Tex seemed not to notice it. “She was gettin’ second thoughts.”
Lee stared at Tex for a beat.
“Jesus,” he muttered then he pointed at me. “Stay here. Don’t move.” His finger moved to Tex. “You come with me.”
Lee tossed the goggles to Tex and they re-entered the house. I was a little surprised that Tex followed Lee’s command but then again, Lee was using that “brook no argument” tone again.
I sat down on the grass, too freaked out to stand any longer and I put my forehead on my knees.
I feared this did not bode well for Rosie and I feared more that this did not bode well for Duke.
They came back out, Lee closed the door, fiddled with the handle and then walked toward me, removing surgical gloves.
“No Rosie,” he told me.
“Thank God,” I said on a whoosh and didn’t realize I was holding my breath.
He put a hand on my upper arm and hauled me up.
“I’m callin’ Hank in on this one.”
My eyes nearly popped out of my head.
“You can’t! He’s gonna freak that I’m here!”
“You weren’t here, Tex was here. Tex, the concerned neighbor,” Lee replied.
“That’s me. Everyone around here knows I’m a concerned neighbor. Gotta go make a call.” Tex put his big hand on top of my head. “You did good, for a girl, didn’t puke or nothin’.”
“Thanks Tex,” I said on a shaky smile not quite sure that was a compliment but willing to accept it as one all the same.
Tex ambled off and Lee dragged me to a Mercedes sedan. He’d hit a button on his cell phone and was waiting for it to ring through.
“Lee…” I said.
He pulled me to a stop at the passenger side, opened the door and pushed me in. He stood in the opening of the door while his call was picked up. I sat in the car too freaked out by the dead body to fume at him pushing me around.
“Hank, a call’s gonna come into 911 soon. I need to talk to you about it.” Pause. “Yeah.” Then he disconnected.
Lee slammed my door and got in on the driver’s side of the car.
I turned to him. “I have a car here, it’s my neighbor’s, my bag’s in there, I have to –”
Lee held up a hand and I stopped talking.
“What you have to do is keep your mouth shut until we get back to the condo so I can take that time to talk myself out of strangling you.”
Yikes.
I felt it prudent to do as he requested. I’d had a rough couple of days, I didn’t want it to end in strangulation. And anyway, Lee was such a badass, even if it didn’t end in strangulation, he might come up with some more creative punishment.
Lee didn’t say word one until we were in his condo. He dragged me by the arm into the bedroom, pulled out a drawer and threw me a t-shirt.
“Get ready for bed,” he said to me.
I immediately saw red.
It was not surprising. I wasn’t one of his boys, I wasn’t one of the troops, I wasn’t a child, he couldn’t tell me what to do. I’d had a tough night, I’d seen a dead body, for goodness sake!
I was willing to give him some leeway with his being pushy when I was in the vicinity of said dead body but this was too much.
“No!” I snapped. “Stop telling me what to do. I want to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want –”
I didn’t say any more because Lee came at me, I backed up and slammed against the wall. Lee’s body came up against mine and he bent his face so he was nose-to-nose with me.
“You want your Dad to see crime scene photos of you, dead, sitting on that sweet ass of yours with your brains splattered against the wall?”
Yikes.
My stomach lurched and my legs went weak.
“No.”
“Then this ends tonight.”
I stared at him.
“Indy, by God, if you don’t promise me –”
“Of course it ends tonight! I just saw a dead body! You can’t think I’m that stupid.”
His face said he thought I was that stupid.
“Lee! Rosie’s my friend. He’s out there, somewhere. And they’re not only looking for him, they’re looking for Duke. And now they’re killing people.”
“I’ll find him and I’ll find Duke.”
We looked at each other for what seemed like days. His brown eyes were hard and angry. I tried to tell myself that all his anger wasn’t directed at me but I was having trouble believing it.
My gaze slid away. “I couldn’t have known I was going to find that tonight,” I whispered.
“I told you these were bad guys.”
My gaze slid back.
“What kind of job do you do that you know about this shit?”
He shook his head. He’d moved back an inch so we weren’t nose-to-nose anymore but he was still close.
“Un-unh, you aren’t gonna make this about me.”
I moved out from between him and the wall and I stomped to the bathroom on my favorite parting line.
“Whatever.”