Kristen Ashley - Rock Chick

Darius Tucker was much the same, but he was also absolutely hilarious, so funny you’d nearly wet your pants laughing. He had soulful eyes and a dry shoulder to cry on (especially for the girls). Everyone was certain he’d quickly get married and settle down and make some woman a good husband. Instead, his Dad was murdered when he was seventeen and he went off the rails and off the radar. I hadn’t seen him in years and I missed him. He was a good guy, he’d made me laugh and he’d let me cry on his shoulder plenty of times. According to Malcolm and Dad, he was now bad news.

I didn’t know anyone named Marcus.

“Darius?” I said when I could say anything at all.

Lee pushed his plate away and turned to me again. “Yeah. The deal was, we all work together to cause problems for Coxy, delayed shipments, missing deliveries, cops turnin’ up at inopportune moments. I shared information and me and the boys caused some of the complications that Hank and Eddie couldn’t cause. Coxy’s network of buyers and suppliers started to alternately freak or get pissed off and his men began to defect. Rick and Pete decided on early retirement and, to augment their pension, they stole Marcus’s diamonds.”

“Marcus?”

“A leftover from when I did security. He keeps us on retainer for certain jobs. He’s powerful and not someone who appreciates being stolen from. I was in DC and got an urgent call from him when his diamonds went missing.”

“Why’d he call you?”

Lee shrugged.“I’m good at finding all different kinds of things.”

Oh dear Lord.

I had a feeling this was one of those cases where I didn’t want to know.

I changed the subject.“How on earth does Rosie fit into all of this?”

“Rosie had a good operation going, small but popular and not quiet which was not smart. Coxy heard about it and wanted a piece, so he coerced Rosie into giving him one. Then he coerced Rosie into doing other things for him, things Rosie didn’t want to do but didn’t know how to say no. Rick and Pete decided to play innocent about the diamonds until they had their shit together enough to move to Brazil, which was only supposed to be a day or two. They stashed the rocks with Rosie, thinkin’ he was scared enough to do what he was told. Apparently, he was pissed off enough to use the diamonds to blackmail Rick and Pete to get him out from under Coxy. Unfortunately, he was playin’ out of his league. In the meantime, word went out the diamonds were gone, Coxy found out his boys had gone renegade. Even Coxy isn’t crazy enough to out and out kick sand in Marcus’s face, especially not with his systems breakin’ down. So everyone was in a rush for the diamonds. Enter you.”

“I’m a little confused.”

“I would be too if I came in at the end of this shit. It’s fucked up.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I’m gettin’ paid.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“No, it’s not. I should say I’m gettin’ paid a lot.”

“Is it worth it?”

His arm slid behind me on the booth and he twisted toward me again. I’d abandoned my tostada half eaten and was turned toward him.

“I like what I do but it’s like football. Your career has a shelf life. I intend to be retired by forty-five with the cabin in Grand Lake and a condo in Florida, a damn good boat in both places and enough money to make life good until I die.”

“So, what you’re saying is, it’s worth it.”

He went back to wrapping a lock of my hair around his finger. His voice changed and so did his eyes, from all business to warm and soft.

“Yeah, it’s worth it. Do you like Florida?”

My stomach did a clutch. “Would Florida come with a housekeeper that puts your towels on the rail after you throw them in the sink?”

His eyes got warm. “That’s the ‘make life good’ part.”

“Then I might like Florida.” His finger tugged my hair playfully but I ignored it and asked, “Who’s paying you?”

He let go of my hair, leaned forward and took out his wallet.

“Story time’s over. We have to get back to work.”

“I guess question time is over too.”

His eyes slid to me again telling me question time was definitely over.

We were in the Crossfire when I told him we had to go to Tod and Stevie’s to pick up Chowleena.

“Sorry?” he asked.

“I’m watching her for a couple of days.”

“We’ll go get her later.”

“We can’t go get her later! If we go get her later, that wouldn’t be me watching her, that would be her, alone, at home with no one watching her.”

“I’m not takin’ a chow dog out to work with me.”

“She’ll be good. I swear, she’s a great dog.”

“No.”

I had to pull out the big guns.“There’ll be naked gratitude in it for you.”

Lee hesitated, but just for a moment.

“Shit,” he mumbled.

He steered the Crossfire toward Baker District.

We cruised up to Paris on the Platte with Chowleena in my lap, her face out the open window, eyes squinty in the wind, mouth panting and fluffy fur rippling. Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” was blaring from Lee’s radio.

There were some songs that it was a crime against nature to listen to quietly and “Jungle Love” was one of them, although Lee didn’t agree.

I was finding the promise of naked gratitude went a long way.

As Lee parked, I looked to Paris on the Platte, part-bookstore, mostly-funky-coffee-house, it had been around for ages. They made Rosie’s coffee look amateur.

Sitting out front at one of the tables on the sidewalk was Eddie Chavez, legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, elbows on the arm rests, hands hanging loose.

Pure cool.

He had on a white thermal, short-sleeved tee, a pair of worn out Levi’s, black cowboy boots and a black belt with a big buckle pressed against his flat abs. He had dark skin, black hair and he was wearing a pair of kickass mirrored shades. Shades I knew hid eyes so dark brown, they were black. He was flashing a grin at us, ultra-white against his skin.

He looked damn good.

I knew Eddie well growing up. He, Lee and Darius hung out together most of the time and I tried my best to be wherever Lee was so I spent a good deal of time with the three of them.

Since then, I’d seen Eddie a lot, he stayed close with both Lee and Hank. He came to Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s parties and he’d come over to Hank’s when we all went over there and watched football. I wouldn’t say we were great friends but I liked him and I knew he liked me.

In fact, I think he liked me, liked me. He could be hilariously suggestive in a flirty way but that wasn’t it, that was just banter.

If Eddie was attracted to you, he didn’t make it obvious by flirting. Eddie wasn’t the kind of guy who flirted a girl into bed. His tactics were more subtle and practiced. He liked to play a game, he liked a challenge. He was the stealth seducer. Eddie showed his appreciation in nonverbal ways, mostly using his eyes and being tactile in a way that kept you guessing, but felt provocative. I expected that was because that’s exactly what he meant it to feel like. There wasn’t a lot that Eddie did that Eddie didn’t mean to do.

I got out of the Crossfire and led Chowleena on her leash to Eddie. The minute Eddie saw Chowleena, his grin widened to a blinding white smile.

“Indy.” His arm slid around my waist, he brought me up against his hard body and he kissed my neck (see, provocatively tactile!). He was four inches taller than me, one of those inches from the heels of his boots.

I sat, Lee sat and Chowleena clicked over to Lee and laid down on his booted feet. Eddie watched, the smile never leaving his face.

His mirrored shades turned to Lee. “A Chow?”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” Lee growled, his voice low and impatient.

Eddie chuckled and I realized that a Chow was not good for Lee’s Badass reputation. Especially not one who’s big, fluffy fur was shaved into a dog version of a lion wearing chaps.

Lee needed a German Sheppard or a Rottweiler, not a Chow wearing fur chaps.

“There’s naked gratitude in it for him,” I blurted in an attempt to save Lee’s reputation.

The mirrored shades turned to me.

“I should hope so.” Eddie leaned in close. “Just for your information, for me, gratitude for hangin’ with a Chow wouldn’t be naked. It would include black lace underwear, a matching garter belt, stockings and stilettos.”

Wow.

I didn’t know, but that seemed pretty brazenly flirty. What did I do with that? Especially from Lee’s best friend, right in front of Lee. And here was me, just having promised not to flirt.

Shit.

I turned to Lee. He was also wearing sunglasses, but his were Top Gun flight glasses, smoky lenses and gold frames. His face was blank but his mouth was tight.

“I don’t have black lace underwear and a matching garter belt,” I told Lee.

Eddie leaned back and chuckled again. Lee’s face didn’t change.

“I have red lace underwear and a matching garter belt,” I said.

This was true, I did.

Eddie quit chuckling.

“And black satin underwear and a garter belt. And then there’s my purple teddy thing with attached garters.” I paused. “I’ll model them all and you can choose.”

I looked at Eddie out of the corner of my eye and the smile was gone.

Then I sat back.

My work was done.

Lee granted me A Smile. It was small but it was meaningful.

“You’ve always been a lucky fuck,” Eddie murmured to Lee.

The waiter came and took our orders. I got my usual, a Café Fantasia, hot chocolate at the bottom, espresso at the top separated by a slice of orange and topped with whipped cream that had teeny sugared-orange sprinkles. Lush.

I ordered a bowl of water for Chowleena.

“You have anything for me?” Lee asked Eddie when the waiter walked away.

“Yep, word is Rick was done by someone from out of town,” Eddie answered.

Lee sat back and his mouth got tight again. “New York?”

“Yeah, but not in the family, an independent contractor. Coxy’s havin’ to hire his guns these days. Gary couldn’t put a bullet in someone’s brain if he had the barrel restin’ against his forehead.”

I thought this was good news. Goon Gary seemed less of a threat if this was true. I was taking my good news as it came these days, no matter how freakishly scary it was.

“There’s talk that there’s two names on his list, Rick was only one of them,” Eddie went on.

“Teddy?” Lee asked.

“Nope, Coxy wrote Teddy off, or at least he did until Teddy hit the street an hour ago.”

“Who’s the name?”

“Coltrane.”

Oh no, Rosie.

All the breath went out of my body and I stared at Lee. I was wearing shades too, mine were huge, shiny, rock ‘n’ roll black, kind of a hybrid between Jackie O and Bono. I thought the lenses would melt with the heat from my stare.

The waiter brought our coffees, Chowleena’s water, and left.

“We have to find him,” I told Lee.

“We’ll find him,” Lee replied.

I wasn’t entirely sure how we’d find him, considering we were sitting in the sun enjoying coffees.

As far as I could tell, there wasn’t much to this PI stuff. In fact, it was more dangerous facing down the Rosie Riot than doing Lee’s job.

Lee seemed completely calm about this news. This news did not make me calm, there was a hired hit man after Rosie. I was pretty angry at Rosie but I still liked him enough to want his brains to remain in his skull for the foreseeable future.

“You should know bookies are takin’ bets, you against Coxy, who’ll win Indy,” Eddie told Lee then looked at me.

Oh… my… God.

“Really?” I asked.

“Who’s got the odds?” Lee asked.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at Lee. Was he nuts? Who cared? People were betting on us!

Eddie turned back to Lee. “You.”

“You’re joking right?” I put in.

Eddie shook his head.

I turned my attention toward my drink, which was the only sane thing I could do.

If in doubt, coffee.

I loved whipped cream but I wasn’t a big fan of whipped cream melting into coffee. Café Fantasias were stacked in a plastic, ice cream parfait glass. I picked up the plastic glass and opened my mouth over the cream and sucked it all in one slurp. Then I grabbed my spoon to mush down the orange and mix the cocoa with coffee. I felt a tingling at the back of my neck and looked up at Lee and Eddie, both of whom had shades trained on me.