Rock Chick Regret (Rock Chick #7)(44)

Then he said softly, “You can do it Sadie, I know you can.”

He was wrong.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“You fed me information on your father.”

“I know.”

“You risked your life to help that investigation.”

“I know.”

“How can you do that and not do this?”

I shook my head again. “I don’t know.” And I didn’t.

Hector stared at me and I looked at him.

Then I had to say something just so he wouldn’t think I was an utter coward.

“I’m not a total wimp,” I assured him, trying to shake the uneasy feelings beginning to crawl along my skin that I was talking about this with Hector of all people. “I have a plan. See, if I don’t press charges –”

Hector broke in, didn’t even try to listen to my plan. “You can’t play with these guys.”

“But –”

“Sadie, mi cielo, you know it far better than I do. You play with these guys, you’ll lose.”

I felt the telltale lump hit my throat. I swallowed. It didn’t work.

I swallowed again. It still didn’t work.

Then before I could stop it, to my horror, I started crying.

Really! Where was my Ice Princess? Why did she come along when she wasn’t wanted and disappeared when I needed her? She was beginning to really annoy me.

When the Ice Princess didn’t show, with no other choice so he wouldn’t see me cry, I shoved my face in his neck.

He dropped to the side on his back taking me with him. He rolled us and then we were lying on the couch, me snug between the heat of him and the soft back of the couch.

One of his arms held me close at the waist; the other hand cupped the back of my head and held my face to his throat.

“Let me take care of you,” he whispered through my sobs.

“Okay,” I whispered through my sobs too, too tired to fight it anymore.

“I’ll come get you tomorrow, take you to the Station.”

I took a ragged breath.

Then even though it scared me, I agreed. “Okay,” I repeated.

“Eddie’ll be there. You want Ralphie there or anyone else –”

“Bex,” I said immediately.

“Bex?”

“She’s B… Buddy’s f…f…friend. He introduced me to her,” I said but it took a long time because my voice kept hitching. “She works at a rape c…c…crisis center.”

Hector’s arms went tighter. “Okay, we’ll call Bex.”

“And Daisy,” I went on.

His arms tightened further and I snuggled in closer.

“And Shirleen,” I said though I had no idea why.

“Shirleen?”

“She seems like a nice lady,” I explained to him but also to myself.

“She is,” Hector said quietly.

We laid there and Hector held me. This went on for a long time.

I knew I should put a stop to it. All of it.

But I didn’t.

How bizarre was that?

Finally, once the tears were subsiding, I called, “Hector?”

“Yeah?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you want to take care of me?”

His body went still for a few seconds then he kissed the top of my head. “We’ll save that for another talk.”

I didn’t think I wanted to have another talk with Hector. This one didn’t go so well for me.

I found out he knew I was his informant (which was kind of embarrassing). I found out he’d been tracking me and doing more to protect me than he and his buddies sitting in cars outside the house. He totally didn’t listen when I explained why we wouldn’t work. And he got me to agree to press charges against two of the Balducci Boys, blowing my plan out of the water and playing my ace in the hole way faster than I intended.

No, this talk didn’t go well for me.

Still, I was getting kind of sleepy, tears always exhausted me and a big old crying fit like that did me in.

Furthermore, I was full of Blanca’s food.

Lastly, but most importantly, Hector’s heat and closeness made me feel warm, snug and safe and I hadn’t felt warm, snug and safe in forever.

So, instead of protesting the very idea of another talk that also could go very badly for me, I said, “Okay.”

Then I snuggled even closer, not even caring what I was doing and doing it because I liked to feel Hector’s arms go tighter and then tighter until he was holding me super close.

And once I was super close, snug, warm and safe in his arms, I fell asleep.

Chapter Eight

Man of the Month

Sadie

I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the muscular column of a man’s throat.

As this didn’t happen to me every day, I thought it best to take stock of my surroundings.

I was in the living room on the couch and I was wrapped up in what appeared to be Hector. Although I kept my eyes trained on his throat, it couldn’t really be anyone else.

By wrapped up, I meant that his arm was draped around my waist, my arm was draped around his waist, my top leg was thrown over his thigh, his leg was cocked between my legs, my other hand was flattened against his chest and the rest of me was pressed up close to the rest of him.