Sal took my approaching him in the greasy spoon as a challenge. Not that he wanted to “shut me down” as Crowe did, but that he wanted something else entirely from me. Something icky when you thought about doing it with Sal (way not icky when you thought about doing it with Crowe, but I didn’t go there).
So, instead of coming after me to stop me from getting up his nose, if you could believe this, Sal Cordova was actually trying to get me to go out with him.
Yes, that’s exactly how stupid he is.
All of this brought me to my current predicament.
Sal had caught up with me and made his intentions clear.
I’d told him to go f**k himself.
He got a little excited and there was a bit of a car chase.
We ended up in a guns drawn face off in the middle of a busy, one way, four lane street, right in front of a used bookstore that was the known hangout for Lee Nightingale and his boys.
The rest was history.
* * * * *
“Meow?” Boo asked, staring at me and knowing with feline instincts that my life was f**ked and probably wondering if something happened to me who would feed him.
“Yeah Boo. You called it. Meow,” I answered.
Chapter Two
Levitate
My phone rang and I got up, mentally shook away my memories, dislodged Boo on an angry “Meow!” and walked across the room to pick it up.
“Hello?”
“You’re f**kin’ loco. Loco!” Zip shouted in my ear.
I guessed word of my faceoff with Cordova had made the rounds.
“Zip –” I started.
“You’re off duty. You’re lyin’ low. Least a week, maybe a month, maybe forever,” Zip interrupted me.
“I’m not lying low,” I told him.
Zip talked over me, in full rant.
“It isn’t Cordova. You could handle Cordova, hell, a five year old could handle Cordova. We’re talkin’ Lee Nightingale now. Lee Nightingale. Do you know who was in f**kin’ Fortnum’s Bookstore watchin’ you be a hotshot, shootin’ out Cordova’s tires like you were in a goddamned Hollywood movie?”
“Um...” I said.
“No?” Zip didn’t let me answer. “First off, Lee f**kin’ Nightingale. Then Hank f**kin’ Nightingale. Make matters worse, Eddie f**kin’ Chavez. Two officers of the goddamned law.”
“Zip –” I tried to butt in.
He ignored me.
“And if you already weren’t screwed three ways ‘til Sunday, Luke f**kin’ Stark, Kai f**kin’ Mason and Vance f**kin’ Crowe.”
“Well, I knew about Crowe,” I said.
And I guessed the rest, or some of them.