Kristen Ashley - Rock Chick

The crowd ate it up, shouting, cheering and sending up deafening whistles and cat calls.

It was beautiful and the biggest fucking happy rush I’d had in my life.

It was when the disco slowed to the funky bit that was a wind up to when Barbra gets so pissed off her voice goes husky that I saw Pepper Rick standing across the room, pointing a gun at me.

I froze.

Then, without my brain telling my body to do it, I whirled and threw myself in a body tackle, bringing Burgundy down. Both of our tip money and microphones flew out of our hands and Burgundy shouted a very male, “What the fuck?”

The crowd began to cheer, thinking it was part of the show but the cheer turned to screams and shouts when gunfire rang out.

“Crawl,” I hissed to Tod, “stay low and crawl the fuck out of here.”

We almost started to crawl as more gunfire rang through the bar, then I jumped back on Tod, covering him with my body. Once the sound of the guns cleared, I could hear Dad and Malcolm shouting orders to people trying to keep calm and stop a stampede.

We started crawling again, all I could see was Tod’s sequined ass. I heard heavy footfalls on the stage and, all of a sudden, I was lifted up. I let out an half-enraged, half-startled scream and tried to twist away but I no sooner got a look at who had me when I was thrown, like a human discus, off the stage.

I flew through the air and hit Lee with a grunt, both his and mine, and his arms came around me as he staggered back a step to brace himself. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Tex, who had made it to the stage, and me, before Lee. Tex executed the stage dive to end all stage dives, his bulky weight toppling the unfortunate and unprepared people who’d been in his way.

I didn’t get a chance to process this because Lee lifted me up by the waist and carried me to the door, moving anyone out of our way by either shoving them, punching them or just plain old body slamming them with his shoulder.

I saw Hank in front of us with Ally in a similar hold just as Malcolm pushed Kitty Sue out the door.

Lee dragged me to Ally’s car, a newish, convertible Ford Mustang. Hank was shoving Ally in the driver’s seat. Lee shoved me in the passenger side.

“Indy!” Dad shouted from somewhere.

“Here. Safe,” Lee shouted back.

My eyes found Dad and I noticed he lifted his index finger and snapped it smartly at Lee in a “you the man” gesture. He got in with Malcolm and Kitty Sue as Lee started talking to me.

“Stay here, lock your doors, stay down and out of sight.”

I turned to him.

“Tod, Stevie, Tex. Ohmigod, Andrea’s a mother!”

But he wasn’t listening, he slammed the door and ran back to BJ’s.

“And now you,” I whispered, watching him go.

Ally’s hand took mine.

“He’ll be okay,” she said. “You know, you wouldn’t even want a man who wouldn’t go back to save someone’s mother and a drag queen.”

This was true.

Her hand went from mine to my neck and forced me down and my torso explored the limits of the seat belt Lee buckled on me.

“I’ll tell you what’s happening,” she offered.

I bent forward as far as I could to hide myself, heard the locks go on the doors and she started the car in preparation just in case we needed a fast getaway. I listened as Ally counted off Duke and Dolores, who roared off on their hog. Marianne came out with Hank, who took her directly to her car. Andrea came out with Lee, trailed by Andrea’s husband. Lee made sure they were in their mini-van before he went back in. Tex raged out on his own power but this included from Ally an, “Uh-oh, I think he’s bleeding again”. I nearly shot up but she kept me down with a hand at my neck.

The locks went, I was pressed further forward as the back of my seat was tilted, the seatbelt strained to its limits and cut into my chest, and Tex threw himself in back.

“Holy fuck, pandemonium at the gay bar!” he yelled.

I reached out and closed the door, the locks went again and I turned my head and looked back as best I could in the position I was in.

“You okay?” I asked Tex.

“Think I tore somethin’ lose either throwin’ you or doin’ the dive or maybe when I got in a fight with that guy in leather. Doesn’t matter. I feel fuckin’ great! It’s bedlam in there. Fuckin’ nuts!” He stopped, leaned forward and looked out the windshield. “Hey, that’s the guy that shot me!”

My head popped up and sure enough, it was Pepper Rick.

He ran to a car with people in it, a little Mini. The people had left the bar and were trying to get away. I could hear sirens as I watched Rick yank the driver out, the passenger throwing himself out the other side. Rick got behind the wheel and burned rubber.

“Go! Go, go, go!” Tex shouted and Ally didn’t hesitate, she laid rubber too.

I turned my head to her.

“What are you doing?” I shouted.

“He can’t get away!” she shouted back.

With my head turned, I saw Terry Wilcox’s boys, Goon Gary and The Moron as they exited BJ’s.

Jeez, it was like an Indy Torture Squad convention.

Then I could notice no more as Ally jerked around a car trying to exit the parking lot and jumped the curb, screeching south onto Broadway, cutting off a car as we swerved across the two lanes going north and pulling right out in front of a squad car coming south.

The cop car was about to execute a turn in to BJ’s but jerked back out onto Broadway behind the Mustang.

“Pull over, let the cops have him,” I said.

“No way! This guy shot me!” Tex yelled.

Ally wasn’t listening anyway, she rocketed down Broadway, shifting gears quickly, ratcheting up the mph to levels so far beyond safe it wasn’t funny.

“Ally, pull over!” I screamed.

“He’s two cars in front of you. Pass! Pass!” Tex shouted.

We shot passed two squad cars going north, their lights on and sirens blaring. One screeched to a halt and did a uie behind us.

“Stop now! There are more cops, he won’t get away!” I yelled.

“Don’t stop!” Tex shouted. “Never say die!”

I went to bars and clubs without my purse, usually carrying money, credit cards, driver’s license and lip gloss in my front pocket and my cell in my back. It was now that I felt my cell phone vibrate against my ass as I heard it ring. I snatched it from my pocket and tore my eyes from the road long enough to read, “Lee calling”.

I flipped it open as Tex crowed, “No cars in front of us, bump him! That’s it!”

“Don’t bump him!” I shrieked “He’s in someone else’s car.”

Ally didn’t listen, we bumped Pepper Rick, did a nauseating, out of control jerk from side-to-side before Ally righted us and then she yelled, “Righteous!”

I was too scared even to scream.

“Indy.” I heard Lee’s voice in my ear and didn’t realize I’d put the cell there.

“Yeah?” I replied, sounding calmer than I actually was.

“Bump him again, girl,” Tex encouraged.

“Where the fuck are you?” Lee, on the other hand, didn’t sound calm.

Another cop car going north screeched to a halt and swung a uie. I looked behind us and we had three squad cars trailing us now, their sirens blaring and lights rolling. It looked like other cars were back there too, members of the chase, and one of them looked a whole lot like Lee’s Crossfire.

I turned back forward and answered Lee.

“We saw Pepper Rick so we’re following him. Going south on Broadway.”

A car shot passed us, looking like it had Terry Wilcox’s goons in it. It jerked in front of Pepper Rick and slammed on its brakes. Everyone behind it, including us, slammed on their brakes and went into evasive maneuvering. Ally’s Mustang did a couple more sickening lurches and then we all accelerated, Pepper Rick and Coxy’s boys jockeying for position in front of us like they were on a NASCAR track. Thankfully everyone on Broadway was pulling well over because of the squad car posse behind us.

“Pull over,” I heard Lee demand in my ear.

“She won’t listen to me,” I told Lee. “She and Tex are on a mission.”

“Indy, tell Ally to pull… the fuck… over,” Lee repeated.

“Ally,” I said, “Lee wants you to pull over.”

“I can’t,” Ally returned. “I can’t do it. He’s not gonna get away. He shot at you.”

It was then I lost my mind, pulled the phone from my ear and screeched, “Pull over, God dammit!”

We were well into Englewood when a squad car came up beside us, Willie Moses at the wheel. I saw Brian Bond sitting in the passenger seat doing hand gestures at us, his face a mask of disbelieving fury. Ally turned her head to look at him and lost control of the Mustang.

We pitched right then left, nearly side-swiping Willie and Brian. Willie avoided us, shot forward and then we bounded across the median, cars coming the other way swerving and blaring their horns.

With incredible luck, we careened into an old, unused lot, knocked down a chain link fence, driving over it and then coming to a smashing, bone-jarring halt when we slammed into a concrete slab.

Upon impact, the airbags blew out.

I sat in a daze for a few seconds, my mind automatically doing a body inventory to assess any damage. When I realized that I was okay, I pulled back from the airbag and asked, “Everyone all right?”

Ally mumbled something, there was a grumble from the backseat and my door was wrenched open.

I saw a penknife puncture the bag, which deflated immediately. A hand was at my chest to hold me back against the seat so I didn’t crumple forward with the loss of the airbag. Not that my seatbelt was going to let me go anywhere, it had contracted on impact and my chest was killing me. Lee was crouched in the door beside me.

“You okay?” he asked, though he was finding out for himself, his hands running along my limbs, his eyes doing a body scan, searching for blood or bones protruding through my skin. In the lights illuminating the vacant lot, I could see his face was pinched with anger and concern.

Hank was on the other side, Ally’s bag was flat and he was doing the same thing.

“Yeah. I think so,” I told Lee.

“We need to get them free of the car,” Hank told Lee.

Lee reached across me and undid my buckle. He helped me out and walked me well away from the car toward the street. I used this time to pull my head together, take stock of the new aches and pains coming my way, flip my cell shut and slide it back in my pocket.

Ally and Tex were standing five feet away, Tex stomping his feet for some reason looking like he was doing a war dance without moving his arms. There was a blood stain at the shoulder of his sling. Luckily, that was the only blood on any of us.

I decided in an instant I was going to kill them both.

“You’re both nuts!” I shouted, charging forward, intent on murder or at the very least, maiming. “You could have killed us!”

I’d made it two strides before an arm snagged around my middle, hooking me and jerking me back. I slammed against Lee’s body but still struggled forward, pumping my arms and stamping my feet.

“I can’t believe, cannot believe, you just did that,” I shrieked at Ally “You’re crazy. Totally gonzo! What were you thinking?” I shouted.

“He was gonna get away,” Ally shouted back.

“Who cares!” I screamed.

“I care!” Ally screamed back.

“It wasn’t very smart,” Hank interjected his understatement in an angry voice. In fact, his voice, his face and his body screamed not only anger, but barely controlled fury.

Ally glared at me, her head swung to Hank and then she blew out a breath of pure exasperation.

“He shot at Indy! Twice! He kidnapped her. I’m not gonna let him get away. Give me a fucking break. I’m a Nightingale. If either of you…” she pointed to Hank then to Lee, “were sitting in a car and saw the opportunity, you’d take it without a thought. What? I can’t because I’m a girl?”

Okay, she had a point there.

I stopped struggling to get at her.

“And you,” she pointed to me, “someone did those things to me or your Dad or any of us, and you were behind the wheel of a car and had a chance to nab him, would you even hesitate?”

Hmm, another excellent point.

I bit my lip.

Being caught up in the events of the last several days, I had not stopped to consider how the people I loved, who loved me, felt about everything that was happening.