Rock Chick 07 Regret (10 page)

The silence stretched.

Then Hector said quietly, “Heard about Zano’s visit to Balducci.”

The air in the room went on alert.

“What’d you hear?” Eddie asked but he knew the answer, he’d heard about it too.

“I heard that Marcus called in a favor. Ren Zano went for a visit. Balducci tried to avoid him, Zano was persistent. Zano reported to Marcus that Ricky had a black eye, a broken nose and what looked like fingernail scratches from his brow down his cheek,” Hector answered.

Eddie waited.

Hector didn’t make him wait long. “Balducci told Zano he got in a bar fight.”

Eddie leaned forward. “Hector, you have to stay cool.”

Hector drained the glass again, bent forward and tagged the bottle for a refill. He emptied the bottle in his glass, returned it to the floor, leaned back and trained his eyes on his brother.

“This is not a situation where you stay cool,” he said it calmly, belying his words but there was no hidden meaning to what he’d said and it was clear just how much he meant it.

“What’s this woman to you?” Eddie asked.

“She’s mine,” Hector replied.

Eddie leaned back and tore his fingers through his hair then dropped his arm.

He knew what that meant; he’d felt it too about five minutes after he decided he’d stop at nothing to get Jet in his bed. Now he and Jet were getting married.

Eddie went on, “When you were there, did she give you more than information on her father?”

“Yes and no. She let the mask slip once. She let it slip again today so now I know who’s hidin’ behind it.”

“And this means?”

“This means she’s mine. No one touches what’s mine. And they sure as fuck don’t beat her, rape her and leave her broken. Did you see her fuckin’ house?”

Eddie shook his head but he knew what Hector meant. “Lee did the walkthrough with Matt. They took pictures. He told me about it.”

“I went there this afternoon. It looked like –” Hector started.

Eddie interrupted, “It looked like she fought him, used everything she had. They’ve got the rape kit. They’ve got Jack, Luke and your testimony. The doctors and nurses at the hospital.
Zano’ll
testify, he told Marcus he would. And they’ve got the photos of the apartment looking like a war zone. She walks into a courtroom and the jury gets a look at her and Balducci, they’ll make up their mind before the evidence is presented. According to Indy, she looks like a fuckin’ fairy princess, Ricky Balducci resembles an ape. She presses charges, he’s fucked.”

“She refuses to talk to the police. Didn’t see them at the hospital and then she was discharged and went to stay with friends. The cops followed, they were turned away at the door.”

“She has to press charges.”

“You don’t know Sadie.”

It was then Eddie asked the six million dollar question, “Do
you
know Sadie?”

“I know that whatever she has in her mind is gonna stay there. That woman has a will of steel. She had to, livin’ with Townsend. When she woke up this morning, she asked to take a fuckin’ walk.” Hector leaned forward and shared, “You should have seen her Eddie, covered in blood, couldn’t hold herself up, arm hangin’ useless,
wearin
’ nothin’ but a torn up nightgown. She wakes up from that and she asks to take a walk, says she wants to stretch her legs a bit.
Dios mio.
” Hector sat back again and muttered. “Will of fuckin’ steel.”

Eddie let this sink in too but he looked pleased about it.

Finally he said, “Then we take Balducci down another way.”

Hector responded immediately, “I know what way Balducci is gonna go down.”

Eddie shook his head. “Lee’s on it.”

“There’s only one way a man pays for doin’ that to a woman.”

Eddie leaned forward at the tone of his brother’s voice. “Hector, listen to me. Lee’s going to dismantle his operation. He’s already workin’ on it. Marcus is on board. Zano knows Sadie and he’s pissed. He’s going to his Uncle Vito to bring the Zanos on board. Doesn’t matter, Lee and Marcus have already made it their fuckin’ mission.”

Hector knocked back the rest of the Jack, kept his eyes on his brother but didn’t reply.

Eddie kept trying, “Sadie’s covered. The car was towed for repairs, Vance has already been in it, planted a tracking device. Tonight he’s
wirin
’ her store. When she settles, he’ll do the same to wherever she stays. She’ll be protected.”

Hector stayed silent.

“
Mi
hermano
you gotta be smart,” Eddie advised.

“How smart would you be if you came home to your house a disaster, finding out Jet fought for her life before having her wrist broken, her shoulder dislocated, her ribs broken, her cheek ripped open, her eyes blackened, her nose bloodied and she’d been violated?”

Eddie pressed his lips together.

“That’s what I thought,” Hector finished.

Eddie didn’t give up.

“Let Lee do his work. Concentrate on Sadie.”

“Sadie’s lost to me for now. She needs time.”

Eddie’s brows went up. “You’re backin’ off?”

“Yeah, I am. I waited before, I’ll wait again. This time she has a deadline, I’m givin’ her a month.”

At that, Eddie smiled.

Then he said, “Okay then, promise me you’ll work with Lee.”

“I’m not working with Lee but I’ll talk to him. He’s not heading this operation, I am. Lee, Marcus and Zano want in, I’m good with that. But when Ricky Balducci goes down, I want him to know I brought him down, I want him to know why and I want to make the fuck sure he
stays
down.”

Eddie sat back and nodded.

Then he said, “You know I’ll do –”

Hector broke in with a warning. “I don’t intend to play clean.”

Eddie’s black eyes turned glittery. “Like I was sayin’, you know I’ll do what you need me to do.”

It was Hector’s turn to smile.

Chapter Four

Hash Marks

Sadie

One month later…

“Ralphie, get away from the window,” Buddy ordered.

I lifted my head to see Ralphie holding the curtain wide and standing, bold as you please, staring out the window.

“It’s Hispanic Hottie this time,” Ralphie informed us and then Buddy and I watched him wave.

Oh my.

“Hispanic Hottie” meant Hector was sitting outside in a brown, old model Ford Bronco probably drinking coffee. I could visualize Hector lifting his chin at Ralphie’s wave. I could visualize it because I’d seen it before, several times.

Sometimes Ralphie would even make a pot of coffee and walk out to Hector’s Bronco to give him a warm up, carrying milk and sugar. Ralphie informed me Hector took a splash of milk and one sugar like this was information which I could
impart
on Saint Peter and he would lead me straight through the Pearly Gates to the right hand of God. I’d only watched Ralphie’s Alice, the Waitress impersonation once, doing it while peeking through the curtains. I saw Hector get out of the Bronco, close the door and lean against it while Ralphie poured him coffee and chattered away.

I also saw Hector’s amused yet glamorous smile (yes, I could see it, clear as day, from all the way across the road, it was hard to miss).

I’d never looked again.

My eyes moved to the blackboard that was on the wall by the window. Ralphie put it there weeks ago. On it was a list of names and next to the names there were hash marks. Once I started getting visitors on a regular basis, visitors that came in the evenings when I was home, stayed from thirty minutes to over a couple of hours and never came to the door, Ralphie decided it would be fun to keep track.

The list included “Hawaiian Hottie” (that was Kai Mason), “Just Plain Old Hot Hottie” (that was Luke Stark), “Alaskan Hottie” (that was some big blond guy, named thus because Ralphie said he looked like he could fell a tree by blowing on it and only men from Alaska could do that kind of thing), “Surfer Dude Hottie” (that was a smaller guy with real sun-streaked hair), “African American Hottie” (that was a black man with twists in his hair) and “Native American Hottie” (that was, well, a native American
hottie
or another one of Lee’s men whose romance had been reported in the papers, Vance Crowe).

By far and away, Hector had the most hash marks.

I twisted my head to look up at Buddy; he looked down at me and grinned. I shook my head.

Then I gave up on Ralphie and settled back in. I was snuggled up to Buddy on the couch, lying curled in a fetal position, my head on his thigh.

It was Saturday evening and we were in the throes of a
Veronica Mars
marathon (season two DVD). I decided that when I left “Ms. Townsend, Ice Princess” behind, the New Sadie was going to be like Veronica Mars. She was plucky, cute as a button and she had a smart mouth.

I figured, given some practice, I could be plucky and cute and have a smart mouth.

In life, I learned, given enough practice, I could do anything.

* * * * *

It had been one month and two days since I’d been raped by Ricky Balducci.

Never in my life had so much happened in one month and two days.

Never in my life had most of it been so good.

First of all, Ralphie and Buddy installed me in the guest bedroom of their brownstone.

When I got there, Buddy made me do three days of complete bed rest. They brought me food and fawned over me like I was a true life princess. Buddy even helped me shower and when I got embarrassed he said, “I’m gay and a nurse, I wipe people’s asses for a living. Do you think this fazes me?”

I got over being embarrassed after he said that.

I didn’t go back to work for two and a half weeks. By the time I did, the bruises and swelling had gone and most of the cuts were disappearing.

In that time Buddy and Ralphie went to my apartment. They cleaned it up and packed me up, everything I could want or need was brought to the brownstone and moved in, making the guestroom less of a guestroom and more
my
room. They also arranged some of my stuff around the house, making the house less Ralphie and Buddy’s house and more
our
house.

Everything else I owned was put in storage.

Then Buddy called a real estate agent friend of his and put my place on the market. Without asking me and without me telling them what happened they decided the memories there were too bad for me to go back. I would get a new place what they referred to as an indefinite, “Later, when you’re ready,” and I would stay with them in the meantime.

I didn’t quibble.

For starters, I didn’t particularly want to go back to my apartment. But also, it felt nice having someone take care of me. No one had taken care of me since I was eleven years old and I liked it. I liked it enough just to let it happen.

So I did.

* * * * *

About a week after I moved in with them, the doorbell went. Buddy answered it and came back with a short, heavyset lady with spiky, salt and pepper hair and clear blue eyes.

Buddy introduced her as his lesbian friend,
Bex
. After I shook her hand, Buddy informed me
Bex
was a counselor at a rape crisis center.

Then Buddy and Ralphie left me with
Bex
, going, they said, to get Chinese takeout.

At first I was angry. Then I was scared. But
Bex
talked to me about my gallery, about Buddy and Ralphie, about my shoes, about season tickets for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, about loads of things but not about me getting raped.

An hour slid by before Buddy and Ralphie returned and I realized, only at the end right before she left when she handed me her card and told me to call her anytime, that I liked her.