Page 5 of Gamble
“Oh? That piques my interest. Anything that can keep Elijah Keaton from getting bored has to be pretty exciting. Do tell.”
“I could, but then I’d have to kill you.” Elijah was only half joking. He took keeping Black Light’s secrets very seriously.
“Oh, now you have to spill your guts. You take up being a hitman or something secret?”
Elijah chuckled. “I can assure you it’s on the up and up. I just can’t talk about it… unless…” He paused, deciding to pry into his friend’s marriage just a bit. “You and Martha ever dabble in BDSM, by chance?”
He watched Richard’s face for his reaction and wasn’t disappointed.
“Have you been talking to her?” his doctor accused.
“What? No! Why?”
“She’s been reading all these damn romance novels and coming up with all kinds of kinky things she wants to try. I don’t know what to think that my feminist, college professor wife has been trying to pressure me into spanking her like we were back in 1950. And somehow when I tell her I don’t want to, I’m the bad guy.”
Elijah couldn’t help but chuckle. He pushed to his feet, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and taking out a black business card with just an address on it. He held it out to his friend who took it and turned it over, looking for more info and appearing confused when there was none.
“Next free weekend night you have, you and Martha should go to that address. You’ll be my guest for the night. You don’t have to do anything in advance except come with an open mind. I’ll leave instructions with the guy at the door.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain everything when I see you there that night. Now, let’s get this injection going.”
“Alright, alright, we’ll give it a try, but I think it’s time we started considering a hip replacement.” The doctor noticed his patient’s displeasure at that idea but continued. “We don’t need to decide today. Let’s get your full workup and the test results back first. I just want to put it on your radar that I see a hip replacement in your future.”
“Fucking great,” Elijah groused as he followed Dr. Jennings into the adjoining examination room.
The doctor took the time to do a thorough examination and was just about to administer the cortisone shot when a nurse burst into the room.
“Cedar-Sinai just called. They have an accident victim in the ER who needs an orthopedic consult ASAP.”
Elijah felt the pinch of a needle.
To his credit, Dr. Jennings waited until he’d finished focusing on Elijah’s treatment before turning to speak to his assistant.
“I thought Jones was on call for emergencies today.”
“She is, but she’s already in surgery, and it sounds serious enough that they don’t want to wait.”
Dr. Jennings sighed. “Okay, tell them I’ll be over in ten minutes, but you’d better call Martha and let her know. We’re supposed to go out to dinner tonight for our anniversary. She’s not going to be happy if I’m late.”
Elijah teased his old friend and doctor. “Don’t want to make the old lady unhappy?”
“Hey, watch who you’re calling old. I noticed on your chart that your birthday is coming up soon. You’ll be joining me in the fifties club.”
The dungeon master groaned as he reached to pick up his pants off the floor, struggling to get dressed without falling over on his weak left leg.
“Don’t fucking remind me. I’m trying to forget.”
After finally dressing and getting ready to follow the doctor out of the examination room, Richard turned and looked Elijah in the eye.
“A piece of advice.” It wasn’t a question. The doctor was going to deliver the advice whether Elijah wanted it or not.
“Okay.”
“There are a lot of great people who never make it to fifty. And considering all the insane risks you’ve taken in your life, making it to half a century is a gift. No matter how old you may feel, you hopefully still have a long life ahead of you. My job is to help make them as pain-free as possible.”
His words were profound, and an interesting way to look at the DM’s impending birthday.
