Page 37 of Fixer
“Sure.”Stalking Rosswurn to find a mistress didn’t feel quite honest, but neither was what the developers were doing.“Anything that helps, right?”
“Right.”Then Dustin said, “I missed you today.”
“You did?I mean, yeah, my apartment seems kinda empty without your hulking presence in it.”
“I’ll have you know I don’t hulk.Hey, did you ever wonder if the creator of the Incredible Hulk saw a wolf shifting, and some Fixer got him high on acid to blur the memory, and things evolved from there?”
“Um.When was LSD invented?”
“About the same time as the Hulk?”Dustin laughed.“Just a random thought.Sometimes as a Fixer, you wonder what chain of events you set off in the process of protecting the packs.”
“In a bad way?”
“Well, if one of us inspired the Hulk, then I guess not always.Tell me about your day.What did you do?Walk any old ladies across the street?Devour graffiti vandals?”
“I fixed Mrs.French’s sticky window.Carved some sale pieces.Talked to Shawn.”
“From a—”
“Yes, from a payphone.”I was peeved he didn’t think I’d listened.
“Sorry.How are things with the boys?”
“Zay would probably take your head off for calling him a boy.But they sounded good, busy, happy.”
Dustin sighed.“You have no idea what it means to me to know you and Shawn are back in touch.I’ve broken a lot of things in my time, but the one thing I never wanted to break was you.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment.His words sank deep inside me.For so long, Ihadbeen broken, and I’d blamed Dustin, had cursed him, hated him.Now I fully believed he’d done his best for Shawn and me, and that belief was a gift, healing old wounds.
“I’m sorry,” he offered as the silence stretched out.
“Nah.”I hurried to reassure him, “Water under the bridge.I’m good.Shawn and I had a long-overdue chat, and I know where to find him now.”The comfort of that sank right to my bones.My wolf stirred restlessly, though, and I knew what he was thinking.Pack.Dustin.“Which is more than I can say about you.Are you staying in Chicago?”
“When I get off this phone, I have sleeping quarters on the second floor.”
“You never told me where that is.”
“I didn’t?Here, write this down.”He rattled off an address and phone number while I scrambled for a pencil.“Maybe you’ll come see my place sometime.”
“I’d like that.”Dustin had spent some time in my world, but I knew nothing about his.I added, “Hey, by the way, Mrs.French guessed we’re, you know, gay for each other.”
“Hate to break it to you, but I’m gay all the time.”Before I could worry about the correction, he added, “However right now, only for you.So the old lady figured it out?I’m surprised.”
“Apparently, she had a gay brother.I wouldn’t have betrayed you, but she caught me so much by surprise I lost the chance to sayno wayand be believable.”
“If you trust her, I do too.She’s like your Second in your human pack.”
I didn’t hate that idea, even though my wolf grumbled a bit aboutDustin.Mate.Second.My wolf was delusional.No way was Dustin Second to me, it’d be the other way around.“If Mrs.French could shift, she’d be a robin or something.You ever wonder if there are other shifters out there, other animals than wolves?”
Dustin chuckled.“I think if there were, we wolves would’ve found out over the centuries.Seen them, heard them, smelled them.”
I stretched the phone cord to the limit, sat on the couch, and launched into an argument in favor of bird shifters, just to hear Dustin laugh at me, and keep him on the line a little longer.
Chapter 11
Dustin
I waited for Wade outside my office three days later.He was an hour behind schedule, and although I was sure it was just the cruddy Chicago area traffic, I couldn’t help pacing.I’d missed the hell out of him, and wouldn’t it be just like fate to fuck us up at the last minute?I strained my eyes and ears for signs of his old woody wagon.
