Rock Chick

Chapter Twenty-Four A Metallica Moment

We were sitting in Lee’s teak chairs on the balcony. It was post morning sex, I was wearing one of Lee’s tees and a pair of hot pink lace hipsters, drinking my coffee, my feet up in Lee’s lap, zoned out with my gaze settled on the Front Range. Lee was also drinking coffee, but he wasn’t zoned out. He was reading the paper which was spread out on the table. He was absently stroking one of my feet and was wearing a pair of gray sweat pants and nothing else.

Even though it had been an active morning, I was still only on coffee number one and my mental processes hadn’t yet kicked in. Regardless of this, I realized the feeling I had was contentment and yes, even happiness. Maybe even real happiness. Maybe even off the charts happiness.

Lee put the paper down, sat back, stretched his legs out in front of him, crossed the ankles and took a drink of his coffee. His gaze leveled on me, although I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel it.

He put his coffee down and started to massage my foot, this time with both hands. It felt super nice, he had strong hands and he knew how to use them.

“I’ve asked Dawn to get some guys to come in and pack up your stuff and move it and your furniture to storage. Today, you need to pack anything you want to bring over and I’ll come around tonight and we’ll move you in.”

Happiness fled instantly and panic seized every cell in my body, my eyes moved from the Front Range to Lee and I stared, unable to speak.

Lee kept talking. “I know a property management service. I called them yesterday. They’ll rent your place, make sure it’s a good tenant and maintain it for a fee. We’ll get it advertised next week.”

I finally found my voice. “I know I promised to move in by this weekend but… isn’t this going a bit fast?”

Lee’s hands moved to my other foot.

“Yep,” he answered.

“Don’t you think we should slow down?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Why?”

Okay, you could hear the panic edging my one word question, but still.

Instead of answering, he dropped my feet, bent double to get up and kissed my forehead as he did so. Then he walked into the condo.

I stared at him moving away from me.

He walked well, confident, close to a swagger but not quite. His sweats were drawstring and rode low. His back was beautifully muscled. I kept staring into the living room even after he was gone, zoned out again, the image of his back pleasantly burned on my eyeballs like after you accidentally looked directly at the sun.

Then I saw him come back.

He sat down, lifted my legs at the calves and put my feet back in his lap and threw a little pink case at me across the table.

I stared at it in horror.

My birth control pills,

I’d forgotten them, totally and completely.

Holy crap.

I grabbed it and looked. The last one I took was Monday. I was all over the place these days, I wasn’t in my normal day-to-day schedule. I was two pills behind, too late to catch up and I’d been having sex. A lot of sex. Apparently a lot of unprotected sex.

I slapped the pills back down on the table.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear,” I told him.

“I know you didn’t,” he said, his hands back to massaging my foot.

“We have to stop having sex, like, immediately.”

His hands stopped massaging, “That’s not gonna happen.”

“Lee! What if I’m pregnant?”

He grinned “Then we’ll make a beautiful baby.”

I yanked my feet out of his lap, stood up and started to jump up and down.

“Ohmigod, ohmigod,” I chanted.

Lee stood and pulled me to him.

“Calm down,” he said but I could tell he was kind of laughing.

“This isn’t funny!” I yelled “We can’t get through a week without having a break. This is too new, too fast, too weird, too much. Ohmigod, ohmigod,” I began chanting again.

This was a serious, life changing moment and I needed Van Halen.

No, no Van Halen wasn’t going to do. This was a Metallica Moment.

I could tell by the feel of his body against mine that he was not kind of laughing anymore, he was flat out laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” I shouted.

“Because you’re cute,” he said, looking at me. “And you’re funny and you’re over-reacting. This isn’t the end of the world, you don’t even know if you’re pregnant and you’re moving in, for fuck’s sake.”

“Why’d you show me the pills?”

“Because if you’re pregnant, we shouldn’t waste time movin’ in together. If you’re not, we should take different precautions and we shouldn’t waste time movin’ in together.”

“Why do I have to move into your place, why don’t you move into mine?”

“I could do that.”

I stopped freaking out and stared. “What do you mean?”

“We’ll put my shit in storage and I’ll move to your place. Doesn’t matter to me.”

I was beyond staring and went straight to gawking.

“What about your view?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“I only have one bathroom,” I said.

“We could make that work.”

“I have a yard, you’d have to mow the grass. I don’t think Stevie will keep mowing my side if you live there.”

“Your yard’s the size of a postage stamp. I think I can manage mowing the grass.”

“It isn’t secure, there isn’t even an alarm system.”

“Vance will put one in.”

“What about the Command Center? I don’t have a room where you can put your top secret PI stuff.”

He started laughing again. “Do you want to move or do you want me to move, make up your mind.”

“I don’t know,” I said, and I didn’t.

“Well you have to figure it out now because one or the other of us is moving in tonight. No more fucking around.”

“I can’t figure it out now. I’m too stressed. I may be pregnant. I think I need to go out and buy vitamins or something.”

He pulled me deeper into him and I could feel his body shaking with his hilarity. I didn’t think it was hilarious, I thought it was scary as shit.

When he pulled himself together he said, “We’ll move to your place. It’s close to Fortnum’s and you have good neighbors. And I like your bedroom. I’ll rent this place out.”

Somehow, that made the panic ease but not totally subside.

He looked down at me.

“Happy with that?” he asked.

I nodded.

He got that soft look on his face and the melty look in his eyes, my knees started to buckle and I leaned into him.

Then the door buzzer went.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered.

He let me go and went to the door.

When he came back, he said, “Darius is coming up.”

I’d already met Eddie in Lee’s shirt, I wasn’t going to gallivant around in front of Darius in Lee’s tee. I mean, I was possibly pregnant. Pregnant women didn’t run around in front of just everyone wearing nothing but panties and t-shirt.

I grabbed my coffee, topped up and ran to the bedroom.

I slapped on some happy makeup, lots of glittery eyeshadow, thick mascara and dewy-blush. I topped some jeans and the black belt with rivets that Lee gave me with a white t-shirt that said, “I shot J.R.” in black and slid on my black flip flops.

I flip flopped my way back to the coffeepot, poured some in a travel mug and headed to the balcony where Darius and Lee were lounging.

I stood in the French doors. “Hey Darius.”

He’d watched me while I approached and he nodded and gave a bit of a smile but didn’t say anything.

I turned my gaze to Lee. “I gotta get to the store.”

“Take the Crossfire, I’ll take the Duc in this morning,” Lee said.

“The Ducati’s here?”

“Yeah.”

Wicked.

I kinda wanted him to take me to work on the Ducati but I wasn’t going to ask.

“I’ll take you out on the bike tonight,” Lee offered, the crinkles showing beside his eyes.

“Get out of my brain,” I returned, putting my hand on my hip.

That made him give me an out and out smile.

“Walk me to the door?” I asked.

I watched him get up and I started to turn toward the front door, then came around and looked at Darius again.

“We’re having a family barbeque on Saturday, Ally’s place. I’m sure everyone would like to see you,” I told him.

Lee dropped his chin and gave a couple of shakes of his head in that “I don’t believe she’s such an idiot” way.

“Thanks Indy, I got things to do,” Darius said.

“Okay, come after you’re done,” I said to him.

Darius shook his head.

“Then come before, bring your Mom and your sisters. I haven’t seen them in ages.” I kept going.

Lee’s hand wrapped around my upper arm and he turned me and marched me toward the door. I twisted around and I could see Darius grinning.

“See you later!” I called, already around the couch and in the kitchen.

As we passed, Lee snatched the Crossfire’s keys off the kitchen counter and at the front door he pulled me to a stop.

“What’d I say about trying to save Darius?”

“What? I just asked him to the barbeque.”

“You’re a nut,” he said.

I put a hand on a hip. “Excuse me?”

Lee shook his head. “Nope, not gonna happen. I’m not biting. We are not fighting today. No matter how far you push it.”

I’m so sure. Like I wanted to fight.

I got up on my toes and kissed him, giving him a quick peck and then grabbed the keys out of his hand.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A kiss good-bye,” I told him.

He took two steps forward and I took two steps back, slamming into a wall. His hands went to my ass and pulled me against him and he kissed me breathless.

“That was a kiss good-bye,” he said.

I took in a shaky breath.

It sure was.

Ally and Tex were behind the coffee counter at Fortnum’s when I got there. There were six people waiting in line and three people who’d already ordered and were waiting for their coffee. Every chair and couch had someone’s ass in it, all of them drinking coffee.

Motley Crue was blaring “Girls Girls Girls” from the CD player.

I looked at my watch, it was ten to eight. We’d only been open for twenty minutes.

Apparently people would pay to have a guy who looked like a serial killer serve them coffee.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Get your butt behind this counter, woman! Does it look like there’s nothin’ to do and you have time to stand around gawkin’?” Tex boomed.

I walked around the counter, saw Annie, the blonde, helmet-head lady who yelled at me during the Rosie riot. She was staring at her cup with a reverence normally only befitting the unveiling of front row tickets. She looked up at me.

“Where do you find these guys?” she breathed.

“Luck,” I said and got to work

We were so busy, for hours I thought of nothing but coffee, milk, syrup and all the money that was being shoved into my cash register. We’d never been this busy, even with Rosie. We had good crowds, but this was crazy.

By ten thirty, the crowd had died down. Duke came in and manned the book counter which was also seeing business. We had a goodly number of folks sitting, reading and enjoying their coffee.

“Are we still ticked at each other?” Ally finally had the chance to ask me.

“Well, since you being pissed at me went hand in hand with me being pissed at Lee… and since Lee and I are no longer on a break… then no, we aren’t ticked at each other.”

Ally grinned. “Good.”

That’s the way it was with best friends. You got mad, you got over it.

I turned to Tex. “But you’re a traitor and I’m not talking to you ever again,” I told him.

“You get number seven last night?” he asked.

I stared at him, not knowing what in the hell he was talking about.

Then it dawned on me.

Orgasm number seven.

Yikes.

Maybe I did share too much information with Tex last night.

Since I got number seven last night and number eight that morning, I didn’t answer.

It must have shown on my face because Tex let out a booming laugh then said, “You have no reason to be mad and I don’t wanna hear about it.”

“What’s he talking about?” Ally asked.

I turned to her. “Orgasms.” Her eyes got round. “Never mind. Do you know when you can take a pregnancy test?”

Now her eyes were about to pop out of her head. “No way.”

“I don’t know. I fucked up, I forgot to take my pills for a couple of days.”

“No way!” Ally shouted and a couple customers looked up.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I said.

“This is great,” she said. “I’m calling Mom.”

“No! Don’t call Kitty Sue! Don’t call anyone. This is not great. I don’t want a baby. Well, maybe I want a baby… maybe I want Lee’s baby… but not now. He hasn’t even seen all my underwear!”

“You aren’t getting any younger,” Ally said.

Dear Lord.

“Just answer my question,” I said.

“What question?”

“Pregnancy test.”

“I think you have to miss a period. I’ll run down to Walgreen’s and look at one.”

Then off she went, luckily Walgreen’s was only a few blocks away.

“Tex, can you make me a skinny vanilla latte, please?” I asked.

“So you’re talkin’ to me again?” he asked.

“Just make me one!”

“Who’re you? The Man?”

“No, I’m The Woman who wants a vanilla latte!”

“Fine. Jeez. I’ll make you a latte. I’ll make it decaf so you’ll calm down.”

“If you make it decaf, you’re fired,” I said.

“Caffeine may not be good for the baby,” Tex replied.

That’s when I screamed, full-on-Nightmare-on-Elm-Street-scream-your-lungs-out.

The customers jumped and stared.

The bells over the door went. I stopped screaming and saw Eddie coming into the store.

He didn’t look happy.

In fact, he looked scary unhappy.

His mirrored shades were off and his dark eyes were intense.

My frustration at my crazy, fucked up life went out the window and I walked up to him.

“You okay?” he asked.

I felt my stomach pitch. He wasn’t talking about me screaming.

By the look of him, I was assuming something happened to someone I loved. Seeing as I was a cop’s daughter, this moment was always in the back of my mind. For me, especially coming from Eddie, it could be anyone, Lee, Dad, Malcolm, Hank or dozens of other guys who were friends of mine or Dad’s.

I opened my mouth to answer and I heard then saw the Ducati. It stopped in front of the store, Lee pushed down the stand and swung his leg off. He came inside.

His mouth was tight, his eyes were blank, his expression was grim.

He looked at me, then at Eddie, then back to me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“What the fuck is going on!” I shouted.

“She needs caffeine.” Tex said, handing me my latte.

Lee came closer to me, both he and Eddie were less than a foot away, crowding me in. Tex was still beside me and Duke had wandered over, feeling the vibe, and was standing close behind me.

Bad news was coming.

“Cherry Blackwell’s car exploded this morning,” Lee said.

I stared at him.

What the fuck?

“Jeez-us. She the loopy-loo you scrapped with last night?” Tex asked me.

I ignored Tex and said, “Please tell me she wasn’t in it.”

“She wasn’t in it,” Lee said.

I let out a breath and then took a sip of latte. Even in that tense situation, I noticed that the latte was divine.

“What happened?” I asked.

Eddie answered, “We don’t know. Car’s still too hot to get near it. They’re guessin’ she was four, five feet away when it went. She got hit with flying debris and she was burned by the fireball. She’s at Swedish Medical Center.”

“Is she okay?” I asked.

“No update yet,” Eddie said.

Jeez, I didn’t like Cherry. In fact, I hated her, but I also didn’t like the idea of her getting hit with flying debris from a car explosion. The only person I’d want that to happen to was Osama bin Laden but I would prefer for him to be in the car.

I looked at Lee, he was still looking grim. I realized that they may have parted badly but she had still been his girlfriend. Twice. I slipped my hand in his.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, looking at me funny.

“She doesn’t understand,” Eddie said.

“Understand what?” I asked.

Then it hit me. Last night, I was rolling around in fried rice with Cherry, today she’d almost been blown up.

I looked at Eddie. “I have an alibi. Actually, I have two! And I don’t know anything about explosives.”

This wasn’t exactly true. Ally and I had famously set off a couple dozen bottle rockets in Nina Evans’s front yard after Nina had started a nasty rumor that Ally had herpes.

Still, bottle rockets and car bombs didn’t exactly compare.

“Yeah, she spent most of the night with me and the cats, eatin’ chips and drinkin’ moonshine. She wasn’t out of my sight until you came and got her,” Tex threw in, looking at Lee.

Eddie stared at Tex, some of the intensity going out of his eyes at the thought of me, Tex and the cats eating chips and drinking hooch.

“Darius told me that one of his guys was at a strip club last night and heard Coxy’s boy Gary talkin’ about your cat fight with Cherry,” Lee said.

This wasn’t interesting news. I figured I’d been a prime topic of conversation on police band for at least a week. I probably had my own code by now, Indy-666 or something.

Anyone could listen to police band.

“And?” I asked.

“And Coxy’s already gone out of his way to eliminate what he might consider your problems.”

I dropped Lee’s hand and took a step back. “You think Wilcox tried to kill Cherry… for me?”

Eddie answered again. “Too early to know. Cherry didn’t have a lot of friends but crisping her seems harsh retribution for bein’ a bitch.”

“This isn’t happening,” I said.

I was reeling. I didn’t know what to do, what to think.

“You guys want coffee?” Tex asked Lee and Eddie.

“Sure, triple shot cappuccino,” Eddie said.

“Yeah, Americano, black,” Lee said.

Tex ambled off to the espresso counter while I continued my silent meltdown searching the depths of my fried brain for Denial Zone.

Then Duke asked, his Sam Elliott voice low and serious, “Could we not talk about fuckin’ coffee and maybe talk about how you two badass motherfuckers are gonna protect Indy from this crazy fuck?”

I turned to look at him and noticed immediately that he was pissed.

Duke looked at Lee. “Isn’t it about fuckin’ time you quit fuckin’ around and took care of this fuckin’ guy?”

Uh-oh.

Duke wasn’t afraid to use the F-word but he only dosed his vocabulary liberally with it when he was close to losing it.

Lee looked at him. “I’m workin’ on it.”

Duke took a step forward. “Work harder.”

This was not good.

I knew, because I saw, that Lee could kick ass. Duke was no slouch. He might be an old guy but he also knew how to handle himself through a fuckload of practice.

I wasn’t sure how Lee would take an accusation of “fuckin’ around” and I didn’t want two people I loved to go head-to-head in my bookstore.

“Duke…” I said.

Duke looked at me and the look in his eye made me move closer to Lee.

“We don’t know when this fuckin’ lunatic is gonna lose his patience and turn on you. Bullets are flyin’, cars explodin’, dead bodies everywhere. This has got to fuckin’ stop. Now,” Duke said to me.

“He’s right,” Eddie agreed. “Indy needs to be protected. You got a safe house for her?”

“Yeah,” Lee answered.

Yikes!

“No! No, no, no,” I cried, beginning to panic. “I can’t go to a safe house. I can’t. I’d feel like a sitting duck.”

Lee’s arm came around me. “It won’t be for long.”

I pulled away from him. “No! I can’t do it. I’ll climb the walls. I swear, Lee, you lock me up and the minute I get out, I’m moving to Argentina.”

Either he didn’t believe me or he knew he could track me through the wilds of Argentina because he didn’t look like he was gonna cave.

“Lee, give me back the stun gun, I’ll carry it everywhere. Put a man on me. Anything, just don’t lock me up.”

“I’d put a man on you but if we’re gonna take Coxy down I gotta keep my boys on target.”

This wasn’t good, this was like being grounded but without the tree out your window to climb down when your Dad was asleep. I hadn’t been grounded in twelve years, I forgot how much I hated it, hated being penned in, hated my freedom restricted. I couldn’t stand it.

Surprisingly, Eddie caved first.

“We’ll take turns playin’ bodyguard,” Eddie said, staring into my deer-caught-in-headlights eyes. “I’ll talk to Hank, Willie, Carl. I’m off-duty. I’ll take the first shift.”

Shit.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

This did not sound good.

Lee slowly turned to Eddie. “I’m not sure I like that idea.”

Eddie looked at Lee. “Get over it.”

They stared at each other and moments passed while testosterone permeated the air.

“Oh for fuck’s sake. She might be pregnant with your baby, Lee. She’s hardly gonna wander,” Duke said.

My mouth dropped open.

Eddie looked at me, his eyes moved down to my belly then back up to my face. Then he turned to Lee.

“That didn’t take long,” he said.

“I’m not pregnant,” I said, (perhaps wishful thinking).

Tex came up with the coffees and handed them around.

“All right, boys, get to work,” he said.

Eddie walked to the couch and sat down, putting one cowboy-booted ankle on the other knee, spreading an arm along the back of the couch and taking a sip of cappuccino. He was looking at me and grinning in a sexy way.

Great.

Lee snagged my neck and pulled me to him.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said.

I nodded even though I didn’t believe him.

He kissed me and walked out.

Ally waved at Lee, who was getting on his bike as she walked in, and announced, “You have to miss a period, but I bought a couple pregnancy tests anyway, just in case.” And she waved around the boxes.

I looked at Eddie.

Eddie smiled.