Rock Chick 07 Regret (43 page)

Protect myself until I could disappear.

And off to Crete I’d go. I’d tell
Bex
where to find me, she could tell Detective Marker how to get hold of me if the police needed me, but, other than that, I was gone.

As for finding my Mom, well, Lee Nightingale wasn’t the only private investigator in the world. There were others. I’d hire one of them, find Mom and bring her to me and she and I would eat
souvlaki
and pita bread (or whatever) and I’d work my way through all the Greek men on Crete who took my fancy but I wouldn’t give a single one of them my heart.

No fucking way.

My heart was for me and me alone and, obviously, my Mom (when I found her), and Ralphie and Buddy, who I’d keep contact with of course, and, maybe, Daisy and the Rock Chicks, if I could manage that without the involvement of Hector.

As for Hector, I knew the Ice Princess didn’t work, so I settled on another strategy. I knew it would cost me but I was willing to pay the price.

There was going to be a
New
New
Sadie. I was calling her Pretend Sadie and she was going to protect me.

It would make it easier in the long run, even though it would be far more difficult for the short one.

But I could do it. I lived twenty-nine years with my father pretending to be someone I was not. I could live a few weeks guarding my heart from Hector “Oh my God” Chavez.

And guard it I would.

* * * * *

At ten to four, Hector picked me up from the gallery.

I was kind of hoping that he’d cool off by the time he came but one look at him told me this was absolutely not the case.

So be it.

I could work with that.

There was only one hitch on the way to the Nightingale Investigations offices. They were just around the corner from Art, maybe two blocks away. Still, Hector drove it and as we approached the entrance to the garage, I audibly sucked in breath.

I’d forgotten about the garage.

My last time in the garage had
not
been a happy memory.

I wasn’t ready to go back there again.

Hector heard me, he muttered, “Fuck,” under his breath, pulled out of his approach and rounded the block, parking on the street.

With effort, I forced my body to relax.

Before getting out, his hand wrapped around my neck and he turned me to face him. He was leaning toward me but not as close as he normally got. I noticed this and it made something ugly twist inside me, something which I firmly set aside.

“I didn’t think, the garage –” he said to me, his eyes were masked but his voice was soft.

“That’s okay,” I replied quickly.

He didn’t let me go and his eyes scanned my face.

“Who’s with me now?” he asked.

“Me,” I answered immediately.

His eyes narrowed. “Which ‘me’?”

“Me, me,” I replied, as if there had always been only one (hardly!).

This answer didn’t make him happy and that’s when he got as close as he normally did.

I held my breath and braced (it was a good thing too).

“If I didn’t know it was worth it. If I didn’t know from what happened last night
and
, whatever the fuck you thought it was,
mamita
, what happened this morning. And if I didn’t like your hands in my hair holding my mouth to you, the smell of your fuckin’ perfume when I’m buried inside you and the way you lose that tight-as-shit control over every fuckin’ move you make when you get excited and you use your nails and teeth on me, I’d give up, because,
mamita
, you are one
serious
pain in the ass.”

I hadn’t planned for a speech like that (I ask you, who would?). Nor had I planned for how it made my heart race (damn and blast!), my stomach pitch (more damning and blasting!) or the area between my legs to tingle (damn and blast it all to hell!) or, contradictory to all this, how it made me want to give him a good sock in the gut. So I thought my best bet was to pull in my lips and try to look ashamed of my pain in the ass behavior.

This didn’t work. He shook his head in an annoyed way, let me go, we got out of the Bronco and walked up to the office.

However angry he was, he held my hand the whole way, now, how bizarre was
that?

* * * * *

I took in Shirleen’s raised brows but pretended I didn’t see them.

Shirleen saw my pretending and thought it was bullshit.

“All right, tell Shirleen, what in
the fuck
is goin’ on?” She lifted her hand and her thumb jerked to the door Hector just walked through. “That boy has been in a
foul
mood all day. Now, foul moods aren’t unusual with Hector, he’s moody but he’s edgy. A boy’s edgy, you gotta give him room for the moods; it comes with the territory. If he’s good at his job, would put down his life for the boys and he ain’t difficult to look at, like Hector, you do things like that. But this is different. Everyone’s been givin’ him a wide berth all day. Even Luke, Vance, Lee and Mace and those boys ain’t scared of nothin’.”

I had to admit, I kind of felt better that
badasses
Luke, Vance, Lee and Mace also thought Hector’s “foul” mood was worthy of wide berth and I wasn’t a
total
wuss
.

I looked at Shirleen and realized she actually expected an answer.

“Um…” I hedged.

“Ain’t no ‘ums’ with Shirleen. He’s pissed way
the fuck
off and you look like, like… I don’t know what you look like but somethin’ ain’t right.”

“Well…” I started then I stopped.

She waited.

I stayed silent (really, what could I say?).

“That’s it,” she announced. I watched as she stabbed a button on her phone with a frosted-apricot fingernail and I heard a dial tone coming from the speaker. Then she hit another one and the speed dial engaged and a rapid succession of tones could be heard then a ring then two then a voice came on the line.

“How’s it hangin’, sugar?” Daisy answered the phone.

“Shit’s gone down with Hector and Sadie. Sadie’s
standin
’ here, cat’s got her tongue and Hector’s gone electric,” Shirleen declared and I was also quite pleased I wasn’t the only one to feel Hector’s angry electric current, it made me feel less of a freak.

“Oh shit,” Daisy’s voice said.

Boy, she could say that again.

“Powwow. Fortnum’s. Tomorrow at noon. We’re gonna get this shit
sorted,
” Shirleen decreed and I felt panic seize me as I hadn’t planned for
this
either.

“But, I –” I started and Shirleen’s hand whipped up, palm out to face me and, since she was scaring me a little bit, my mouth snapped shut.

“Gotcha, I’ll get the phone tree activated,” Daisy’s voice said.

Phone tree?

The Rock Chicks had a phone tree?

Battle stations!

“Really, I –” I started again but stopped when Shirleen’s brows snapped together (so much for my puny battle stations) and Daisy’s voice came over the phone.

“No back talk,
comprende
?” Daisy warned. “Be there or face Rock Chick consequences.”

I had no idea what Rock Chick consequences were but, then again, I didn’t want to know.

“Oh, all right,” I gave in.

How bad could it be, a powwow?

I’d survived worse, heck, I
was
surviving worse at that very moment!

The door opened and Hector came through.

“It’s time,
mamita,
” he announced.

See what I mean?

“Tomorrow, noon,” Daisy’s voice reminded me.

“All right,” I responded, making my slow way toward Hector who was waiting for me, holding open the door.

“Noon,” Shirleen repeated to my back.

That back went straight, my head whipped around and, for the sake of my pride, I snapped, “All right!”

This, for some bizarre reason, made Shirleen grin.

“Well, all right,” she muttered through her grin.

Blooming
heck!

Why was my life so
difficult?

Chapter Sixteen

Uglier and Uglier

Sadie

“Have a seat, Sadie,” Tom said on a welcoming smile when I entered Lee Nightingale’s office for the second time in my life.

They were all there, Tom, Eddie, Lee, Hank and Vance. They were all standing and they were all looking at me with carefully closed faces.

Oh boy.

Time for Pretend Sadie.

I stopped by one of the chairs in front of Lee’s desk and I felt Hector close behind me. I took a deep breath, did a group scan, playing it safe, beginning the game and allowing myself a small, friendly smile.

Then I looked at Lee and announced, “I’ve changed my mind.”

Lee’s brows went up.

I continued, “See, I figure you won’t let me pay you and that isn’t fair. You and Hector and everyone are doing so much for me, I can’t ask you to do more.”

Lee smiled and I found myself momentarily taken out of my role and staring (he really had a nice smile).

Then he started talking. “Sadie, the Rock Chicks are a permanent red line item on my budget. They have been for months. We’re used to
takin
’ this kind of hit.”

I had to admit, I hadn’t prepared for
that
either, especially his assumption that I was a Rock Chick.

His assumption gave me one of those weird, happy glows, the kind I couldn’t allow myself to feel or all would be lost.

Oh well, I had to power through.

“Even so, I think I’d prefer to hire someone else. This is making me uncomfortable,” I replied what I thought was nicely but firmly. “So, if you have a recommendation for another PI, I’ll give them a call.”

Immediately I saw that my nice but firm didn’t work.

Instead, Lee shook his head (still smiling) and Hector’s hands came to my shoulders.

“Sadie, sit down,” Hector said softly in my ear.

I twisted to look at him. “No, really, I –”

“Sit,” he interrupted.

Sweet, Pretend, Guarding-Her-Heart Sadie slipped and I glared at him.

My glare deflected off his Cool, Collected, Macho Man Shields and pinged around the room, unnoticed by anyone.

“Sadie, honey,” Tom said, I turned to him and saw he had his hand held out to me. “Come and sit.”

Not wanting to be a bitch because Pretend Sadie was not a bitch and anyway, he’d called me “honey” and that was so nice, the weird, happy glow I was trying to ignore came back against my will, I walked to him, put my hand in his and we both sat, facing each other.

“I need to tell you something,” Tom informed me, keeping hold of my hand.

The weird, happy glow vanished.

Oh no.

I didn’t like the look on his face and I didn’t like that he felt he needed to keep holding my hand.

Furthermore, Pretend Sadie didn’t like the vibe in the room
at all
and she wanted to run.

However, Ice Princess Sadie
never
ran. Ice Princess locked firm hands on Pretend Sadie’s arms and held her in place.

With Ice Princess in control, I felt it safe to say to Tom, “Okay.”

He squeezed my hand then he took a deep breath and launched in.

“Eighteen years ago, your Mom came to me,” Tom started.