I wanted to laugh, then before that thought fully formed, I decided I wanted to cry. Seeing as crying wasn’t an option for me because I wasn’t a sissy, I decided I wanted to scream.
In fifteen minutes, the place was surrounded by cops including Hank, Dad and Malcolm and the scene was taped. Gawkers and coffee customers were being directed away by uniforms.
I stood off to the side and scrolled down my phonebook to Lee and hit his number.
“Everything okay?” he said as a greeting.
“You’ve heard from your office,” I replied, thinking the mysterious forces behind his commando cartel had already alerted to my latest adventure.
“Heard what from my office?”
Oopsie.
“Well, I don’t want to disturb you but I thought I should tell you before your office hears it on police-band. Pepper Rick’s dead body was propped into the doorway of Fortnum’s this morning.”
Silence, then, “A present.”
“What?”
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Lee, you don’t have to…” but he’d disconnected.
Jimmy Marker walked up to me and after asking a few questions he wiped his eyes with his hand.
“Indy, tell me you aren’t keepin’ anything from me.”
After Tex got shot, I told Jimmy everything at the hospital, about Rosie, the pot, the diamonds, Terry Wilcox, everything. Well, not everything, I left out my B and E, so almost everything. I had nothing left to tell and if Jimmy was getting frustrated and impatient, he should step into my shoes.
“Jimmy, I may be crazy but I’m not stupid and whatever you think, I know right from wrong. I told you all I know at the hospital.”
Dad walked up to me and slung an arm around my shoulders.
“I just want to know why you’re the focal point of all of this,” Jimmy said.
“I’d like to know that too,” Dad said.
“Well, when you find out, tell me because this is beginning to piss me off!” As I talked, my voice rose and I was screaming by the end.
Jimmy took a step back and a bunch of heads swung in my direction.
I saw an SUV double park and Lee slid from behind the wheel. His eyes were on me but Malcolm and Hank stopped him before he could make his way to me.
“I take it you know what’s going on,” I said to Dad, taking my eyes off Lee.
“What there is to know. Cops talk, you’re my daughter. Jimmy’s keeping me briefed.”
“Why haven’t you said anything?”
“I trust Liam to sort it out and I trust you to do the right thing.”
Simple as that.
Dad was cool, Dad had always been cool. Somewhere in the last couple of days, Lee had been given Dad’s blessing. Probably when I started to have certain incidents, incidents the like of which any father would want Liam Nightingale to be his daughter’s boyfriend.
I walked to the Nightingale huddle. Malcolm had his back to me, Lee and Hank were at his sides, their backs mostly to me.
As I walked up, I heard Malcolm say, “Hank, I know you use Lee to do the shit that’d get your hands dirty and Lee, I know you play the game pretty loose. I let you boys play it the way you feel you need to ‘cause, so far, whatever deal you got goin’ works. But I don’t like what I’m smellin’ and…”
Lee’s head turned and he looked at me out of the corners of his eyes.
“Indy,” he said and I think he said this more to Malcolm than to me.
All the Nightingale men turned to me and whatever was happening stopped.
Great. Whatever. Fine by me.
I walked up to Lee and stopped, though not close enough for his liking because his hand came out and curled around my neck, pulling me into his side. Hank, Dad and Malcolm moved off.
“How’re you doin’, gorgeous?” he asked me.
“I’m losing my patience. This is getting old,” I told him. “How’s your man?”
“No word, I have to get back to the hospital. I see you confiscated the Crossfire.”
“Do you mind?”
“Nope.”
I turned into him and put my hand on his stomach.
“Your man, he wasn’t doing… something… for me?”
Lee’s hand around my neck twisted and he tugged softly at my hair.
“A different assignment, nothin’ to do with you or the diamonds.”
I felt a tremendous relief. I already had Tex’s injury, Ally’s totaled car and everyone else’s worry resting on my shoulders, I didn’t need something else. Then I looked at Lee and realized all that, plus whatever this new thing was, still rested firmly on his.
“You need to go,” I said.
“Yeah.”
I started to pull away but his hand dropped, his arm curled around my shoulders and turned me into him, full-frontal.
“With Rick out of the way, you should be safe but you need to be careful. Coxy isn’t a threat but he’s a wildcard.”
I nodded.
“I want to come home to you,” he said.
My breath disappeared. I didn’t suck it in and I didn’t let it out, it just vanished.
I did a mental shake and got myself together.
“Sorry?”