Page 32 of All Out of Flux
Chocolate and dried fruit and nuts probably weren’t ideal so late, but neither was coffee. Besides, I could feel in my bones that the night wasn’t over. Too many loose ends left untied. Too much left unfinished. And I had this strange, nagging feeling that I was forgetting something.
I looked down at my hand, clenching and unclenching my fingers around air. Something was supposed to be there. Huh. What was it? My hand squeezed into a fist, trying to reconstruct the sensation of that missing something with the help of my still sluggish brain. Smooth. Hard.
But no. Lovely as it was to think about, it definitely wasn’t Leon’s cock. I shrugged, reaching for a bottle of water from the counter. Hydration was important — rehydration, in this case, because Leon’s particular brand of lovemaking tended to squeeze a pleasurably enormous amount of fluids from my body.
I picked up the bottle, twisted off the cap, lifted it to my lips. And then I froze. This thing in my hand — wasn’t it the approximate size and shape? I scowled, then yelled toward the bathroom.
“Hey, Leon? Where’s the statuette?”
A moment’s pause before the shower door slid open. “What? I thought you had it.”
I scanned the apartment, the bedside tables in particular. I had the damn thing in my clutches when we were running from Tío Gustavo and his goons. Where the hell did I put it?
The shower knob squeaked. Not a minute later Leon was dripping on the carpet. He never did towel himself off in time, but I wasn’t about to scold him for it. He looked just as concerned as I felt.
“Did you find it?” he asked, toweling off his chest, rubbing at his hair.
I stretched my arms, fingers splayed, hands side by side. “It was right here. Right in the palm of my big, stupid hand. Where did it go?”
My phone went off, blaring from the inside of my pocket. I spilled water on myself, cursed, and picked it up to answer.
“Hello? Vera? Sorry, but now’s not a great time.”
“Preposterous,” she huffed. “Now is theperfecttime. Your client proposed a bonus on the condition that you deliver the statuette today. As your loving spider — someone who also receives a generous cut of the proceeds — I graciously accepted. Naturally.”
“Naturally,” I answered through gritted teeth.
“Wonderful. I’ll text you the coordinates for the drop. Ta-ta for now.”
I hung up, cringed, and bit deep into the back of my hand, stifling a frustrated scream. Leon draped his towel across his shoulders.
“So. We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
15
LEO
Rain pattered on the windshield, a slow drizzle, a steady drive. Max kept his car’s pace speedy and safe. It didn’t often get wet out on the streets of Dos Lunas. Vera’s voice streamed in through the speakers, sharp and hissing. I could clearly visualize her seething on the other end of the line.
“This is so unlike the two of you,” she snapped. “And that’s just it. There aretwo of youto begin with. Shouldn’t that mean a smaller chance of mucking it all up?”
I shrank into my carseat in spite of the fact that Vera couldn’t possibly see us. I heard the implication in her words, that two finders in the mix also doubled the chance of screwing a job up.
Good thing she didn’t mention how we’d run into difficulties back with the Aqueous Elixir as well, losing not just one, but both of the precious potions.
“I wish I could explain it,” Max said, one hand on the wheel, the other mussing at his hair in annoyance. “The statuette literally slipped out of my grasp. Literally, Vera.”
She gave a derisive sniff, somehow combining the noise with a haughty harrumph. “Well, it hardly matters now. We’re all outof a paycheck. You wasted your energy, and I wasted my time coordinating this job. Go ahead and meet the client as requested. Tell them yourself how you managed to misplace the statuette.”
“Sorry, Vera,” I said, leaning close to the dashboard to speak directly into the phone. “We’re on our way, Vera.”
“Honestly,” she muttered, “see if the Amethyst Spider ever has to deal with these shenanigans. Or the Emerald Spider, God forbid. She’d have their heads on spikes.”
The muttering trailed off, blending with the background chatter of her home bar until she finally hung up. I squinted at Max, who was too focused on driving to squint back, but I knew we were on the same page.
“You know she said all that on purpose,” I said, “leaving us on the line like that. Man, Vera’s extra pissed. And what’s all that about the Emerald Spider and heads on spikes?”
“Never mind that right now. Vera’s our best bet for a spider. I really don’t want to lose her as our primary employer, and besides, I — wait a minute. This can’t be the right place.”
