Rock Chick 02 Rescue (33 page)

I had to admit, I liked it.

I liked it
a lot
.

I found out that Zip didn’t only sel guns, ole Zip sold a lot of different kinds of guns, handguns, shotguns, rifles. He also sold knives, ammo, stun guns, tasers, mace, pepper spray and calendars with my sister’s picture on the front. I pointed this out to Indy while Vance wasn’t paying attention.

“Nice,” she said, looking at Lottie wearing a barely there bikini, her body completely wet, her hair surprisingly dry and balancing precariously on a BMW motorcycle.

Vance outfitted us with stun guns, tasers and pepper spray. He explained how to use them, he gave instruction on how to be safe and he tried to pay.

I argued.

He gave me a Tough Guy Look.

I pul ed out The Glare.

While al this was going on, Indy paid.

That was okay with me, I could owe Indy. I didn’t expect her favor had anything to do with my Smithie’s uniform.

We were on our way back to Fortnum’s, our bag of goodies in Indy’s Beetle, Indy fol owing us. We didn’t have a lot of time before we had to meet Daisy at the Oxford Hotel lot of time before we had to meet Daisy at the Oxford Hotel for a drink and I was getting fidgety. I didn’t want to keep Daisy waiting, she could be scary.

We were stopped at a light on Colfax and I was pressed against Vance, my crotch to his ass, my chest to his back, my chin kinda resting on his shoulder. He drove fast and hard. I tried holding onto his waist and keeping a distance but I nearly went ass over head off the back of the bike when he shot from the curb.

It was a wrap-your-arms-around-and-hold-on-for-dear-life kind of ride.

A car rol ed to a stop at the light and I automatical y looked to my right.

My eyes widened at what I saw and I think I screamed a little inside my helmet. Sitting in the driver’s seat was Eddie, he was looking out the window, his mirrored shades directed at me, the rest of his face wearing a murderous expression.

I had on a helmet but I was also wearing a distinctive scarlet-red t-shirt, my hair was coming out the back of the helmet because I had to take out my ponytail holder, I was with Vance and Indy’s car was right behind us. It wouldn’t take a police detective to figure out it was me but Eddie
was
a police detective and from the expression on Eddie’s face, he’d figured it out.

Damn.

Damn, damn, damn.

There was a toot on the horn behind us, Vance looked in his mirror and I looked behind. Indy was gesturing to her side and to Eddie. I looked at the car pul ed up next to her.

Eddie was being trailed by a Crossfire, Lee’s Crossfire, with Lee behind the wheel.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Vance looked right, not wearing a helmet; he made a hand gesture salute to Eddie, two fingers straight out and a flick of the wrist. Mr. Cool.

We al drove together to Fortnum’s, Vance and I leading the new definition of My Convoy of Doom. The entire time I tried to come up with a plausible explanation, in other words, a believable lie.

Vance pul ed in up front, Indy and Lee parked in the back, Eddie parked behind us. I was off the bike and had the helmet off when Eddie arrived.

“What the fuck?” Eddie asked, looking at Vance and using his scary quiet voice.

Vance had come off the bike and was smiling, flat out. I didn’t think this was good, I thought it was kind of in your face. Even though it was not helping the situation, I had to say, I admired Vance for having the bal s to pul it off.

I decided to neutralize the situation.

“Eddie, I can explain,” I said.

His eyes turned to me. He had his arms crossed on his chest, his legs planted wide and I wished I’d let him take his anger out on Vance. Vance was a badass too, at least it would be a fair fight.

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, his voice dripping with disbelief.

Okay, I’d used the ride home to try to come up with a believable lie. The problem was, I didn’t succeed.

“Wel … ” I started, drawing out the word to buy time.

Al of a sudden, Eddie grabbed my arm, yanked the helmet out of my hand, tossed it to Vance and pul ed me away about five feet.

Guess he didn’t feel like giving me time to come up with a believable lie.

When we stopped, he opened his mouth to speak but I got there first.

“I can see you’re angry, I don’t know why but—” He interrupted me.

“You don’t know why?” he asked.

“No, you see—” I began again.

“No?” He interrupted again, stil using his scary quiet voice.

“Wel no, what I was going to say was…”

“I’m drivin’ down the road and, stopped at a light, I see the woman who’s sharin’ my house,
my bed
, wrapped around another guy. You’re that woman and you don’t know why I’m angry?”

It didn’t sound good when he said it that way.

“Eddie…”

He got close, his eyes were glittery and his voice was stil scary soft.

“Don’t fucking ‘Eddie’ me. Seems I gotta spel everything out for you so listen good,
Chiquita
. Last night, when I said no one touches you but me, that means
you
don’t touch
anyone
but me
either.”

I put a hand to my hip.

I mean real y, did he think I was stepping out on him?

“It wasn’t what you obviously think, Vance was just taking us to Zip’s!”

Uh-oh.

I immediately saw my mistake. I should have told him we were out to lunch, visiting the dog pound to play with sheltered puppies, buying crack, anything but going to Zip’s.

“What were you doing at Zip’s?” Somehow, the low, scary voice got lower and scarier.

I decided not to lie, not because I thought it was a good way to go, more like I couldn’t come up with another story quick enough.

“Vance was outfitting us with gear.”

“What kind of gear?”

“A few bits and pieces,” I decided to be vague.

“What kind of bits and pieces?” I shouldn’t have tried vague, I’d already learned that Eddie wasn’t fond of vague.

“Stun guns, tasers, pepper spray,” I said.

“Why?”

I took a deep breath and, since I was being honest, I went whole hog. “I’m going to look for Dad.” His eyes narrowed, his mouth tightened and my stomach lurched but I tried not to let on that he was kind of flipping me out.

“Show me,” he said.

I stared at him. I thought of ignoring his request but decided against it. He’d push it and I’d end up doing it anyway.

Indy had the stun guns and tasers in her car, the only thing I had was the pepper spray in my purse. I opened my bag and barely got it out when Eddie’s hand came out and smacked against mine, sending the pepper spray flying and skittering down the sidewalk.

“Hey!” I snapped, my head coming up and I pul ed out a genuine glare.

“What do you do now?” he asked and came in close.

I was getting mad, he was making me look like a fool. I knew he was doing it to make a point, but stil .

No, wait. Doing a quick emotional scan I realized I was already mad.

“Wel ?” he snapped, leaning in.

I wrapped the strap of my bag over my shoulder and planted
both
my hands on my hips, a Double Diva Threat.

“That wasn’t fair. You’re Eddie, I wasn’t ready…”

“You aren’t gonna be ready when this shit goes down either.”

I leaned into him too.

“I’ve been doing al right so far.”

“You’ve been lucky so far.”

Al right, enough.

I threw my hands out, getting nose to nose, and I yel ed in his face.

“Yeah? Wel , final y! For the first fucking time in my fucking life, I’ve been lucky and I’m gonna ride that wave.

What I’m not gonna do is fucking sit in a house with the fucking blinds pul ed and the fucking doors locked and wait for other people to solve my fucking problems, the whole time scared out of my fucking mind.”

Yeesh.

That was a lot of f-words but the moment warranted it.

“You need to be smart,” he said, not moving out of the space I invaded.

“I need to get control of my life and I’m going to get it and I don’t care how. You might not like it but that’s the way it is.”

“You put yourself out there, I can’t keep you safe.” I stared.

Then, I swear I couldn’t help it, I laughed. And something else I couldn’t help, since I was so close to Eddie, I leaned into him and when I did, I wrapped my arms around his middle and put my forehead to his chest. It was either that or fal over with the hilarity of it al .

“This shit isn’t fuckin’ funny,” Eddie said to the top of my head. His hands were on his hips, he wasn’t touching me and he wasn’t happy.

I looked up at him, my arms stil wrapped around him, my body pressed against his.

“Eddie, don’t you get it?” I asked softly, stil smiling, “I’ve never felt safe in my whole life. Never. Until now.” Something flickered in his eyes but he didn’t move.

I pressed closer and tilted my head back further.

“Three months ago, if this happened to me, I’d have sat in a house with the blinds closed, the doors locked and been scared out of my mind.”

He hesitated a moment, then I felt his body relax and his hand came up to where my jaw met my neck, the pad of his thumb against my cheekbone.

“You’re so ful of shit,
Chiquita
,” he said quietly but the scary had gone out of the quiet. He was looking in my eyes, the glitter in his melting and I knew I’d won.

Final y, I’d won an argument with Eddie.

I felt like dancing around, instead I gave him a squeeze.

“Am not,” I said.

“You would have been as hel -bent to risk your neck and solve your Dad’s problems, you just wouldn’t have had some crazy Rock Chick to get you in trouble while she’s tryin’ to watch your back.”

“Indy’s not a crazy Rock Chick.”

“And Indy isn’t the only one watchin’ your back.” I smiled at him. I knew what he meant because that warm feeling was in my bel y again, but I decided, and for the life of me I didn’t know why, to tease him and maybe, just a little bit, flirt.

So I cocked my head and said, “I know. Al y’s watching it too.”

Wow. Flirting worked.

His eyes went liquid, my bel y fluttered, his other arm went around me and his thumb came under my chin and tilted my head back even further.

“Al y
is
a crazy Rock Chick,” he said.

I couldn’t help it, I let out a little giggle.

He watched me for a beat, then his face got serious. “I don’t like what you’re doin’, I don’t agree with it and if I can, I’l stop it.”

Wonderful

I didn’t like that he didn’t like it but I nodded anyway.

We were at an impasse and we both knew it.

“This your way of tryin’ to prove to me you’re boring? If it is, I should warn you, it real y isn’t workin’.” I shook my head then tried again to use the truth and said, “Eddie, trust me, I
am
boring.” The dimple came out.

“You’re crazy.”

“I’m not.”

“What are you doin’ now?”

“Indy and I are meeting Daisy at the Cruise Room for a drink.”

His eyes flared.

“You
are
crazy.”

“I’m
not
.”

We stared at each other again, I was preparing for another battle but to my surprise, he gave in again.

“For Christ’s sake,
Chiquita
, be careful,” he said.

I snuggled deeper into his body, I didn’t have a choice since his arm went super-tight around me, and I said,

“Okay.”

Daisy, Indy and Me - The Unholy Trinity
We met Daisy in the ultra-cool, art deco Cruise Room of the Oxford Hotel.

Daisy was already sitting in a booth, waiting for us. She was decked out in second-skin denim and rhinestones, the two-buttoned jacket exposing acres of cleavage. The purply-pink neon that had been giving cool ass atmosphere to the Cruise Room for nearly one hundred years was shining in platinum-blonde hair that was so teased and sprayed I figured environmental watch groups had campaigns dedicated to stopping her single-handed destruction of the ozone layer.

We ordered dirty martinis and settled in.

Daisy turned cornflower-blue eyes to me, “Al right, Sugar, tel Auntie Daisy al about it.”

I didn’t hesitate, she knew some of it anyway after my Smithie’s meltdown, so I told her the story of my life, reciting it for the mil ionth time that week. Any hopes I held of quietly going it alone were long since gone.

Halfway through my story, she took my hand and didn’t let go.

When I was done, she squeezed my hand.

For some reason, she asked, “Jet, darlin’, you seen
Steel Magnolias
?”

I nodded.

“That’s my favorite movie of al time,” she told me.

This wasn’t a surprise.

She leaned into me, “You and me, Sugar, we’re Steel Magnolias.” Then she let go of my hand and without further ado, she launched into her story.

It was a whole hel of a lot more sad and scary than mine.

Halfway through her story I grabbed her hand and didn’t let go. When I did, tears fil ed the bottoms of her eyes but she didn’t let them fal .

This wasn’t a surprise either. If her story was anything to go by, Daisy hadn’t been touched by kindness a whole lot in her life, either physical y or emotional y. In fact, Marcus and Smithie were the only two men she’d known that treated her right.

When she was done, I squeezed her hand.

“Now I’m with Marcus and, don’t get me wrong, I’m mostly happy. But a girl has to have girlfriends, comprende?” Indy and I both nodded, we comprende’ed.