“You guys want coffee?” Tex asked Lee and Eddie.
“Sure, triple shot cappuccino,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, Americano, black,” Lee said.
Tex ambled off to the espresso counter while I continued my silent meltdown searching the depths of my fried brain for Denial Zone.
Then Duke asked, his Sam Elliott voice low and serious, “Could we not talk about f**kin’ coffee and maybe talk about how you two badass motherfuckers are gonna protect Indy from this crazy f**k?”
I turned to look at him and noticed immediately that he was pissed.
Duke looked at Lee. “Isn’t it about f**kin’ time you quit f**kin’ around and took care of this f**kin’ guy?”
Uh-oh.
Duke wasn’t afraid to use the F-word but he only dosed his vocabulary liberally with it when he was close to losing it.
Lee looked at him. “I’m workin’ on it.”
Duke took a step forward. “Work harder.”
This was not good.
I knew, because I saw, that Lee could kick ass. Duke was no slouch. He might be an old guy but he also knew how to handle himself through a f**kload of practice.
I wasn’t sure how Lee would take an accusation of “fuckin’ around” and I didn’t want two people I loved to go head-to-head in my bookstore.
“Duke…” I said.
Duke looked at me and the look in his eye made me move closer to Lee.
“We don’t know when this f**kin’ lunatic is gonna lose his patience and turn on you. Bullets are flyin’, cars explodin’, dead bodies everywhere. This has got to f**kin’ stop. Now,” Duke said to me.
“He’s right,” Eddie agreed. “Indy needs to be protected. You got a safe house for her?”
“Yeah,” Lee answered.
Yikes!
“No! No, no, no,” I cried, beginning to panic. “I can’t go to a safe house. I can’t. I’d feel like a sitting duck.”
Lee’s arm came around me. “It won’t be for long.”
I pulled away from him. “No! I can’t do it. I’ll climb the walls. I swear, Lee, you lock me up and the minute I get out, I’m moving to Argentina.”
Either he didn’t believe me or he knew he could track me through the wilds of Argentina because he didn’t look like he was gonna cave.
“Lee, give me back the stun gun, I’ll carry it everywhere. Put a man on me. Anything, just don’t lock me up.”
“I’d put a man on you but if we’re gonna take Coxy down I gotta keep my boys on target.”
This wasn’t good, this was like being grounded but without the tree out your window to climb down when your Dad was asleep. I hadn’t been grounded in twelve years, I forgot how much I hated it, hated being penned in, hated my freedom restricted. I couldn’t stand it.
Surprisingly, Eddie caved first.
“We’ll take turns playin’ bodyguard,” Eddie said, staring into my deer-caught-in-headlights eyes. “I’ll talk to Hank, Willie, Carl. I’m off-duty. I’ll take the first shift.”
Shit.