Rock Chick

by Kristen Ashley

  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 i
s 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).

  Darius Tucker was much the same, but he was also absolutely hilarious, so funny you’d nearly wet your pants laughing. He had soulful eyes and a dry shoulder to cry on (especially for the girls). Everyone was certain he’d quickly get married and settle down and make some woman a good husband. Instead, his Dad was murdered when he was seventeen and he went off the rails and off the radar. I hadn’t seen him in years and I missed him. He was a good guy, he’d made me laugh and he’d let me cry on his shoulder plenty of times. According to Malcolm and Dad, he was now bad news.

  I didn’t know anyone named Marcus.

  “Darius?” I said when I could say anything at all.

  Lee pushed his plate away and turned to me again. “Yeah. The deal was, we all work together to cause problems for Coxy, delayed shipments, missing deliveries, cops turnin’ up at inopportune moments. I shared information and me and the boys caused some of the complications that Hank and Eddie couldn’t cause. Coxy’s network of buyers and suppliers started to alternately freak or get pissed off and his men began to defect. Rick and Pete decided on early retirement and, to augment their pension, they stole Marcus’s diamonds.”

  “Marcus?”

  “A leftover from when I did security. He keeps us on retainer for certain jobs. He’s powerful and not someone who appreciates being stolen from. I was in DC and got an urgent call from him when his diamonds went missing.”

  “Why’d he call you?”

  Lee shrugged.“I’m good at finding all different kinds of things.”

  Oh dear Lord.

  I had a feeling this was one of those cases where I didn’t want to know.

  I changed the subject.“How on earth does Rosie fit into all of this?”

  “Rosie had a good operation going, small but popular and not quiet which was not smart. Coxy heard about it and wanted a piece, so he coerced Rosie into giving him one. Then he coerced Rosie into doing other things for him, things Rosie didn’t want to do but didn’t know how to say no. Rick and Pete decided to play innocent about the diamonds until they had their shit together enough to move to Brazil, which was only supposed to be a day or two. They stashed the rocks with Rosie, thinkin’ he was scared enough to do what he was told. Apparently, he was pissed off enough to use the diamonds to blackmail Rick and Pete to get him out from under Coxy. Unfortunately, he was playin’ out of his league. In the meantime, word went out the diamonds were gone, Coxy found out his boys had gone renegade. Even Coxy isn’t crazy enough to out and out kick sand in Marcus’s face, especially not with his systems breakin’ down. So everyone was in a rush for the diamonds. Enter you.”

  “I’m a little confused.”

  “I would be too if I came in at the end of this shit. It’s fucked up.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I’m gettin’ paid.”

  “That’s it?” I asked.

  “No, it’s not. I should say I’m gettin’ paid a lot.”

  “Is it worth it?”

  His arm slid behind me on the booth and he twisted toward me again. I’d abandoned my tostada half eaten and was turned toward him.

  “I like what I do but it’s like football. Your career has a shelf life. I intend to be retired by forty-five with the cabin in Grand Lake and a condo in Florida, a damn good boat in both places and enough money to make life good until I die.”

  “So, what you’re saying is, it’s worth it.”

  He went back to wrapping a lock of my hair around his finger. His voice changed and so did his eyes, from all business to warm and soft.

  “Yeah, it’s worth it. Do you like Florida?”

  My stomach did a clutch. “Would Florida come with a housekeeper that puts your towels on the rail after you throw them in the sink?”

  His eyes got warm. “That’s the ‘make life good’ part.”

  “Then I might like Florida.” His finger tugged my hair playfully but I ignored it and asked, “Who’s paying you?”

  He let go of my hair, leaned forward and took out his wallet.

  “Story time’s over. We have to get back to work.”

  “I guess question time is over too.”

  His eyes slid to me again telling me question time was definitely over.

  We were in the Crossfire when I told him we had to go to Tod and Stevie’s to pick up Chowleena.

  “Sorry?” he asked.

  “I’m watching her for a couple of days.”

  “We’ll go get her later.”

  “We can’t go get her later! If we go get her later, that wouldn’t be me watching her, that would be her, alone, at home with no one watching her.”

  “I’m not takin’ a chow dog out to work with me.”

  “She’ll be good. I swear, she’s a great dog.”

  “No.”

  I had to pull out the big guns.“There’ll be naked gratitude in it for you.”

  Lee hesitated, but just for a moment.

  “Shit,” he mumbled.

  He steered the Crossfire toward Baker District.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Eddie and Darius

  We cruised up to Paris on the Platte with Chowleena in my lap, her face out the open window, eyes squinty in the wind, mouth panting and fluffy fur rippling. Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” was blaring from Lee’s radio.

  There were some songs that it was a crime against nature to listen to quietly and “Jungle Love” was one of them, although Lee didn’t agree.

  I was finding the promise of naked gratitude went a long way.

  As Lee parked, I looked to Paris on the Platte, part-bookstore, mostly-funky-coffee-house, it had been around for ages. They made Rosie’s coffee look amateur.

  Sitting out front at one of the tables on the sidewalk was Eddie Chavez, legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, elbows on the arm rests, hands hanging loose.

  Pure cool.

  He had on a white thermal, short-sleeved tee, a pair of worn out Levi’s, black cowboy boots and a black belt with a big buckle pressed against his flat abs. He had dark skin, black hair and he was wearing a pair of kickass mirrored shades. Shades I knew hid eyes so dark brown, they were black. He was flashing a grin at us, ultra-white against his skin.

  He looked damn good.

  I knew Eddie well growing up. He, Lee and Darius hung out together most of the time and I tried my best to be wherever Lee was so I spent a good deal of time with the three of them.

  Since then, I’d seen Eddie a lot, he stayed close with both Lee and Hank. He came to Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s parties and he’d come over to Hank’s when we all went over there and watched football. I wouldn’t say we were great friends but I liked him and I knew he liked me.

  In fact, I think he liked me, liked me. He could be hilariously suggestive in a flirty way but that wasn’t it, that was just banter.

  If Eddie was attracted to you, he didn’t make it obvious by flirting. Eddie wasn’t the kind of guy who flirted a girl into bed. His tactics were more subtle and practiced. He liked to play a game, he liked a challenge. He was the stealth seducer. Eddie showed
his appreciation in nonverbal ways, mostly using his eyes and being tactile in a way that kept you guessing, but felt provocative. I expected that was because that’s exactly what he meant it to feel like. There wasn’t a lot that Eddie did that Eddie didn’t mean to do.

  I got out of the Crossfire and led Chowleena on her leash to Eddie. The minute Eddie saw Chowleena, his grin widened to a blinding white smile.

  “Indy.” His arm slid around my waist, he brought me up against his hard body and he kissed my neck (see, provocatively tactile!). He was four inches taller than me, one of those inches from the heels of his boots.

  I sat, Lee sat and Chowleena clicked over to Lee and laid down on his booted feet. Eddie watched, the smile never leaving his face.

  His mirrored shades turned to Lee. “A Chow?”

  “I don’t wanna hear it,” Lee growled, his voice low and impatient.

  Eddie chuckled and I realized that a Chow was not good for Lee’s Badass reputation. Especially not one who’s big, fluffy fur was shaved into a dog version of a lion wearing chaps.

  Lee needed a German Sheppard or a Rottweiler, not a Chow wearing fur chaps.

  “There’s naked gratitude in it for him,” I blurted in an attempt to save Lee’s reputation.

  The mirrored shades turned to me.

  “I should hope so.” Eddie leaned in close. “Just for your information, for me, gratitude for hangin’ with a Chow wouldn’t be naked. It would include black lace underwear, a matching garter belt, stockings and stilettos.”

  Wow.

  I didn’t know, but that seemed pretty brazenly flirty. What did I do with that? Especially from Lee’s best friend, right in front of Lee. And here was me, just having promised not to flirt.

  Shit.

  I turned to Lee. He was also wearing sunglasses, but his were Top Gun flight glasses, smoky lenses and gold frames. His face was blank but his mouth was tight.

  “I don’t have black lace underwear and a matching garter belt,” I told Lee.

  Eddie leaned back and chuckled again. Lee’s face didn’t change.

  “I have red lace underwear and a matching garter belt,” I said.

  This was true, I did.

  Eddie quit chuckling.