Rock Chick (Rock Chick #1)(121)

“Duke…” I said.

Duke looked at me and the look in his eye made me move closer to Lee.

“We don’t know when this f**kin’ lunatic is gonna lose his patience and turn on you. Bullets are flyin’, cars explodin’, dead bodies everywhere. This has got to f**kin’ stop. Now,” Duke said to me.

“He’s right,” Eddie agreed. “Indy needs to be protected. You got a safe house for her?”

“Yeah,” Lee answered.

Yikes!

“No! No, no, no,” I cried, beginning to panic. “I can’t go to a safe house. I can’t. I’d feel like a sitting duck.”

Lee’s arm came around me. “It won’t be for long.”

I pulled away from him. “No! I can’t do it. I’ll climb the walls. I swear, Lee, you lock me up and the minute I get out, I’m moving to Argentina.”

Either he didn’t believe me or he knew he could track me through the wilds of Argentina because he didn’t look like he was gonna cave.

“Lee, give me back the stun gun, I’ll carry it everywhere. Put a man on me. Anything, just don’t lock me up.”

“I’d put a man on you but if we’re gonna take Coxy down I gotta keep my boys on target.”

This wasn’t good, this was like being grounded but without the tree out your window to climb down when your Dad was asleep. I hadn’t been grounded in twelve years, I forgot how much I hated it, hated being penned in, hated my freedom restricted. I couldn’t stand it.

Surprisingly, Eddie caved first.

“We’ll take turns playin’ bodyguard,” Eddie said, staring into my deer-caught-in-headlights eyes. “I’ll talk to Hank, Willie, Carl. I’m off-duty. I’ll take the first shift.”

Shit.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

This did not sound good.

Lee slowly turned to Eddie. “I’m not sure I like that idea.”

Eddie looked at Lee. “Get over it.”

They stared at each other and moments passed while testosterone permeated the air.

“Oh for f**k’s sake. She might be pregnant with your baby, Lee. She’s hardly gonna wander,” Duke said.

My mouth dropped open.

Eddie looked at me, his eyes moved down to my belly then back up to my face. Then he turned to Lee.

“That didn’t take long,” he said.

“I’m not pregnant,” I said, (perhaps wishful thinking).

Tex came up with the coffees and handed them around.

“All right, boys, get to work,” he said.

Eddie walked to the couch and sat down, putting one cowboy-booted ankle on the other knee, spreading an arm along the back of the couch and taking a sip of cappuccino. He was looking at me and grinning in a sexy way.

Great.

Lee snagged my neck and pulled me to him.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said.

I nodded even though I didn’t believe him.

He kissed me and walked out.

Ally waved at Lee, who was getting on his bike as she walked in, and announced, “You have to miss a period, but I bought a couple pregnancy tests anyway, just in case.” And she waved around the boxes.

I looked at Eddie.

Eddie smiled.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Long-Lasting Reliability

I filled Ally in on the Cherry explosion and the reason for my new bodyguard.

Ally said, “There are a lot of things I imagined happening to her after she tried to trap Lee, that wasn’t one of them.”

Then, she put some Black Crowes in the CD player and turned up the volume.

Ally wasn’t one to reflect, she preferred rock ‘n’ roll.

More customers came in and luckily, we were busy enough to keep our minds off the latest disaster.

I was sitting behind the book counter, finishing an emergency order for coffee because if we continued at this rate, we’d run out by the end of the week, when my cell rang.

It was Dad.

“Hey Daddy-o,” I said.

“Hey, sweetie pie.”

His voice was soft and mushy. My Dad wasn’t a soft and mushy type of guy.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Kitty Sue called. If it’s a boy, you gotta name him after your Grandpa Herbert. I promised him if your mother and I had a boy, we’d do it and we never got ‘round to it so it’s up to you.”

I was sitting frozen to the spot, like a statue.

“Indy?”

I stayed silent.

“Okay, you can use Herbert as a middle name.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I shouted and everyone looked at me.

“Then why’d Kitty Sue call me asking me to your baby shower? Though, I’m not into this co-ed baby shower shit. I’ll send a gift.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I repeated.

“You’re not?”

Man, this was embarrassing.

“I’ll call you later.”

I flipped the phone shut and glared at Ally. “You called Kitty Sue.”

“No I didn’t,” she replied.

Duke was edging to the door.

“Duke!” I yelled.

“Gotta go see a man about a…” he started.

“Stop right there! Did you call Kitty Sue?”