Rock Chick

by Kristen Ashley

  Bad Guy Number One came at me again with the syringe.

  I felt a moment of total fear, no chill this time. This was so much fear, I was certain I’d pee my pants.

  Instead, I screamed.

  It was loud, it was shrill and even though I was the one screaming, it even freaked me out.

  When I quit screaming, I started struggling, harder this time, desperate.

  But it was no use.

  Holy crap.

  I was going on vacation with Creepy Grandpa Munster.

  How did this happen?

  I hadn’t even had a whole, complete day being out about my love for Lee and being able to enjoy that in all the shapes and forms that would take.

  I had a sweet new t-shirt from Lucky Brand Jeans in a bag in the backseat of Willie’s Pathfinder that I’d never get to wear.

  This meant, I might never see Lee’s cabin in Grand Lake.

  This also meant I might never have his children and tell them bedtime stories about how there was never a time when their Mom and Dad hadn’t been together.

  This… could not… happen.

  As a last resort, I screamed, “No!”

  But no one heard me scream.

  This was because, at the same time, there was a gunshot.

  Bad Guy Number One with the syringe shouted out a cry of pain, the syringe went flying, he buckled and went down.

  When he did, I saw Eddie standing behind him, his gun in his hand and it was smoking.

  Thank… you… God.

  It might seem terrible that I was thanking the good Lord that someone got shot but if divine retribution came in the form of Eddie Chavez and his service revolver, I was not going to quibble.

  Before I could react, or look around to see where Lee was, I heard from behind me in a voice I knew.

  “Let her go.”

  It wasn’t Lee.

  It was Darius.

  My wrists were let go and I turned my head and saw Darius, standing behind and partially beside Bad Guy Number Two, a gun to his temple.

  Wow.

  “Step back,” Darius said and Bad Guy Number Two and Darius moved back several steps.

  Eddie came forward, gun pointed at the man on the floor who was rolling around, hands holding his thigh, blood seeping between his fingers.

  I stared in horror. I wasn’t really good with blood and there seemed to be a lot of it.

  “Move away, Indy,” Eddie ordered and without the ability to walk, I hopped several feet, then sat on the floor to untie the rope from around my ankles, eyes up and watching.

  Eddie moved his gun to Wilcox, who finally had stood, and he snapped, “Sit.”

  Wilcox’s gaze locked on Eddie the whole time, slowly, he sat. He still looked strangely calm, as if he had a secret. I didn’t like the idea of Wilcox having secrets. I also didn’t like the fact that Lee wasn’t there.

  I got to my feet and Eddie unsnapped the cuffs on his belt and held them out to me.

  “Cuff Wilcox,” Eddie said.

  I didn’t want to go anywhere near Terry Wilcox but I figured now was not the time to argue. I was still recovering from my freak out when I thought I wasn’t going to be saved, I didn’t have it in me to give Eddie any lip.

  I took the cuffs and walked behind Wilcox’s chair.

  “Lean forward,” I said and I could hear my voice was shaking.

  In fact, I was shaking, full-body shakes, head-to-toe. I didn’t want to admit it, India Savage, Rock Chick and Scaredy Cat, but there it was.

  Wilcox leaned forward obediently. I cuffed him and then took two (big) steps back.

  Darius had Bad Guy Number Two on his knees on the floor, Darius standing over him pointing his gun to his head.

  Everyone stood around watching Bad Guy Number One moaning on the floor and bleeding.

  “What do we do now?” I asked no one in particular. I figured that Bad Guy Number One was, of course, a bad guy but I didn’t figure it was all right to let him bleed to death on the rather nice rug.

  “We need to call an ambulance,” Eddie said, eyes still on the writhing sidekick.

  “No ambulance,” Darius put in.

  Eddie’s gaze cut to Darius and his mouth got tight. “Darius.”

  “No ambulance, Ed. Got the word from Mace. Gino’s clean up.”

  That’s when the air in the room changed.

  Somehow, throughout my struggle and rescue, everything seemed to be normal. Well, at least kidnapping-and-rescue normal, so far as I knew it. Someone got shot (again) but the good news was, this time, it was a bad guy and this time there was no tear gas. I hadn’t worn any makeup that day so I wasn’t in fear of mascara smears but still, tear gas sucked.

  Now, the atmosphere of the room was anything but normal.

  “Gino?” Wilcox whispered.

  The way he said it made me slide to the side to have a look at him and I saw he was looking at Darius.

  Darius didn’t answer.

  Instead, Darius grinned.

  Somewhere along the line, the tables had turned. Now it was Darius who had a secret.

  Wilcox surged to his feet, wrists behind his back, body tense.

  “What do you mean, Gino’s clean up?” Wilcox screamed and I jumped back. His voice was hoarse and so terrified, I almost felt sorry for him. Bad Guy Number One had quit writhing and was lying, motionless and staring at Darius. Bad Guy Number Two had dropped his head, eyes to the floor, looking defeated.

  Yikes.

  What on earth was going on?

  Who was Gino?

  And where the fuck was Lee?

  Eddie raised his gun and pointed it at Wilcox. “Sit down.”

  Wilcox hesitated and Eddie’s body moved imperceptibly. Eddie had been relaxed, cool, in control. In a blink of an eye, he was tense, hostile and his eyes were glittering.

  “Sit… the fuck… down,” Eddie commanded, slowly and seriously pissed off and I got the impression that it was not only Wilcox who was pissing him off but also something else.

  Even crazy Wilcox sat at the tone of Eddie’s voice. Wilcox wasn’t calm anymore, he was scared out of what was left of his ever-lovin’ mind.

  “For God’s sake, will someone tell me, where, in the hell, is Lee?” I finally asked.

  “Here.”

  My eyes swung to a door behind Darius.

  Lee was standing there.

  He stood tall and straight, no blood, no bruises, nothing to indicate he’d seen any escalation of hostilities. In fact, he looked great in a white long-sleeved, torso-hugging tee, jeans, black belt and his motorcycle boots, like he’d just jumped off the Ducati after taking a joy ride.

  I wanted to run to him, throw my arms around him, do a lot of girlie, oh-my-god-I’m-glad-you’re-all-right and oh-my-god-I’m-glad-I’m-all-right stuff but his body language was not inviting that. This was badass Lee and hugs and cuddles were obviously not acceptable at this juncture. Therefore I kept my distance.

  He looked at me and did his second body scan of the day, this time, a muscle leaping in his jaw.

  “What happened?” he asked, eyes on Eddie.

  Eddie walked to Lee and handed him his gun. Lee took it and shoved it in the waistband of his jeans while I stared. That wasn’t Eddie’s service pistol, it was a loaner. Eddie wasn’t here in any official capacity. Any bullet that Eddie put in another human being wasn’t going to be traced back to a weapon the police department had given him.

  Holy shit.

  “Brody tell you the story?” Eddie asked and Lee shook his head.

  “He told me where to find you,” Lee answered.

  Darius and Eddie looked at each other.

  Then Eddie explained, “Darius heard something was goin’ down and headed over to watch Indy’s house. He’d barely got there when they dropped her outside after she left the house when the car exploded. Darius followed. Knowin’ you were busy, he called me to do back up. I went to your office, got a gun, talked to Brody and told him to get a message to you.
Darius waited until I got here and we came in.”

  I felt a weird warmth come over me.

  Man, I owed these guys big time.

  “She okay?” Lee asked, still not addressing me even though I was maybe six feet away.

  Hmm.

  The sudden warm gooey feeling of having good, badass friends looking out for you faded. I didn’t know what to make of Lee not addressing me, except I didn’t like it.

  I figured it’d be best to talk about it later, say, after Yay, It’s Finally Over Sex.

  “Bound. Gagged. Tossed around. She’s okay. Where’s Gino?” Darius answered Lee’s question as if I was bound and gagged every day, which, in the past two weeks wasn’t far from the truth (except the gagged part).

  “Five minutes behind,” Lee said, then it was clear he was done with this particular conversation and his eyes locked on me. “Get in the car.”

  I didn’t like that either, it was bossy. Way too bossy.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Wilcox moved, Lee’s eyes sliced to him and he didn’t answer me.

  “If you’re waitin’ for the cavalry to arrive, then you should know your boys outside are neutralized,” Lee said and I felt my breath catch.

  So that was Wilcox’s secret.

  And that was where Lee had been.

  I wondered what neutralized meant, for, like, a second. Then I decided I didn’t want to know.

  “Relax Coxy,” Lee went on, “Gino will be here soon. He’s had an earful from Marcus. But I’m sure, since you’re blood, he’ll give you the chance to explain.”

  Uh-oh.

  Gino was Wilcox’s blood. And Gino’s name was “Gino” which was a mob boss name if I ever heard one.

  That meant the mafia was descending to do “clean up”.

  Okay, time for me to leave.

  “I’ll just wait in the car,” I said

  Lee looked back to me. “Good idea.”

  I started walking to the door at a loss for what to say. I felt a parting line was called for but I didn’t have one.

  I stopped at the door and looked at Darius.

  “See you later?” I asked.

  He stared at me a beat, maybe attempting to determine my sanity. Then he grinned while shaking his head, but he didn’t answer.

  “Get to the car Indy,” Lee ordered.

  I ignored Lee and turned to Eddie.

  “Later, Eddie,” I said.

  Eddie was smiling flat out but also shaking his head.

  “Later, chica.”

  “Indy, get to the fucking car,” Lee repeated.

  “All right, jeez. I’m going,” I muttered and turned to the door then mumbled under my breath, “So damn bossy.”

  * * * * *

  Lee drove us home in his Crossfire.

  He was silent.

  I was silent.

  I was feeling a good deal of relief. There was the distinct possibility that my life was going to go back to normal. I’d never been a fan of normal, in fact, I avoided it at all costs, but now it sounded really good to me.

  I kind of wanted to ask Lee if it was truly all over but I could tell Lee didn’t feel in the mood to talk. I could tell this because there were scary “not now” vibes bouncing around inside the car so I figured later would be better.

  He parked behind my, now our duplex and I didn’t see any flashing lights or hear anyone running around or shouting so I figured the whole exploding car thing had been cleaned up and life was back to normal on Bayaud Avenue.

  We walked in, Lee locking the door behind us, me flipping on the kitchen light.

  I turned to him.

  “You want a beer?” I asked.

  He tossed his car keys on the kitchen counter and looked at me.

  “What did you just say?” he asked quietly, face a little scary.

  Um.

  Uh-oh.

  “Um… I asked if you wanted a beer.”

  “That’s what I thought you said.”

  I decided maybe it was time to go back to silence.

  He watched me for awhile.

  Then he said, “You left the house, where you were safe, and got yourself kidnapped. Again.”

  I gave a little wince. “Yeah… well –”

  He interrupted me. “My boys were busy, you’re fucking lucky Darius came to watch the house or who knows what the fuck would have happened.”

  “I realize it was kind of an idiotic thing to do,” I admitted.

  “Kind of?”

  Jeez.

  “Okay, it was a really idiotic thing to do… but –”

  “Indy, for Christ’s sake!” Lee exploded, body tight, face beyond a little scary straight to semi-demented.

  I did the only thing I could do.

  I ran to him, one step, two, three, then I threw myself at him bodily. Jumping up, my arms went around his neck, my legs went around his hips, I bent my head, put my mouth to his and I kissed him.

  I took him off guard, which was good. He went back on a foot, his hands went to my ass holding me to him. He resisted for, like, a second, then he kissed me back, hot, deep, lots of tongue, full of relief and something else.

  Something that felt like promise.

  It was the best kiss I’d ever had.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  So Damned Cocky

  Two mornings after my third (and hopefully last) kidnapping, I slid back into bed, pulled the covers up to my chin and stared at the ceiling.

  After a couple of minutes, Lee walked in carrying two cups of coffee. He put one on the nightstand and then stood beside the bed, looking down at me, sipping from his cup.

  I ignored the coffee.

  This heralded a momentous occasion. It was the first time I’d ever ignored a cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

  “Well, the baby scare is over,” I told the ceiling, not sure if I was happy or sad my monthly visitor had showed up. Then I was not sure whether I should be happy or sad about the fact that I didn’t know if I was happy or sad. This was too confusing so I stopped thinking altogether.

  The bed moved when Lee sat next to me. He leaned down, his handsome face filled my vision, his warm eyes melty-chocolate and his lips brushed against mine.

  His head moved away an inch. “We have time.”

  I stared at him a beat.

  He was right.

  We did.

  I smiled.

  * * * * *

  To sum up:

  First, Stevie was apoplectic about the state of the yard after bits of burning debris fell on it. He didn’t talk to me for a week. He was flying a lot during that time so maybe he wasn’t holding that much of a grudge and just didn’t have time to forgive me (I was going with that thought).

  Second, Tex was a coffee hit. We were so busy, I had to do a quick hire. Her name was Jet, which I thought was a kickass, rock ‘n’ roll name but she wasn’t exactly kickass and

  rock ‘n’ roll. She was quiet, she was sweet, she was pretty, she made a mean latte and the best part about her was, I could tell, hell, everyone could tell, she had a secret.

  Third, Hank told me The Kevster was going to be okay. It was his first offense so he was likely to get community service. Rosie wouldn’t fare so well, he’d probably get a jail sentence. He announced he was seriously moving to San Salvador after he got out. It wasn’t a joke or a drama. He was done with coffee, done with pot and wanted to be far, far away from Denver. I didn’t blame him, Denver had not been good to him (even if it was all his fault) but I would miss him.

  Fourth, Terry Wilcox and his goons disappeared.

  Poof.

  Gone.

  Lee explained some of this to me.

  See, Marcus had a meet with the mob in New York City with the goal of explaining his, shall we say, frustration, at Wilcox’s antics. Not only with the diamonds but also with cutting into Marcus’s action. Wilcox’s Uncle Gino was already fed up with his nephew, fed up with the constant clean up and fed up with the
headache. It didn’t take much for Marcus to talk Gino into intervening. It helped when Lee gave Gino a call and told him that Wilcox was not only pestering his girlfriend but also, that girlfriend was a cop’s daughter. Gino had enough headaches, he didn’t need the Denver Police Department getting interested. Gino decided to take care of Wilcox once and for all. This might have meant that Wilcox took that long vacation he planned. It also might have meant he was fish food.

  I tried not to think about it. I really didn’t like Terry Wilcox but I didn’t want him dead.

  Incarcerated. Yes.

  Out of my life. Absolutely.

  Dead seemed kind of harsh, even for scary, creepy, icky Wilcox.

  As for Wilcox’s goons, Gary, Teddy, The Moron and the Steroid Sidekicks, Lee told me they would no longer be a problem. I got the impression that this had to do with Lee and his badass army “having fun”, as Vance put it, but I tried not to think about that either.

  Last, no one ever found out that Eddie shot someone on my behalf, such was the clean sweep of Uncle Gino.

  Eddie and Lee had issues about this. Lee had told Darius that he and Marcus were working together to take care of Wilcox, once and for all. Eddie was kept out of this deal. Eddie might be a maverick cop but he still liked to work within the bounds of the law (when it suited him). Stepping aside for a mob clean up was something he frowned on. With a bit of naked gratitude as incentive, Lee told me that Eddie and Lee had a chat, with Darius playing intermediary. They worked it out but I could tell, it took a bit of effort.

  That was it.

  All that drama and then, in one day, it was over.

  * * * * *

  It was a few weeks after the final showdown and life had gone back to normal. Normal, that was, with Lee coming home to sleep in my bed every night which was a new, happy normal that I really, really liked.

  Lee was a good roommate, he brought me coffee in the morning, he wasn’t in my hair all the time and he called to tell me when he was going to be late.

  There were drawbacks, of course.

  He threw the towel in the sink when he was done with it and thought that the words “floor” and “closet” where synonymous but I was quietly working through these issues.

  A girl could get through these things knowing that sometime during the night (or late morning, depending) the boy she’d loved since she was five was going to slide in bed beside her.