“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 f**k 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.