.

Eddie slowly raised his hand.“Indy, guess I’m
gonna have to ask you to quit doin’ that.”

I got up close to Rosie and stared down on
him. “If I wasn’t so happy you’re alive, I’d kill you.”

Rosie seemed to deflate.

“Indy, I’m sorry.” he said, looking miserable
and smelling worse.

“Sorry? A week ago you had three friends. Now
Tim’s dead, The Kevster’s behind bars for trying to save your pot
plants and I don’t have all afternoon to tell you all that’s
happened to me. Newest nightmare, bookies are taking bets on if
I’ll go off with icky, creepy Wilcox.”

Rosie blanched and said, “Euw. He looks like
Grandpa Munster.”

“That’s what I’m sayin’!” I shouted at
him.

“I wish I had all day to watch this show but
I got things to do,” Darius put in. “You gonna call this in?” he
asked Eddie.

“Yeah.” Eddie’s eyes moved to Lee. Eddie had
taken off his shades and slid an arm in the collar of his tee so
they were hanging at his throat. “We gotta talk. Do you think Betty
and Veronica here can keep an eye on these two?”

“I get to be Veronica,” Ally said
instantly.

I turned to her. “Why do you get to be
Veronica?”

I didn’t want to be Betty, Betty was a
doormat. Veronica had attitude.

“I’m
so
Veronica,” Ally said in
answer.

“Unh,” the hit man groaned.

“Jesus,” Darius said.

Lee jerked Rosie around and sat him on the
couch next to his would be killer.

He pointed at Rosie and said, “Sit.
Stay.”

While I was watching Lee, I felt a hand at my
back and my shirt was lifted up. I twisted my head to see Eddie
there, then felt his hand slide into my shorts and pull out the
gun.

He could have pulled it out by its butt and
barely touch me. He didn’t do that. He slid the length of his index
finger along the gun, the rest of his knuckles fisting around the
butt, grazing the small of my back, making certain I felt his
warmth against my skin nearly to the top edge of my underwear. And,
I had to admit, it felt nice.

Provocatively tactile.

When I turned back to Lee, he was watching
and the muscle was going in his cheek.

“Outside,” Lee said to Eddie.

Eddie handed me the gun and said, “Point this
at the bad guy and don’t take your eyes off him. If he moves, shoot
him. Got that?”

I nodded.

Lee, Darius and Eddie left the house.

I pointed the gun at the hit man, pulled the
pepper spray out of my pocket and gave it to Ally saying, “How’d
you find Rosie?”

“You know all those leads I told you
about?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I tracked them down, gave out more
cards, the leads led to more leads and here I am. Rosie.”

I was impressed.

“You are the shit!” I told her.

“Damn straight,” she replied on a grin.

Then we heard voices through the front screen
door.

“She was on a ride-along,” Lee clipped.

“Yeah, a ride-along with a Chow,” Darius
commented.

“She got in a fuckin’ quick draw with a hit
man in broad daylight and she was armed with a goddamned taser!”
Eddie snapped.

“It’s none of your business, Eddie, but she
and I made a deal,” Lee said.

“Yeah, I heard. A deal struck while she was
cuffed to your bed. Christ, I never thought I’d see the day when
you
were led around by your dick,” Eddie returned.

Uh-oh.

Them’s fightin’ words.

I chanced a glance to Ally and even she’d
gone pale.

“Boys,” Darius said low.

“You know, I’m almost compelled to let you
have her for a week and see if you can control her,” Lee put
in.

Um… say what?

“I’d take a crack at that,” Eddie
replied.

Oh… my… God.

“Er… I think there’s something I forgot to
tell you,” Ally whispered at my side but I wasn’t listening.

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Lee said and his
voice had gone scary. “A kiss on the neck, your hand down her
fuckin’ pants. I’m warnin’ you, Eddie, it’s the three strike
rule.”

“Uh… Indy?” Ally said.

“Shh!” I shushed her.

“I told you a year ago to make your move or I
would. Now you have and I get to the station and I hear she’s
runnin’ through a Highlands neighborhood, her hands cuffed behind
her back, tear gas in her face, Coxy’s assholes shootin’ at her and
some crazy ex-con takin’ a bullet for her. What the fuck is that
all about?”

“Eddie,” Darius said, obviously trying to
break the tension, “this is Indy we’re talking about. That sounds
like a normal Saturday night.”

No one laughed.

There was silence and it was heavy.

Then Eddie said, “You fuck it up with her, I
won’t hesitate, do you hear what I’m sayin’?”

Ally grabbed my arm and I jumped. The hit man
was mostly conscious and staring at us.

“What the fuck?” he slurred.

“Shut up,” I said to the hit man, jiggling
the gun at him threateningly and turned to Ally, jerking my head to
the door. “Did you hear that?” I stage whispered.

Ally didn’t look happy.

“I heard it.”

“What
was
that?” I asked.

“Well.” Ally went from looking not happy to
looking uncomfortable. Ally rarely looked uncomfortable and I knew
I wasn’t going to like what was coming. “The thing is, see…”

“Spit it out!” I snapped.

“Okay, you know about a year ago when Eddie
and Lee stopped talking to each other?”

“No, I don’t know. I was avoiding Lee
remember? I told you, like, a million times.”

“Well, about a year ago, Eddie and Lee
stopped talking to each other.”

“Great, thanks,” I said.

“Anyway,” Ally went on. “Hank told me that
Eddie’s had a thing for you for awhile though he’s kept his
distance because everyone knew how you felt about Lee and everyone
was waiting for Lee to do something about it. It’s been kind of a
sticky situation seeing as they’re best friends.”

Dear Lord in Heaven.

Just what I needed, my life to be that much
more fucked up.

“And?” I asked.

“Last year, Eddie lost patience and told Lee
if he didn’t take care of business, Eddie would move in.”

Holy crap!