Kristen Ashley - Rock Chick

“You didn’t…” I whispered.

“I can keep you safe, India. My present yesterday proved it,” Wilcox said.

I felt bile climb up the back of my throat.

Then something else hit me, the store was bugged. Days ago, Lee had bugged the store. If I could get him talking, maybe it could get taped or someone at Lee’s Command Headquarters was listening. Then Wilcox could be picked up for murder and I’d never have to worry about him again, or, at least, until they let him out.

“Lee keeps me protected,” I told Wilcox, I didn’t know what to say to draw him out.

He smiled his oily smile.

“To do it properly, you have to eliminate the threat.”

“Is that what you did? Eliminated the threat and put him at my front door?”

His smile didn’t waver and he didn’t answer.

“I didn’t know he was from you, how was I to know the dead guy was from you? You should have left, like, a note or something,” I said.

“Antonio!” Wilcox shouted, the suddenness of it making me jump, “we’re going. The lady said she doesn’t need your services.”

“But I make coffee,” Antonio whined.

Wilcox just slid his eyes to Antonio and without another word, he rushed out from behind the counter.

Wilcox winked at me, nodded to Lee and Duke and then left, Antonio and the rest of his goons on his heels.

I was holding my breath. When the door closed behind them, I let the breath out in a whoosh, sagging against Lee’s back.

“I’m surprised you didn’t put your fist in his face,” Duke said to Lee.

“I’d rather put a bullet in his brain,” Lee replied in a voice that was oh-so-much-more scary then the calm one he’d used earlier. Mainly because he sounded like he intended to do it.

He twisted, pulled me around to his front and kissed my forehead.

“You did all right,” he told me.

“This has to end soon, I’m coming apart at the seams.”

His arm wrapped around my shoulders and neck and held me close.

Jane wandered out from the bowels of the shelves, reading and walking at the same time, her face buried in an open book. Oblivious to the most recent drama, she seemed to sense the presence of others, looked up in surprise as if she’d just encountered us all in her living room, not standing at the front of a huge, used bookstore. She stopped dead, staring at Tex.

“Hey Jane, honey. How’re you doin’ today?” I asked, worried that she’d have ill-effects after seeing a dead body yesterday.

Her eyes went from Tex, to me then flickered to Lee and I could see her blush.

This didn’t surprise me. Lee had that effect on women.

She didn’t answer me, just nodded and wandered behind the book counter.

“She’s hangin’ in there,” Duke mumbled, answering my unspoken question.

“Indy, are you gonna try my coffee, or what?” Tex called.

I disengaged from Lee and walked on shaky legs to the counter. I took the cup from Tex and before I even took a drink, I stopped and lifted my eyes to look at the big, crazy man.

I could smell it, and it smelled good.

I tasted it.

Divine.

“Tex,” I whispered, “this is the nectar of the gods.”

“I told you anyone could make coffee,” Tex replied.

“You want a job?” I asked him.

Tex stared. “You shittin’ me?”

“Nope.”

“What about the cats?”

“Sometimes they need to play and sometimes they need to sleep. They can sleep while you’re making coffee.”

We left Tex to fill out employment forms and Lee drove into LoDo, turning into underground parking. There was a bank of spots with signs that said, “Nightingale Investigations” and Lee reversed the Crossfire into one. Most of them were empty, one held a soft-top Jeep, another the Mercedes Lee was driving when Tex and I did our breaking and entering, another held a red Miata and one held a black Ducati Monster Testastretta next to a silver Harley Dyna Low Rider.

I’d seen Lee on the Ducati and it was sweet. I kinda hoped the Harley was his as well.

I couldn’t concentrate on happy thoughts of maybe getting a ride on the Ducati, or the Harley, because I was too excited about the fact that I was about to visit Lee’s LoDo offices.

We got off the elevator on the second floor and I saw a door with a small brass plaque that had Lee’s company name on it. Lee opened the door for me and I walked in.

It was decorated in “Man” with wood-paneled walls, a hulking reception desk, leather couches, thick carpet and dark wood, heavily framed cowboy prints on the walls with a bronze statue of a bucking bronco on a column in the corner.

The final touch was a glamorous blonde woman who looked like a super model sitting behind the reception desk.

She glanced up and the moment her eyes caught sight of Lee, they went from enquiring to inviting.

“Hey Lee,” she said, or more like breathed in a “happy birthday, Mr. President” way.

“Dawn. This is Indy,” Lee said but Dawn was already looking at me and sizing me up.

She was wearing designer clothing, she had a fresh French manicure and her yearly budget for hair highlights probably was more than my new furniture. She looked ready to step on a private jet, I looked ready to go to Six Flags Elitch Gardens.

She knew this, I knew this and when her eyes flickered to Lee I also knew Dawn wasn’t working here because it was an exciting career opportunity.

I smiled sweetly and lied, “Dawn, nice to meet you.”

She smiled sweetly back and it was fake, fake, fake.

“Indy,” she greeted and her eyes turned again to Lee. “Luke’s out of critical, I thought you’d want to know. I’ve e-mailed your phone messages through, two are priority but you’re expecting them and there’s a new high bond skip that needs your attention. The file’s on your desk.”

Lee nodded and propelled me with a hand at my back toward a hallway.

“Can you get Indy outfitted with a belt, stun gun, taser and spray?”

Yikes. What did I need all that for?

I decided not to ask.

“Sure thing,” Dawn answered, clearly ever-helpful.

We walked down the hall and into Lee’s office, which was more of the same but with a bigger desk. I was shocked when I entered, it was obsessively neat and tidy. A sleek coffee mug sat on a leather coaster on the desk, the mug shiny clean. A laptop also was on the desk, closed and positioned perfectly at an angle to the side. Fancy leather and wood desk accessories adorned the top as well, but they were empty except for a pencil holder filled with perfectly pointed pencils and one folder sitting in the in tray.

“This is scary, you’re a neat freak,” I said.

Lee walked behind the desk, opened the laptop and hit a button. “Dawn keeps it like this.”

That was not surprising.

“I bet she does.”

Lee’s eyes came to mine. “I’m not exactly in the business that allows me to keep open files on my desk.”

Hmm.

Locking away confidential files is one thing. Keeping your boss’s designer coffee mug shiny clean is another. I gave myself one guess as to who bought Lee that mug and that guess was Dawn. I wondered if it was a thanks-for-the-great-sex gift or a wish-we-were-having-great-sex gift.

I didn’t answer Lee. I made a show of studying the cowboy print on the wall and decided not to tell him that it was likely that Dawn would clean his Crossfire with her toothbrush if he asked.

Knowing Lee, he probably already knew.

“She’s dating a Bronco linebacker,” Lee told me, as ever, in my brain.

“Un-hunh,” I told the wall.

There was a big difference between dating a guy who, on Sundays a couple seasons of the year, played at being a tough guy, badass while wearing pads and a guy who simply was a tough guy, badass. The linebacker may get big bucks but he was not the real thing and, anyway, Lee wasn’t hurting money-wise, that was certain.

When I looked back at Lee, he was studying the file but he had the eye-crinkle going.

I was amusing him.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

He didn’t even look up. “You’re jealous.”

As if!

“I am not!”

He shook his head but didn’t answer and kept scanning the file.

“Lee, if you think she doesn’t have the hots for you, you aren’t as clever as I thought. And if you’ve already screwed her, you really aren’t as clever as I thought.”

He closed the file, dropped it on the desk and moved around it, toward me.

“Dawn’s organized, cordial, always on time, willing to do overtime at a moment’s notice and doesn’t get flustered easily. I know she’s attracted to me but she’s my employee and she’s a good one. No way I’d touch her. You don’t shit where you live.”

He was backing me up across the office and doing his disarming straight talk thing. I had to admit I was a little pleased Lee hadn’t sampled his receptionist. Not only would it make things potentially difficult for me in future, it was tacky. Though, thinking about it now with a clearer head, she wasn’t his type.

“All righty then,” I said when the backs of my legs hit a leather couch.

His hand went to my jaw.

“You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I wasn’t worried.” This was almost not a lie. Dawn was pretty but she was super-thin. Lee liked a woman with curves, always had and (hopefully) always would.

“No?” Lee asked, his eyes warm, his face wearing what had become a familiar soft look, a look I’d only ever seen him give to me.

Still, he didn’t believe me.

“You like booty, not bony. She’s pretty and all but not exactly your type,” I told him.

As if to prove me right, his hands went to my ass.

I pressed my hands against his chest. “Are we gonna do some of that kickass PI stuff now?”

Lee was leaning into me. “In a minute.”

I was having trouble staying upright, Lee was pressing into me, his hands on my behind, and he was looking at me with melty-chocolate eyes. His intentions were clear.

“Um, excuse me, but the door is unlocked, anyone can walk in and we have a renegade coffee guy to catch, we don’t have time for this. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking of fucking you on my couch.”

Holy crap.

I did a full body tremble, starting at the toes and going up.

“Lee! We have things to do, places to go, butt to kick and we’re in your office with Dawn just down the hall, for goodness sakes. What if she walks in with my stun gun?”

He let me go, walked to the door, locked it and came back.

I scooted away but he hooked my waist, pulled me back and gave me a bit of a shove so I fell to the couch. He followed me down.

“I can see why you haven’t found Rosie or the diamonds yet. You’re easily distracted.”

He was nuzzling my neck.

“Yeah, you’re distracting,” he agreed readily. “Not to mention, I rarely get into the office, I prefer being out in the field. I hate sitting in this office,” he said this to the space below my ear and then moved his head to brush his lips against mine. “From now on, when I have to be in here, I can look at this couch and remember having a piece of your sweet ass on it and the time will go a fuck of a lot faster.”

Yikes.

I should have been horrified, maybe, or offended. Instead I liked the idea of him thinking of me in his office, even that way or maybe especially that way. I liked the fact that he told me, matter-of-fact. It wasn’t a roses and champagne compliment but it worked all the same.

“Oh, all right,” I gave in on a sigh, wrapping my arms around him and he kissed me but I could swear I felt his body shaking, like he was laughing.

* * *

After we broke in his couch, I used his private bathroom while Lee checked his e-mail messages, made some phone calls and once I had all my clothes and hair back in order, we walked out of his office. He was going to give me a tour and he took me down the hall in the opposite direction to reception.

There were several doors and he opened the one next to his office. It was large, held an exercise bike, a treadmill, a set of free weights, a flat screen TV and a big, comfy couch.

“This is a room for downtime, waiting or on call.” This was all he said before he closed the door.

He turned across the hall and opened another door and I peered inside. It was a bathroom, two sinks under two mirrored medicine cabinets. There was a double-front, free-standing cabinet with glass doors showing one side stacked with towels, the other side holding male toiletries like shaving cream and deodorant (okay, that was all the male toiletries, but males don’t have a lot of toiletries and from what I noticed, Lee, nor any of his men, were into primping and putting shitloads of product in their hair) but was mostly taken up with various medical supplies (this I found slightly alarming but I set it aside). There was also a toilet in a stall and a big tiled space with two shower heads, open bays. All of this was pristine clean and new-looking.