Eddie stared at Tex, some of the intensity going out of his eyes at the thought of me, Tex and the cats eating chips and drinking hooch.

“Darius told me that one of his guys was at a strip club last night and heard Coxy’s boy Gary talkin’ about your cat fight with Cherry,” Lee said.

This wasn’t interesting news. I figured I’d been a prime topic of conversation on police band for at least a week. I probably had my own code by now, Indy-666 or something.

Anyone could listen to police band.

“And?” I asked.

“And Coxy’s already gone out of his way to eliminate what he might consider your problems.”

I dropped Lee’s hand and took a step back. “You think Wilcox tried to kill Cherry… for me?”

Eddie answered again. “Too early to know. Cherry didn’t have a lot of friends but crisping her seems harsh retribution for bein’ a bitch.”

“This isn’t happening,” I said.

I was reeling. I didn’t know what to do, what to think.

“You guys want coffee?” Tex asked Lee and Eddie.

“Sure, triple shot cappuccino,” Eddie said.

“Yeah, Americano, black,” Lee said.

Tex ambled off to the espresso counter while I continued my silent meltdown searching the depths of my fried brain for Denial Zone.

Then Duke asked, his Sam Elliott voice low and serious, “Could we not talk about f**kin’ coffee and maybe talk about how you two badass motherfuckers are gonna protect Indy from this crazy f**k?”

I turned to look at him and noticed immediately that he was pissed.

Duke looked at Lee. “Isn’t it about f**kin’ time you quit f**kin’ around and took care of this f**kin’ guy?”

Uh-oh.

Duke wasn’t afraid to use the F-word but he only dosed his vocabulary liberally with it when he was close to losing it.

Lee looked at him. “I’m workin’ on it.”

Duke took a step forward. “Work harder.”

This was not good.

I knew, because I saw, that Lee could kick ass. Duke was no slouch. He might be an old guy but he also knew how to handle himself through a f**kload of practice.

I wasn’t sure how Lee would take an accusation of “fuckin’ around” and I didn’t want two people I loved to go head-to-head in my bookstore.

“Duke…” I said.

Duke looked at me and the look in his eye made me move closer to Lee.

“We don’t know when this f**kin’ lunatic is gonna lose his patience and turn on you. Bullets are flyin’, cars explodin’, dead bodies everywhere. This has got to f**kin’ stop. Now,” Duke said to me.

“He’s right,” Eddie agreed. “Indy needs to be protected. You got a safe house for her?”

“Yeah,” Lee answered.

Yikes!

“No! No, no, no,” I cried, beginning to panic. “I can’t go to a safe house. I can’t. I’d feel like a sitting duck.”

Lee’s arm came around me. “It won’t be for long.”

I pulled away from him. “No! I can’t do it. I’ll climb the walls. I swear, Lee, you lock me up and the minute I get out, I’m moving to Argentina.”

Either he didn’t believe me or he knew he could track me through the wilds of Argentina because he didn’t look like he was gonna cave.

“Lee, give me back the stun gun, I’ll carry it everywhere. Put a man on me. Anything, just don’t lock me up.”

“I’d put a man on you but if we’re gonna take Coxy down I gotta keep my boys on target.”

This wasn’t good, this was like being grounded but without the tree out your window to climb down when your Dad was asleep. I hadn’t been grounded in twelve years, I forgot how much I hated it, hated being penned in, hated my freedom restricted. I couldn’t stand it.

Surprisingly, Eddie caved first.

“We’ll take turns playin’ bodyguard,” Eddie said, staring into my deer-caught-in-headlights eyes. “I’ll talk to Hank, Willie, Carl. I’m off-duty. I’ll take the first shift.”

Shit.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

This did not sound good.

Lee slowly turned to Eddie. “I’m not sure I like that idea.”

Eddie looked at Lee. “Get over it.”

They stared at each other and moments passed while testosterone permeated the air.

“Oh for f**k’s sake. She might be pregnant with your baby, Lee. She’s hardly gonna wander,” Duke said.

My mouth dropped open.

Eddie looked at me, his eyes moved down to my belly then back up to my face. Then he turned to Lee.

“That didn’t take long,” he said.

“I’m not pregnant,” I said, (perhaps wishful thinking).

Tex came up with the coffees and handed them around.

“All right, boys, get to work,” he said.

Eddie walked to the couch and sat down, putting one cowboy-booted ankle on the other knee, spreading an arm along the back of the couch and taking a sip of cappuccino. He was looking at me and grinning in a sexy way.

Great.

Lee snagged my neck and pulled me to him.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said.

I nodded even though I didn’t believe him.

He kissed me and walked out.

Ally waved at Lee, who was getting on his bike as she walked in, and announced, “You have to miss a period, but I bought a couple pregnancy tests anyway, just in case.” And she waved around the boxes.

I looked at Eddie.

Eddie smiled.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Long-Lasting Reliability

I filled Ally in on the Cherry explosion and the reason for my new bodyguard.

Ally said, “There are a lot of things I imagined happening to her after she tried to trap Lee, that wasn’t one of them.”

Then, she put some Black Crowes in the CD player and turned up the volume.

Ally wasn’t one to reflect, she preferred rock ‘n’ roll.

More customers came in and luckily, we were busy enough to keep our minds off the latest disaster.

I was sitting behind the book counter, finishing an emergency order for coffee because if we continued at this rate, we’d run out by the end of the week, when my cell rang.

It was Dad.

“Hey Daddy-o,” I said.

“Hey, sweetie pie.”