Before I could scream, the hand left my ankle, two hands grabbed at my hips and yanked me out of bed in a way that my back arched painfully. My head snapped back and I swallowed my scream on a surprised gulp.

I was set down on my feet, both of my wrists were seized and pulled behind my back, making me give a whimper of pain and I was slammed against a hard body.

“Talk,” a deep voice demanded and I could smell tobacco, leather and spice.

It was Lee.

Shit, shit, shit.

Either I had really bad luck or Ally set me up.

Maybe Ally and Rosie set me up. Ally was really into the sister-in-law shit and maybe she was getting impatient enough to hire someone to shoot at me.

“Two seconds,” Lee warned.

“Lee, it’s me. Indy.”

The hands on my wrists loosened but didn’t let go.

“What the fuck?”

I took in a deep breath which pressed my breasts further into his chest.

This was the closest I’d ever been to him, we were full-frontal. Even in the days when I was throwing myself at him, I hadn’t made it this close.

I explained (hastily), “I’m in a bit of a bind and needed someplace safe to stay for a night. Ally let me in.”

Lee took a moment to let this sink in.

“Who’s the guy on the couch?”

“Rosie, my barista.”

“Your what?”

“He makes the coffee at my bookstore.”

“Shit.”

He hadn’t let me go until that point, but he released me, turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Something about the way he did it made me follow him.

When I made it to the living room, Lee snapped on a light and Rosie was lying face down in the middle of the floor. His hands and feet were taped together behind his back with duct tape and there was tape on his mouth.

“Lee! Jesus! What’d you do to him?” I asked, running forward and going down on my knees by Rosie. Rosie eyes were rabid and shifting everywhere as he struggled against the tape.

I couldn’t believe it, I hadn’t heard a thing.

Man, Lee was good.

Lee already had his pocket knife out and was cutting through the tape.

“I came home and he was on my couch, you were in my bed. What’d you think I’d do?” Lee answered as he ripped the tape off Rosie’s mouth.

“Yeow!” Rosie cried.

I sat back, resting my behind on my calves and stared at Lee.

This was exactly what I thought he’d do.

“Ally didn’t call you.”

“No, Ally didn’t call me.”

“I’m gonna kill her.”

“Jesus, fuck, shit,” Rosie said.

Lee had gone down to a crouch when he’d released Rosie and now he stood, arms crossed on his chest.

“You okay?” I asked Rosie and Rosie gave me an “are you nuts, that lunatic just tied me up with duct tape” look.

You would think you couldn’t read all that in a look, but trust me, you could.

“What’s goin’ on?” Lee said, surveying us.

It was then I realized I was in a pair of peach, lace, hipster briefs that showed a good deal of cheek and Lee’s wife beater. Not exactly the attire I wanted to be wearing during this conversation.

Not exactly the attire I wanted to be wearing ever in the presence of Lee.

“I’ll go get dressed,” I said, standing.

Lee shook his head.

“You’ll talk.”

“I need to put on some clothes!”

“What you need to do is tell me what the fuck’s goin’ on,” Lee countered and, let’s just say, his tone brooked no argument and his face registered pretty severe unhappiness.

Regardless, I glared at him, just for good measure.

“Jesus, shit, fuck,” Rosie said, tearing the remnants of tape from his wrists.

I took another deep breath and let go of the glare. It was time to expedite this situation so I could get to my Levi’s. Generally, I felt naked without my jeans but at that moment I practically was naked without my jeans.

“Okay, we have a situation here. Rosie and I need somewhere to crash for the night and we’ll be gone tomorrow.”

“Why?” Lee asked.

“Don’t tell him!” Rosie cried, looking panicked.

“You talk or you walk,” Lee said.

I looked at Lee then I looked at Rosie.

I’d known Rosie for five years, he’d come to parties at my house. We’d gone to concerts together. He was a cool guy, a bit flighty and secretive and not as mellow as one would expect, considering he was a screaming stoner.

I had no idea he had a business on the side. I knew he made great coffee, I knew he thought Jim Morrison was an earthbound god and I knew he was a stoner.

I looked back at Lee.

“You have to promise to keep quiet.”

“No!” Rosie shouted, getting to his feet.

“I don’t have to promise anything,” Lee replied.

I did another glance at both of them.

Lee was being difficult, he was entitled we were in his domain without his permission.

Rosie was also being difficult, but Rosie was always difficult.

All I could think was I really needed my jeans.

“You can trust him,” I told Rosie.

Rosie was staring at Lee. Rosie was definitely far beyond mellow at this point. Rosie had been shot at tonight and then trussed up like a Christmas goose and I’d slept through it

However, Rosie had a lot to worry about. Rosie needed to start making good decisions about who to trust.

Rosie made a decision, a decision I hoped would take me closer to my Levi’s.

“He has to promise not to say anything to anyone. This’ll all be over tomorrow,” Rosie announced.

Lee hadn’t uncrossed his arms. Lee still wasn’t happy. This wasn’t hard to read, everything about him screamed it.

“Can I talk to you a minute?” I asked and then did a wave with my arm and Lee followed me to the entry hall.

First things first. Since the situation was still not stable and taking the time to dress, thus leaving Lee and Rosie alone, did not seem a smart option, I tried a different tactic in the hopes of covering my ass cheeks.

“Do you have a robe I could borrow?”

“No.”

“Does that mean you don’t have a robe I could borrow or I can’t borrow your robe?”

Lee stared at me some more.

Then he said, “Indy, start talking.”

His patience, it seemed, was running out. I’d have to leave my ass cheeks bared. I told myself this was Lee, he’d seen me in bikinis in his backyard (and mine, and on a family holiday to Mexico, and the one to San Diego). I was far more dressed than a bikini.

I soldiered on. “Okay, the thing is, Rosie has a little side business. Someone paid him in something and that something is kinda valuable, as in kinda really valuable. It’s also kinda stolen from someone else and that someone else wants it back. Rosie gave it to Duke for safekeeping and Rosie doesn’t have it. Duke’s away for a few days, back tomorrow morning. So, until he can get it from Duke, we have to lay low.”

“Why is this a ‘we’ situation?”

“Well, I was kinda with Rosie when they came after it.”

“And?”

“And, like I said, he didn’t have it.”

“And?”

“And I had a few words with them, in, er… Rosie’s defense.”

Loaded and pissed off hesitation complete with narrowing of eyes, then, “And?”

“And that’s when they shot at us and we took off and called Ally.”

No verbal comment but a muscle jerked in Lee’s cheek.

I didn’t take this as a good sign.

Probably, he wasn’t so happy I involved his sister in this mess.

Probably, he was equally unhappy that I’d involved him in this mess.

“What is it?” Lee asked.

“I can’t say.”

“If you don’t say, I’ll let him loose.”

I shook my head. “He’s pretty adamant that no one knows.”

“I’ll escort him out of the building myself.”

I looked back in the living room. Rosie was peering around the corner, eavesdropping.

I let out another heavy sigh. “Maybe we should go, get a hotel room.”

Rosie looked pleased at this announcement.

We only had a few hours to wait. Denver was a big city. It’d take longer than a few hours to find us.

“I didn’t say I’d let you loose, I said I’d let him loose.”

This announcement gave me a start and I turned to Lee.

“What?”

No answer.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Still no answer.

“What are you gonna do with me?” I kept trying.

“You tell me what this is about, nothing.”

“And if I don’t tell you?”

“I haven’t decided.”

“Lee!”

Lee’s patience ran out, he grabbed my arm, pointed at Rosie and said, “You move, you’ll regret it,” in a way that I figured Rosie would do a statue impersonation until he saw Lee again.

Then Lee yanked me into the bedroom, hit the light switch and closed the door behind us.

“Ow! You’re hurting me!” I pulled my arm free.

“I should turn you over my knee,” he snapped.

My mouth dropped open for a moment then my eyes narrowed. “What did you just say?”

“He has a bag of diamonds and I cannot believe you’re caught up in this disaster.”

I gasped. “How did you know?”

He didn’t answer.

“How did you know?” I said it a lot louder this time.

“You get into bed. I’ll go talk to your friend. Tomorrow, I’ll take care of the diamonds.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Now my voice was a lot louder.

I mean, who did he think he was?

He took a step forward and dipped his face to mine so we were nose-to-nose. “You’ve ignored me for years and now you lay this shit on my doorstep. This is not a good situation, Indy. This is a total fuck up. You’d do well to do exactly what I tell you, keep your mouth shut and pray that the man who wants those diamonds back is patient enough to wait through the night.”