Rock Chick 07 Regret (46 page)

Hector’s eyes immediately went to Sadie.

“She’s asleep,” Buddy whispered then, “kitchen.”

Hector’s gaze sliced to him and he didn’t even try to hide his look of tender concern.

At his look, Buddy knew.

Thank Christ
, he thought.

They went into the kitchen and Ralphie closed the kitchen door as Buddy got three Fat Tire beers from the fridge.

He opened the beers while Hector asked, “How is she?”

“A fucking mess.” Ralphie answered and Buddy shot him a killing look. “What?” Ralphie responded to the killing look. “She’s been crying her eyes out and blathering on about learning to speak Greek. What’s
that
all about?”

“Learning to speak Greek?” Hector asked and Buddy slid him a beer.

They settled on stools at the island and Ralphie kept going, “Yep. Greek. She’s lost it. Says her father killed her mother and she’s got to learn to speak Greek. If that isn’t the hallmark of losing your mind, nothing is.”

Hector stared at Ralphie a beat and then put his elbow on the island, pressed his three middle fingers to the area between his brows and rubbed hard.

Buddy watched Hector, his heart clenching then asked, “
Did
her father kill her mother?”

Ralphie’s head snapped around to look at Buddy then he went pale and his gaze swung to Hector.

Hector took his fingers from his brow and took a long swig of beer.

Then he leveled his (fucking fantastic, Buddy had to admit, the color was so intense and those
lashes
, Jesus Christ, divine) black eyes on Buddy and said, “She got bad news today. Her mother’s likely dead, it’s an outside chance but her father could have done it, he had motive and opportunity.”

“No, please no,” Ralphie breathed then shut his eyes tight.

“I knew about it but didn’t want her to know,” Hector told him. “The boys agreed with me, Lee, his brother Hank, my brother Eddie,” Hector explained. “She forced my hand, asked Lee to find her Mom right in front of Tom. Tom knew her mother. He’s a friend of her family she didn’t know she had. He wants her back in the fold. He wants to protect her like he feels he should have been protecting her since her Mom disappeared. To do that, he wants her trust so he wanted nothing between them. I didn’t like it but I agreed. It was the wrong choice, at least now, it was too fuckin’ soon.”

“Not much more she can take,” Buddy decided.

“Nope,” Hector agreed.

Buddy and Hector stared at each other unhappily.

Ralphie’s eyes reopened.

“What are we going to do?” he asked.

“What you been doin’,” Hector answered simply.

“I’m not sure
Auntie
Mame
and Veronica Mars are going to soothe the soul of a recently raped girl who just found out her father might have killed her mother. That’s beyond the powers of
Tinseltown
,” Ralphie informed Hector.

Hector stared at Ralphie, likely, Buddy thought, wondering how he, as macho and heterosexual as they come, found himself sharing a beer in the kitchen of a gay man who just used the words
“Auntie
Mame
”, “soothe the soul” and “
Tinseltown
” in one sentence.

Buddy decided it was time to get down to business.

“You need to know a few things about Sadie,” Buddy said and Ralphie’s head snapped to him again, this time with the addition of narrowed eyes.

“What are you doing? I’m going to tell him,” Ralphie announced.

Buddy looked at his lover. “Ralphie, I’m tellin’ him.”

“I’m telling him, it was my idea,” Ralphie returned.

“Maybe so but he needs it straight, no exaggeration,” Buddy replied.

“I wouldn’t exaggerate!” Ralphie snapped.

Buddy gave him the look he deserved for uttering such a lie.

Ralphie glared back.

“Would someone tell me? I don’t give a fuck who,” Hector cut in, losing patience.

“What do you drink?” Buddy asked immediately, taking charge.

Hector looked at the beer in his hand then back to Buddy.

“No, stronger. Bourbon, vodka, gin…?” Buddy explained.

Hector’s eyes went intense and Buddy pulled in breath at the power behind his look.

Then Hector muttered, “Shit.”

“Shit is right,” Buddy muttered in return.

Hector sighed then said, “Bourbon. Jack, if you’ve got it.”

Ralphie went to get the Jack Daniels and three glasses.

They had three more beers and made a major dent in the bottle of Jack by the time they were done explaining what Ralphie called The Night of A Thousand Horrors Accompanied by Lemon Drops.

A night neither of them thought that Sadie fully remembered.

A night where she explained about her Mom, her father and her life.

This, Hector didn’t seemed surprised about so Buddy figured he knew.

A night where she talked about Daisy, the Rock Chicks, going to see Lee Nightingale, Hector being there and how that made her feel.

This, Hector also didn’t seem surprised about but his mouth got tight and his face went dark, likely, Buddy figured, with guilt.

A night where she talked about having no friends and living her life as an Ice Princess.

This, Hector took in without giving anything away but still, the air in the room changed, almost like it had gone electric.

A night where she described, in detail, what had happened with Ricky Balducci.

After what little Buddy shared (but clearly it was enough), Hector’s entire body got visibly tight, his face went scary dark and Ralphie cautiously removed all bottles from his reach.

“Hold it together, Hector,” Buddy warned. “She’s in the next room.”

Hector jerked his head in what was supposed to be a nod while a muscle jumped in his cheek. He looked away and threw back a shot of Jack, pouring himself another the minute he was done and he threw that back too.

Buddy looked at Ralphie.

Ralphie bugged his eyes out at Buddy.

Buddy finished on the part of the night where Sadie shared about Sadie. The part she shared at the end of the night. The part they both figured she didn’t remember sharing.

It was who she thought she was, who she wanted to be, how she didn’t know how to be that and what she thought that Hector thought she was after what happened “that night in my father’s study”.

Hector stared at him.

“She thinks I think she’s a society slut out slumming?” he asked, looking angry.

“She says
you
said that,” Buddy corrected him.

Hector looked away and threw back another shot of Jack.

“Jesus,” he muttered after he swallowed. “I never called her a slut. I told her I was
glad
she went slumming. She had to know I wanted her, fuck, I had her against the wall with her skirt around her waist, my hands in her pants, for fuck’s sake.”

This was
way
more information than they needed but Buddy figured it was Jack Daniels Magic. As good (if not better) than lemon drops.

Hector kept talking as if to himself, “She knew who I was. She’d been feeding me information on her father for months. And I knew what kind of woman she was, she knew I knew. What’s in her fuckin’ head?”

“That episode didn’t, um… end well, did it?” Ralphie asked carefully and Hector’s eyes sliced to him.

“No,” Hector replied tersely then his teeth clenched, the muscle leaped in his cheek again and he looked away. “
Fucking hell,
” he hissed (again, to himself), sounding even angrier. “Fucking hell,” he repeated, looking up at Buddy, something dawning on him. “She didn’t know. We talked about it the other night. I told her I knew she was my informant and she didn’t know I knew. Fucking hell, I’ve been so wrapped up in all her shit, I didn’t put it together. I said something to her that night when she walked away and it wasn’t nice. I was pissed as hell, I figured she’d get that, understand why and get over it, like I did, because I thought she went cold on me, walked away, because she had to, to protect both of us. Jesus, if she didn’t know –”

“She’s confused,” Ralphie said quietly. “She thinks she’s marked by her father, less of a person because of who he is. She spent years enduring a life of fear, playing a role, hating every minute of it without a single person to turn to, to trust. She had a chance to become someone else but instead she was stalked by four crazy brothers and then interrupted in the effort of finding herself when she was raped by one of them. She doesn’t think like normal people, she’s never had a normal life. But now, she’s on the edge, Hector, she’s holding it together but she’s teetering. We can’t let her fall off.”

Buddy took over. “What’s happening with you two, it isn’t your normal boy meets girl, boy asks girl out –”

“I fuckin’ know that,” Hector clipped, interrupting Buddy, eyes narrowed and angry and clearly having had his fill of sharing.

Buddy pushed it. “I know you do, what I wanted to say was, in a normal relationship, it would be too early to ask this question but we have to know your intentions.”

“What are you sayin’?” Hector’s voice was still clipped.

Buddy kept at it. “I’m asking you your intentions. Far as we can see, Ralphie and I are the only ones she trusts. We’re taking that seriously. We figure you’re not in it for a casual –”

Hector leaned forward and, at his threatening posture and drawn brows, Buddy stopped talking.

“I’m gonna say this once, out of respect for what you’ve done for her, and then we’re done here. There’s nothin’ casual about this. Got me?”

Okay, it was safe to say, Hector Chavez was done sharing.

And Hector Chavez’s feelings were far from casual when they came to Sadie.

Buddy thought that was good to know.

“Got you,” Buddy assured him.

“I got you too.” Ralphie smiled happily then turned to Buddy. “I told you. I told Sadie too. Double H is –”

“Christ,” Hector muttered, interrupting Ralphie, tossing back the last of his third beer and standing. “I’m
takin
’ Sadie to bed, which room is hers?”

“Top of the stairs, to the right. She has her own bathroom. Are you staying?” Ralphie answered and asked.

“Fuck yeah, I’m stayin’,” Hector replied.

“You need to borrow some pajamas?” Ralphie offered.

“Ralphie,” Buddy said in a low warning

Hector stared at Ralphie a beat then two, finally he said shortly, “No.”

Ralphie flicked out his hand. “Our casa is your casa or however it goes. Make yourself at home.”

Hector’s glance cut across the both of them which Buddy figured was his way of saying “goodnight” and he started to move from the room.

He stopped when Ralphie called, “You know, some of that amazing ‘fuck me’ sex Sadie was going on about while she was freaking out this evening wouldn’t be amiss in this situation. Stress relief.”

Hector’s eyes slashed to Ralphie and Buddy could swear he looked like he didn’t know whether to throw something or laugh out loud.

“Ralphie, shut up,” Buddy said.

“I’m just saying,” Ralphie replied.

“Shut up,” Buddy repeated.

“
I’m just saying,
” Ralphie repeated too.

Hector gave up and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Ralphie gave Buddy a look and then he tiptoed across the room to the door.

“Get back here,” Buddy hissed and Ralphie put his finger to his lips, carefully pulled open the door an inch and peeked out.

Buddy wanted to be the better person but he couldn’t help himself.

He made it in time to peer out the crack in the door, bending under Ralphie to do it and he saw Hector’s back walking away, Sadie in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder, face tucked into his neck, her arms linked around his shoulders.