Hot and Sweaty Rex by Eric Garcia

Author:Eric Garcia
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588364005
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

10

“Afternoon, Noreen,” I say as I step off the elevator, my cheeks stinging from the double slaps. “Love the nails.”

Noreen smiles, and it’s the same grin she had when I knew her in days past, a smile that plucks my heart from my chest and lodges it in my gullet. “Family heirlooms,” she tells me, flashing the inch-long claws before my face. “Tupperware, of course.”

Jack’s penthouse is beautifully appointed, with massive bay windows on all sides looking out over the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The light streaming in illuminates Noreen from behind, casting her tall, lithe body in a stark silhouette.

“You look well,” I say. “The years have treated you nicely.”

“Likewise,” says Noreen, and I can feel it now. We’re doing the dance, a little fox trot around the past.

Noreen does look smashing, though, her body in top-notch shape, the skin flawless, the hair cut just so. She was always good at maintaining a guise; even back in high school, she did her own tailoring, and was quite adept at smoothing out the inevitable wrinkles that always bunched up around the genitals and buttocks. It was doubly fun when she did it to my guise; triply so when I was still wearing it.

“Jack’s occupied right now,” she says, turning on a three-inch heel and strutting into the main section of the penthouse. “He’ll be out in a bit. Come inside.”

Inside, a number of Jack’s men mill about, sitting on sofas and pouring themselves drinks. A few nod or give me curt little waves; some actively ignore my presence.

“Drink?” asks Noreen, and suddenly a tumbler is in her hand.

“No,” I say. “Thank you.”

Noreen steps closer, that glass looming large in my vision, the liquid inside spilling and sloshing. It would be so easy to gulp it down. “It’s a special blend,” she says. “We call it Infusion—”

“I know what it is,” I interrupt. “Jack gave me . . . I had some earlier.”

Her eyelids close halfway; she’s inspecting me. “You didn’t like it?”

“I did. Very much. Please, take it away.”

She’s confused—that wrinkle in her nose hasn’t changed a bit—but complies. When she returns, I find myself trying to explain. About the drink, about my presence, about everything.

“I’m an herbaholic,” I blurt out, possibly a bit too loud. Not that I care; my sins are miracles of nature compared to the crimes most of these folks have probably committed in the last few hours alone.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

I shrug. It’s a common response; there’s nothing good to say after someone confesses that they’re powerless to manage their own lives. Hey, how’s your golf game? is the best rejoinder I’ve gotten so far, but that was Sutherland, and it was easily the most intelligent thing he’d said in months. “Recovering. It’s actually . . .” Hell, might as well go for broke. “That night, back in Los Angeles, when we were supposed to meet at the bus station—”

Noreen extends a single finger and presses it against my lips. “Uh-uh,” she whispers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.