Rock Chick

by Kristen Ashley

  “Yeah?”

  “You take care of her,” Dad said, his voice gruff and the Guinness folks could have popped by to record the occasion, such was my world-record pissed-offedness.

  I mean, no one makes my Dad sound like that. Those fucking kidnapping losers.

  “Yes sir,” Lee replied.

  I bent over too and blew Dad a kiss. He smiled at me, Lee closed the door and they idled at the curb while Lee propelled me into the building. I probably should have told him I wanted to go home but I thought everyone had enough drama for one night.

  Hank didn’t take off until the door closed behind us and we were well into the foyer.

  There was no chit chat between us. Lee took the bracelets off in his bedroom with a universal key.

  Once he threw them on a dresser and turned to me, I crossed my arms on my chest, hitched a hip and said, “You still mad at me?”

  He ignored my belligerent stance, a stance that communicated an unequivocal, “stand back” to every other man I’d known. Not Lee, he walked right up to me and put his hands on my hips.

  “No.”

  “Then what’s your problem?”

  He didn’t even hesitate, he answered me. He actually answered me, and it sounded like the honest-to-goodness truth.

  “I’m angry at myself for reacting the way I did to what you said when you meant no harm and I’m angry with myself for leaving you unprotected.”

  I stared at him for a beat, hiding my surprise, and then said, “Good. Now that’s settled, I’m taking a shower.”

  His hands tightened on my hips and his eyes narrowed on my face. It was his turn to stare at me for a beat, then he said, “I take it I’m not invited to this shower.”

  I pulled away from him. “Nope.”

  I took my shower, washed my hair and surveyed my new cuts and newest bruises while I let the water run over me.

  When I’d stepped out of the shower, I noticed that, unfortunately, when I went into the bathroom, I didn’t take any clothes with me. I had to grab Lee’s light blue, cotton robe from the hook on the back of the door. I wrapped it tight around me and tied it secure.

  I went into the bedroom and Lee was lying in bed, his chest bare and the sheet pulled up to his waist. He was reading. Believe it or not, casually lying in bed reading.

  Grr.

  If I’d had something, I would have thrown it at him. Instead, I went straight to my bag, rooting through it to find underwear. I found it, straightened and glanced at Lee. He’d put the book down and was lying on his side, his head in his hand, watching me.

  “It’ll be a wasted effort, puttin’ those on.”

  I sent him my best Polar Freeze Glare, turned my back on him and pulled up the panties.

  “Talk to me, Indy,” he said on a sigh.

  I turned and put my hands on my hips.

  He wanted me to talk? Then, I’d talk.

  “I’ve had some time to think, what with being kidnapped, cuffed and tied to a chair for part of my evening and then spending the rest of it sitting in a hospital waiting room.” I was lying about thinking while I was kidnapped, but he didn’t need to know that. Anyway, it made my introduction more dramatic. “This morning, you told Hank you had a client. I thought you meant me, but I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

  Lee continued to watch me.

  I went on. “The thing is, when this all started, you were in DC and Ally said you weren’t due back. Then, all of a sudden, you were back and you knew about the diamonds. You knew about everything.”

  He kept watching me.

  I went into accusatory mode. “You came back to look for the diamonds. You have another client. You’re working for someone else.”

  Lee came up on his elbow.

  “Smart girl,” he murmured then patted the bed in front of him. “Come here, let me explain.”

  Ha! Not even.

  “You walked into your own condo and I practically delivered the diamonds to you by bringing Rosie here. Then, you tried to extort sex from me in payment for a job you were already getting paid to do with diamond man lying on the couch for all you knew!”

  “Indy –”

  I cut him off.

  “No explanation necessary, Lee, I’m sleeping on the couch and tomorrow I’m going home. We’re through. The end.”

  On that I huffed out of the room, put on the lights in the living room and grabbed the remotes. It took me ten minutes to figure out how to use them, five more minutes to set the sleeper timer on the TV and ten minutes to find something to watch. I turned off the lights and settled in.

  Throughout this time, the light came through the open bedroom door but not a sound from Lee. This ticked me off more. Five minutes into my program, the light went off in the bedroom. My anger hit uncharted levels. Five minutes after that, I realized that was it, when I’d said “the end”, Lee didn’t have a problem with it.

  Okay, great, wonderful, that was fine by me.

  Luckily, I’d had a pretty traumatic day, what with being kidnapped and shot at, twice.

  Not to mention two emotional dramas with Lee.

  Even though my mind was racing, my body was crashing from adrenalin withdrawal. Before the sleep setting turned off the TV, I was already in snooze land. When the TV switched itself off, it woke me up. This wasn’t too annoying seeing as I didn’t fully wake me up, I was three-quarters asleep and one-quarter dozing.

  The next thing I knew, I was being lifted in the air.

  Lee was carrying me to the bedroom.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, half-sleepy, half-angry.

  “Takin’ you to bed,” he answered, fully awake.

  “I’m sleeping on the couch,” I told him as he dropped my legs and stood me at the side of the bed. His hands went to the belt of the robe and he didn’t respond.

  “What are you doing?” I asked again.

  “Gettin’ you ready for bed.”

  “Stop that!” I slapped at his hands and he ignored me so I grabbed the lapels of the robe and held them shut. “I’m nearly naked under this.”

  The belt came loose and he leaned into me. I reared back, nearly toppling on the bed. He straightened and held in front of me what I had, until a few hours previously, considered my confiscated Night Stalkers tee.

  Since the likelihood of me winning a physical tussle was in the negative percentile and I was tired down to the bone, I snatched the tee from him and whirled around to give him my back.

  I could sleep with him, I told myself as I pushed my head through the neckline of the tee. I’d slept with him the last however-many nights and I’d survived. One more night wouldn’t kill me.

  I slid the robe off my shoulders and let it drop to the ground and, as fast as I could, I pushed my arms through the holes of the tee.

  I wasn’t fast enough.

  Lee’s hands settled on the skin at my hips, just above my panties, as the t-shirt dropped into place, its hem came to rest on his hands.

  His chin rested on my shoulder.

  “How long are you gonna be mad at me?”

  His voice was deep and kind of husky and I felt a quiver in my nether regions.

  “Forever,” I answered.

  His hands slid from hips to belly and he pulled me into his body.

  “I can’t discuss clients with you, Indy. I offer confidentiality with my services. I won’t be able to talk about my work, it’s something you’re gonna have to get used to.”

  That was hardly the point.

  Okay, it was a point, just not the point.

  It was my longstanding theory that men missed the point on purpose.

  His chin moved to pull the hair away from my neck and his mouth went to my ear.

  Then he got to the point.

  “You’d been dodgin’ me for a decade and then you presented me with an opportunity to get your attention. I’m not big on missin’ an opportunity, so I took it. It worked. I got your attention. I don’t regret it and I’d do it again, even considerin’
in the process I lost ‘diamond man’.”

  Hmm, it was annoying but it was honest and it was annoying because it was honest.

  I pushed forward and broke free of his hands, putting a knee on the bed.

  I could have pushed the sleeping-on-the-couch business but I feared a wrestling match and he’d already gotten a nether-region-quiver. I’d never survive a wrestling match.

  I crawled across the bed and stationed myself at the far edge, pulling the sheet up over me.

  I felt the bed move as Lee got in and the light went out.

  Then I was hauled across the bed and positioned in the half spoon/half pin he was so good at carrying off.

  I didn’t struggle, I was doing pretty good at the silent treatment so I just stayed tense and used my body to communicate that all was not forgiven. The Silent Treatment/Cold Shoulder was a perfectly honed weapon in my arsenal and I was not afraid to use it.

  Apropos of nothing, Lee told the back of my head, “The last time I remember feelin’ fear was during survival training. I thought if the good guys could think up that shit for training, what were the bad guys gonna do?”

  Um.

  Yikes!

  It was apparently story time for bad little girls.

  “Then I realized I might not be able to control what they were doing, but I could control my reaction. Fear breaks your focus, makes you lose control, makes you weak. It gives the enemy the edge. That was the last time I felt fear and the last time I lost control.”

  I was still tense but now for a different reason, waiting to hear what he was going to say next.

  “Tonight Ally called and told me you’d been taken. I left you there and they came to Tom’s fucking front door and grabbed you. When I heard that, I lost control.”

  Holy shit.

  What did that mean?

  What was he saying?

  Was he scared?

  About me and the idea of maybe losing me?

  Oh… my… God.

  I waited for him to say more, to explain, but he didn’t.

  So I waited some more.

  Nothing.

  “What does that mean, you lost control?” I whispered.

  More nothing.

  After awhile, his fingers brushed my hair aside and his lips touched my nape.

  I let it go at that and listened to his steady breathing. I knew he wasn’t asleep and I also knew our talk was over. No way was Liam Nightingale going to admit, out loud, to being scared. That was as good as I was going to get.

  And it was all I needed.

  I let the tension go out of my body and settled into him, wriggling my bottom into his groin.

  There was a time to hold a grudge, this wasn’t that time.

  Chapter Twelve

  I Did My Duty to the Pot

  I woke up when I felt the sheet go down my hip and a hand go up it.

  I turned bleary eyes to Lee, who was sitting, from what I could tell in the dawns early light, fully-clothed on the side of the bed.

  “I need coffee,” I mumbled.

  “You don’t have to get up, I’m just sayin’ good-bye,” he answered.

  I blinked in the semi-darkness.

  “Where are you going?”

  But I’d lost his attention, he was looking in the vicinity of my hips.

  “Do you always wear underwear like this, or is it for me?”

  I rolled to my back and pulled the sheet to my waist.

  “It isn’t for you, I’ve been wearing underwear like this since Gram gave me my first Frederick’s of Hollywood box on my sixteenth birthday. Now, I owe Victoria’s Secret my first-born child.”

  Before speaking again, Lee waited several seconds that can only be described as “loaded silence”. While this silence was going on, he pulled the sheet back down.

  “You’re tellin’ me that since you were sixteen you’ve been sittin’ next to me every year at Christmas Dinner wearin’ underwear like this?”

  I was having trouble processing all that was happening, seeing as it was oh-dark-hundred, Lee was dressed and leaving and we were talking about my underwear.

  Had I sat beside him at Christmas Dinner every year?

  I had. At first because I finagled it, the last ten years by a cruel twist of fate.

  “I didn’t sit by you,” I kind of lied.

  “No, I sat by you.”

  At that unbelievable announcement, I got up on my two elbows and winced. Another learning experience, rolling around in bushes with your arms cuffed behind your back made you ache.

  I glanced at the clock, five after five.

  “It’s five after five! Where are you going?”

  He leaned forward and brushed my lips with his.

  “Hunting.”

  The way he said it made me fear for all the furry little creatures in the woods. Then I realized that Lee didn’t hunt, at least not furry little creatures.

  Yikes.

  I considered what to say and settled on, “Be careful.”

  An arm went around me and he pulled me to him. I was not a big fan of morning kisses before brushing your teeth, especially if tongue was involved.

  His kiss was so fine, I made an exception and kissed him back.

  He dragged me across his lap and deepened the kiss. If the kiss got any deeper, my lovely sage green satin undies with smoky gray lace were going to spontaneously combust.

  When he lifted his head, he said, “Call Hank if you go anywhere, I need my men working. Hank’s gonna watch you today.”

  Since I didn’t want to get kidnapped again and yesterday had beaten out the day I called the ticket line and found out Pearl Jam was sold out as the worst day of my life, I said, “Okay.”

  He kissed me quickly, deposited me back in bed and then he was gone.

  * * * * *

  I slept more, got up, drank coffee, sucked down some ibuprofen and called Hank to come and get me. I didn’t know what I intended to do that day but I was too wired by recent events to sit around all day in Lee’s condo.

  I surveyed myself in Lee’s bathroom mirror. The semi-shiner was fading but still there.

  I looked down at my body.

  I had added bruises on my wrists, biceps and thighs as well as some small scratches on my arms and legs.

  Very attractive.

  To make myself feel better about this situation, I turned to my MAC cosmetics. MAC never let me down. I put on some dewy blush, eye shadow that really had no color but was mostly sparkles, that white under-mascara-base-coat that makes our eyelashes look a mile long and a double-coat of mascara. I donned my Lynyrd Skynryd t-shirt, jeans, black woven belt with the big, square, silver buckle stamped with tiny roses and black cowboy boots.

  I’d just tugged on the second boot when my cell rang.

  “We have a problem,” Duke’s gravelly, Sam Elliott voice crunched in my ear.

  “Duke! God, I’m glad to hear from you.”

  “I’m at the store –”

  “I closed the store for the weekend,” I informed him belatedly.

  “I saw the note, I opened it. We have a near-riot on our hands here. People are freakin’ that Rosie’s not here. It started out pretty peaceful but now the mob want blood.”

  “Are you there alone?”

  I was aghast. Staffing Fortnum’s in the morning alone in the years pre-espresso-counter was doable. Post-coffee, impossible.

  “Dolores is with me.”

  Uh-oh.

  Dolores drank instant coffee. This was not a good thing.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  I flipped my phone shut and the buzzer went just as my cell rang again.

  The phone was Ally, I flipped it open and told her to hang on while I hit the button on Lee’s intercom. It was Hank so I told him I’d be down to meet him.

  “You doin’ okay?” Ally asked.

  “Yeah, I ache but other than that, fine,” I answered.

  “What’re you up to today?”

  “Du
ke opened Fortnum’s and just phoned in a potential Rosie Riot. I’m heading over with Hank.”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  Hank was not thrilled about heading into a riot situation as the first order of business during his Indy Watch. I talked him into it by alluding to concerns about his masculinity.

  I walked in the door at Fortnum’s and wished I’d let Hank talk me out of riot control. There were at least fifteen, maybe twenty people and the air crackled with hostility. It was pretty clear that the regulars were okay with a few confused Rosie-free days but now the natives were getting restless.

  Annie spied me before the door shut behind Hank. Annie had been coming every weekday morning for years, eight fifteen, wearing a suit, her blonde hair molded into a style reminiscent of a football helmet. We’d chatted over the counter hundreds of times and she was always pleasant if sometimes in a hurry. It was Sunday and I’d never seen her there on a weekend.

  “What the fuck is going on here? Where’s the little guy who makes the coffee?” she snapped.

  I stared at her and my mouth dropped open.

  “Yeah. Where’s Rosie and why was the store closed yesterday? Ellen never closed the store. As in, ever.” That was Manuel, he’d been a regular since before the days of caffeine. He used to read Vonnegut and Updike for hours in the T-U-V section. I’d known him for as long as I could remember.

  “I go out of my way, seventeen blocks, for the Coffee Guy’s coffee. What am I gonna do now? Where am I gonna go?” another guy asked. I didn’t know his name but he’d come with Rosie after he left the chain-coffee-shop and usually popped by a couple of Sundays a month and sometimes actually bought a book.

  They started to press in and Hank pushed in front of me going into bodyguard mode.

  Really, I was fed up. I understood the love of coffee, but this was ridiculous. I’d had the worst few days of my entire life. I was Lee Nightingale’s girlfriend and we hadn’t done it yet. I was a woman on the edge.

  I stood on a chair, put my thumb and finger in my mouth and gave the ear-splitting whistle Dad taught me when I was eleven.

  “Listen up people!” I shouted.

  All eyes turned to me as I noticed Mr. Kumar walk in with an Asian woman his age and another one much older, the other one possibly prehistoric.