Rock Chick Redemption
Page 68

“Hank, I said oh…kay. ”
“Promise me.”
Jeez!
“Hank!”
“Just do it, Sunshine.”
I sighed. He had gone round the bend.
“Okay, I promise.”
He stared at me a beat then he took in a breath. Then, his fingers slid into my hair on either side of my head and his fingers slid into my hair on either side of my head and he did a little shake. Pieces of straw came out, not a lot, four or five and I watched them float down.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I watched the straw settle on his tiled floor.
He used his hands on my head to tilt it up to face him. “I don’t want to hear you say you’re sorry again.” He didn’t say this nice or sweet. He said it angry.
I swal owed and stared.
Then I said, “Hank?”
His hands went to the sides of my neck. “You aren’t the cause of this, Flynn is. Got me?”
I nodded.
“I’m not angry at you. I’m just angry,” he said.
“Okay,” I said, for like the bil ionth time in the last five minutes.
He moved on to another subject and I had to admit, I was relieved.
“How’s your hand?”
“It hurts like a mother,” I told him.
I watched as his anger slid away and he smiled at me. I smiled back. We shared a moment of happiness at the thought of me getting my own back, even a little bit, with Bil y. His arms came around me and he pul ed me to him, his hands drifting down my back, fitting my body to his.
Shamus backed out from between us and sauntered to his doggie bed in the TV room. He was a smart dog; quickly learning the dril between Hank and me.
“How’s everything else?” Hank asked, his voice had changed, sounding slightly husky.
changed, sounding slightly husky.
I didn’t have to ask what he meant; his hands and tone were doing the talking.
I tilted my head back to look at him and slid my arms around his waist. “I’m fine.”
“You owe me,” he said.
I blinked at him then remembered.
“Oh. Yeah.”
He gave me a light kiss. “Let’s get you a hot shower, some ibuprofen and we’l go to bed.”
I nodded.
“Then you can erase my day,” he told me, turning and tucking me into his side, his arm around my shoulders.
We started walking to the bedroom.
“Maybe you should erase my night,” I told him.
“No, I’m thinkin’ you should erase my day.”
“My night was worse than your day,” I said.
“I had a ful shitty day, you just had a half a shitty night.” This was true.
“Okay, I’l erase your day,” I said.
He hit the lights as we walked out of the kitchen.
Chapter Eighteen
Tangerine and Chocolate Wedding
I was lying on my bel y, my arms around a pil ow, fast asleep, when I felt the sheet slide down my back, low, lower, lowest, to come to rest at the top of my behind.
I twisted my head around sleepily and looked at Hank’s shadow in the dark.
“Whisky?” I cal ed, stil groggy.
“Quiet, sweetheart. I want to check something.” Then the light went on.
I blinked at him. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. His eyes were on my back.
“That’s a new one,” he muttered to my back.
I looked over my shoulder. I couldn’t see much of anything.
“What is it?” I asked.
His hand came out and his finger traced something that ran across my lower back. “You were movin’ like you were tender last night. Now I know why. The mark hadn’t formed then but now you’ve got another bruise.”
“Oh,” I turned around, snuggled back into the pil ow and explained. “Bil y dropped me when Indy jumped him on the stairs. I landed funny.”
I closed my eyes, thinking that was that and deciding I’d catch a bit more shut-eye.
Hank had different thoughts.
He tagged me at the waist, gently moved me around and then slid me across the bed, pul ing me upright. I was sitting, facing him, the side of my hip against his.
I brought the sheet with me and I pul ed it up to cover my br**sts.
“What?” I asked when I looked at him.
“Don’t get used to this shit. This isn’t your life. After this is over, you go back to normal,” he replied.
I watched him and felt my gut twist. It was time to begin to show him what he would not be missing when I went away.
“Hank,” I said quietly. “I don’t have a ‘normal’. I’ve been with Bil y for seven years.”
I thought he’d look at me in disgust, horror or, at the very least, shock. Instead he wrapped his hand around the back of my head, tipped it down and kissed my forehead. Then he let go and looked me in the eyes. “Then I’l show you normal.”
I stopped breathing.
Hank didn’t notice.
He got up and went to his dresser.
“Hate to tel you this Sunshine, but I can’t leave you home so you’re gonna have to walk Shamus with me. Get dressed, we gotta get this done. One of the cases I’m working is heatin’ up and I need to get to the station.” Then he sauntered into the bathroom like he hadn’t just rocked my world.
I stared after him.
I stil wasn’t breathing.
“You have your choice today,” Hank cal ed from the bathroom. “Fortnum’s or Lee’s offices. Both are safe but you can’t leave either.”
Then I heard an electric shaver.
I let go of my breath.
Shamus ambled over and sat down beside the bed and stared at me, tongue lol ing and looking like he was smiling.
I grabbed his head, kissed the top of it and gave him a head rub. He leaned up and licked my cheek.
Hank walked out of the bathroom, stil shaving, and looked at me and Shamus.
“Sunshine,” he said, his voice low with warning, tel ing me to get a move on.
“Al right, al right! I’l get dressed,” I sounded uppity.
I’d think about his complete non-reaction to my dire admission later. I had a decision to make. Crazy Fortnum’s and what might happen there while Lee’s boys were watching or Lee’s offices, meaning Dastardly Dawn, the boring room and Diablo, better known as eight hours of my life sucked away.
I pul ed the sheet with me when I got up and wrapped it around me in a voluminous toga. Then I stomped, with a fair bit of attitude (just to make a point, even though there was no real point to be made), out of the room to the other bathroom.