Rock Chick

Chapter Twenty-Six Splat

Ally, Willie and I were sitting outside Liks Ice Cream Parlour. It was approximately three hundred degrees in the shade but we were still sitting out on the patio because what else do you do when you’re at Liks? Even in December, you at least considered the patio when you went to Liks.

After Lee and my love-in, Willie had come over because he’d pulled Indy Watch for the day.

Lee went to work, Willie and I went to Fortnum’s, and, in the afternoon, Ally and I took Willie to the mall.

We were treating him to a waffle cone because he’d managed to survive an Indy and Ally Do Cherry Creek Shopping Center Experience complete with full-on explorations of Levi’s, Lucky and Diesel and fly-bys through Guess and Urban Outfitters.

After I’d asked Willie how he felt about the tenth pair of Lucky jeans I tried on, he told me he was going to hunt down and murder Terry Wilcox his own damned self.

Hmm.

(I didn’t buy the jeans.)

I was feeling weird because I wasn’t feeling weird about admitting to Lee that I loved him and I thought I should be feeling weird.

Question, what did you do when you got exactly what you always wanted?

Answer, you went shopping with your best friend, then got ice cream.

I was barely keeping up with my melting double dip of dark chocolate with dark chocolate chunks when I heard, “Cool! It’s the Rock Chicks.”

I looked up and stared in total shock at The Kevster and Rosie who were heading our way, both carrying their own double dip waffle cones (you didn’t do a single dip at Liks, it was the law) and looking like they didn’t have a care in the world.

At their approach, Willie stood, handing his cone to Ally.

The Kevster reared back at Willie’s defensive posture and put up a hand, index and middle finger extended.

“Dude. We come in peace.”

“It’s okay, we know them,” I told Willie.

Willie relaxed, slightly.

“I thought you two were in jail,” I said to The Kevster and Rosie, coming to my feet.

“Made bond,” Rosie replied, an “O” of ice cream coating his lips (if I had to guess, by the looks of it, rocky road).

“Who paid your bond?” Ally asked, also on her feet.

“Our fairy godmother?” The Kevster responded and it was a question.

I looked at Ally, then back at The Kevster. “You don’t know who paid your bond?”

“Should we?” The Kevster looked confused, or, more confused than usual.

I wasn’t getting a good feeling about this.

“Is that even possible?” Ally was talking to Willie.

“Did you read the papers?” Willie didn’t respond to Ally, he was looking at the two grunge muffins and their ice cream cones and he didn’t seem happy.

“Papers?” This was clearly more than The Kevster could process.

Before we could continue this useless conversation, a black BMW with shaded windows came to a screeching halt on 13^th Avenue. It didn’t park, it stopped in one of the three through lanes.

“Oh shit,” Ally said, eyes on the BMW.

“Get to the car,” Willie ordered, all relaxation gone.

Before we could make a move, Goon Gary and The Moron were headed our way.

“Get to the car,” Willie repeated.

For some reason, everyone stood stock-still.

“Dudes,” The Kevster greeted Goon Gary and The Moron as they approached, obviously not knowing who they were and also not feeling the tense vibe electrifying the air.

Rosie had gone pale and his ice cream cone was melting down his hand.

Goon Gary and The Moron ignored us, their eyes on Willie.

Willie pushed me behind him.

“You know who I am?” Willie asked Gary and The Moron.

The Moron nodded slowly, Gary didn’t respond.

“Then you’ll walk away,” Willie continued.

“Mr. Wilcox wants to talk to you,” Gary said, he was still looking at Willie but talking to Rosie. Not me. Rosie. Gary was on a mission, a mission important enough to ignore a police officer’s order.

Not good.

“Hey, I know you! You came looking for…” The Kevster’s four working brain cells finally fired and he recognized the boys. Then, he shouted, “Fuck!”

He threw his ice cream cone at Goon Gary, it splatted in his face and The Kevster took off running.

“What the –” Gary started to say, stunned immobile, what looked like Liks famous strawberry cheesecake ice cream dripping off his cheek and chin.

Splat!

Rosie threw his ice cream cone too, it hit Gary on the side of the head. Then he took off after The Kevster.

Splat!

Ally threw one of her cones at The Moron and it hit him in the chest. At this, Willie grabbed me and started to pull me away.

Splat!

Ally threw Willie’s cone, it hit Goon Gary in the shoulder.

Not to be outdone (even though it was a sacrifice, dark chocolate with dark chocolate chunks was the best), on the trot and being pulled by Willie, I aimed my cone at The Moron and, as he’d turned and started after us, it nailed him in the belly.

We all jumped into Willie’s Nissan Pathfinder. Goon Gary and The Moron gave up on us and headed to the BMW. Willie started up before we had our belts on, took off and we rocketed from the curb. Ally hadn’t yet seated herself and she was tumbling around the backseat in a crinkle of bags that were our take from the Lucky and Levi’s stores.

I saw Rosie and The Kevster, on foot, flying down the sidewalk.

“Stop!” I shouted to Willie. “Pick them up.”

“Fuck no,” Willie responded.

“Stop!” I screeched, my voice shrill, looking back at the BMW on our tail. “We can’t let Wilcox have them!”

About a quarter of a block passed the running grunge gods, Willie stood on the brakes and we all flew forward, the BMW swerved to avoid us and shot by.

Proof positive that men would do anything to stop a woman from yelling.

Ally threw open her door, leaned out and shouted, “Get in!”

Rosie and The Kevster jumped into the SUV, there was more crinkling of shopping bags, then Willie took off.

Everyone was silent. All you could hear was Rosie and The Kevster’s heavy breathing.

Willie broke the silence.

“Lee owes me big time for this.”

I didn’t know if he was talking about the mall or the grunge invasion of his Pathfinder.

Likely both.

If I had known I was going to go to Lee’s offices that day, I would have chosen my outfit more carefully.

Dawn was again wearing designer.

I was wearing my cutoff jeans shorts, an Air Force blue t-shirt with “USAFA” in white on the front (even though the man I loved was honorably discharged from the Army, I was an equal opportunity military supporter) and blue flip flops. After three orgasms and a fight with Lee that ended up with me admitting I loved him, I was spent. Creating an Indy Outfit was beyond my capabilities. I hadn’t even bothered with a belt.

Willie, Ally, Rosie, The Kevster and I invaded Dawn’s pristine reception space and she looked at us in horror. Rosie still had the ice cream “O” around his mouth and remnants of the drip on his hand, too rocked by recent events to attend the basics. At the best of times, Rosie and The Kevster weren’t overly bothered with personal hygiene and these were far from the best of times.

“What now?” Dawn asked.

At Dawn’s greeting, I wondered, briefly, if Lee knew what the word “cordial” meant.

“We need to talk to Lee,” Willie said to Dawn.

She looked at Willie and her face changed. Willie was hot and Dawn was in heat, so she tucked away the attitude and gave him a brilliant smile.

“I’m sorry. He’s in a meeting.”

“Tell him we’re here,” Willie went on.

“I’m sorry, but when he’s in a meeting, Lee says –”

“Tell him… we’re… here,” Willie repeated in a tone that made Dawn’s eyes go wide. She put her hands to the arms of her chair (manicured fingers pointed straight out, the better to be on display), pushed herself up, rounded the desk and disappeared behind the door to the Inner Sanctuary.

“I’ve never been here,” Ally whispered to me.

“Really?” I whispered back, not knowing why we were whispering.

“This place is the shit,” Ally said.

She was right, it was. I felt a strange sense of pride, even though it had nothing to do with me.

I smiled at Ally. She smiled back.

“Are we, like, in trouble?” The Kevster asked, breaking into our moment.

Ally trained her eyes on Kevin. “You’re, like, morons.”

“Dudette!” The Kevster was aghast at Ally’s insult.

“You better clue in before someone helps you check out,” Ally told him. “People are getting shot at, stun-gunned, kidnapped and cars are exploding. Wake, the fuck, up.”

Well, there it was. Couldn’t get any more honest than that.

Rosie and The Kevster stared at Ally, whether what she said penetrated was anyone’s guess.

While all this was going on, Willie was making a call and after Ally’s announcement, he flipped his phone shut.

“Got someone checking,” Willie said, “odds are Wilcox bonded these two idiots.”

“Why would he do that?” Rosie asked.

“I don’t know, maybe because it’s easier to blow your brains out when you aren’t under twenty-four hour police surveillance,” Ally replied.

Okay, so, maybe you could get more honest.

The door opened and Dawn and Lee came out. Dawn scooted behind the desk looking chastened.

Hee hee.

Someone got in trouble.

Lee did a room scan, his eyes fell on me, then he did a body scan. After he ascertained I was all in one piece with no holes, blood leaking or body parts blown off, he looked at Willie.

“What happened?” he asked.

Willie ran it down for Lee.

Lee’s face got hard.

“Get Mace,” Lee told Dawn and, without delay, she picked up the phone. “They weren’t after Indy?” Lee asked Willie.

“Didn’t even look at her,” Willie replied.

“Except when she threw her ice cream cone at them,” Ally put in.

Lee looked at me and I could tell he didn’t know whether to laugh or yell.

Instead, he muttered, “Christ.”

I was pleased he found a happy medium.

“I’ll take it from here,” Lee told Willie.

Willie looked relieved. I knew he cared about me but he had ice cream smears on his backseat upholstery and he spent three hours in the mall, not even with his girlfriend racking up brownie points. He’d gone way beyond the call of duty.

“Thanks Willie,” I said to him.

“Stay safe,” he replied, then he took off.

Lee was looking at Dawn and issuing orders.

“Take the boys to the safe room and start a DVD. Get Hank on the phone and when Mace makes contact, I want to know immediately.” His eyes cut to Ally and me. “You two come with me.”

I wasn’t real fond of being bossed around by Lee but I felt it best not to kick up a fuss in front of Dawn.

Ally and I walked behind Lee to the door to the Inner Sanctuary. I wish I could say I was the kind of woman who didn’t do what I did, but I wasn’t. I twiddled my fingers at Dawn in a “nanny, nanny, foo, foo, Lee’s all mine” multi-finger wave. She totally got my meaning and her eyes became scary hard.

I was considering sticking my tongue out at her when I ran smack into Lee who’d stopped to open the door.

He looked down at me and I knew he caught the whole thing and was in my brain, again.

He shook his head and let us in.

Okay, so maybe I could be jealous-possessive too.

Lee led us to his office.

Sitting in one of the chairs, opposite Lee’s desk, tapping away at his BlackBerry was a handsome man with dark hair, blue eyes and he was wearing a seriously cool dark suit.

He looked up when we entered.

“Marcus, this is India Savage and Ally Nightingale,” Lee said then turned to me. “This is Marcus Sloan.”

So this was Marcus.

He stood and shook our hands. I knew by the way he greeted us that he knew who we both were before the introductions.

He wasn’t creepy, like Wilcox. He didn’t look Ally or me over. He was all business, by the look of his expensive suit, big business, maybe a little dirty business, but he was professional and, you could tell, totally sane. He was still kind of scary, I didn’t know why I thought that, he just was.

Lee ran down what happened outside Liks for Marcus. It was embarrassing, sounding like schoolyard antics being discussed by the teachers. Lee and Marcus were not the type of men who messed around with ice cream cones.

Marcus listened to Lee without reaction.

“You’re being patient,” Marcus commented when Lee was done.

“My patience just ran out,” Lee replied.

A chill ran down my spine the way Lee said that. Something was happening here, something not about Rosie and The Kevster and ice cream cones.

“They didn’t even look at me,” I cut in, I probably shouldn’t have but what happened this afternoon was not about me, it was about Rosie.

Marcus ignored me.

“Your next move?” he asked Lee.

“Do a sweep. Come tonight, Coxy’s out of commission.”

Holy crap.

That didn’t sound good.

Marcus nodded then his eyes came to Ally and me.

“Nice to meet you,” he said politely and, without another word, he left.

I turned to Lee. “What just happened?”

Lee sat on the edge of his desk, leaned forward and grabbed my hand, pulling me to his side. I leaned a hip against the desk and looked at him. Ally moved in closer.

“Rosie and Kevin are going to a safe house. Hank set it up for them. I’m sendin’ Mace out to pick up Coxy’s boys, all of them. I want Coxy vulnerable before the show.”

“What show?” I asked.

Lee didn’t answer.

Uh-oh.

“Lee –”

“I’m done fuckin’ around. Tonight, it ends.”

“What about the mob?” I asked.

“The mob?” Ally cut in.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lee said.

I put my hands on my hips.

“I’m hardly not gonna worry about the possibility of you getting in trouble with the mob.”

“In trouble with the mob?” Ally cut in again.

“I said, don’t worry about it,” Lee ignored Ally and responded to me.

“Do I have to cuff you to the bed?” I asked.

Lee grinned, as, of course, he would.

This did not make me happy.

“Cuffed to the bed?” Ally persevered.

I ignored Ally this time.

“Seriously, Lee. Maybe we should just go to the cabin in Grand Lake for a little while, let this blow over.”

I was thinking maybe a year or two would do it.

“It’s over. Tonight. If there are consequences, I’ll deal,” Lee replied. I opened my mouth to say something but Lee beat me to it. “We aren’t discussing this.”

My eyes narrowed and my hands went from my hips so I could cross them on my chest in my, We’ll Just See about That, Mister Pose.

“Hello! I haven’t ceased to exist. I’m still in the room. Is anyone gonna talk to me?” Ally was sounding a bit pissed off.

Before either Lee or I could answer, there was a quick knock on the door, then it opened and a man was there, hand still on the knob, he barely entered the room.

He was not just any man, with one look at him, I knew he was one of Lee’s men.

Tall, taller even than Lee, black hair, fantastic body, jade eyes, he looked like he had a hint of Asian in him. He was beautiful, beyond beautiful, artists and sculptors would likely beat each other to death for the opportunity to use him as a model.

Not that this guy would ever model.

It took all my effort but I tamped down the instinct to flirt and I just smiled at him (without the tilty-head-flirty bit, Lee was in a bad enough mood as it was).

The man’s eyes swept over me, over Ally, face blank, then they settled on Lee.

When he’d looked at me I’d caught something in his eyes, something not happy, something that tugged at my reflexive flirt instinct just to get a rise out of him, a smile, a grin, some reaction.

He was the Ultimate Girl Flirt Challenge.

“Oh my,” Ally breathed.

Obviously, Ally felt the same.

“Mace, this is Indy and my sister Ally,” Lee introduced us.

At this point, I was regretting my thought that any guy named Mace was a macho idiot. If anyone could pull off a name like Mace, this guy could.

Mace’s eyes did another slice through Ally and me, then they went back to Lee.

“Get Coxy’s boys. Bring them to the holding room. All of them. I don’t care how you do it and I don’t care who you have to pull from their cases to help you do it. Just do it,” Lee said.

Finally, Mace grinned.

Oh Lord.

Maybe I was wrong about that macho idiot thing.

Without a word, Mace backed out and closed the door behind him.

Lee looked at me.

“You’re hanging with the boys until I can take you home.”

“Can I hang with the boys?” Ally asked.

Lee nodded.

Ally’s face got happy.

“What boys are we talking about?” I asked. Lee had one guy in the hospital and the rest were probably going to be out rounding up bad guys.

“You have your choice, surveillance room with Monty or computer room with Brody.”

Hmm.

Tough choice.

Not.

“Surveillance room,” Ally spoke my thoughts immediately.

I thought it was prudent to inform her about Monty, just in case she got any ideas. “Monty’s married and has five kids.”

She looked at me.

“Surveillance room,” she repeated.

I nodded.

Surveillance room definitely sounded better than computer room with Brody.

“We’ll take surveillance room,” I told Lee.

I felt a hand lightly touch my shoulder and I woke with a start to see Vance standing over me.

I blinked at him and stared.

I was in the surveillance room and had fallen asleep in my chair.

Ally and I had made the wrong decision, the way wrong decision.

The surveillance room might seem cool, but spend more than fifteen minutes in it and it was boring as hell. I wasn’t into that kind of thing, but after thirty minutes of staring at pretty much nothing happening on the monitors, I was praying for some poke-the-nanny action just for a little excitement.

“Let’s go,” Vance said.

I looked around, I had no idea what time it was but I figured it was late, Monty was gone and Ally and I were alone in the room. Ally was staring at Vance. Even in all my years of knowing her, I noticed she was staring at Vance with a new look, one I’d never seen before. It was an oh-my-God-that-guy-is-hot mixed with an oh-my-God-what-the-fuck-is-going-on look.

My eyes turned to Vance and he was not in a flirting, grinning, hot guy mood. He was in a serious, badass, hot guy mood.

“Where’s Lee?” I asked.

“Out,” Vance replied and that was all I was going to get and the way he said it made me decide not to go for more.

I stood and as I did, Vance got tense, his body turned so he was facing the closed door as well as standing in front of me and his hand went to a gun holstered at his belt.

We heard a violent thud on the wall outside the door and a muted exclamation of pain.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at the door.

Ally came up beside me and she stared at the door.

Vance listened (also staring at the door).

After awhile, there was silence, Vance relaxed and nodded to us.

He left the room.

We followed.

The place was darkened, but not dark, the light on Dawn’s desk was burning and the overhead lights were on but muted. The office seemed, somehow, sinister. There was not a good vibe in the air.

We ran into Brody in the parking garage.

“Hey!” he yelled, trotting up to us, all excited and happy and definitely not feeling the sinister vibe. “Guess what? Monty called and he’s letting me do the surveillance room.” Brody lifted a plastic bag filled with cheese puffs and energy drinks. “All night. I’m, like, one of the guys!”

“Righteous, Brody,” Ally said quietly, definitely attuned to the sinister vibe.

“You guys want to do the shift with me? It’ll be cool. We’ll order pizza.”

“No,” Vance said and Brody’s eyes swung to him.

“No?” Brody asked.

“No. No pizza and no visitors. The office is no longer safe,” Vance replied.

Brody got pale.

Ally took in breath.

I forgot to breathe.

What on earth did that mean?

Vance kept speaking. “You lock down the surveillance room once you enter it, watch the screens, field the calls and that’s it. You don’t open the door unless you get the code.”

Brody was beginning to look a little panicked but he hung in there. “Oh shit, another code, what’s this one again?”

“Same as always,” Vance said.

Brody looked blank.

Vance looked unhappy. “Three two two.”

“Got it. Yeah. Right. Okay.” Brody didn’t say good-bye and walked away, whispering to himself.

I allowed myself a moment to hope Brody was going to be all right before we all climbed into a black Ford Explorer.

Vance took Ally home first, asking her address. She got out, quiet and looking worried and she promised to call me.

Vance waited until the door closed behind her and her inside lights went on, then he took me home and didn’t ask my address. He walked me to the door, took my key from my hand, opened it and made me stand just inside the closed door while he checked the house. He came back downstairs, went out to the Explorer, came back carrying a small duffle and walked immediately to my dining room table.

He opened the duffle and started to put stuff on my dining room table, announcing each one as he set it down. “Gun, Glock, loaded. Extra clip. Taser. Stun gun.”

I stared at the weapons on my table and then back to Vance.

“Lee says you know how to use them,” he said.

I realized his statement was a question and I nodded.

“Lock all doors and windows after I leave. You don’t open the door to anyone unless it’s Lee, Mace or me. Even if you know them. Got me?” Vance asked.

I nodded, then he nodded.

“Where’s Lee? What’s happening?”

“This will all be over soon,” he said instead of answering. He went to the door, stopped and turned to me. “Close your blinds.”

“Hang on a second.” I went after him and grabbed his arm so he wouldn’t go. “What the fuck is happening?”

He looked at me a beat, likely trying to guess my reaction to whatever dire news he was about to impart.

Then he decided that he could share.

“Lee’s escalated hostilities, Wilcox has done the same.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Again, he looked at me a beat.

Then a slow, arrogant, unbelievably handsome, shit-eating grin spread across his face.

“That means, tonight we’re gonna have fun.”

With that, he left.

I stood staring at the door thinking it didn’t sound fun at all.