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?
“I bought you Christmas presents!”
“That doesn’t count.”
I made a choked sound. “So you’re saying you didn’t like the Billie Holiday boxed set?”
“I’m sayin’ it doesn’t count.”
“I thought you liked blues!”
He edged in closer, predatory and angry. “Indy, this isn’t something you can cute your way out of.”
Okay, so, maybe in the past I’d used my girlie status to cute my way out of things. Numerous things. Most especially using it with Lee, Hank and Malcolm. Dad always saw through it.
“Fine!” I stalked to the bed, giving in mainly to get away from him. He was too overpowering at close range. Then I whipped around when I reached the foot of the bed. “What are you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna calm down your friend, make a call that should set some minds at ease and tomorrow, I’ll take him to get the diamonds and make the delivery.”
“Well then,” I said snottily, the wind out of my sails, “thank you.”
Lee started to turn, stopped, dropped his head back and looked at the ceiling and then turned around and came back to me. Again, he was so close I could feel his heat.
“Normally, I charge five hundred dollars an hour for this.”
I sucked in breath.
“For what?” I asked.
“This go-between shit,” Lee answered.
My eyes rounded in shock.
Wow.
No wonder he could afford this condo with a view and an office in LoDo. Not to mention his car, he had a great car. And he still had a bike.
“You do? Why?”
He came closer, so close he was all I could see.
“Because, I make the call tonight that puts me in the middle of this mess, and, if tomorrow I don’t have the diamonds, then it’ll be me they shoot at. I don’t like getting shot at.”
I shook my head, bit my lip and agreed wholeheartedly, “Me either, it’s not very fun.”
He didn’t move and I realized he expected a different response.
“I don’t think Rosie has that kind of money,” I noted. “You wouldn’t consider doing this on, say, family discount?”
He shook his head. “We’re not family.”
“I meant you and me”
“We’re not family either.”
“Yes we are, ten years ago you told me I was like your little sister.”
He waited a beat.
Something dawned on him. I could see the flicker in his eyes as it registered. I didn’t understand it but he did and whatever it was made his face soften a little from the seriously pissed off angry look he’d been wearing all night. In fact, he looked almost… pleased.
“That was then, this is now.” Even his voice was quieter and less hacked off.
“Well, how many hours will this take? It could be thousands of dollars. Rosie doesn’t have that kind of money, even with his side business.”
“It’s not Rosie who’s gonna pay.”
My head did an involuntary little jerk when I understood what he meant.
“I don’t have that kind of money.”
“You aren’t gonna pay me in cash.”
My stomach clenched and my heart stopped for a couple of beats.
“How am I gonna pay you?”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
“We’ll talk about it now!”
“Get in bed, go to sleep.”
“Quit bossing me around!”
He came closer and I let out a little peep. I couldn’t help it, he was pressed up against me, I had nowhere to go and the backs of my knees were up against the footboard. And I’ve already told you Lee’s a seriously scary, badass individual.
“You get in that bed yourself or I tie you to it.”
His face had gone back to the seriously pissed off angry look and I decided from the hard glittering in his eyes that he was not making an idle threat.
&n
bsp; “Okay.”
Shit, I was such a wuss.
Chapter Three
I’ll Choose Door Number Two
I tried to stay awake and listen to what was happening between Lee and Rosie but it was hard because I was tired, getting shot at takes a lot out of you. Anyway, whatever was happening took a really long time and I’m a girl who likes her sleep.
When I did wake up, it was still dark and my back was pressed up to something hard and warm and something heavy and warm was wrapped around my waist.
Lee.
Liam Nightingale was in bed with me.
Holy fucking shit.
You see, there were women in Denver who would pay a lot of money to be in this situation. Hell, there were likely women across the country who would do it.
Not me.
No way.
That boat had sailed.
There was a time when we were kids that Lee, Ally, Hank and I slept together all the time. Our parents would have dinner parties and we’d be tucked into Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s big bed, all four in a row, according to age. This put me between Lee and Ally. Of course, once we got older, we were separated.
Then there were the times when we were in the tent when Dad and Malcolm would take us camping in the mountains. Always, I was stuck between Lee and Ally in my sleeping bag. As I tumbled headlong into my teens, and thus more and more desperate for Lee to declare his undying love for me, this was a form of torture. I couldn’t exactly throw myself at him when Hank, Dad and Malcolm were around (Ally would have slept through it).
And then there was that brief time when Ally and I were nineteen and had gone off rock ‘n’ roll and discovered cowboys. Lee took us to Cheyenne for the rodeo and we got a motel room that just had a big king-sized bed. Out of necessity, we all slept in it together and I slept in the middle. Or at least I slept in middle until Lee moved to the floor, likely to give me room to move. I never woke Ally up with my restless sleeping. Ally could sleep through an earthquake.
So it wasn’t as if I hadn’t already slept with Lee.
But not alone, not just the two of us, not when we were full-fledged, consenting adults, not ever in his bed.
I moved forward, thinking the floor sounded quite comfy.
The heavy warm thing around my waist tightened.
“Don’t move,” Lee mumbled, his voice kinda husky.
My stomach fluttered and as Lee’s hand was splayed and pressed against it, I was pretty certain he could feel it.
Shit.
“What’re you doing?” I asked.
“I was sleeping.” His voice was still husky.
“I mean in this bed,” I clarified, what I thought was unnecessarily.
“It’s my bed.”
True enough.
Time for a different tact.
“I’m gonna sleep on the floor,” I said.
“No you’re not.”
I hesitated for a moment, confused, and then tried Plan C.
“Then I’m gonna sleep on the other side of the bed.”
“No you’re not.”
What in the hell?
I didn’t get it.
“Why?”
“Because you were sleepin’ over there and you hit me in the chest twice and kicked me in the shin three times.”
Oopsie.
I’d heard that before.
“I’m kind of an active sleeper.”
“No kidding.”
I thought about my options.
There was the floor, which apparently was not an option for me.
There was the Command Center, which I probably couldn’t breach and likely didn’t have a couch or bed considering in my imagination it was filled with supercomputers that had a direct link to the Pentagon.
My cobwebby mind chugged along for minute, registering somewhere deep down how warm and cozy I currently was.
Rosie was a little guy, at least three inches shorter than me and wiry. Rosie was also kind of asexual, never had a girlfriend, his life was coffee, pot and rock ‘n’ roll.
Lee on the other hand was not asexual. He might think of me as his little sister and could calmly sleep next to me without his nipples getting hard (or anything else getting hard for that matter) but I was pretty certain I could not do the same.
Lee had one of those big, deep-seated couches, the better to sit on and watch Monday Night Football.
Maybe both Rosie and I would fit on the couch.
“I’ll go sleep with Rosie.”
The reply was instantaneous.
“The hell you will.”
Hmm, all sleepy-husky gone from his voice.
Lee was now all business and using that “brook no argument” tone.
I was stuck.
See, I was too afraid to go against Badass Lee Nightingale and I was too tired to try to get comfortable with Rosie.
Actually, bottom line, I was just too comfortable even to contemplate moving.
So, I went back to sleep.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
* * * * *
I woke up again hours later in an entirely different position. Lee was on his back and I was sprawled half-on him, half-off him.
Yikes.
I blinked at the clock on the bedside table. It was seven after six.
I might be a party girl but I’d never been able to sleep late. Even when I fell into bed at four a.m., I woke up before seven.
This caused me, over the years, to perfect the art of the mid-day Disco Nap.
Today was going to be a Disco Nap Day, I could feel it.
There was no way I was getting back to sleep and no way I was gonna remain sprawled all over Lee.
I moved to get up and the arm he had wrapped around my lower back tightened and his fingers dug into my hip.
“Jesus, what is it with you?” he grumbled.
“It’s morning.”
He opened an eye and glanced at the clock.
Then he closed it.
“Barely.”
“I’m gonna make coffee.”
This was apparently an acceptable reason to move as his arm fell away.
“Do you have an extra toothbrush?”
“Probably.”
That was a stupid question. Lee may not still be the dawg he was in high school, but that didn’t mean he didn’t nail his fair share of anatomically impossible babes. He probably had a box full of extra toothbrushes.
“Do you have two?”
The eye opened again and focused on me.
Yikes part deux.
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my clothes and ran to the bathroom. I located one extra toothbrush still in its packaging and went to town on my teeth.
I took care of my teeth, I made a promise to myself that I’d die with my original set and that’s what I intended to do.
I opened the door to the bedroom. “Do you have floss?” I called.
“For Christ’s sake.”
Obviously, Lee didn’t care that much about his teeth.
That’s okay, Lee seemed to be doing a very good job at taking care of other parts of his body.
I pulled on my jeans and struggled into my bra under the wife beater (because I’d decided to steal the wife beater if I could get away with it, to keep as a little memento) and padded into the kitchen trying to be quiet for Rosie.
Rosie had a big day today and he needed his beauty rest.
The living room, dining room and kitchen were open plan in an L shape. The condo was on a corner, the entirety of it had a balcony wrapped around. French doors from the dining room which was across from the kitchen, French doors from the living room which was an extension of the dining room and French doors in the bedrooms. Big money for this kind of location, the huge, airy rooms and the view afforded.
The kitchen was state-of-the-art and mostly hidden from the living room behind the wall that made up the bathroom and extra bedroom.
Still, I had to be quiet.
Normally, I’d hav
e the coffee ready to roll the night before so I could just flip a switch after I’d stumbled out of bed and down the stairs.
Normally, my coffeemaker had a cup under the spout rather than a pot so I could just stand there and wait until it was done filling the cup and then switch it over to the pot so I didn’t have to wait until the pot was full.
Normally, I didn’t function properly until cup number two.
Caffeine was my drug of choice.
It took me awhile to find all the coffee paraphernalia. I lucked out because obviously Lee liked his coffee and he had a high quality bag of java.
I made it strong and did the cup thing. It was pretty clear from his Mr. Grouch impersonation that Lee wasn’t getting up anytime soon and there was not a sound from the couch so I could be greedy and selfish with the coffee.
I was concentrating on the stream of life-affirming joe filling the cup so I was a little surprised when hands settled on the counter on either side of me and I felt the warmth of a body against my back.
They weren’t Rosie’s hands.
I looked over my shoulder.
Lee had fenced me in.
His dark hair was wild in a very sexy way and his eyes were soft as were his features. His chest was bare. I knew this because I could see his shoulders.
I didn’t dare look down.
After ten years of practice, I was able (barely) to put the wild, sexy hair out of my mind and to ignore (barely) the fact he was bare-chested. However, it was kind of hard to ignore his proximity.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He glanced over my shoulder.
“You makin’ coffee for everyone, or just you?”
There were certain times when honesty was the best policy. In my life, those times didn’t come very often but if there was the possibility that you might not get the first cup of coffee, and brutal honesty would get it for you, you had to be brutally honest.
“Just me, for now.”
I turned back to the coffee, deciding I didn’t want an answer to my question about what he was doing. Something was going on and I was three quarts low on caffeine, not to mention sleep. I could hardly think past the next second, much less figure out what game Lee was playing. Likely he was still pissed at me for bringing trouble to his doorstep and decided to make my life miserable as repayment. I could understand that, I’d probably do the same.
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