You probably get updates after each visit.”

“It’s not the same as asking you about it.”

“I don’t like to talk about it.”

He pauses again. “I understand. So. Are you ready for a real assignment?”

Maybe’s face lights up. “Yes! Absolutely!”

“I want you to…kiss…a college professor. Can you do that?”

“Of course, Daddy.”


 

 

 

 

5.

 

Present Day…

Donovan Creed.

 

 

 

“WHEN YOU SAY she lost her head,” Callie says, “what do you mean?”

I shrug. “The top and sides of her head exploded.”

“Where was the bomb?  In her mouth?”

“Inside her head.”

“What?”

“It had to be a very small explosive, either on top of her head, or inside her skull. Hard as it is to imagine, I think it was inside.”

“Like your brain chip?”

“Except that it explodes instead of heating up,” I say.

“Lucky’s company?”

“It’s possible.”

Jim “Lucky” Peters, the famous Vegas gambler, was murdered one week ago. As it happens, Callie’s lover, Eva LeSage, was murdered at the same time. Callie’s current love interest, Gwen, is Lucky’s widow.

Small world, right?

Twenty feet from us, in Callie’s kitchen, Gwen’s eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, oblivious to the irony. She’s wearing boxer shorts and a scarlet UNLV t-shirt with gray lettering.

Gwen isn’t Callie hot, but you could fry an egg on any part of her.

Callie sees me staring at her girlfriend.

“Down, boy,” she says.

“I saw her first,” I say.

It’s true. I seduced Gwen hours before Callie met her.

“But I saw her best,” Callie says.

Also true. While I’ve never had complaints from the women I’ve dated, Callie has a double advantage over me. First, she and Gwen share the same plumbing. Second, she understands the handbook, meaning she can make sense out of all the emotional wiring a woman brings into the bedroom. All the unspoken stuff Callie instinctively understands allows her to not only be Gwen’s physical partner, but her emotional tampon, as well.

Gwen was bisexual when I met her, so Callie didn’t turn her. But Callie won her away from me in record time.

It wasn’t even a contest.

There are other reasons. The fact I already have a steady girlfriend, Rachel, may have been a factor. Also, Callie’s a drop-dead gorgeous force of nature, and fiercely monogamous, while I have a tendency to stray. I mean, I don’t lie about it. I just haven’t found the right woman yet. Well, that’s not entirely true. I found the right woman at least twice. But that’s a story for the second bourbon. Also, Callie lives in a multi-million dollar penthouse condo and I often live in the attics of strangers. Gwen probably feels more secure with Callie. She just lost her husband, Callie just lost her girlfriend, and Lucky’s estate is in Vegas. Callie lives in Vegas.