Rock Chick 01 (14 page)

We were standing in the backyard and he
pressed his hand to the back of my neck to force me over. I put my
hands on my knees and gulped deep breaths of fresh air, leaving the
Death Air behind. With some effort, I fought back the nausea and
stood up straight.

Tex had followed us out.

“Was that Tim?” I asked Tex.

“Yep.”

“Ohmigod.”

“Please tell me you didn’t touch anything in
there,” Lee said to me.

I shook my head.

“Please tell me you didn’t break that
window,” Lee went on.

“I did the breakin’
and
the enterin’
for both of us. After I did the breakin’, I threw her through the
window,” Tex offered this information and Lee’s eyes cut to
Tex.

“I’m sorry?” Lee asked and his voice was
scary.

Tex seemed not to notice it. “She was gettin’
second thoughts.”

Lee stared at Tex for a beat.

“Jesus,” he muttered then he pointed at me.
“Stay here. Don’t move.” His finger moved to Tex. “You come with
me.”

Lee tossed the goggles to Tex and they
re-entered the house. I was a little surprised that Tex followed
Lee’s command but then again, Lee was using that “brook no
argument” tone again.

I sat down on the grass, too freaked out to
stand any longer and I put my forehead on my knees.

I feared this did
not
bode well for
Rosie and I feared more that this did not bode well for Duke.

They came back out, Lee closed the door,
fiddled with the handle and then walked toward me, removing
surgical gloves.

“No Rosie,” he told me.

“Thank God,” I said on a whoosh and didn’t
realize I was holding my breath.

He put a hand on my upper arm and hauled me
up.

“I’m callin’ Hank in on this one.”

My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

“You can’t! He’s gonna freak that I’m
here!”

“You weren’t here, Tex was here. Tex, the
concerned neighbor,” Lee replied.

“That’s me. Everyone around here knows I’m a
concerned neighbor. Gotta go make a call.” Tex put his big hand on
top of my head. “You did good, for a girl, didn’t puke or
nothin’.”

“Thanks Tex,” I said on a shaky smile not
quite sure that was a compliment but willing to accept it as one
all the same.

Tex ambled off and Lee dragged me to a
Mercedes sedan. He’d hit a button on his cell phone and was waiting
for it to ring through.

“Lee…” I said.

He pulled me to a stop at the passenger side,
opened the door and pushed me in. He stood in the opening of the
door while his call was picked up. I sat in the car too freaked out
by the dead body to fume at him pushing me around.

“Hank, a call’s gonna come into 911 soon. I
need to talk to you about it.” Pause. “Yeah.” Then he
disconnected.

Lee slammed my door and got in on the
driver’s side of the car.

I turned to him. “I have a car here, it’s my
neighbor’s, my bag’s in there, I have to –”

Lee held up a hand and I stopped talking.

“What you have to do is keep your mouth shut
until we get back to the condo so I can take that time to talk
myself out of strangling you.”

Yikes.

I felt it prudent to do as he requested. I’d
had a rough couple of days, I didn’t want it to end in
strangulation. And anyway, Lee was such a badass, even if it didn’t
end in strangulation, he might come up with some more creative
punishment.

Lee didn’t say word one until we were in his
condo. He dragged me by the arm into the bedroom, pulled out a
drawer and threw me a t-shirt.

“Get ready for bed,” he said to me.

I immediately saw red.

It was not surprising. I wasn’t one of his
boys, I wasn’t one of the troops, I wasn’t a child, he couldn’t
tell me what to do. I’d had a tough night, I’d seen a dead body,
for goodness sake!

I was willing to give him some leeway with
his being pushy when I was in the vicinity of said dead body but
this was too much.

“No!” I snapped. “Stop telling me what to do.
I want to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want –”

I didn’t say any more because Lee came at me,
I backed up and slammed against the wall. Lee’s body came up
against mine and he bent his face so he was nose-to-nose with
me.

“You want your Dad to see crime scene photos
of you, dead, sitting on that sweet ass of yours with your brains
splattered against the wall?”

Yikes.

My stomach lurched and my legs went weak.

“No.”

“Then this ends tonight.”

I stared at him.

“Indy, by God, if you don’t promise me –”

“Of course it ends tonight! I just saw a dead
body! You can’t think I’m that stupid.”

His face said he thought I was that
stupid.

“Lee! Rosie’s my friend. He’s out there,
somewhere. And they’re not only looking for him, they’re looking
for Duke. And now they’re killing people.”

“I’ll find him and I’ll find Duke.”

We looked at each other for what seemed like
days. His brown eyes were hard and angry. I tried to tell myself
that all his anger wasn’t directed at me but I was having trouble
believing it.

My gaze slid away. “I couldn’t have known I
was going to find that tonight,” I whispered.

“I told you these were bad guys.”

My gaze slid back.

“What kind of job do you do that you know
about this shit?”

He shook his head. He’d moved back an inch so
we weren’t nose-to-nose anymore but he was still close.

“Un-unh, you aren’t gonna make this about
me.”

I moved out from between him and the wall and
I stomped to the bathroom on my favorite parting line.

“Whatever.”

I brushed my teeth with what now seemed like
my toothbrush which was cozily resting next to Lee’s.

I tried not to think of my day’s plan of not
ending up in Lee’s car, company, condo or bed, all of which I’d
failed to do. I tried not to think of Tim Shubert, dead and smelly
and left to rot in his house while his neighbors worried about him.
I tried not to think of Rosie or Duke in a similar position either
now or later. I tried not to think of Tod and Stevie’s car, which I
had left outside a crime scene. I tried not to think of what a fuck
up I was or how Lee could move around in these situations so
casually, without blinking an eye.

I got undressed and put his t-shirt on. It
was huge on me and had a Night Stalkers insignia emblazoned across
the chest. Too big, I was going to get tangled up in it the way I
slept but I wasn’t going to tell Lee that.

Plus, it was a fucking cool shirt.

I walked into the bedroom, about to dump my
clothes on my bag, which I’d left on the floor, when I saw my bag
was missing.

“Where’s my bag?” I asked Lee as he walked
into the room, coming toward me. I dumped my clothes on an
armchair.

“Judy unpacked you,” Lee replied, still
coming toward me, he grabbed my wrist and walked me toward the
bed.

“Judy?” I asked, not paying much attention
because I was thinking of being “unpacked”, my clothes hanging next
to Lee’s. My undies in a drawer. My toothbrush next to his. My body
in his bed. How did this happen so fast? It had only been two days,
for God’s sake! Whatever happened to taking it slow?

“My housekeeper.”

“You have a housekeeper?” I was shocked he
had a housekeeper. I was shocked that I was kind of living with a
man who I didn’t know had a housekeeper. I was shocked that I was
kind of living with a man, period, dot, the end, much less that man
being Lee.

He pushed me gently and I fell back on the
bed and finally realized where I was and what he was doing.

“Lee –”

Then he moved fast, he pulled my wrist over
my head, leaned into me, I heard a snap and ratchet, then I heard
another snap and ratchet.

Then I was handcuffed to his bed.

“What the hell!” I yelled.

I was on my back, my left arm over my head
and cuffed to one of the slats in the headboard of Lee’s
mission-style bed. Lee was leaning over me.

“I’m goin’ out and I’m makin’ sure you don’t
do anything stupid.”

“You can’t leave me handcuffed to your bed!
What if there’s a fire, a break in?”

He shook his head, pushed away from me and
got off the bed.

“I won’t do anything stupid,” I told him, my
voice just this side of seriously pissed off saying clearly that
the first stupid thing I’d do when he let me go was kill him.

He came back, leaned in and kissed my
forehead.

“I know.”

Then he walked across the room, turned off
the light and was gone.

Fucking,
fucking
Lee.

* * * * *

Normally, I could sleep just about anywhere,
crash on someone’s couch, in a double bed with four other people
(mainly because my activity cleared the bed), in the back of a
van.

I was learning I had a great many life skills
I had not known I possessed, such as running away when people were
shooting at me, holding my own when I’d been kidnapped and not
throwing up when I found a dead body.

Unfortunately, those new life skills did not
include being able to sleep while I was cuffed to Liam
Nightingale’s bed.

I found a somewhat comfortable position and
tried to sleep but I was spitting mad and every time I closed my
eyes, all I could see was Tim and his brains that were no longer
contained in his body.

What seemed like hours later, I heard the
door open and my body tensed. I kept myself perfectly still and
listened as someone walked through the house. They didn’t turn on
any lights and they were quiet as a cat, the only noise a barely
distinct rustling. Then, that someone walked into the bedroom, I
heard something fall on the chair, then the whisper of movement of
the sheets, then hands at my wrist, the smell of leather, spice and
tobacco and when I was released from the headboard, I knew it was
Lee.

No sooner was I released, I rolled away,
toward the other side of the bed and freedom.

I got a roll and a half in before an arm
hooked around my waist and I was stopped.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m getting a taxi home,” I said between
clenched teeth.

“No.”

“Then, I’m sleeping on the couch.”

“No.”

Great. We were going to go through this
rigmarole again.

“I’m sleeping on the other side of the
bed.”

“No.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Maybe.”

Shit.

Lee settled in, tucked my back to his front,
his arm wrapped around my waist.

I laid there wondering if I should flip over,
knee him in the ‘nads and take off.

Then, for some reason, the vision of Tim
floated into my head and my body started trembling, like, a lot.
Full-on human earthquake.

“Shit,” I whispered and Lee turned me to
facing him and wrapped both his arms around me, tight.

I pressed into his warmth and tried not to
cry.

“Did you know him?” Lee asked softly.

“No.” My voice sounded shaky, even on that
one word. I took in a big, broken breath. “Though, I think he’d
come into the store every once in awhile.” I took another breath to
control the threatening tears. “It’s an ugly way to go. What are
his parents gonna think?”

Lee started stroking my back and he didn’t
answer, likely because he had no idea what Tim’s parents would
think and didn’t want to dwell on it.

Lee started to play with my hair and I
pressed my face into his neck. His body was hard and warm and I
could hear his steady breathing. His hand at my hair relaxed me and
his arm around my waist made me feel safe.

After awhile, I fell asleep.

He Doesn’t Like Nixon Much

I woke up in Lee’s bed, but this time, no
Lee.

I didn’t have enough mental capacity to
wonder where he was and certainly not enough to process my sense of
disappointment. I told myself there should be no disappointment at
the absence of a man who would handcuff me to his bed against my
will, so I shoved it aside.

It was twenty past six and I decided when I
had all that time to think when I was handcuffed to the bed that
Fortnum’s was going to close for the weekend.

Sometimes it was good being the boss.

Truth was, working there wasn’t tough. There
were four of us, five when Ally was around which was most of the
time. We were open seven thirty to six on weekdays, eight thirty to
six on Saturdays and ten to four on Sundays. Outside of the morning
rush, most of that time was spent hanging around. We all came and
went when we pleased.

With two staff down, it was beginning to seem
like work. With me and Ally gallivanting across town looking for
Rosie, Jane was taking the burden.

I didn’t make shifts or assign hours,
everyone worked whenever they wanted, which was pretty much seven
days a week, give or take a couple hours here or there to run
errands, go to lunch with a friend, go shopping at Cherry Creek
Mall, come in late if you were sleeping it off, leave early
whenever or to tie one on at Lincoln’s Road House, the local biker
bar. People took days off whenever they wanted and no one did more
than the others. Gram had set the precedent. We all pitched in and,
somehow, it worked.

I needed a break after the last couple of
days and I was sure Ally and Jane needed one too. Hopefully, by
Monday, now that the police were involved, this would be sorted and
all would be back to normal. That was to say, normal with Duke back
and normal as it would ever be.

Rosie, I knew after last night, was likely
never coming back.

I just hoped whatever he did in not coming
back, he did it breathing.

This made me sad, but I pushed that thought
aside too.

I got up, staggered to the bathroom and
brushed my teeth. I was running on empty, not just my morning
caffeine jolt but also the fact that I’d had a lot less sleep than
I usually required. I stared in the mirror noting the bruising on
my face was subsiding but not by much, or perhaps the scary dark
circles under my eyes were running interference for the
bruising.