He kissed my nose and then strode out of the room.
I was on his heels, staring daggers at his back and plotting his murder when we made it to the kitchen.
“She doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Lee told Hank and I could swear I heard Bobby do a mini-snort-laugh.
Hank’s eyes were narrowed. “Do we need to send someone over to check Ally?”
I shook my head, all innocence and light, a halo could be shining over my head. “Can’t imagine why you’d need to do that.”
“Would you like me to give you half an hour to answer that question so you can call Ally?”
I looked Hank in the eye. “Why would I need that?”
“Thank God,” Hank breathed, rolling his eyes to the ceiling to make sure God knew he was taking his gratitude seriously. Then his eyes focused on me. “Anything else you want to say?”
I thought about it and then said, “Just, when you find out whose blood it is, remember there are all kinds of breaking and entering. There’s the naughty kind and the nice kind.”
Lee’s arm shot out again, this time his hand hooked around my mouth and he pulled me head first into his side, hand still covering my mouth.
“Hey!” I said but it came out, “Hrr.”
Bobby had walked into the living room and I could hear his quiet laughter, Matt was staring at the ceiling as if it was fascinating.
Hank looked from me to Lee then back to me.
“I’ve been lookin’ into Tex MacMillan and he has a record. He’s a Vietnam Vet who didn’t deal when he got home and he got into some deep shit with drugs, not takin’ them, vigilante justice against the ones who sold them. He didn’t handle prison well, that kind of confinement was not his gig, fucked with his head. He got out and has barely left his porch in twenty years. Every once in awhile, he’ll aim some buckshot at someone who tries to steal a car radio on his block, but won’t go so far as nailing them. It won’t go so good for him if he’s involved in a homicide and he’ll never make it through another jail sentence, and as an ex-offender, even with a nice B and E, he might be facing one.”
Lee kept me where I was with his hand over my mouth. Hank kept watching me.
“You got something for me that might help Tex out?”
I pulled Lee’s hand off my face and said, “I know Tex, I do my shopping at Mr. Kumar’s corner store down the street from him. Tex wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless you’re Nixon. He doesn’t like Nixon much. Since Nixon’s dead then the rest of the human population is pretty safe. If he’s messed up in this some way, I’ll be happy to stand as a character witness.”
I could hear Bobby’s laughing in the living room. Matt was leaned over on his elbows on the counter that separated the kitchen from the dining room, his head hanging down and his shoulders shaking. Lee pulled me deeper into his side with his arm around my neck.
“This isn’t funny,” Hank said quietly to me. “This is a homicide. A man is dead, his brains splattered against a wall.”
Just as quietly, I said, “I know.”
Hank cut his eyes to Lee.
“Tell me she’s done.”
Lee’s face was serious.
“She’s done.”
Hank nodded. “Now, do you have anything for me?”
Lee’s hand moved to my shoulder.
“Duke’s been found, he’s knows what’s happening and he’s coming home. His house has been tossed.”
I froze and asked Lee, “Someone was in his house?”
“Yeah,” Lee answered.
“A good someone or a bad someone?”
Lee looked down at me.
“Both, but only the bad someone tossed the house.”
“Do they have the diamonds?”
Lee exchanged another glance with Hank that I did not understand and then shrugged.
“Duke wouldn’t say where he stashed them, we won’t know until he comes home to check.”
I looked between the two brothers and I got the distinct feeling that something was going on.
Hank glanced at Matt who’d straightened and was quietly watching and listening.
“I hope you and your boys are being careful,” he told Lee and I had this weird feeling we were on a different subject.
“We’re workin’ this for a client,” Lee answered.
There were more looks passed around then Hank sighed the sigh of a man beleaguered, kissed me on the top of my head and left. Matt and Bobby waited around expectantly. Lee turned me into his arms.
“Don’t let Hank scare you about Tex. He’s trying to mess with your head enough to keep you out of this. Tex’ll be all right.”
I nodded.
“We’re gonna have to postpone our plans for the day. I’ll take you to the store then I have to go check a lead on Rosie. I also need to have a chat with Tex. I’ll be at your house no later than three. Earlier if I can make it.”
I nodded. “Do you think Rosie went into Duke’s house?”
His hand went to my chin and tilted it up.
“You have to prepare for the worst, Rosie may no longer be of this world, and if he is, he may no longer be able to walk free amongst its citizens.”
I nodded again.
Then, right in front of his boys, he kissed me, full-on, full-tongue, full-throttle. His arms wrapped around my back and mine went around his neck.
He lifted his head and I breathed, “That shot me straight to a six.”
Good ole boy Lee used to laugh all the time, but when he went into the Army, that changed. The grins were few, the smiles were rare and a laugh from Lee felt like a gift.
After I said that, for the first time in a long time, I watched as Lee threw his head back and laughed.
Chapter Nine
The New Definition of Fine
Lee dropped me by Fortnum’s, kissing me quickly before he took off in his Crossfire. I watched him go and tried to shut down my mind.
I failed.
I was trying not to think of the night before or that morning. I had a feeling of definitive joy mixed with complete and total fear. It was sinking into my brain that Lee told Kitty Sue we were together not because it was what she wanted to hear or because it got us out of a tight jam being caught in a clinch, but instead, because we were.
Together that was.
Liam Nightingale and India Savage, an item.
There was evidence that Andrea was right, he was serious.
Oh. My. God.
I put out a sign, closing Fortnum’s for the weekend, then walked home.
It was cool and comfortable in my house but it felt like it had been a week since I’d been home, rather than just a night.
In an effort not to think about Lee, I put the water on to boil for the macaroni, opened the backdoor to let in the non-existent breeze and checked my voicemail.
Seventeen messages.
Of course, it had been several days since I checked my mail but seventeen messages was an all time high. I listened to the messages as I got out the ingredients for my salad, thinking most of the messages would be Duke and Rosie sightings.
I was wrong.
The news had spread that Lee and I were together and every girlfriend I’d ever had (even some who had moved out of town and one who lived in England) felt it necessary to phone and get the lowdown first hand. Both Marianne and Andrea had called (Marianne twice), demanding updates.
For women far and wide who knew him, hooking up with Lee was a hot news item. Lee was the Holy Grail of boyfriend-dom. Especially since it was me, who had been on the sacred quest for many long, fruitless years. They all wanted the facts, all the facts.
If I but breathed a word of what it actually was like to kiss Lee, be held by Lee, or, dear Lord, what Lee looked like naked, I might cause a riot, even a war. I might have to arm myself and fight them all back lest Lee be torn limb-from-limb.
It was for the better health of the female population and peace in the land that I kept my mouth shut.
Of course
, I had kinda told Andrea but I’d kept Andrea’s Richie Sambora secret, she’d keep my Lee secret, no sweat.
I made a pot of strong coffee and started cutting up pickles and onions and I let my mind wander.
Lee had made it pretty clear that I meant something to him and this was the cause of the joy that I couldn’t quite tamp down. He didn’t like me thinking I was a quick fuck, he didn’t like me crying, he didn’t like me trembling and he really didn’t like it when Terrible Teddy punched me in the face.
I shivered a little bit at what might have happened to Teddy if Lee’s boys had picked him up as Lee ordered.
Which brought me to the subject of just who Lee was. He said I didn’t have a fucking clue and at the rate he’d surprised me the last couple of days, I was thinking he was right.
I ran down the facts.
I thought Lee thought of me as his little sister. That obviously was not the case.
Lee had a workforce, people he employed, at least two of them, three if you counted Judy, the housekeeper. There were likely more. This meant responsibility and dependability. This meant people counted on him to keep them paid so they could put food on their table and roofs over their heads. This meant that somewhere along the line, Lee had become disturbingly grown up.
I, on the other hand, was avoiding growing up. My grandmother never grew up. I remembered many a time when my grandfather said to my grandmother, “Ellen, some day you’re gonna have to grow up.” And Gram would always say, “Why would I do a fool thing like that?”
I agreed with my grandmother, growing up didn’t sound like much fun. Growing up meant diaper bags, ironing your clothes and balancing your checkbook. That seemed really boring and I was avoiding it.
Then, there was the fact that Lee seemed to be a little bit better at this relationship stuff than I was. It had only been a couple of days but he talked casually about going out to dinner or when he’d pick me up from the store. He seemed pretty comfortable with me in his bed, in his house, my clothes in his drawers, my toothbrush next to his.
How this could be when Lee went through women like water was beyond me.
Granted, the longest relationship I’d had lasted eight months but there was a reason for that, none of the guys were Lee.
Now that it seemed like I had Lee, would I drive him away with my thrashing around in bed (although he seemed to have conquered that obstacle pretty quickly)? Then there were my crazy escapades with Ally (although he’d had a lifetime of that and always seemed to find it amusing). Of course there was also my somewhat crazy and uncontrollable bent towards doing stupid shit all the time (although he was showing alarming dexterity at cleaning up the messes I made). And, of course, my hell-bent independence and need for space (although he’d also managed to get by that by forcing me out of my space and into his, and his space was rather nice, with a great view and a housekeeper).
Yikes.
Finally, there was the scary part of Lee.
My Dad was a cop, the danger level to that job was a lot higher than most and I’d lived with it my whole life. I knew it and understood it, I didn’t like it but I was proud of him. He was one of the good guys that made the world safe. The world needed guys like Dad, Malcolm and Hank and the people in their lives had to give them space to do their jobs or we’d all be up shit creek.
Lee was… I didn’t know.
Death didn’t freak him out. He seemed to wander around comfortably both in the sunny real world that I inhabited and the slimy underworld that I hoped was temporary for me.
For Lee, bad guys had nicknames.
For Lee, driving twenty miles per hour over the speed limit, weaving in and out of crowded mid-day traffic on Speer Boulevard was like a Sunday drive.
Lee was offended at the thought that he’d botch a B and E. Lee oozed so much authority that crazy guys like Tex did what he ordered without comment. Lee was so dangerous that even Goon Gary and Creepy Terry Wilcox barely could hide their fear of him.
I dumped the cooked macaroni in the colander, rinsed it and left it to cool.
Then I went upstairs and slathered my body in factor 8 suntan oil that smelled deliciously coconuty. I dressed in my turquoise bikini that had the silver hoop between my boobs and the ones holding the material together at my hips and wrapped a sarong around my hips, tying it in a big knot at the front.
After doing this, I decided that I’d just have to wait and see what Lee had to say.
He told me he’d show me who he was, what he wanted and then I could make my decision. This did nothing to shift the joy or the fear, but it definitely mingled it with not a small amount of excitement.
It felt like Christmas Eve.
I was assembling my macaroni salad extravaganza when the back security door was thrown open and Rosie stepped into the kitchen.
He was carrying a gun.
And the gun was pointed at me.
I stared at him, wooden spoon in hand, dripping mayonnaise.
He looked like hell. Rosie had never been one to worry about personal hygiene overly-much, he groomed enough to make it not gross that he was serving coffee.
It was clear he’d slept a helluva lot less than I had and hadn’t had a shower since I last saw him.
“Rosie!” I cried. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over and worried sick.”
“Where are the diamonds?”
Uh, excuse me but this was beginning to piss me off. Why did everyone think I had the diamonds or knew where they were? I hadn’t even seen the fucking things.
He moved the gun jerkily and I quit thinking about the diamonds.
“Where are the diamonds?” he shouted.
I stopped staring at Rosie and started staring at the gun.
“I don’t know where they are.”
“Duke’s gone, they aren’t at his house.”
My eyes moved back to Rosie. He was definitely freaked out, panicked, and not in an artist-on-the-verge kind of way. It was far worse than that.
“You didn’t toss Duke’s house did you?” I asked.
“No! It was like that when I got there. I thought it was you and that crazy guy who taped me up.”
“I haven’t been to Duke’s but Duke’s coming back and I’m sure he knows where the diamonds are.” I tried to be calm and calm him. “Rosie, put down the gun, you need to stay someplace safe. I can call Lee –”
Rosie started waving the gun around and I stopped talking and stepped back.
“Don’t call that maniac. He taped me up! It took him, like, two seconds. I didn’t even get the chance to yell. I didn’t even hear him come in. He’s nuts.”
“Okay, I won’t call Lee. But Rosie, you have to be smart. Your friend –”
“He’s dead, they shot him. They fucking shot him!” He was shouting now, waving the gun around and seriously freaked out.
“Rosie –” I started.
“Yoo hoo!”
I heard the call from out the backdoor, complete with the clickety-clack of high heeled shoes and Chowleena’s nails on the bricks.
My neighbor, Tod.
“Tod, go back!” I yelled but Rosie had turned and pulled the trigger, shooting wild out the backdoor, three shots were squeezed off in as many seconds. I saw Tod’s arms flung out before him as he hit the deck and Chowleena started barking, each bark sending her upper body straight in the air. I knew this because I could hear the click of her nails hit the bricks every time she landed.
Rosie stared at the gun as if he forgot he was holding it and then ran out the door.
I ran after him.
“Rosie! Come back here! Don’t be stupid!”
But Rosie wasn’t listening to me. Rosie threw himself in a dark gray, old-model Nissan Sentra that was parked blocking my back alley and took off. I managed to read half the license plate before he turned left on Bannock and disappeared.
I ran back to the house. Tod was standing at my backdoor wearing a pair of white, to-the-knee jeans shorts, a wife beater and
a killer pair of high heeled, strappy black sandals with sweet little bows on the peek-a-boo toes with rhinestones in the bows. He had his hand at his chest, his face was pale and considering the bloody areas, he’d scraped his knees and palms.
“Great shoes,” I said, trying to stay calm.
“I was coming over to show them to you, bought them yesterday,” Tod replied.
“Can I borrow them sometime?”
“Sure.”
Chowleena walked forward and shoved her face against my shins, completely unfazed by the gunplay. She was beige, small for a chow, fluffy in the extreme around her ruff with her butt shaved. The shin-butt was her way of giving a hug and saying, “hi” and, “give me a dog biscuit”. Her Dads were pretty strict about her diet but Auntie Indy was a pushover, one Chowleena hug and I had the dog biscuit box out.
We walked into the kitchen and I grabbed my cell, scrolled down to Lee’s number and hit the green button.
“Yeah?” Lee said after one ring.
“Rosie was just here. Took off north out of the alley onto Bannock in a dark gray Nissan Sentra.” I gave him the part of the license I could remember and he related the info to someone he was with, then he came back to me.
“How’s he look?”
“Not good and he had a gun.”
“How do you know he had a gun?”
“He was waving it at me and then he shot off three rounds when Tod came over for a surprise visit.”
Silence for a beat and then, “Tod?”
“My neighbor.”
Another silent beat, then, “Everyone okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Why’d Rosie come to you?”
“He thinks I know where the diamonds are.”
Lee sighed.
“Be there in ten.”
I flipped the phone shut, threw Chowleena a dog biscuit and deposited a still-stunned Tod in a chartreuse chair and ran up the stairs to my bathroom to get my medical supplies.
I was sitting on the ottoman, dabbing at Tod’s palm with alcohol-soaked cotton balls, then blowing on it to take the pain away, when Tod said, “I thought you were making up a story when you said you’d been shot at. I thought it was another one of your stories.”
“I don’t have any stories, all that shit I tell you actually happens.”
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