Rock Chick (Rock Chick #1)(7)

“Okay, we have a situation here. Rosie and I need somewhere to crash for the night and we’ll be gone tomorrow.”

“Why?” Lee asked.

“Don’t tell him!” Rosie cried, looking panicked.

“You talk or you walk,” Lee said.

I looked at Lee then I looked at Rosie.

I’d known Rosie for five years, he’d come to parties at my house. We’d gone to concerts together. He was a cool guy, a bit flighty and secretive and not as mellow as one would expect, considering he was a screaming stoner.

I had no idea he had a business on the side. I knew he made great coffee, I knew he thought Jim Morrison was an earthbound god and I knew he was a stoner.

I looked back at Lee.

“You have to promise to keep quiet.”

“No!” Rosie shouted, getting to his feet.

“I don’t have to promise anything,” Lee replied.

I did another glance at both of them.

Lee was being difficult, he was entitled we were in his domain without his permission.

Rosie was also being difficult, but Rosie was always difficult.

All I could think was I really needed my jeans.

“You can trust him,” I told Rosie.

Rosie was staring at Lee. Rosie was definitely far beyond mellow at this point. Rosie had been shot at tonight and then trussed up like a Christmas goose and I’d slept through it

However, Rosie had a lot to worry about. Rosie needed to start making good decisions about who to trust.

Rosie made a decision, a decision I hoped would take me closer to my Levi’s.

“He has to promise not to say anything to anyone. This’ll all be over tomorrow,” Rosie announced.

Lee hadn’t uncrossed his arms. Lee still wasn’t happy. This wasn’t hard to read, everything about him screamed it.

“Can I talk to you a minute?” I asked and then did a wave with my arm and Lee followed me to the entry hall.

First things first. Since the situation was still not stable and taking the time to dress, thus leaving Lee and Rosie alone, did not seem a smart option, I tried a different tactic in the hopes of covering my ass cheeks.

“Do you have a robe I could borrow?”

“No.”

“Does that mean you don’t have a robe I could borrow or I can’t borrow your robe?”

Lee stared at me some more.

Then he said, “Indy, start talking.”

His patience, it seemed, was running out. I’d have to leave my ass cheeks bared. I told myself this was Lee, he’d seen me in bikinis in his backyard (and mine, and on a family holiday to Mexico, and the one to San Diego). I was far more dressed than a bikini.

I soldiered on. “Okay, the thing is, Rosie has a little side business. Someone paid him in something and that something is kinda valuable, as in kinda really valuable. It’s also kinda stolen from someone else and that someone else wants it back. Rosie gave it to Duke for safekeeping and Rosie doesn’t have it. Duke’s away for a few days, back tomorrow morning. So, until he can get it from Duke, we have to lay low.”

“Why is this a ‘we’ situation?”

“Well, I was kinda with Rosie when they came after it.”

“And?”

“And, like I said, he didn’t have it.”

“And?”

“And I had a few words with them, in, er… Rosie’s defense.”

Loaded and pissed off hesitation complete with narrowing of eyes, then, “And?”

“And that’s when they shot at us and we took off and called Ally.”

No verbal comment but a muscle jerked in Lee’s cheek.

I didn’t take this as a good sign.

Probably, he wasn’t so happy I involved his sister in this mess.

Probably, he was equally unhappy that I’d involved him in this mess.

“What is it?” Lee asked.

“I can’t say.”

“If you don’t say, I’ll let him loose.”

I shook my head. “He’s pretty adamant that no one knows.”

“I’ll escort him out of the building myself.”

I looked back in the living room. Rosie was peering around the corner, eavesdropping.

I let out another heavy sigh. “Maybe we should go, get a hotel room.”

Rosie looked pleased at this announcement.

We only had a few hours to wait. Denver was a big city. It’d take longer than a few hours to find us.

“I didn’t say I’d let you loose, I said I’d let him loose.”

This announcement gave me a start and I turned to Lee.

“What?”

No answer.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Still no answer.

“What are you gonna do with me?” I kept trying.

“You tell me what this is about, nothing.”

“And if I don’t tell you?”

“I haven’t decided.”

“Lee!”

Lee’s patience ran out, he grabbed my arm, pointed at Rosie and said, “You move, you’ll regret it,” in a way that I figured Rosie would do a statue impersonation until he saw Lee again.

Then Lee yanked me into the bedroom, hit the light switch and closed the door behind us.