“It is?”
“Yes, and I think you can understand that I want them back.”
I nodded, this time fervently.
If I had a million dollars worth of diamonds, I’d definitely want them back. Rosie must grow seriously primo grass to get paid a million dollars in diamonds for it.
Gary moved slightly, looking out the window, then he murmured, “Nightingale’s here.”
This news sent a surge of hope through me as I immediately decided that, just for the next thirty minutes or so, I wasn’t avoiding Lee.
Wilcox didn’t say anything at first, he just watched me.
“Are you sure you don’t know where Rosie is?”
“San Salvador?” I tried, and I wasn’t joking.
He smiled, he thought I was amusing. It was an oily smile and my skin started crawling again.
Lee walked in. I turned my head to him, the ice still held to my face.
One look and I could understand why these guys were scared of him.
This was a Lee I’d never seen.
He was still wearing his jeans, skintight, navy tee and biker boots and his hands hung loose and casual at his sides. However, the minute he entered, any other presence was forced from the room as his invaded. His eyes were hyper-alert and sharp, he was emanating pure, brutal energy and he was seriously and obviously pissed off.
He stopped and glanced at the ice on my face.
A muscle in his cheek jumped.
Uh-oh.
He cut his eyes to Wilcox.
“I thought we had an understanding,” Lee said.
Wilcox had come to his feet. He put his hands up in a placating gesture.
“Lee, it was a mistake. I just wanted to have a talk with your girl here and things got out of hand.”
“Coxy, things are gettin’ out of hand a lot these days. Who hit her?” Lee’s pissed off glance slid to Goon Gary.
Wilcox looked to Gary and I looked to Gary.
Gary looked a little pale.
“Let me take care of it,” Wilcox said.
“You don’t tell me, I’ll go through every one of your men, that way, I’ll be sure to get the fuck.”
Holy shit.
I nearly wet myself.
The way Lee said that made me shiver and not in the usual way Lee made me shiver.
Wilcox sighed, obviously overwhelmed by the stupidity of his workforce. Clearly, sometimes it’s tough being the leader of the bad guys.
“It was Teddy,” Wilcox answered.
Lee nodded, walked toward me and pulled me off the couch.
“It was nice to meet you,” Wilcox said calmly as Lee escorted me out of the room, his hand curled around my upper arm.
I looked over my shoulder and said (perhaps feeling a bit tougher now that Scary Lee was with me). “The pleasure was all yours.”
I heard him laugh as we left.
Lee did not laugh, Lee ignored the whole exchange.
Lee put me into the passenger seat of his silver Crossfire and got in the driver’s side, started the car and we shot from the curb. Before I could say a word, he grabbed his cell and punched a number.
“Pick up Teddy and take him to the office,” he paused, “Coxy’s boy.”
Then he hit a button and tossed the cell on the console.
Yep, angry.
“Ally...” I started to say.
“She’s fine.”
I took in a breath.
“How did you know where I was?”
“I’ve got a man at Rosie’s. He saw the whole thing.”
Uh, say what?
“Why didn’t he do something?” I asked, somewhat loudly.
“He didn’t know who you were,” Lee paused, “now he knows.”
Yikes.
I decided not to talk loudly anymore.
“You have a man?”
His eyes moved to me, his face was blank, he was still angry. He turned back to the road.
“I have a lot of men.”
“Oh.”
I found that surprising but I decided that maybe it was not the time to give Lee the third degree about his secret life, such as how many men he had and how he knew lowlife kidnapping scum like “Coxy”. I wasn’t even certain I wanted to know about his secret life, in fact, I think I was more certain I didn’t want to know.
Maybe it was the time to begin planning how to avoid Lee again. However, I didn’t know how to accomplish that when I was actually with Lee.
The house I was taken to was in the Denver Country Club area, very ritzy, very wealthy. Lee hit Speer Boulevard and drove faster than was allowed or safe, changing lanes on the three lane road deftly and often. I decided it was probably best not to say anything about this as Lee’s energy wasn’t exactly inviting conversation and definitely not admonishments about driving safety.
He passed the turn to Broadway.
“I need to go back to the store,” I informed him.
He ignored me.
“Lee, I need to get back to the store,” I repeated.
He continued to ignore me and headed downtown, toward his condo.
Damn.
I sat back and crossed one arm on my stomach, still holding the ice to my cheek and I evaluated my situation.
Firstly, I clearly was not in any position of power here. Lee was driving, Lee was angry and Lee was, as per usual, going to do whatever he damn well wanted to do.