I had a gut feeling so I described the shooters who started this whole fiasco and he nodded.
“Yeah, man, that’s them. The set of four were steady but the twosome were nervous-as-shit, looked like they needed sleep. Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t been to any of your parties. Rosie says your parties rock. He says you have cashews and everything. I’ve never been to a party with cashews.”
Ally handed him a card. “If you see him or hear anything, let one of us know.”
“Wow! A Rock Chick Card. That’s the shit, man. Does, like, Axl Rose have one of these?”
“Not yet,” Ally said.
“Cool.” The Kevster nodded. “You wanna come in? I’m just about to slip in The Big Lebowski and light up a spliff. Would be cool to watch The Dude with a couple of Rock Chicks.”
I declined, though I wouldn’t mind watching The Big Lebowski. It was one of my favorite movies. So much so, it was a friend test. If you didn’t like The Dude and Lebowski, then you could be a friend but would never be a good friend. Ever.
“No, thanks, gotta find Rosie.”
“That’s cool, come back whenever. Later.”
We sat in the car and stared at The Kevster’s house. Matt was on his cell, in his SUV, parked directly behind us.
“The second set are the shooters and it doesn’t appear they’re working together with Terry’s goons.”
“So you have a four-way competition with Lee,” Ally said.
“Yeah, except I know what’ll happen to Rosie if Lee or I find him, I don’t know what’ll happen if those guys find him.”
Ally kept staring at the house. “You sure we should be doing this?”
I answered truthfully, “Hell no.”
“We still gonna do this?”
“Doesn’t have to be a we,” I told her.
She turned to me. “Girl, the cards have both of our names on ‘em. Let’s motor.”
Best friends like Ally don’t grow on trees, let me tell you. She liked The Big Lebowski as much as I did, that’s all I’m saying.
We went back to Tim’s, with Lee’s man Matt following us. We parked two houses down and noticed crazy Grizzly sitting on his porch, the goggles still on top his head. Grizzly’s house was directly across the street from Tim’s and Grizzly looked like he spent a lot of time on the porch.
“We should talk to him, he looks like he keeps an eye on the neighborhood,” Ally said.
She was right, I knew she was right. I still didn’t want to talk to him.
My cell phone went and I looked at the display. It said, “Lee Calling”.
Shit.
I flipped it open.
“Hey.”
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Looking for Rosie,” I answered.
“Jesus, Indy.”
“He’s my friend and he’s my employee and you haven’t been shot at and kidnapped.”
“Leave it to me.” He sounded kind of bossy.
“Not at the current price, no.” I sounded kind of huffy.
“All right, then this is no cost.”
I felt a wave of relief sweep through me, followed closely by a wave of despair.
I pushed down the despair.
“Good, so I don’t have to sleep with you?”
Ally’s eyebrows went up.
“No, you’re gonna sleep with me, just not as payment for finding Rosie.”
“Lee –”
“Go back to Fortnum’s. I’ll be at your house at seven to take you to dinner.”
I harrumphed.
Then I asked, mainly out of curiosity because there was no way I was going to dinner with Lee, that might mean inebriation, or kissing, or something else that would take my mind off my plan and that couldn’t happen, “Where’re we going?”
“Barolo Grill.”
For a second, I forgot about my vow to avoid all things Lee.
“Oh. My. God! How did you know? I love it there!”
“Honey, you demand your family birthday dinners are there every year. It’s not hard to figure out you love it.”
Then he disconnected.
Something about his calling me “honey” and processing my desired birthday destination made my stomach flip over in a happy way.
“What’s this about not sleeping with Lee?” Ally asked.
I stared at Grizzly then looked in my rearview mirror. Matt was taking a call and shaking his head.
“You know how I’m saying Lee and I are taking it slow?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’m taking it slow, Lee wants things to go a little faster.”
“I see.” Ally was grinning.
“What’s with the grin?” I demanded.
“Girl, you are so not gonna go slow.”
Great.
We got out of the car and walked up to Grizzly’s house. Ally forged ahead without a care in the world. I drug my heels and looked back at Matt. He’d gotten out of his SUV, pulled a handgun out of the back waistband of his jeans and tucked it in full view at the hipbone in the front. He leaned against his SUV and crossed his arms.
“They come back, sportin’ a bodyguard,” Grizzly said by way of greeting, not looking at us but looking at Matt. “So now, I suppose you want me to think you’re serious. Especially now with you and a shiner. Jeez. You knee him in the nuts?”
“How do you know it was a him?” I asked.
“Girls don’t go for the cheekbones.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know that.
“Did you?” Grizzly persisted.
“What?”
“Knee him in the nuts?”
“I bit him.”
“Bit him!” He threw his head back and laughed. “Next time, go for the gonads.”
“Good advice,” I said.
He looked at Matt. “Let me guess, trainee PIs.”
“No,” I said.
Grizzly swung his big head to me. “Bounty hunters?”
“Nope.”
“Not cops,” he said with derision.
“Un-unh.”
“Feds?” This was said with incredulity.
“I own a bookstore.”
Grizzly didn’t answer. Grizzly was staring at me as if a second head decided to sprout out of my neck at that moment.
“I’m a bartender and back up barista,” Ally put in.
Grizzly still didn’t answer. I noticed he had a cat in his lap and was stroking it. Two more cats sat on the cement railings of his porch and another one was curled up on his welcome mat, a welcome mat that had kitty-cat footprints printed on it.