Big Girls Don't Cry (13 page)

Lexie stood across the room, her arms crossed against her chest, her hands clenched in tight fists. Her pale face gleamed like porcelain, fragile, exquisite. Her voice shook with tension.

“Jake, you don’t understand. I need to be alone. The only way I can… survive, is by entering my practice space.”

As a lifelong Kung Fu practitioner, Jake did understand. More times than he cared to remember, he lay in foxholes in god-forsaken places, including a hideous six months in a POW camp. Entering the detached space where time and circumstance didn’t exist was the only way he survived. The desperation on Lexie’s face mirrored his memories.

He took two steps toward her.

“I understand, Lexie. Honest to God, I do. But let me help you. We can go to the dojo. I’ll get us a private room…we can spar….”

Her voice was fierce, pleading. “No! No, Jake. Please. I need to be alone. I don’t want to be with anyone, including you, Jake. Please, I beg you. Please go.”

Jake stepped back. As much as he hated to admit it, the best thing he could do for her now was to leave. Brady’s team was on duty 24/7. There was no way anyone from the outside could get to her. But those weren’t the demons she needed to fight. The agony raging in her soul was her biggest threat. Jake grimaced. He knew that she was right. The best thing he could do for her was to leave her alone, let her battle the fears and screaming emotional pain racking her. The way to demonstrate that he was confident she’d win the battle was the hardest thing. He needed to go.

He moved toward her, trying not to be offended when she reared back, her face a protective mask. “Give me your cell phone, Lexie.” He took it from her trembling fingers and punched in a code.

He chucked her under her chin. “All you need to do, darlin’ is hit the number one key. I’m never more than ten minutes away.”

He stood at the doorway. “Promise me you’ll eat? You need to keep up your strength. Just so you know, I’m going to be checking on you. If you are up to it, we can have a quiet dinner.”

When she put up her hand and shook her head, he gave her a soft smile. His voice was gentle.

“You’re the boss, Darlin’”

He closed the door behind him and tested the lock. For several minutes, he leaned against the door, not able to leave. Brady, his repairman’s uniform providing the perfect cover for the quiet street, walked toward him from the vacant house they’d snagged for their lookout.

Brady stuck his ever present cigarette in his mouth. He never lit it, just kept it there in case after five years clean, he’d need to light it up.

“She’s tough, boss.”

“Sure as hell hope so, Brady.”

~~~

After five hours moving from one position to another, forcing her raging body through the complicated sequence of arduous postures, Lexie could breathe without gasping. The physical part of her practice was the easiest. What tested her the most was the effort to move to a time and space where her mind was quiet. Several times during the long afternoon, she gave up, violently attacking the wall, surprised that she didn’t drive her fists or feet through it. If it had been sheetrock, she would have. The fifty year old solid stucco withstood her fury.

During a long shower, her plan fell in place. If it was the gangs that killed Anthony, she needed to find out which one was responsible.

She’d spent several hours the night before walking the streets. Her skanky garb blended in with the regulars. It wasn’t long before she made fast friends with the drugged out women who owned the corners. The biggest operation by far, one shared by several of the gangs, was the
Senora Traviesa
. She smirked at the name. If there was one thing she’d learned over the years was how to be a naughty lady. The huge bar catered to the locals and most especially to men in uniform, from the generals to the thousands of men each year who came in for a three month training mission.

Lexie tested her costume in the full length mirror. She’d learned the
Senora Traviesa
was always on the lookout for new waitresses, especially those who weren’t shy about shedding their clothes in the exclusive titty bar in the back.

Throwing a saucy wink at her reflection in the mirror, she set out to audition for the part.

Chapter 13

The raucous music roared through the crowded bar. Shouts of laughter and stamping feet caught the beat and drove it through the roof. Lexie bided her time. It’d taken her all of ten minutes to capture the center of the dance floor. She was surrounded by eager, shoving men, most of them soldiers barely out of their teens and a sprinkling of locals sporting cowboy boots and Stetsons. Smiling at the circle of men begging to dance with her, she crooked a finger at one after another.

Her latest choice, a pimply kid who was lucky if he was old enough to drink, jumped into the ring, his eyes shining, his cheeks flushed. Lexie took him by the hand and pulled him up close wiggling her butt against his obvious arousal. A chorus of moans and groans signaled approval as the crowd jockeyed for position. The kid shoved next to her eagerly striving to capture her in his arms. Instead, she snatched the beer bottle out of his hand, put it to her lips and tipped her head back, letting the cool liquid drip down her throat. She handed him back her bottle and sidled up to him, licking her lips. Screams of “pick me, pick me” echoed through the bar.

A flurry of shouts yanked attention to the bar. Lexie looked up to see a girl who couldn’t be more than fifteen, maybe sixteen years old, clambering up on the bar. She was chubby, disheveled, and drunk. The dark haired girl grabbed a bottle of tequila that the bartender handed her and gulped it down straight. Lexie saw her stumble as she tried to dance. Her young face was puffy, her eyes glassy, confirming that she’d been stoking up on more than tequila. Lexie’s heart hammered, memories of dragging girls younger than this one from the kind of places that had exploited her by the time she turned fourteen.

Lexie sauntered toward the bar, the men clearing a path for her. Flinging her arm over the shoulders of the disc jockey, she whispered in his ear. A big grin spread across his face. In seconds, the strains of
Honky Tonk Badankadonk
filled the air. At the chorus of “Here She Comes,” Lexie paraded through the crowd up to the bar. With a dismissive jerk of her thumb she ordered the girl off the bar. Tossing her head, she nodded to the two men next to her. Stiffening her arms she shouted, “Up I go!” Each man grabbed one of her arms and lifted her nearly over their heads and planted her on the bar. The crowd roared its approval. She turned to the young girl and shouted “And, sweetheart, off you go!” as the young girl stumbled to the side and slid to one of the bar stools, then with a loud crash landed on the floor.

Lexie moved triumphantly to the center of the bar. She stretched her arms up high waving them and her hips from side to side in time to the strident music. Bending over, her butt to the audience, a glimpse of her lacy panties visible, she grabbed a shot glass from the end of the bar and held it up to the bartender. He gripped her ankle and pulled her next to him. He filled her glass, sloshing the pale liquid over the top. Lexie whipped around and in a show of her athletic prowess, she spread her feet wide and dropped into a backbend. One hand and both feet were on the floor. In her other hand she held the glass high in the air. Gingerly she placed the glass between her breasts and crab walked to the edge of the bar. She hung her head over the edge of the bar. Her long blond hair hung like a curtain of gold. With a provocative shimmy she inched the shot glass up her chest between her high firm pointed breasts. Amazed shouts urged her on. When it cleared her breasts and hovered on her bare chest, she arched her back, tossing the glass up in the air. To the screams of the men, she caught it between her teeth and tipped the glass, pouring the tequila down her throat.

Leaping up, she marched back to the bartender and held out her glass for a refill. She drained it and grinned at the audience as
Redneck Woman
rang throughout the bar. Each time the chorus hit, the crowd roared “Hell, Yeah” a drunken echo of the lyrics. It had been a long time since Lexie had drank as much, but she shrugged it off, convinced that her outrageous escapade demanded it. The alcohol had a loosening effect, drawing the music into her soul and pounding it out of her body.

When John Montgomery’s
Be My Baby Tonight
blared out, Lexie sashayed to the edge of the bar and snatched a cowboy hat from the nearest fan and planted it on her head. Stamping her cowboy boots and tipping back the hat, her gold curls swaying down her back, she singled out one then another of the eager young men. Bending over, brazenly displaying her luscious breasts straining against her skintight halter, she crooned with the music, “Would you, could you? Wanna be my baby tonight?” Shouts of “yes!” and “Damned straight!” almost drowned out the music.

As she pranced away from the hands grasping for her, she saw him. He was standing against the wall in the back of the room. His casual stance was deceptively lazy, his vibe both gorgeous and dangerous. The black t-shirt hugged his muscled chest, baring impossibly bulging biceps. His tight jeans, worn in all the right places, hung low on his hips, accenting his strong thighs. He gazed at her, his eyes dark and flashing. She stumbled in surprise, expecting anger. To her shock, a wicked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. With an approving nod, he winked at her.

Whether it was the roar of the crowd or the abundance of alcohol she’d imbibed, her protective reserve snapped. The conflicting emotions that she’d been feeling for Jake crystallized in the heat of the moment. She tossed him a questioning stare. Seeing the blatant invitation in his eyes, she threw off her inhibitions and sauntered up to the edge of the bar. She thrust out her hips and with a saucy tilt of her chin, winked back. A flash of electricity sizzled between them. The shrieks from the men crowding at her feet only ratcheted her excitement higher.

Flouncing across the bar, Lexie held his gaze with a grin. She snatched a beer bottle from an adoring fan and turned to the side. She tipped her head back, displaying her long neck and throat in a sultry profile. With a teasing wink, she licked the phallus surrogate up and down, round and round. The outrageously suggestive display brought down the house. The roar of the crowd was deafening.

As the music ground to a halt, shouts of “mosh pit, mosh pit” were the only invitation she needed. With an acrobatic back flip, she flew through the air. A dozen hands caught her lithe body and held her up high, a glorious sacrifice to the gods of aroused desire, she thought with a grin. The rampant smell of booze, sweat, and testosterone was overpowering. Lexie slid to the ground. Dancing with excitement, she batted away the hands of her admirers. One large swarthy man grabbed her hair, winding the long curls in his hand and dragged her toward him. She frowned and tried to break away. To her surprise, the offender jerked back with an agonized shout, his arm twisted at a painful angle behind him.

A cool voice said, “You’re getting mighty familiar with my woman, corporal. I suggest you back off.”

The men around her fell back as if swept by a wave of authority.

The man who’d grabbed her, spoke for the group. Rubbing his shoulder, he bleated, “Damn, man, I… I… mean… colonel…sir. I…I…didn’t know she was your woman.”

Jake drilled him with a razor sharp glare. His voice was low, threatening.

“Now you do.”

~~~

Jake took hold of Lexie’s arm and pulled her up next to him, guiding her through the tangle of men. A chorus of disgruntled murmurs followed them.

Sarah said, frowning in mock ignorance. “Gee whiz, Steph, I dunno. If I was a betting woman, I’d bet that firm jaw, kissable lips, and bright baby blues might have something to do with it.”

Another woman pitched in from the side. “Course, it couldn’t be that tight ass or that they call him the ‘all night wonder,’ right, girls?”

They burst out with shouts of laughter, ignoring the glowering men in front of them.

~~~

Lexie peered up at his stern jaw stunned by his possessive assertion. Her first inclination was to shake off his hand and call him out for the arrogant bastard that he was. But when he looked down at her, heat smoldering in his eyes, she gave into the flare of excitement racing through her.

He led her away from the crowd over to the disc jockey. Jerking his chin at the young man staring in rapt appreciation at Lexie, Jake asked, “Got any Lonestar?

The guy gave him a knowing grin.

“How about
Amazed
?”

Jake winked at the guy and drawled.

“That’ll do it. Thanks.”

Determined not to be outdone, Lexie tossed her head and purred up at the sweating D.J. “When you’re done with that, how about a little Toby Keith?” She lowered her eyes then cast an impish stare at Jake’s mouth. “Maybe… maybe…
When You Kiss Me Like That?
she finished in a rush.

Jake chuckled, a sexy rumble.

“You’re playing with fire, darlin’. But, then, you know that, don’t you? Jesus, I know I can’t dance like you did on that bar, Lexie. But with some different music, I’m willing to try.”

He tipped up her chin and gazed in her eyes. “Because, darlin’, dancing is just one of the things I wanna do with you.”