We’d already called Duke, like, a gazillion times. Duke and Dolores were visiting Dolores’s parents in Pagosa Springs and they were supposed to be home in the morning but had still not arrived. I didn’t know Dolores’s parents’ number or her maiden name. We were stuck on that score.

I found Duke’s disappearance curious and a little scary. Though Duke had been known to go walkabout, except it was walkabout on a Harley.

Duke didn’t do cell phones and I was loath to go to Evergreen. Although Rosie would likely be there or go there, at least eventually as that was where the diamonds were, so might Lee and I had decided I was definitely back to avoiding Lee.

I had not come to terms with this abrupt about-face and needed time to process it.

Who was I kidding?

There was no processing going on.

Lee and I were not gonna happen.

I hated to break Ally and Kitty Sue’s hearts but I’d seen Lee tear through a variety of women’s lives and I wasn’t going to be one of them.

These days, he was never home.

I had no idea what he did for a living but I was pretty sure it was dangerous.

And he was way too damn cocky.

Ally and I were both staring at Rosie’s house and I was trying to pluck up the courage to drive to Evergreen and maybe have a scary faceoff with Lee that I had to have the cojones to win when someone tapped on the back passenger window.

“Shit!” I jumped and shouted.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

In Ally’s window was a nice-looking man, though a wee-bit steroid ridden and overdeveloped in the chest area but he had a good haircut, shirt, tie, slacks.

“We’re a bit jumpy. We’ve had kind of a rough day,” Ally explained, smiling her flirty smile.

Conversely, although Ally could head bang with the best, she was a White Hat type of gal. She liked the good boys. She liked preppies and corporate types and definitely men in uniform. She understood a good guitar riff but she liked her men clean-cut and ties and uniforms drove her wild.

“You lookin’ for Rosie?” the man asked.

I blinked.

Were we that obvious?

“Uh, yeah,” I replied.

He nodded. “I live over there.”

He pointed in the vague direction of “over there” and both Ally and I followed his finger, not sure precisely which house “over there” was his then looked back to him.

“Is Rosie in trouble?” the guy asked.

“Does Rosie get in trouble, do you know?” I asked in return.

The guy shook his head. “Not that I know of. Quiet guy. Killer coffee.”

We all nodded.

“I’m Gary,” he said.

Ally extended her hand. “Ally,” she said and then she pointed to me, “and this is India.”

Upon hearing my name, he turned and looked over his shoulder and gave a nod.

Ally and I turned and looked over our shoulders too.

Too late.

Before I could react to the two men running toward our car, my door was wrenched open, I was dragged out and I let out a howl when the backs of my legs were ripped from the hot leather seats.

I stopped my howl midway with an “oof” because I hadn’t taken my seat belt off and when the guy yanked me out, my belt jerked me back.

“Jesus, Teddy. Release the belt,” another man said.

I took this opportunity to scream.

Teddy dropped me, I hit the side of the seat and I used the steering wheel to pull myself back into it.

Ally had already been hauled out the other side, she wasn’t screaming and that scared the shit out of me.

I had no time to look for Ally as Teddy’s hands came around to undo the belt and I bent forward and bit his arm.

“Fuck!” He reared back and punched me in the cheekbone.

Hard.

I have never, in my life, been hit by a man.

I got in a bitch slapping catfight at a Public Image Limited – Big Audio Dynamite double bill but we were in a mosh pit gone bad. It was punk, it was expected.

Getting hit by a man hurt.

A f**king lot.

So much, I quit screaming and concentrated on the burning hurt that was radiating out of my cheekbone into my entire face.

“Teddy, for Christ sake. Are you nuts? She’s Nightingale’s. He’s gonna rip your dick off. This is supposed to go smooth.”

I opened my mouth to scream again and started back with the struggling.

Then Teddy was pulled away, someone touched me with something and after that, I didn’t remember a thing.

Chapter Five

Cupcakes

I came to feeling very funky and unable to move my limbs.

I focused on what appeared to be the ceiling of a car and heard voices from what sounded like really far away.

By the time the car stopped, I was able to move a little bit but not much. I was feeling tingly all over and my head was fuzzy.

The door to the car was opened and I was hauled out with hands under my armpits. Whoever hauled me out put me on my feet, my legs buckled and I nearly went down before I was caught. It was time again to lament the mini-skirt as a girl doesn’t want to be tossed around by bad guys while wearing a short skirt.

“Shit, hold her up, you moron.”

Two guys, one of them I noted was Goon Gary (not The Moron), dragged me by my upper arms through a tidy garage and into a house. I was shaking my head, trying to clear it and thinking not much of anything except that I wished I was wearing jeans.

I was taken into a room and heard a man say, “Jesus, what the f**k?”

The answer came hesitantly. “We had to stun her.”

“What happened to her face?”

This answer was more hesitant. “She bit Teddy so he hit her.”

“Christ! Which part of ‘I want this to go smooth’ did you not understand? Nightingale’s going to have a shit hemorrhage. Get her some ice then call Teddy, get him out of town.”

I was planted on a couch and not processing much of their conversation. I was focused on getting my fingers to move. I was together only enough to notice Goon Gary and The Moron making a hasty exit and that the couch I was on was a really nice couch, fluffy and covered in cream silk damask. I’d only just bought my couch a couple of months ago and I was still in couch-assessment mode, the kind of mode that unconsciously comes whenever you make a major purchase.

I succeeded in lifting my head to look at the guy who’d been talking. He was wearing gray slacks, a maroon shirt with a monochromatic tie. He was short, had to be in his fifties and had jet-black hair with white at each temple. He looked like what I would guess a younger Grandpa Munster would look like. Except a lot more creepy and definitely scary but not in a comic way.