Damn, damn, damn.
There was a toot on the horn behind us, Vance looked in his mirror and I looked behind. Indy was gesturing to her side and to Eddie. I looked at the car pul ed up next to her.
Eddie was being trailed by a Crossfire, Lee’s Crossfire, with Lee behind the wheel.
Fuck.
Fuck, f**k, f**k.
Vance looked right, not wearing a helmet; he made a hand gesture salute to Eddie, two fingers straight out and a flick of the wrist. Mr. Cool.
We al drove together to Fortnum’s, Vance and I leading the new definition of My Convoy of Doom. The entire time I tried to come up with a plausible explanation, in other words, a believable lie.
Vance pul ed in up front, Indy and Lee parked in the back, Eddie parked behind us. I was off the bike and had the helmet off when Eddie arrived.
“What the f**k?” Eddie asked, looking at Vance and using his scary quiet voice.
Vance had come off the bike and was smiling, flat out. I didn’t think this was good, I thought it was kind of in your face. Even though it was not helping the situation, I had to say, I admired Vance for having the bal s to pul it off.
I decided to neutralize the situation.
“Eddie, I can explain,” I said.
His eyes turned to me. He had his arms crossed on his chest, his legs planted wide and I wished I’d let him take his anger out on Vance. Vance was a badass too, at least it would be a fair fight.
“Yeah?” Eddie asked, his voice dripping with disbelief.
Okay, I’d used the ride home to try to come up with a believable lie. The problem was, I didn’t succeed.
“Wel … ” I started, drawing out the word to buy time.
Al of a sudden, Eddie grabbed my arm, yanked the helmet out of my hand, tossed it to Vance and pul ed me away about five feet.
Guess he didn’t feel like giving me time to come up with a believable lie.
When we stopped, he opened his mouth to speak but I got there first.
“I can see you’re angry, I don’t know why but—” He interrupted me.
“You don’t know why?” he asked.
“No, you see—” I began again.
“No?” He interrupted again, stil using his scary quiet voice.
“Wel no, what I was going to say was…”
“I’m drivin’ down the road and, stopped at a light, I see the woman who’s sharin’ my house, my bed, wrapped around another guy. You’re that woman and you don’t know why I’m angry?”
It didn’t sound good when he said it that way.
“Eddie…”
He got close, his eyes were glittery and his voice was stil scary soft.
“Don’t f**king ‘Eddie’ me. Seems I gotta spel everything out for you so listen good, Chiquita. Last night, when I said no one touches you but me, that means you don’t touch anyone but me either.”
I put a hand to my hip.