Free Rock Chick 01 by Kristen Ashley

his
arm.
    “Fuck!” He reared back and punched me in the
cheekbone.
    Hard.
    I have never, in my life, been hit by a
man.
    I got in a bitch slapping catfight at a
Public Image Limited – Big Audio Dynamite double bill but we were
in a mosh pit gone bad. It was punk, it was expected.
    Getting hit by a man hurt.
    A fucking lot.
    So much, I quit screaming and concentrated on
the burning hurt that was radiating out of my cheekbone into my
entire face.
    “Teddy, for Christ sake. Are you nuts? She’s
Nightingale’s. He’s gonna rip your dick off. This is supposed to go
smooth.”
    I opened my mouth to scream again and started
back with the struggling.
    Then Teddy was pulled away, someone touched
me with something and after that, I didn’t remember a thing.
     
     

Chapter Five
    Cupcakes
     
    I came to feeling very funky and unable to
move my limbs.
    I focused on what appeared to be the ceiling
of a car and heard voices from what sounded like really far
away.
    By the time the car stopped, I was able to
move a little bit but not much. I was feeling tingly all over and
my head was fuzzy.
    The door to the car was opened and I was
hauled out with hands under my armpits. Whoever hauled me out put
me on my feet, my legs buckled and I nearly went down before I was
caught. It was time again to lament the mini-skirt as a girl
doesn’t want to be tossed around by bad guys while wearing a short
skirt.
    “Shit, hold her up, you moron.”
    Two guys, one of them I noted was Goon Gary
(not The Moron), dragged me by my upper arms through a tidy garage
and into a house. I was shaking my head, trying to clear it and
thinking not much of anything except that I wished I was wearing
jeans.
    I was taken into a room and heard a man say,
“Jesus, what the fuck?”
    The answer came hesitantly. “We had to stun
her.”
    “What happened to her face?”
    This answer was more hesitant. “She bit Teddy
so he hit her.”
    “Christ! Which part of ‘I want this to go
smooth’ did you not understand? Nightingale’s going to have a shit
hemorrhage. Get her some ice then call Teddy, get him out of
town.”
    I was planted on a couch and not processing
much of their conversation. I was focused on getting my fingers to
move. I was together only enough to notice Goon Gary and The Moron
making a hasty exit and that the couch I was on was a really nice
couch, fluffy and covered in cream silk damask. I’d only just
bought my couch a couple of months ago and I was still in
couch-assessment mode, the kind of mode that unconsciously comes
whenever you make a major purchase.
    I succeeded in lifting my head to look at the
guy who’d been talking. He was wearing gray slacks, a maroon shirt
with a monochromatic tie. He was short, had to be in his fifties
and had jet-black hair with white at each temple. He looked like
what I would guess a younger Grandpa Munster would look like.
Except a lot more creepy and definitely scary but not in a comic
way.
    “You okay?” he asked me.
    No, I wasn’t okay. I’d just been punched in
the face and then kidnapped.
    I just stared at him.
    “I’m really sorry about his,” he said. “I’m
having troubles with some of my employees.”
    No shit.
    I thought it but didn’t say it, I hadn’t
recovered enough to form words.
    Gary came back with an ice bag wrapped in a
kitchen towel and handed it to me. I was happy I had enough limb
coordination to put it on my face. My cheekbone hurt like hell.
    “This didn’t go as I’d planned. I just wanted
to have a chat. I heard Nightingale had a woman and I was curious,”
the man said to me, his tone surprisingly conciliatory.
    “Where’s Ally?” I asked.
    First things first. I wanted to know Ally was
okay and then I wanted to have a nervous breakdown.
    Young Grandpa Munster looked at Goon
Gary.
    “She was with another woman, we stunned her
too,” Goon Gary explained, “We left her in the car with the keys.
Teddy’s behind watching the car to make sure she’s