“You didn’t…” I whispered.
“I can keep you safe, India. My present yesterday proved it,” Wilcox said.
I felt bile climb up the back of my throat.
Then something else hit me, the store was bugged. Days ago, Lee had bugged the store. If I could get him talking, maybe it could get taped or someone at Lee’s Command Headquarters was listening. Then Wilcox could be picked up for murder and I’d never have to worry about him again, or, at least, until they let him out.
“Lee keeps me protected,” I told Wilcox, I didn’t know what to say to draw him out.
He smiled his oily smile.
“To do it properly, you have to eliminate the threat.”
“Is that what you did? Eliminated the threat and put him at my front door?”
His smile didn’t waver and he didn’t answer.
“I didn’t know he was from you, how was I to know the dead guy was from you? You should have left, like, a note or something,” I said.
“Antonio!” Wilcox shouted, the suddenness of it making me jump, “we’re going. The lady said she doesn’t need your services.”
“But I make coffee,” Antonio whined.
Wilcox just slid his eyes to Antonio and without another word, he rushed out from behind the counter.
Wilcox winked at me, nodded to Lee and Duke and then left, Antonio and the rest of his goons on his heels.
I was holding my breath. When the door closed behind them, I let the breath out in a whoosh, sagging against Lee’s back.
“I’m surprised you didn’t put your fist in his face,” Duke said to Lee.
“I’d rather put a bullet in his brain,” Lee replied in a voice that was oh-so-much-more scary then the calm one he’d used earlier. Mainly because he sounded like he intended to do it.
He twisted, pulled me around to his front and kissed my forehead.
“You did all right,” he told me.
“This has to end soon, I’m coming apart at the seams.”
His arm wrapped around my shoulders and neck and held me close.
Jane wandered out from the bowels of the shelves, reading and walking at the same time, her face buried in an open book. Oblivious to the most recent drama, she seemed to sense the presence of others, looked up in surprise as if she’d just encountered us all in her living room, not standing at the front of a huge, used bookstore. She stopped dead, staring at Tex.
“Hey Jane, honey. How’re you doin’ today?” I asked, worried that she’d have ill-effects after seeing a dead body yesterday.
Her eyes went from Tex, to me then flickered to Lee and I could see her blush.
This didn’t surprise me. Lee had that effect on women.
She didn’t answer me, just nodded and wandered behind the book counter.
“She’s hangin’ in there,” Duke mumbled, answering my unspoken question.
“Indy, are you gonna try my coffee, or what?” Tex called.
I disengaged from Lee and walked on shaky legs to the counter. I took the cup from Tex and before I even took a drink, I stopped and lifted my eyes to look at the big, crazy man.
I could smell it, and it smelled good.