Page 220 of Rock Chick

“I’ll take it from here,” Lee told Willie.

Willie looked relieved. I knew he cared about me, but he had ice cream smears on his back-seat upholstery and he spent three hours in the mall, not even with his girlfriend, racking up brownie points. He’d gone way beyond the call of duty.

“Thanks, Willie,” I said to him.

“Stay safe,” he replied then he took off.

Lee was looking at Dawn and issuing orders.

“Take the boys to the safe room and start a DVD. Get Hank on the phone, and when Mace makes contact I want to know immediately.” His eyes cut to Ally and me. “You two come with me.”

I wasn’t real fond of being bossed around by Lee, but I felt it best not to kick up a fuss in front of Dawn.

Ally and I walked behind Lee to the door to the Inner Sanctuary. I wish I could say I was the kind of woman who didn’t do what I did, but I wasn’t. I twiddled my fingers at Dawn in a “nanny, nanny, foo, foo, Lee’s all mine” multi-finger wave. She totally got my meaning and her eyes became scary hard.

I was considering sticking my tongue out at her when I ran smack into Lee, who’d stopped to open the door. He looked down at me and I knew he caught the whole thing and was in my brain, again.

He shook his head and let us in.

Okay, so maybe I could be jealous-possessive too.

Lee led us to his office.

Sitting in one of the chairs opposite Lee’s desk tapping away at his BlackBerry was a handsome man with dark hair, blue eyes, and he was wearing a seriously cool dark suit.

He looked up when we entered.

“Marcus, this is India Savage and Ally Nightingale,” Lee said then turned to me. “This is Marcus Sloan.”

So this was Marcus.

He stood and shook our hands. I knew by the way he greeted us that he knew who we both were before the introductions.

He wasn’t creepy like Wilcox. He didn’t look Ally or me over. He was all business. By the look of his expensive suit, big business. Maybe a little dirty business, but he was professional, and you could tell, totally sane. He was still kind of scary. I didn’t know why I thought that, he just was.

Lee ran down what happened outside Liks for Marcus. It was embarrassing, sounding like schoolyard antics being discussed by the teachers. Lee and Marcus were not the type of men who messed around with ice cream cones.

Marcus listened to Lee without reaction.

“You’re being patient,” Marcus commented when Lee was done.

“My patience just ran out,” Lee replied.

A chill ran down my spine the way Lee said that. Something was happening here, something not about Rosie and The Kevster and ice cream cones.

“They didn’t even look at me,” I cut in. I probably shouldn’t have, but what happened this afternoon was not about me, it was about Rosie.

Marcus ignored me.

“Your next move?” he asked Lee.

“Do a sweep. Come tonight, Coxy’s out of commission.”

Holy crap.

That didn’t sound good.

Marcus nodded then his eyes came to Ally and me.