Rock Chick Regret

by Kristen Ashley

  Again, I looked at Natalie and breathed, “You’re joking.”

  She shook her head and I tried to read her face. She didn’t look like she was being catty, just… real.

  Natalie went on, “You look like a fairy princess who lives in an enchanted castle not exactly a Lincoln’s regular. We girls have to stick together, I’m just givin’ you the head’s up.”

  It was my turn to shake my head. “He’s changed. He’s different now.”

  “Yeah? He fucked me six weeks ago. No joke, it was so good, I remember when, where and every second of it. I’m not complainin’ but just so you know, I called him three times and he didn’t return a single call.”

  The bartender put my beers on the bar just as I grabbed onto the edge to hold myself up.

  Six weeks ago was when I walked into Nightingale Investigations Offices right before I got raped.

  And Hector had been in Natalie’s bed.

  Or, worse, she’d been in his!

  She interrupted my crazed thoughts by putting her hand on mine on the bar.

  “Listen, Sadie, I’m sorry. You look freaked. I gotta say, I been watchin’ and he looks into you, way into you. Never seen him like that with anyone so maybe I’m wrong. Put it in the back of your mind. All I’m sayin’ is, be careful.”

  Then she was gone.

  I was so busy trying not to hyperventilate it took the bartender several tries to get my attention. I told him to put it on our tab, grabbed the beer bottles by their necks and, on shaky legs, I carried them to the table.

  I saw Luke’s eyes on me and I avoided them, scooted behind Hector and, taking great care, like it was a priceless artifact, I tucked my wallet, which Hector had set on my purse, inside.

  “Everything okay, Sadie?” Luke asked and my eyes flew to him.

  “Fine, great, wonderful,” I lied, nabbed my beer and took a long swallow.

  I felt Hector’s eyes on me but I turned my attention to tracing the label on my bottle with my thumb and trying not to let my hand shake.

  “Mamita, look at me.”

  My eyes lifted to Hector.

  His brows went together.

  “You’re not fine,” he said.

  From my peripheral vision I saw Ava and Luke look at each other but I was too busy lying again to Hector to take much notice. “I think painting the living room just hit me, what with all the food and beer. All of a sudden, I’m tired.”

  “I’m going to the bathroom. Sadie, do you need to go to the bathroom?” Ava asked suddenly.

  I shook my head, too freaked out to catch her hint.

  Hector’s hand went to the back pocket of his jeans.

  “We’ll get you home,” he said.

  My head jerked to him.

  “No!” I cried, his narrowed eyes came to me and I made an effort to calm down. “No. You’re having fun, everyone’s having fun. I just got more beer. We’ll drink them and go.”

  Ava looked at Luke, slid off her stool and headed to the bathroom. Hector pulled out his wallet and came of his stool too.

  “I’ll pay the tab so we’ll be ready to roll.”

  He walked to the bar, I watched him stop and I realized my happy glow was long gone and my heart actually hurt.

  “Natalie was before you, Sadie,” Luke said.

  I tore my eyes from Hector and looked at Luke to find he was watching me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Don’t know what she said to freak you out but I got a fair guess and you gotta know, Natalie was before you.”

  I pulled in my lips. I was not talking about this with Luke Stark. Ralphie, yes. Daisy, yes. Any Rock Chick, yes. Luke Stark, absolutely not.

  I took another sip from my beer and looked anywhere but at Luke.

  “Hector didn’t share what happened when he was workin’ with your Dad. We all figure, with the way things are now, you two had a thing. Whatever that thing was, the way you were in the offices that day, it wasn’t on which means it wasn’t on when he was with Natalie.”

  I nodded to Luke, knowing, for whatever reason, this didn’t make me feel even a little bit better but, unfortunately, he wasn’t done.

  “You know I was there that night,” he told me softly.

  My heart tripped, I swallowed then said, “Please, Luke –”

  “Never seen a man like that. Felt like it, with Ava, never seen it. He was not happy when you went unconscious and he was less happy when they wouldn’t allow him to stay in your exam bay until you regained consciousness. That’s all he asked, they refused. He lost it, got physical and me and a security guard had to take him out. I figure, after seein’ that, whatever he had with Natalie is shit compared to what he feels for you.”

  Somehow, I didn’t know why and I didn’t want to process it at that very moment (especially not with Luke), what he said made my heart hurt more.

  “I think I was wrong about finishing the beer. I’m really tired. I’m going to ask Hector to take me home,” I told Luke.

  “Sadie –” he started but I slid off the barstool and walked to Hector.

  He had his back to me and he was talking to someone I couldn’t see. I got close, lifted my hand to touch his shoulder but I stilled when I heard what the man was saying.

  “… a fuckin’ certificate for nailin’ Townsend’s piece.”

  Somewhere at the edges of my mind I realized belatedly Hector wasn’t just standing at the bar. He was standing straight, his body rock solid, at the bar.

  The man I couldn’t see went on and it also hit the edges of my mind he sounded more than a little inebriated.

  The man hooted and practically shouted, “You’re tappin’ Ice Princess ass! Shit! Any time surveillance photos came in of her, we’d fight at the chance to make copies. She was the most jacked off on piece in history. And you’re nailin’ her. Chavez, that makes you a legend.”

  Both my hands went to my forehead, my fingers sliding into my hair but I’d barely finished this maneuver when Hector’s fist flashed out, connected and the man went down at Hector’s feet.

  Hector didn’t like him down. He bent over, picked him up by his shirt and hustled him backwards until the man slammed against the doorframe to the other room. Hector pulled him away from the frame only to slam him brutally into it again, so brutally, his head cracked against the frame.

  “What the fuck!” the man shouted, I came unstuck and ran forward to Hector’s left side. I saw Luke materialize on his right and a man wearing a black, Lincoln’s long-sleeved tee was behind Luke.

  Hector didn’t notice us and put his face close to the man’s.

  “That’s my fuckin’ woman you’re talkin’ about,” he growled and then stepped back, taking the man with him and slammed him into the doorframe again.

  “Hector,” I whispered, putting a hand to his forearm but he didn’t even look at me.

  The man put his hands on Hector’s forearms too. “Christ, man, I was givin’ you a fuckin’ compliment!”

  Hector did the slamming then getting into his face business again and snarled, “By tellin’ me you jacked off to her picture? What the fuck’s the matter with you?”

  “Hector, stand down,” Luke said in a low voice.

  “Take it outside,” the Lincoln’s guy put in.

  “What’s going on?” Ava asked from behind me.

  “Hector let him go,” I ignored Ava and got closer to Hector.

  Hector didn’t let him go and the man’s face started getting red or more red.

  “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d have a shit fit. Christ. I’m sorry, okay?”

  Hector gave him a good, old, scorching glare and then stepped back with another solid push while letting go.

  Then he turned The Scorch to me and ordered, “Get our shit. We’re gone.”

  I thought my best move at this juncture was to “get my shit” and pronto. Which I did.

  I grabbed my purse and waved good-bye to Ava and, a bit more hesitantly, Luke. Hector was bent over, nab
bing the helmets out from under the table as I saw Natalie walk by, her face pale, her eyes on me. I could swear she mouthed the words, with the barest whisper of sound, “I’m sorry, I was wrong,” and then she hurried away when Hector straightened.

  I didn’t have a chance to process this. Hector tossed me my helmet, I caught it, he moved in, his arm curled around my neck and he guided me firmly out to the bike.

  “Maybe you should calm down before we get on the bike,” I suggested when we stopped by his motorcycle and he took his arm away.

  Hector’s eyes sliced to me. “Next time we go out, I’m not bein’ the nice guy and backin’ down. You’re gonna put on the fuckin’ tank.”

  My eyes bugged out.

  How did this get to be about me?

  “Now this is about me?” I asked.

  “You came up behind me, I smelled your perfume. You heard him talkin’ about you. So yeah, it’s about you. This whole fuckin’ thing proves my fuckin’ point,” he shot back.

  “That’s very bizarre logic, Hector Chavez.”

  “It makes perfect sense to me.”

  “Well, perhaps you shouldn’t be seeing me then,” I returned. “Perhaps you should be seeing someone else that people won’t talk about. How about Natalie? I met her tonight at the bar. She seems like a nice girl. No, wait, you’ve already fucked her!” I yelled.

  Hector got close, I could feel his fury, I didn’t have to see it and I retreated until I felt bike.

  “Dios mio,” he hissed. “Natalie. That’s why you looked like someone ran over your puppy when you came back to the table.”

  “Heck yes!”

  “What the fuck did she say?”

  “To be careful of you, you were a dawg and that your dawg-ness was not ancient history, like I tried to tell her it was, since you nailed her six weeks ago.”

  His hand went up, he tore his fingers through his hair then his hand dropped again to his side.

  “And this pisses you off?” he asked, sounding now both furious and perplexed.

  I opened and closed my mouth twice before shouting, “Yes!”

  “I hate to break this to you, mamita, but I wasn’t a virgin our first time,” he told me sarcastically.

  “Count back, Hector. Six weeks. Six weeks!” I yelled.

  “Yeah? So?”

  “Six weeks ago, tonight, I was raped!”

  His body went completely still.

  Mine couldn’t go still, I was breathing too heavily.

  When he spoke, his voice was a lot quieter but I could still hear the edge of anger.

  “Sadie, I wasn’t fuckin’ Natalie while you were bein’ raped.”

  “The night before?” I snapped.

  He shook his head but did it jerkily, still angry but now his voice had a thread of impatience. “I don’t fuckin’ remember.”

  “She says you nailed half the women in there.”

  “She’s probably right.”

  I leaned away from him and breathed, “Oh my God.”

  He got closer, taking away the minute space I’d gained. “Sadie, we got two choices. You can list for me all the men who got in your pants, which I don’t wanna fuckin’ know, and I can return the favor, which, trust me, mamita, you don’t wanna know. Or we can go on from here, you and me, the past is fuckin’ history. Choose. Now. I’m not livin’ under the threat of this fuckin’ time bomb either.”

  I turned away. “Take me to Ralphie and Buddy’s.”

  His fingers curled around my bicep and he pulled me back to facing him.

  “No fuckin’ way. You sleep in my bed.”

  “Take me to Ralphie and Buddy’s!” I yelled.

  “No,” he bit off.

  I jerked my arm from his hand.

  “Fine,” I snapped. “Let’s go home.”

  He leaned to the side and hooked his helmet on the hand grip of his bike. Then both his hands came to my neck.

  I tipped my head back and glared at him.

  “I said, let’s go home,” I repeated.

  “You don’t even hear what’s comin’ out of your own mouth.”

  “Yes?” I asked, saccharin-sweet. “Enlighten me. What’s coming out of my own mouth?”

  “You said, ‘take me back to Ralphie and Buddy’s’ then you called my place ‘home’.”

  At this canny, scary and life-altering observation, I took in an audible, very shocked breath but he kept talking.

  “How long’s it gonna take for this shit to sink in for you?”

  I decided my best bet was to keep quiet and simply glare and this was exactly what I did.

  Hector’s hands went away from my neck; he angled to the side again and grabbed his helmet.

  “Helmet up,” he ordered, his voice sharp and still way beyond ticked off. “Don’t give a fuck if you’re hot, wet and panting or pissed as hell, you’re sleepin’ by me, in my bed, at home.”

  Without a decent retort (or, at least one that would compare to his) and with no other choice, I “helmeted up”, got on his bike behind him and he shot out into the street so fast, the loose hold I had on his waist was lost and I had to lean close and wrap my arms around him.

  Wasn’t this just great?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Next!

  Sadie

  I clomped on my boots into the house in front of Hector and stopped in the doorway of the darkened kitchen. He reached into me, flipped on the kitchen lights then I clomped to the counter and slammed my purse on it.

  I dug out my cell phone, shoved it in my back pocket and, without even glancing at him, I clomped out of the kitchen and upstairs to the bedroom.

  I dragged out my pajamas (hot pink with tiny peach polka dots on the bottoms, peach camisole) and clomped into the bathroom.

  I slammed the door.

  Then I locked it.

  Then I pulled out my cell, threw down the lid to the toilet seat and sat down.

  I scrolled down to Jet in my phonebook and hit the green button.

  She said I could call her anytime, day or night.

  And she was marrying a Chavez man.

  For these two reasons, on the ride back to the house, my mind whirling from one option to the next, I finally decided to call Jet.

  I heard one ring, two then three then Eddie’s voice saying, “Yeah?”

  Great.

  Just great.

  Eddie answered Jet’s cell.

  “Hi, Eddie!” I chirped. “How are you?”

  “Sadie?”

  “Yes.”

  “You okay?”

  “I think so. I haven’t been kidnapped and no more property I own has been burned to a cinder… that I know of… so, yes, I’m okay.”

  I heard him chuckle.

  “Can I talk to Jet?” I asked.

  “Yeah. She’s right here.”

  I crossed my legs, leaned forward with my elbow on my knee and jerked my foot impatiently.

  Jet came on the line. “Sadie?”

  “Hi, Jet.”

  “Is everything all right?”

  I didn’t really know how girlfriends did this kind of thing. Did they exchange pleasantries first and ease into it? Or did they just go for it?

  I decided against easing into it.

  “Heck no!” I replied.

  Silence for a second then, “What’s up?”

  “You said I could call, is it too late?”

  “No, it’s fine. What’s going on?”

  Still not easing into it, I told her.

  Everything.

  From Hector’s demand I put on a tank, to the Fred and Wilma argument, to Natalie’s revelations, to Hector going berserk and finishing on the conversation by the bike.

  When I was done, there was a moment of silence then she asked, “That all happened in one night?”

  “Yes. One night. Not even a night, a few hours,” I told her. “You’re marrying one of them. I figure you have to be an expert. Is Eddie like this?”

  She laughed then said, “Um�
� yes.”

  Why was she laughing?

  What, I must ask, was funny about this?

  “Oh… my… God! How do you stand it?” I exclaimed.

  “There’s a lot here, Sadie. Maybe we should break it down,” she suggested.

  “Please do,” I agreed graciously.

  “First off, I wear what I want but I don’t go over that line that would send a hot-blooded Mexican-American man over the edge. It’s just not worth it. A little cleavage, he has to get over it. The skirt you wore to Stella’s gig, unacceptable.”

  “Hector told me to burn that skirt,” I informed her.

  She let out another laugh. “I’m not surprised. If Eddie saw me in that skirt, his head would explode.”

  I had to admit, the skirt was an eensy bit OTT.

  Well then, one down.

  “Next!” I cried.

  I heard her laugh again then she said, “The girl at the bar –”

  When she hesitated, I encouraged, “Go on.”

  “Well, that’s harder. But, see, Indy told me Lee had a reputation, as did Eddie, both of them bad. Vance was considered a legend. Everyone knew he was a player. Luke even had a woman when he started with Ava, he blew her off the minute Ava came into his life. Hank, more discreet, but –”

  I interrupted her impatiently, “You’re telling me this because…?”

  “I’m telling you his because you know them now.”

  Hmm.

  This was a point to ponder.

  They all seemed pretty devoted. In fact, if the stories were anything to go by, they’d gone above and beyond the call of duty to win the hearts of their respective Rock Chicks.

  My foot stopped jerking and I decided it was time to get serious.

  So I told her, “Jet, she was a nice girl, he didn’t even remember when he slept with her.”

  I heard her sigh. “Duke explains this better but it has something to do with the kind of men they are, the dangerous work they do, knowing who they are and what they want, recognizing it when they find it and not fucking around in making it theirs. Or… something like that. Anyway, whoever this girl was, she obviously wasn’t the one because, Sadie, you are.”

  Oh my.

  I didn’t know what to say to that because, what, on earth, did you say to that?