“This isn’t funny,” Hank said quietly to me. “This is a homicide. A man is dead, his brains splattered against a wall.”
Just as quietly, I said, “I know.”
Hank cut his eyes to Lee.
“Tell me she’s done.”
Lee’s face was serious.
“She’s done.”
Hank nodded. “Now, do you have anything for me?”
Lee’s hand moved to my shoulder.
“Duke’s been found, he’s knows what’s happening and he’s coming home. His house has been tossed.”
I froze and asked Lee, “Someone was in his house?”
“Yeah,” Lee answered.
“A good someone or a bad someone?”
Lee looked down at me.
“Both, but only the bad someone tossed the house.”
“Do they have the diamonds?”
Lee exchanged another glance with Hank that I did not understand and then shrugged.
“Duke wouldn’t say where he stashed them, we won’t know until he comes home to check.”
I looked between the two brothers and I got the distinct feeling that something was going on.
Hank glanced at Matt who’d straightened and was quietly watching and listening.
“I hope you and your boys are being careful,” he told Lee and I had this weird feeling we were on a different subject.
“We’re workin’ this for a client,” Lee answered.
There were more looks passed around then Hank sighed the sigh of a man beleaguered, kissed me on the top of my head and left. Matt and Bobby waited around expectantly. Lee turned me into his arms.
“Don’t let Hank scare you about Tex. He’s trying to mess with your head enough to keep you out of this. Tex’ll be all right.”
I nodded.
“We’re gonna have to postpone our plans for the day. I’ll take you to the store then I have to go check a lead on Rosie. I also need to have a chat with Tex. I’ll be at your house no later than three. Earlier if I can make it.”
I nodded. “Do you think Rosie went into Duke’s house?”
His hand went to my chin and tilted it up.
“You have to prepare for the worst, Rosie may no longer be of this world, and if he is, he may no longer be able to walk free amongst its citizens.”
I nodded again.
Then, right in front of his boys, he kissed me, full-on, full-tongue, full-throttle. His arms wrapped around my back and mine went around his neck.
He lifted his head and I breathed, “That shot me straight to a six.”
Good ole boy Lee used to laugh all the time, but when he went into the Army, that changed. The grins were few, the smiles were rare and a laugh from Lee felt like a gift.
After I said that, for the first time in a long time, I watched as Lee threw his head back and laughed.
Chapter Nine
The New Definition of Fine
Lee dropped me by Fortnum’s, kissing me quickly before he took off in his Crossfire. I watched him go and tried to shut down my mind.
I failed.
I was trying not to think of the night before or that morning. I had a feeling of definitive joy mixed with complete and total fear. It was sinking into my brain that Lee told Kitty Sue we were together not because it was what she wanted to hear or because it got us out of a tight jam being caught in a clinch, but instead, because we were.
Together that was.
Liam Nightingale and India Savage, an item.
There was evidence that Andrea was right, he was serious.
Oh. My. God.
I put out a sign, closing Fortnum’s for the weekend, then walked home.
It was cool and comfortable in my house but it felt like it had been a week since I’d been home, rather than just a night.
In an effort not to think about Lee, I put the water on to boil for the macaroni, opened the backdoor to let in the non-existent breeze and checked my voicemail.
Seventeen messages.
Of course, it had been several days since I checked my mail but seventeen messages was an all time high. I listened to the messages as I got out the ingredients for my salad, thinking most of the messages would be Duke and Rosie sightings.
I was wrong.
The news had spread that Lee and I were together and every girlfriend I’d ever had (even some who had moved out of town and one who lived in England) felt it necessary to phone and get the lowdown first hand. Both Marianne and Andrea had called (Marianne twice), demanding updates.
For women far and wide who knew him, hooking up with Lee was a hot news item. Lee was the Holy Grail of boyfriend-dom. Especially since it was me, who had been on the sacred quest for many long, fruitless years. They all wanted the facts, all the facts.
If I but breathed a word of what it actually was like to kiss Lee, be held by Lee, or, dear Lord, what Lee looked like naked, I might cause a riot, even a war. I might have to arm myself and fight them all back lest Lee be torn limb-from-limb.
It was for the better health of the female population and peace in the land that I kept my mouth shut.
Of course, I had kinda told Andrea but I’d kept Andrea’s Richie Sambora secret, she’d keep my Lee secret, no sweat.
I made a pot of strong coffee and started cutting up pickles and onions and I let my mind wander.
Lee had made it pretty clear that I meant something to him and this was the cause of the joy that I couldn’t quite tamp down. He didn’t like me thinking I was a quick f**k, he didn’t like me crying, he didn’t like me trembling and he really didn’t like it when Terrible Teddy punched me in the face.
I shivered a little bit at what might have happened to Teddy if Lee’s boys had picked him up as Lee ordered.
Which brought me to the subject of just who Lee was. He said I didn’t have a f**king clue and at the rate he’d surprised me the last couple of days, I was thinking he was right.
I ran down the facts.
I thought Lee thought of me as his little sister. That obviously was not the case.
Lee had a workforce, people he employed, at least two of them, three if you counted Judy, the housekeeper. There were likely more. This meant responsibility and dependability. This meant people counted on him to keep them paid so they could put food on their table and roofs over their heads. This meant that somewhere along the line, Lee had become disturbingly grown up.
I, on the other hand, was avoiding growing up. My grandmother never grew up. I remembered many a time when my grandfather said to my grandmother, “Ellen, some day you’re gonna have to grow up.” And Gram would always say, “Why would I do a fool thing like that?”
I agreed with my grandmother, growing up didn’t sound like much fun. Growing up meant diaper bags, ironing your clothes and balancing your checkbook. That seemed really boring and I was avoiding it.