Rock Chick 07 Regret(165)

Seth showed no response.

“We done with this topic?” Hector decided it was time to move on.

Seth shrugged.

“Sadie’s bad business has to stop,” Hector continued.

Instantly Seth retorted, “You are clever. You come up with that on your own?”

Hector ignored him. “You can carry on and fuck it up or we can work together.”

Seth’s eyes went hard. “You have got to be joking, Chavez, no way in hell we’re working together.”

“Then I got a choice,” Hector replied immediately. “Vance here has been diggin’ around Elizabeth’s disappearance. Vance is pretty good at findin’ shit out. So good, he found out she was whacked by Mickey Balducci. You remember Mickey Balducci?”

Hector watched with some degree of surprise as Seth showed a reaction. Before he could control it, pain sliced across his face. The one thing Seth had given Sadie was the ability to put up an impenetrable defense. This was a first.

Still, Seth didn’t respond.

Hector kept at him. “Vance can share with Sadie what he knows or we can let her go on thinkin’ you did it.”

That’s when Seth Townsend’s magnetic, menacing, invulnerable aura cracked. His body jerked and his face went pale.

“She thinks I did it?” he whispered.

Hector nodded and Seth’s hand came out of his pocket and up slightly as if it was going to tear through his hair. He realized quickly what this would expose, dropped his hand and he looked out the window.

Hector opened his mouth to speak when his cell went. He decided to give Seth a moment to reflect, dug it out of his back pocket and looked at the display which said “Sadie Calling’. His eyes cut to Vance, he flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Sadie,” he answered and he felt the air in the room grow dense.

She was whispering, voice panicked, “I got up. You weren’t here. I was going down to the kitchen to find you. I was on the landing, looked downstairs and I saw a man’s legs on the couch. They weren’t yours. Hector, where are you? Someone’s in the house.”

Fuck, he thought, anger gripping him at the fear in her voice.

Without hesitating and without giving a thought to his audience, he bent his head, stepped away and turned so his side was to the room.

“Calm down, mamita, that’s Bobby. He’s lookin’ after you today. Didn’t you see the note I put on the pillow?”

He heard her take a deep breath and then he heard her move. Finally, she sighed.

“Blooming heck, I’m sorry, it’s right here. I didn’t see it.”

“You okay?” he asked immediately.

“Yes,” she replied and she sounded okay, in an instant totally over her panic. Will of fucking steel. “Where are you?” she asked.

“Doin’ some business.”

She hesitated and he knew she was bracing before exposing herself. She did that a lot and, he figured, didn’t know she was doing it. He wondered vaguely when it would stop when he heard her ask, “Am I going to see you today?”

He fought a smile, his head came up and he looked sightlessly out the window.

“Yeah, this won’t take long but I got other shit after this. No matter what, I’ll be home tonight, take you to dinner.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t go out. We’re not really good with going out. Maybe we should cook something here.”

“Whatever you want, mi corazón.”

“After we eat, you can take me for another bike ride,” she told him and he bit his lip and shook his head.

“Gotta say, mujer, it’s good you like the bike.”

“Will you take me for a ride?” she pressed.

“I’ll take you for a ride.”

She didn’t respond to this but he heard the pleasure in her voice when she went onto a different subject like they had all day to talk. “I have to go with Jet to get fitted for a bridesmaid’s dress today. Do you think Bobby would take me?”

The thought of Bobby taking Sadie to get fitted for a bridesmaid’s dress made Hector lose the battle with his smile.

“Yeah.”

She carried on, “I know you want to do your floors but if I have time, can I goo your fireplace?”

He couldn’t help it, he gave a short laugh. She made “gooing” his fireplace sound like it was the height of entertainment. He didn’t know a single woman who thought “gooing” a fireplace was a thrill a minute.

“Yeah,” he repeated, still smiling.

“Where’s the goo?”

“Back room,” he answered. “Listen, mamita, I’m in the middle of something.”

“Oh! Sorry. You should have said.”