new.”
“Okay, but no shots.”
“Nothing but sparkling water, babe. We’ve got a killer to catch.”
I washed up in the ladies room as best I could, checked out my ass for a cut, which thankfully there wasn’t one, only a red mark, and popped a pain killer to ease all my body aches. Lisa applied a bit of her makeup to my now squeaky clean face. I re-clipped my hair in a more suitable fashion, brushed off my dress with some damp paper towels, brushed off my shoes, and fifteen minutes later as we made our way to the bar in the middle of the room, I was somewhat presentable, at least in the dark.
The place was noisy, and crowded, just the way I remembered it. The music was too loud, and the room smelled like a mixture of perspiration and booze.
I loved it.
I hadn’t been inside a bar of any kind in over two years, and with good reason. I could feel my resolve flowing out of me as we walked. All I needed was for one more thing to go wrong, and it was all over.
“On second thought, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. My resolve is waning,” I told her.
“We can go if you want, sweetie. We don’t have to stay. I’ll call Nick, tell him about the Tundra and—”
That was exactly what I needed to hear. “I’m feeling much better, besides I want to see Leo. I have an apology to make.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you apologize to Leo? Isn’t that game played the other way around?”
“Not this time.”
“I won’t ask, but whatever you need to do just let me know.” She led the way through the thick crowd, toward the glow emanating from the center of the room, which could only be the bar. I’d heard about it, but had never seen it before due to my two-year self-imposed bar restriction. Now, I was anxious to finally get to see it. My ass was better, so the limp was essentially gone and I was feeling a bit spunky as we walked closer to the bar.
On our way, we passed Jimmy yucking it up with Uncle Federico. I immediately thought it was odd that Jimmy would be there considering it was a Friday night and the man had his own bar to run in San Francisco. He never liked to stray too far from his “baby” on the weekends; at least he never did until tonight.
He nodded his recognition. I nodded back. Ships passing, or better still, warships passing in the night.
I wondered if the Tundra belonged to Jimmy, but immediately thought better of it. I mean, why he would he take the chance and drive the Tundra in from the city when he owned a perfectly fine BMW Roadster?
It just didn’t add up.
I was busy arguing with myself when turned to take another look and spotted her standing next to him, holding his hand, whispering something in his ear. Jade, Dickey’s Jade was hanging onto Jimmy, wearing a black, radically short, spandex dress, and strappy four-inch heels, your average borderline hooker attire. She sported long bangs, presumably to cover up that forehead bump. When she finally spotted me she gave me a slow finger wave, Dickey’s engagement ring prominently displayed.
I felt like a deer in the headlights, unable to move. What happened to that frightened girl sneaking home on a tour bus?
Lisa stopped walking and turned to me. “Isn’t that Jade?”
“None other,” I answered.
“What the hell is she doing here, and with Jimmy no less?”
I had a bad feeling about this as my mind raced to come up with some sort of reasonable answer.
“Picking up her car, perhaps?”
Lisa threw me a sarcastic look. “That chick and Jimmy were gaming us, big time.”
“Looks that way, doesn’t it? The girl seems to have a thing for older guys.”
“What happened to that Jay-Jay guy she was rushing home to see?”
“Jay-Jay was Jimmy’s childhood name. I never thought he—”
“So who the hell is this chick? And what’s her story? And if she and Dickey were pretending to be engaged, was Jimmy in on it all along? And why didn’t she show up at the freedom party? Was she telling you the truth about Dickey going off without her?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She seemed genuinely concerned over Dickey’s disappearance, but with this family it’s all about who’s gaming who, and right now I’d say Jade has the upper hand and she’s flaunting it.”
“Let’s go over there and